Jump to a web version of the original 'About NCF' menu

NCF was founded in 1992, several years before the existence of the World Wide Web and web browsers. Back then, people used telephone dial-up modems to connect to NCF's computers at Carleton University. They were presented with a text-based menu, from which they could select options (much like clicking on a web link today). Finally a page of text would be displayed or a service, such as an email or newsgroup reader, would be started.

When the web arrived circa 1994, people began spending less time with the text-based menu system. New content tended to be created only on the web. That original content remains and is still available, but to view it, one needs a 'terminal emulator', such as 'telnet', to access it. Telnet, once very popular, is now hardly used, and thus that original menu-based text content is now somewhat inconvenient to access.

Some of the original documents relating to the founding of NCF are interesting to read. Back then, many people thought that community-based FreeNets would be the way the internet would organize. Many of the issues and opportunities that would subsequently be played out on the internet were being addressed at NCF, but in the context of the text-based system. For example, whereas today people covet a nice domain name, back then they wanted a good position in the menu hierarchy; special interest groups jockeyed for position.

As part of NCF's 20th anniversary, some of that original material has been adapted for the web. Click on the link below to jump into the past.

Jump to a web version of the original 'About NCF' menu

(After all these years, the FreePort menu system is still running. If you have telnet, you can explore that near-ghost-town that time left behind; just point it to www.ncf.ca and log in with your usual NCF ID and password; the same one you use to log into NCF's web StartPage. Please note: Telnet is an insecure protocol.)

Go to the StartPage