ANTIC Interview 133 - Bill Louden, CompuServe and GEnie - a podcast by Randy Kindig, Kay Savetz, Brad Arnold

from 2016-02-18T08:00

:: ::

Bill Louden, CompuServe and GEnie


Bill Louden was part of the team that built CompuServe, the first consumer online service, where he was director of the computing, games, entertainment, e-mail, chat, and forum products. He went on to be the founder of the GEnie online service (General Electric Network for Information Exchange.)


This interview took place October 15, 2015.


Teaser quotes:


"You know, we expected at CompuServe customers to spend $10 to $15 a month. ... We never expected people to come online and spend $1,200, $2,000 a month playing MegaWars."


"We're there to serve the customer so I want [a name] that sort of embodies a service configuration, and it's magical. It's something new. And the best name they came up with was Albert, for Albert Einstein. This cost me $50,000. I literally came home from that meeting crying."

Further episodes of ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast

Further podcasts by Randy Kindig, Kay Savetz, Brad Arnold

Website of Randy Kindig, Kay Savetz, Brad Arnold