8BBS: A Forgotten Primary Source (2017)
14 hours ago
- #digital preservation
- #primary sources
- #hacking history
- The term 'hacker' originally referred to computer tricksterism, but its meaning shifted to computer trespass over time, with sources like Steven Levy's 'Hackers' and the 411 Gang often cited.
- 8BBS, a bulletin board from around 1980 used by phreakers, is a valuable primary source for studying early hacking culture, but it has been largely inaccessible due to being available only in a scanned PDF format.
- The scanned PDF of 8BBS is problematic because it lacks search functionality, has poor indexing due to page number and post ID mismatches, and suffers from low readability from hole punches and scanning flaws.
- To restore 8BBS, a plan includes using a wiki to tag post IDs on individual page images for indexing and exploring text extraction methods like OCR, human transcription, or Mechanical Turk for improved readability and search.