Papers presented by Benjamin Schwantes since 2019
2020 Charlotte, North Carolina
"Building a User Base through Collaboration: Gary Oppenheimer’s Periodic Electronic Newsletter (PEN) and the Development of an MCI Mail User Community"
Benjamin Schwantes, The Johns Hopkins University
Abstract:
In September 1983, MCI Communication launched a new computer-based communication network, MCI Mail. With a brash advertising slogan proclaiming “The Nation’s New Post System,” the firm established a service that allowed subscribers to dial into the MCI Mail network with their modem equipped computers and compose and send messages instantly to other subscribers on the network. The new service garnered much attention in the American media at its launch, but the subscriber base grew slowly, which greatly frustrated MCI executives. Eventually, MCI officials turned to a group of commissioned sales agents to push the new electronic messaging product to consumer and business users. In the spring of 1985, MCI executives approached Gary Oppenheimer, a well-known player in the fledgling electronic mail field, and asked him to market the product and provide technical support to existing and new customers. Oppenheimer went to work and eventually became the firm’s largest global sales agent. A key element in Oppenheimer’s efforts to market MCI Mail was an electronic newsletter that he distributed to his customers via an MCI Mail bulletin board. Dubbed the Oppenheimer Software Periodic Electronic Newsletter (PEN), the publication offered MCI Mail tutorials to new users, recommendations regarding other software products, and served as a central messaging point for the community of users who subscribed to MCI Mail via Oppenheimer. The paper will address the collaborative relationship between MCI, Gary Oppenheimer, and his user base. Oppenheimer used the PEN to cultivate and grow his base of subscribers, which, in turn, benefited MCI. Their collaboration in growing the MCI Mail network offers a fascinating perspective on the broader topic of cooperation between large firms and individual commissioned sales agents and illustrates how agents with their unique insights about users can help shape the development and growth of various consumer products.
