GEnie

GEnie (General Electric Network for Information Exchange) was an online service created by a General Electric business, GEIS (now GXS), that ran from 1985 through the end of 1999. In 1994, GEnie claimed around 350,000 users. Peak simultaneous usage was around 10,000 users. It was one of the pioneering services in the field, though eventually replaced by the World Wide Web and graphics-based services, most notably AOL.

GEnie was founded by Bill Louden on October 1, 1985 and was launched as an ASCII text-based service by GE's Information Services division in October 1985, and received attention as the first serious commercial competition to CompuServe. Louden was originally CompuServe's product manager for Computing, Community (forums), Games, eCommerce, and email product lines. The service was run by General Electric Information Services (GEIS). GEIS served a diverse set of large-scale, international, commercial network-based custom application needs, including banking, Electronic Data Interchange and e-mail services to companies worldwide, but was able to run GEnie on their many GE Mark III time-sharing mainframe computers that otherwise would have been underutilized after normal U.S. business hours. This orientation was part of GEnie's downfall. Although it became very popular and a national force in the on-line marketplace, GEnie was not allowed to grow. GEIS executives steadfastly refused to view the service as anything but "fill in" load and would not expand the network by a single phone line, let alone expand mainframe capacity, to accommodate GEnie's growing user base. (Later, however, GE did consent to make the service available through the SprintNet time-sharing network, which had its own dial-up points of presence; an Internet-to-SprintNet gateway operated by Merit Network also made the text-based parts of the service available through telnet.)

The service included RTs, games, mail and shopping. For some time, GEnie published a bimonthly print magazine, LiveWire. GEnie's early chat room was called the LiveWire CB Simulator, after the citizens' band radios popular at the time. GEnie also had discussion forums called RoundTables (RTs), and each, as well as the other internal services, had a page number associated with it, akin to a Web address today; typing "m 1335", for instance, would bring you to the GemStone III game page. A RoundTable on GEnie was a discussion area containing a message board ("BBS"), a chatroom ("RealTime Conference" or RTC) and a Library for permanent files. Most RoundTables were actually operated not by GEnie employees but by independent contractors working from home.

Rise and fall

By May 1986 GEnie claimed to have 12,000 subscribers, up from 3,000 in February. Although it for years was the second-largest service provider after CompuServe, GEnie failed to keep up when Prodigy and America Online produced graphics-based online services that drew the masses. Programs such as Aladdin, which had been developed earlier by an independent developer and eventually supported by GEnie, helped many of the newcomers who came to GEnie from Prodigy and AOL adjust; these were the equivalent of modern-day email programs and newsreaders, incorporating a more user-friendly interface which automated message and mail downloading and posting.

In addition, GEnie took its time developing an Internet e-mail gateway, which opened on July 1, 1993.

GE sold GEnie in 1996 to Yovelle, which was later taken over by IDT Corp. IDT attempted to transition GEnie (now without the uppercase "GE") to an internet service provider, but ultimately failed. IDT also funded the development of a GUI for the text-based service; this client was actually released, but the service did not survive long enough for it to become popular.

Visitors to GEnie dropped with the growth of other online services and fell dramatically following a very sudden change in the fee structure in 1996. The users were notified with only 12 hours notice that all Basic (flat-rate) services would cease to exist, while prices of the other services would rise dramatically. By the final year, insiders reported fewer than 10,000 total users.

On December 4, 1999, it was announced that GEnie would close for good on December 27 due to Y2K issues. Remaining users gathered in chat areas of the few RoundTables remaining to say goodbye. But GEnie did not close for four more days, and a dwindling number watched at the close of each day. The RoundTables and all areas of GEnie, except the Top page, became unavailable slightly before midnight on December 30, 1999.

Legacy

Several books, TV shows, films and other projects had their genesis and inspiration on GEnie. One example is Babylon 5, created by J. Michael Straczynski, which was first announced publicly in GEnie's Science Fiction RoundTables. The SFRTs served as the show's first online "home" and were the source of many in-jokes and references throughout its run.

Notable users

Many well-known personalities were early adopters of the online medium, and were a prominent presence on GEnie, either active in one of its RoundTables, or frequent public participants in GEnie's CB Chat.

Tom Clancy, author, participated in the chat area and he played games with his children.
Peter David, self-styled "writer of stuff", such as Comic Books, television and film novelizations, screenwriting and many original novels and short stories
Cory Doctorow, co-author of the Boing Boing blog and science fiction novelist, was active on GEnie's Science Fiction RoundTable
Todd Brendan Fahey, author, participated in the chat area, chiefly to gain access to the Grateful Dead tape-trading community
Damon Knight, author, founder of the Science Fiction Writers of America, SFWA Grand Master
Wayne Knight, actor (Seinfeld, Jurassic Park), was an occasional visitor to the ShowBiz RT
Michael Okuda, Star Trek graphics designer frequented the SFRT
Richard Pini, husband of Wendy Pini, and editor/publisher of her cult favorite fantasy (with SF elements) comic book series Elfquest.
Daniel Pinkwater, frequent presence in Writer's Ink
Jerry Pournelle, science fiction author and political commentator, had his own RoundTable.
J. Michael Straczynski, television writer, producer and creator of Babylon 5
Wil Wheaton, current “geek author” and actor (Wesley in Star Trek: The Next Generation), was a frequent presence in the chat area, and often visited the Sports RoundTable.

The Science Fiction RoundTable (SFRT) became the official online forum of the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA), which led a large number of science fiction writers to join GEnie.

GEnie provides examples of the following tropes:

Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game: Although they are unlikely to be recognized as such today, GEnie pioneered some of the earliest MMORPGs.
Screwed by the Parent Company: Even as GEnie became the second most popular (and profitable) online service of the 1990s, GEIS refused to view it as anything other than a waste-of-money Filler used to keep its mainframes busy during off-peak hours, and only grudgingly added features and improvements, if it added them at all.