For your afternoon viewing pleasure, may I commend to you the following video from Alex Randall, co-founder of the Boston Computer Exchange.
To commemorate what he says is the 25th anniversary of the very first e-commerce transaction, Randall sat down in front of a video camera to tell the tale of how he and his wife, Cameron Hall, set up an online marketplace for computers in their living room and, on March 5, 1983, sold the first one to a customer in Chile. It’s a fun story filled with nostalgia gear (remember the days of the Apple I, the Osborne, and 300 BPS modems?), and a great reminder of the Boston area’s key role in computer and internet history. Happy birthday, e-commerce!
And now, for those of you who want to dispute Randall’s claim to having facilitated the first online transaction—and I know you’re out there—fire away.
