What Is The FidoNet Showcase Project?
The FidoNet Showcase Project is a non-profit organization comprised of a single historian (that's me) dedicated to preserving the history of Fidonet and providing free access to its Collections for Bulletin Board System Operators (SysOps) and Users, researchers, historians, statisticians and scholars. Many SysOps had joined FidoNet years later and were not present to see the birth or the fantastic growth years of FidoNet. The FidoNet Showcase Project went online on 01-Jan-2001 although some concepts are still under active development.

Brief FidoNet History
The FidoNet grassroots movement began around 1983-1984, and after a few years had elapsed, FidoNet SysOps began expressing a desire for a historical preservation of FidoNet. Several attempts were made by various individuals, but these efforts always seem to fall short before the project could reach completion. Whether it could be contributed to FidoNet politics, lack of people contributing to the project, or just too much work for a few to accomplish who may not have had the available time for this hobby plus history preservation, the FidoNet History Project, as far as we can tell, never evolved into a completed work. The FNSP will attempt to recover, preserve and publically display FidoNet history from the 1983/1984 period to the present. It will take months, if not years, of additional effort to accomplish this!

Present Day FidoNet
It is very enlightning to see present preservation efforts by independent SysOps occurring via various related FidoNet web sites. The FidoNet Showcase Project will attempt to pool these resources into its Collections. These FidoNet Archive web sites are essential public institutions, no less important than paper libraries such as the Library of Congress in preserving and offering access to information and historical artifacts.

A Look into the Future of FidoNet
To date, there have been no sustained large-scale effort to preserve FidoNet history from 1983 to the present into a public archive. Before this history is lost in "the sands of time", it is important to immediately preserve "a complete as possible" and centralized public record of these events. Several FidoNet resource sites have disappeared along with the historical documents they once held. Time is of the essence to get this preservation done!

Major Contents of the Project

Who is Represented by the Project?
It is very important that all countries/zones, past and present, be included in the content of The FidoNet Showcase Project. This will take more effort to become reality, but it is absolutely neccessary to share the FidoNet experience around the world. Let no one take your hobby away!

Work In Progress
The Project is a living document, and as such, the web site and its chronlogical date order will change as more events can be verified. As more historical documents and files become available, some tweaking of the web site will be in order. There are some areas which are not well defined to their history, but as more information is found, an outline can be developed to support this missing history. As more of the overall outline of the web site is determined, I will place the outline online, and fill-in the blanks when I get to that subject. This way, you are able to see what is being actively developed and what is going to be developed.

Size of the Project
The anticipated size of this Project is about 800 - 1000 megs of web space to hold the entire FidoNet history, along with several online Perl search engines to quickly find a match to your query! Presently, web site resources are scattered over the Internet as I cannot place the entire Project on my server due to the enormous size of the archives and the prohibitive costs to do so!

Why Am I doing This?
I am a computer hobbist and an electronic technical writer who has always liked a good cause. Here is the clincher, I do not operate a BBS but had used one for personal stuff for about a year. I would like to contribute my creative writing and organizing abilities (no bragging here, just the facts please!) to this Project before the valuable FidoNet history is lost. After more than five (5) years of collecting historical information, collaborating and sharing information with other Fidonet historians, I decided it was time to put the FidoNet puzzle together. Maybe I like to torture myself with such an undertaking. Maybe I am just plain crazy. Judge for yourself after touring the Project!

How Can You Help?