Park learned to program motion-graphics synchronized to dance music and ran a BBS, an electronic bulletin board system, the precursor to the Internet.

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The first newsgroups and discussion groups appeared in the early years of the Internet, around 1980, and the bulletin board system allowed topic-related discussion groups from 1990 on.

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He says when he was 14 he got an Apple II, and he set up a bulletin board system, before CompUServe and AOL. He says he saw the power of sharing.

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It's driven some to search Google through a Bulletin Board System-like interface or, in the case of programmer Peter Nitsch, it's compelled him to graft ASCII art onto the physical world.

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Stocks in the Over-The-Counter market are quoted on systems like the OTC Bulletin Board, an electronic quotation system, and the Pink Sheets, which is not registered as a stock exchange and is named for the color of paper on which its listings of price quotes for companies have historically been printed.

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