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[wiki.git] / history.mdwn

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+[[!meta title="SIPB History"]]
+

 SIPB was originally founded in 1969 by Bob Frankston, Gary Gut, David Burmaster, and Ed Fox. The original purpose of the board was to provide students with access to MIT's big timeshared computer systems, particularly <a href="http://www.multicians.org/">Multics</a>, back when computers were room-sized and cost millions of dollars.  In addition to distributing computer time on Multics to students, SIPB provided a printer for text output, operated modem-based terminals in dormitories, fraternities, and the Student Center library, and maintained the Educational Calculator Service (ECS) subsystem, which allowed users to code in a BASIC-like language.
 
 The SIPB office was originally located in 39-541. Within a year or two, it relocated to 39-200. From there it moved to 11-205. There it stayed for a while, until its move to its present location to W20-557 in the summer of 1989.
 
 From the very very very beginning, SIPB has had meetings on Monday at 7:30. That's an international constant to which the world can synchronize. SIPB meetings have even happened with as few as 1 member showing up during winter break.
 
 SIPB was originally founded in 1969 by Bob Frankston, Gary Gut, David Burmaster, and Ed Fox. The original purpose of the board was to provide students with access to MIT's big timeshared computer systems, particularly <a href="http://www.multicians.org/">Multics</a>, back when computers were room-sized and cost millions of dollars.  In addition to distributing computer time on Multics to students, SIPB provided a printer for text output, operated modem-based terminals in dormitories, fraternities, and the Student Center library, and maintained the Educational Calculator Service (ECS) subsystem, which allowed users to code in a BASIC-like language.
 
 The SIPB office was originally located in 39-541. Within a year or two, it relocated to 39-200. From there it moved to 11-205. There it stayed for a while, until its move to its present location to W20-557 in the summer of 1989.
 
 From the very very very beginning, SIPB has had meetings on Monday at 7:30. That's an international constant to which the world can synchronize. SIPB meetings have even happened with as few as 1 member showing up during winter break.
 

-SIPB has changed in the more than two decades since its founding, but a look at the 1978 SIPB Office Manual reveals striking similarities:
+SIPB has changed in the four decades since its founding, but a look at the 1978 SIPB Office Manual reveals striking similarities:

 
 > ### 1. What is the SIPB?
 
 
 > ### 1. What is the SIPB?
 


@@ -19,5 +21,8 @@ As computing technology has progressed (and Project Athena happened), SIPB has g
 * Around 1988, SIPB supported the first dialup service to Athena.
 * SIPB provided the first support for LaTeX on Athena.
 * SIPB created [discuss](http://stuff.mit.edu/afs/sipb/project/www/discuss/discuss.html). It was modeled after forum on Multics.
 * Around 1988, SIPB supported the first dialup service to Athena.
 * SIPB provided the first support for LaTeX on Athena.
 * SIPB created [discuss](http://stuff.mit.edu/afs/sipb/project/www/discuss/discuss.html). It was modeled after forum on Multics.

-* SIPB was responsible for [the original www.mit.edu web server](http://stuff.mit.edu/webmasters.html#history) in 1993; it may have been among the first 100 HTTP servers in the world.  On August 8, 2004, IS&T took over the [www.mit.edu](http://www.mit.edu/) name, and SIPB's portal became [stuff.mit.edu](http://stuff.mit.edu).
+* SIPB was responsible for [the original www.mit.edu web server](http://stuff.mit.edu/webmasters.html#history) in 1993; it may have been among the first 100 HTTP servers in the world.  In August 1999, www.mit.edu began mirroring the official MIT website, originally on [web.mit.edu](http://web.mit.edu/). On August 8, 2004, IS&T took over the [www.mit.edu](http://www.mit.edu/) name, and SIPB's portal became [stuff.mit.edu](http://stuff.mit.edu).

 * SIPB was originally responsible for Linux-Athena.
 * SIPB was originally responsible for Linux-Athena.

+
+
+Much more documentation from SIPB's history was incorporated in [a term paper written in 2001 by students in an MIT science-history class](http://web.mit.edu/6.933/www/Fall2001/SIPB.pdf).