Arlington Centre in Upper Arlington in Franklin County, Ohio — The American Midwest (Great Lakes)

CompuServe World Headquarters

Online Pioneer

Photographed by Mark Moxley-Knapp

1. Compuserve World Headquarters Marker

The same text is on both sides.

Inscription. The world headquarters of CompuServe was located on the six-acre site at 5000 Arlington Centre Boulevard from 1973 to 2009. Incorporated in 1969, Compu-Serve Corporation (later CompuServe Inc.) was the first major online information services provider. Its subscribers were the first to have access to email, online newspapers and magazines, the ability to share and download files, and a variety of popular chat forums. One especially successful CompuServe innovation was the GIF graphics format. Increasing competition and a succession of corporate owners pressed CompuServe into the fate of many tech start-ups and it ran its course. It did, however, introduce millions of people to online connectivity, social networking, and laid the foundation for the widespread use of the internet.

Erected 2024 by Leadership Upper Arlington, Ohio History Connection. (Marker Number 140-25.)

Topics. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Communications • Industry & Commerce. A significant historical year for this entry is 1969.

Location. 40° 3.489′ N, 83° 4.752′ W. Marker is in Upper Arlington, Ohio, in Franklin County.

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It is in Arlington Centre. It is on Arlington Centre Boulevard one mile south of Henderson Road, in the median. In median at crosswalk, in front of former Compuserve building. Street parking nearby. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 5000 Arlington Centre Boulevard, Columbus OH 43220, United States of America. Touch for directions.

Regionally, this marker is in the Scioto Valley

and in the Columbus Metropolitan Area.

It is also in the American Midwest

and in the Corn Belt.

Globally, it is in North America,

the Western Hemisphere,

the Western World,

and the Anglosphere.

Historically, it finds itself in what was once the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy,

the territory of the Mississippian Culture,

and the Northwest Territory.

Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within 2 miles of this marker, measured as the crow flies: Bill Moose Memorial (approx. 1.1 miles away); Bill Moose [Crowfoot] (approx. 1.2 miles away); Scioto Trail (approx. 1.2 miles away); Life on the Farm (approx. 1.3 miles away); a different marker also named Life on the Farm (approx. 1.3 miles away); Timeline (approx.

Photographed by Mark Moxley-Knapp, May 16, 2024

2. CompuServe World Headquarters Marker

1.3 miles away); a different marker also named Life on the Farm (approx. 1.3 miles away); Upper Arlington Farming (approx. 1.3 miles away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Upper Arlington.

Another marker is no longer nearby. Carrie Nelson Black / The Breathing Association (was approx. 1.1 miles away but has been confirmed missing).

More about this marker. Marker says 2023. Actually erected early May 2024.

Also see . . . Wikipedia entry. Excerpt:

CompuServe was initiated during 1969 as Compu-Serv Network, Inc. in Columbus, Ohio, as a subsidiary of Golden United Life Insurance. ...

CompuServe dominated the industry during the 1980s and remained a major influence through the mid-1990s. At its peak during the early 1990s, CompuServe Information Service (CIS) had an online chat system, message forums for a variety of topics, extensive software libraries for most personal computers, and a series of popular online games, including MegaWars III and Island of Kesmai. It introduced the GIF format for pictures and a system for exchanging GIF files. In 1994, it was described as “the oldest of the Big Three information services” the others are Prodigy and America Online (AOL).

In
Photographed by Mark Moxley-Knapp, May 16, 2024

3. CompuServe World Headquarters Marker
1997 ... the parent company announced its desire to sell CIS. ... resulting in CIS being sold to AOL. In 2015, Verizon acquired AOL, including its CompuServe division. In 2017, after Verizon completed its acquisition of Yahoo!, CompuServe became part of Verizon’s newly formed subsidiary Oath Inc. At the time, the remaining original parts of CIS were closed down, leaving it only as an internet service provider and a sub-brand of AOL. Oath was then divested as the new Yahoo! company in 2021.

(Submitted on May 18, 2024.)

Additional commentary.
1. Email to Paper to Envelope-and-Stamp via CompuServe
In the early 1980s, on a cross-country flight, DC to LA, on a huge by today's standards laptop computer, I typed out a letter to my nephew in North Carolina. Sometime after landing, most likely in my hotel room, I plugged in to the telephone line, dialed out to CompuServe, signed in, and pasted the text into an email message.

That email was not addressed to another email address; my nephew did not have a CompuServe account. Instead I addressed it to a service CompuServe had together with the U.S. Postal Service. The Postal Service

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printed out the email at a post office equipped with a CompuServe printer, the nearest one to its destination of Apex, NC, where it was folded, put in an envelope, postmarked, and delivered the next day. Postage and handling was charged to my CompuServe account, I think it was less than 50 cents.

Can't do that today, but today everyone's got an email address and a computer in their pocket that's more powerful than the one CompuServe started sharing in 1969.

— Submitted May 18, 2024, by J. J. Prats of Powell, Ohio.

Credits. This page was last revised on May 19, 2024. It was originally submitted on May 16, 2024, by Mark Moxley-Knapp of Columbus, Ohio. This page has been viewed 1,127 times since then and 183 times this year. Photos: 1, 2, 3. submitted on May 16, 2024, by Mark Moxley-Knapp of Columbus, Ohio. • J. J. Prats was the editor who published this page.