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The E-Sylum:  Volume 4, Number 46, November 11, 2001, Article 9

FIRST COIN CHAT ROOM?    

  On page B1 of the November 8th Wall Street Journal is an   
  article about Dr. Larry Brilliant and his work against smallpox   
  in India.  The last paragraph mentions that "he had a role in   
  founding several online and broadband companies".  One of   
  those companies had a numismatic connection.    

  When I worked at Bell Labs in New Jersey during the early   
  80's, I moonlighted as a consultant for Dr. Brilliant's company,   
  which was based in Ann Arbor, MI at the time.  He had hooked   
  up with a couple hackers who ran a bulletin board system on a   
  server in one of their homes.  They created an interactive   
  conferencing system with many elements of today's chat rooms   
  and newsgroups.  I did testing and commented on user interface   
  design.  It was a plain scrolling text interface that you could dial   
  in to via the GTE Telnet network.    

  The company was initially called MarketNet, Inc., and later   
  Network Technologies Inc., or NETI.    Larry was a coin   
  collector and knew dealer Joseph Lepczyk, whom I believe   
  became an investor in the firm.   Hoping to unseat the   
  standard coin dealer teletype system, they created a system   
  called CENTS for buying, selling, and discussing   
  numismatic items online.  CENTS stood for "Complete   
  Electronic Numismatic Trading Systems."  It was through the   
  numismatic connection that I became involved.    

  The company later had some sales to groups like AT&T's   
  Legal Dept., which used it as groupware to discuss legal   
  documents.  But the system was way ahead of its time and   
  failed, because in those days long before the popularization   
  of the Internet, there were still only a handful of first adopters   
  with PCs and modems having the capability to dial in.  We   
  geeks thought it was the bee's knees, but it  went nowhere.   
  Larry closed the company, but moved to San Francisco and   
  ended up cofounding The Well with Stuart Brand (of Whole   
  Earth Catalog fame), this time creating the first commercially   
  successful online community.    

  In my library I have copies of the user documentation   
  for the system and a handful of scrolled paper printouts   
  documenting some interactive sessions.  In one, Larry   
  Brilliant wrote: "It was a real treat to be able to sign on   
  to the system via satellite from Kathmandu, Nepal.  We   
  are making world history with the longest distance coin   
  deal ever ..... wonderful."  (August 15th, 1983).  

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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