Your emails will continue to come, sites on the world-wide-web will stay up, your Internet connection won’t stall and your PC won’t crash. In fact, you will not notice any difference in your online experience. But a major event is rippling across the Internet early this month at the passing of a giant: CompuServe Classic is closed down by its current owner AOL. After 30 years of glorious service, it is finally time to say goodbye to an old friend.

CompuServeThe CompuServe Classic service was first offered in 1979, the first major online service available to the general public. At its height, the service boasted about having over half a million members. Many innovations we now take for granted, from online travel, online shopping, online stock quotations, and global weather forecasts, just to name a few, were standard fare on CompuServe.

I signed up in 1992 (ID 72101,3575), well before Internet access was offered here, and with a 28K US Robotics modem, suddenly found myself connected to a limitless resource. CompuServe Classic was home to forums for every profession and special interest imaginable, and the information is always timely . When the Mitzuho/Kyocera plastic resin plant in Japan burn down in 1993, I warned my colleagues of the resultant shortage of PC memory chips worldwide; and when the Shoemaker comet hit Jupiter in July 1994, I was showing to all photos of the impact just as soon as they were released to the press.  For a while I was the guy to see for the scoop on ALL the latest, and a couple of senior managers (in ICL Singapore and Fujitsu Australia) felt compelled to join up too in order to keep up.

Ask most anyone about CompuServe today and the response will most probably be “CompuWhat?” It’s sad what had befallen a service that once meant so much to cyberspace. So before the name CompuServe Classic slips into the forgotten pages of history : So long, old friend. And many thanks.