Mr. Jim Tice Ellis

t was 1979 when Mr. Ellis and a fellow Duke University student, Tom Truscott, decided to use e-mail programs and university computers to establish what were, essentially, electronic bulletin boards to which any member could post items using computer modems and telephone lines. "Our estimate was one to two articles a day and from 50 to 100 computers maximum," recalled Steve Bellovin, an AT&T researcher who helped draw up plans for the network in 1979. Today, there are now more than 50,000 Usenet news and discussion groups, and there are too many computers linked to the system to count.