Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

[Chris Hedemark <chris AT yonderway.com>]

I think the first shopping cart preceded the web boom.

Back in my BBS days, I remember popular software packages like Wildcat! 
and MajorBBS had optional shopping cart modules, and this was probably 
around 10 years ago so your search will have to go back at least that 
far.  These usually allowed online payment with a credit card, but 
AFAIK everything was sent in the clear since you would have to sniff 
the phone line to get a credit card number and while that is probably 
possible for someone who is really determined, there were much easier 
ways to get credit card numbers.

A lot of these early shopping cart systems didn't always have a 
merchant account to call into for credit card authorization, so the 
sysops without merchant accounts would have to phone orders in with 
telecheck or something similar.

On Thursday, September 26, 2002, at 09:16 AM, Shea Tisdale wrote:

> I know someone on this list must know the answer to this question.
>
> who deployed the first shopping cart online?
> Or, who deployed something similar - say on a bulletin board system 
> before the web existed?
>
> Also, anyone know who might have had the first or a very early version 
> of online payment (taking payment at a remote computer and processing 
> it on a centralized server through the use of secure keys and such.)?
>
>
> ---
> Come and play at the InterNetWorkers Web site!  
> http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/
> You are currently subscribed to InterNetWorkers mailing list
> To unsubscribe visit 
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/internetworkers

Chris Hedemark
Professional Computer Consulting & Videography
Hillsborough, NC
http://yonderway.com