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In most countries, to be able to operate an amateur radio station legally, operators (or ‘hams’, as they are often called) will have to acquire a license by passing a test or a series of examinations. These are used to gauge their understanding of the technologies and concepts involved, and their awareness of any laws or regulations governing amateur radio in that country. In some countries, there is a series of increasingly difficult assessments, where more privileges and leeway is given as individuals pass these assessments.
After obtaining a license, hams are given a unique callsign (such as BY4BZB) to call their own and to identify legally with. With the right equipment, they can then engage in two-way communication with other amateur radio operators or listeners, sharing with them news or personal beliefs.
With the arrival of the Internet in the mid-1990s, some hams have taken to posting text logs of their radio sessions on their personal webpages. Ham radio, coupled with these text logs (called ‘glogs’), can be considered as one of the forerunners of the modern-day podcast.
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Bulletin board systems or BBS in short, have also existed before the Internet. Users can dial into a BBS located in their region using a terminal program and can perform a variety of actions, among them reading news, playing games, or exchanging views via a digital message board. These systems were monitored by a SysOp, a system operator who regulates discussions and users.
The first incarnation of BBS was the Computer Bulletin Board System (CBBS), which went operational in 1978. However, slow modem speeds had hindered its progress and development. With the arrival of faster modems in the 1980s, bulletin board systems gained widespread recognition, which was seen as an avenue of discussion, and it quickly became a way of socializing with people in the region.
Data, mainly text, was exchanged in bulletin board systems. Users can publish articles and send and receive messages in a BBS, and this provided them with a way of expressing their outlooks and opinions. Sharing of colour images also took place in bulletin board systems with the appearance of the GIF image format in 1987.
Bulletin board systems had become so much of a phenomenon in the early 1990s that 2 monthly magazines devoted to these systems were published. However, with the initiation of the Internet in the mid-1990s, bulletin board systems gave way to Usenet groups and internet forum and message board communities.
These systems had allowed people living in the same region to hold social discussions of current affairs and other topics of mutual interest before the arrival of the Internet. Views and opinions can be made known to a large community, and this paved the way for the practice of modern blogging.
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With the spread of the Internet in the mid-1990s, and also free site hosts that followed, people with a basic knowledge of HTML began setting up their own personal home pages on the net. Users could upload photos, articles, songs, or just about anything they wanted.
Web-based WYSIWYG site builders that free hosts provide enabled faster and easier solutions for people without knowledge of HTML. This enabled easier and faster construction of pages, and had also fueled the growth in personal homepages.
Some users maintain a ‘News’ page on their site, frequently updating it with current happenings in their lives. Individual views and beliefs are sometimes also posted on these pages, and they serve as a means to communicate with distant friends and relatives. However, there was no automated way of updating and maintaining posts (as with current blogging platforms), and one had to edit the page itself with no options to start new posts or edit past posts separately.
Today, with free and easy-to-use dedicated blog hosts and blogging platforms, personal webpages now serve as a space to display personal information or corporate resumes.
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