KICS RIP

This blog does not usually concern itself with the activities of people. That is the domain of news organizations and social media. This posting is an exception: I laud KICS. 

The web is so much a part of our lives now that it is hard to imagine a time before it came to be. Yet, only twenty years ago, virtually no one in the public had heard of it and the combination of words, dot com or dot ca, was not on our radar. However, the power of this new communications medium was evident to a few prescient locals. The Kootenay Internet Communications Society (KICS) was launched as a volunteer service in 1997 to provide individuals with email service and organizations, particularly local nonprofits, with website support.

Now, eighteen years later there are a great many commercial options available and KICS feels it has fulfilled its mandate. As of November 1^st, KICS will have completed its mission. Our community looks different now than it did in the mid 1990s: Everyone is connected and communicating. A good deal of the local transition was eased as a result of the efforts of the volunteers who established and ran KICS.

This posting is the first to be made on this blog that hasn’t been delivered from a KICS server. I remain in its debt for supporting my efforts; many in the community remain in its debt. 

The web was new in the 1990s. The prescient volunteers of KICS recognized the potential advantages to our community. They arrived with sustenance when we didn’t even understand we wanted it.