Connecting to the Net in 1992
Listening to the panel at Inside PR recall their most embarrassing experiences, one popped into my mind. It wasn’t a PR gaffe, nor was it particularly embarrassing (at least, not to me), but it fits in the mold of the stories Terry, David, and Martin were sharing.
This goes back to about 1992. Remember, graphical web browsers had not yet been introduced and people still got online with modems and dial-up connections. I was one of the speakers at a series of workshops Lexis-Nexis sponsored to introduce communicators to the world of online communication. Craig Jolley, who handled marketing to the profession for Lexis-Nexis, was at every one of these workshops, while I traded (and sometimes shared) the stage with other early adopters like Pete Shinbach and Geri Cartwright.
Craig and I were set to present the workshop, titled “Communicating in the Wired World,” to the IABC chapter in Spokane. Craig’s staff had booked the event at the Ridpath Hotel. The contract called for a phone line at the lectern with a direct connection so Craig could dial into his Lexis-Nexis account.
About an hour before the workshop began, Craig and I went downstairs to the meeting room to make sure everything was working. Craig opened his 1992-era laptop and plugged the RJ-11 jack into the modem, then dialed out. We waited to hear the familiar dial tone and modem-coupling sound, but at first, there was nothing but silence. Then a voice crackled over the speaker:
“Operator, can I help you?”
We found the AV tech and explained that we had requested a direct line. “Right,” he said, “and that’s how you get a direct line.”
Patiently, Craig explained how a modem works. He unfolded the contract and pointed to the section that listed the requirement. Then he said (and I can still hear it today, 16 years later), “Over 100 people will arrive here in 45 minutes expecting to see an online demonstration that we can’t deliver without a direct line. And at Lexis-Nexis, we have two floors of lawyers with nothing much to do who would love to to make your life miserable over this.”
By now, there were two or three technicians huddling over what to do. Ultimately, one of them made a quick run to a local Radio Shack and came back with a couple hundred feet of RJ-11 cable, which they ran from the laptop on stage out of the presentation room, down the hall, and into a closet where a fax machine was set up. They disconnected the fax machine from the wall and plugged in the cable connected to the laptop. Then they taped the whole mess to the carpet while explaining that this was the only direct line in the hotel that didn’t require operator assistance.
Craig and I heard that wonderful dial tone just as the first audience members arrived.
Now, as I connect my laptop to the Net via wireless broadband using my built-in EVDO, I have to marvel at how far we’ve come in so short a time.
11/21/08 | 8 Comments | Connecting to the Net in 1992