  cix (originally compulink information exchange) is an online based conferencing discussion system and was one of the earliest british internet service providers. founded in 1983 by frank and sylvia thornley, it began as a fidonet bulletin board system, but in 1987 was relaunched commercially as cix. at the core of the service were many thousands of "conferences" - groups established by users to discuss particular topics, conceptually not unlike newsgroups but limited to cix subscribers (who sometimes describe themselves as 'cixen'). these conferences still exist today although the cix service has since expanded to include many other features. the service is funded by a monthly subscription charge rather than by advertising. in 1988 it provided the first commercial internet email and usenet access in the uk. cix then grew rapidly, reaching a peak of more than 16,000 users in 1994, before starting to lose customers to the newly formed internet service providers that offered free access to the mass market using 0845 dialup, such as demon (which was started by cixen cliff stanford, whose cix nickname was 'demon'), pipex, aol and freeserve. in its heyday, cix was one of the uk's premier online locations for both technical and social interaction. it hosted several official online support areas for companies such as borland and novell and counted among its subscribers many of the uk's technology journalists (some of them wooed with free accounts), which ensured regular mention in the computing press. the liberal democrats have used cix as a conferencing system and a branded version of the off line reader ameol is provided for their use. ==later company history== in 1996 the thornleys decided to expand cix's services to include full 0845 dialup internet access known as cix internet. however, take up was limited (possibly due to an above-average cost) even though technically it was rated for many years as one of the best internet providers in the uk. in march 1998 a management buy-in backed by legal & general ventures was successful. the buy-in team comprised doug birtley, managing director; niels gotfredsen, finance director; graham davies, sales and marketing director and lisa pennington. frank and sylvia thornley contracted to remain with the company for a minimum of three years. in 2000 cix was sold to telenor, a norwegian telecommunicati
Bulletin_board_systems Internet_forums PreaWorld_Wide_Web_online_services Social_networking_services