CIX
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CIX (Originally Compulink Information eXchange) was one of the earliest British Internet Service Providers. Founded in 1983 by Frank and Sylvia Thornley, it began as a FidoNet bulletin board system, but in 1987 was relaunched commercially as CIX Conferencing. At the core of the service were many thousands of "conferences" - groups established by users to discuss particular topics, conceptually not unlike newsgroups but limited to CIX subscribers. These conferences still exist today although the CIX service has since expanded to include many other features. The service is funded by a monthly subscription charge rather than by advertising.
In 1988 it provided the first commercial Internet email and Usenet access in the UK. CIX then grew rapidly, reaching a peak of more than 16,000 users in 1994, before starting to lose customers to the newly-formed Internet Service Providers that provided free access to the mass market using 0845 Dial UP, companies such as Demon, Pipex, AOL and Freeserve.
In its heyday, CIX was one of the UK's premier online locations for both technical and social interaction. It hosted several official online support areas for companies such as Borland and Novell and counted among its subscribers many of the UK's technology journalists (some of them wooed with free accounts), which ensured regular mention in the computing press.
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[edit] Later Company History
In 1996 following the launch of the ISP Demon Internet which incidentally was started up by Cliff Stanford in a conference on CIX way back in 1992, the Thornleys decided to expand CIX's services to include full 0845 dialup Internet access known as CIX Internet. However, take up was limited even though technically it was rated for many years as one of the best internet providers in the UK.
In March 1998 a management buy-in backed by Legal & General Ventures was successful, the buy-in team, comprised of Doug Birtley, Managing Director, Niels Gotfredsen, Finance Director, and Graham Davies, Sales and Marketing Director, who came with a wealth of IT experience, having previously been at Wordstar, Fontware and a founder member of Precedent Interactive Solutions. Frank and Sylvia Thornley contracted to remain with the company for a minimum of three years. The management believe that the core competencies - in conferencing and internet connectivity - for which CIX has acquired an enviable reputation over its 14 year history, can be extended to encompass other areas of internet service provision. Moreover, expansion will not be limited to the organic growth of CIX’s existing services; the intent is to acquire other businesses. Graham Davies, CIX’s newly appointed Sales and Marketing Director and a member of the buy-in team, commented: "The greatest differentiator amongst online providers is age. What sets CIX apart from many of its competitors or peer group is its enviable 14 years’ experience in online service provision. In its knowledge of networks and its development of proprietary software capable of handling many thousands of conferences simultaneously, CIX stands head and shoulders above any other European player." Frank Thornley, one of CIX’s founding partners, added: "CIX has grown to its current size and reputation without resort to any external equity funding. Now, with the backing of a blue chip investment institution, CIX will be able to bring to market a number of exciting new products, designed to fuel its growth into the next millennium."
In 2000 CIX was sold to Telenor, a Norwegian telecommunications company. CIX was re-branded and merged with XTML and Norsk Data to form the UK arm of Nextra, the UK Internet subsidiary of Telenor.
In June 2002 the CIX service was outsourced by Telenor to Parkglobe, a company specially set up for the purpose by several long-term staffers/directors.
In July 2002 Telenor sold the business to GX Networks aka PIPEX.
Between 2003 and the present, several additional services including online calendars, contact lists and document libraries, plus voice-to-email, fax2email, and conference call facilities have been added.
In 2004 CIX Conferencing was relaunched as CIX Online and given a Web interface as an alternative to the text interface. Customer acceptance of the Web interface has been limited, due partly to its cumbersome nature when compared to the OLRs that most cixen use.
[edit] Technical Information
CIX Conferencing is based on CoSy ("Conferencing System"), though it has been heavily modified by succeeding generations of staff. The CoSy conferencing system used by CIX was initially run on a SysV UNIX server, and was gradually modified from the original CoSy to add new features over time.
While initially users read the text-based (ISO 8859-1) CIX messages online, the UK's practice of charging per minute for 0845 telephone calls led to the development of off-line readers (OLR's). The official windows OLR for CIX is Ameol, it handles email, CIX conferencing and Usenet, and is freely available for cixen to use. It was originally written by Steve Palmer back in 1994, and more than ten years later it is still the most popular way of accessing cix. Many other OLR's, written by CIX users, are also available for other operating systems, like Lucy on the Amiga, and Polar on Psion PDA's.
http://conferencing.cixonline.com/ameol.html
In 1996 the decision was taken to port the system to SunOS hardware, and upgrade the bank of modems. ISDN Dial Up access, and using the Internet to blink (a term used to collect messages) were also introduced.
[edit] Example Conferences
Bikers -
CaRP - The Campaign for Real Pedantry, stands up for pedantic details (particularly relating to the correct usage of the English language).
[edit] See also
- WELL - US equivalent of CIX
