A Brief History: Difference between revisions

Every redbrick member has their own personal history of the society, and together we have a collective personal history of events. The society indepdently of this has it's own independent history rooted in facts, developments, events. Whether we can accurately describe all these views of our beloved society in true glory (with warts & all, for better & worse) remains uncertain, and we each develop a view of the history the more we learn and the more involved we become. Given all this, here's a loose overview of things anyway. Maybe we can work with it. Add or change bits that you know about, if you can!

"In October 1995 a group of friends got the ball rolling on the idea of a computer network in DCU, run by students for the students". These immortal words have been on every society website since 1998, and still capture what redbrick essentially is (friends, vision, education, cooperation, proactivity). The first redbrick machine was a personal computer of drjolt, dubbed 'Nurse', named after a Therapy? Album. It was originally put on the network in the School of Computer Applications, hidden under a desk at the back of the LG01 computer lab, but first went online from under a desk in QG07 in the Business School (Computer Apps unwilling to extend the temporary arrangements up to this point). This was early 1996 when Redbrick was switched on for the first time. Soon after, Redbrick was granted a 'subnet' (136.206.15.X) from the wider college organisation, DCU Computer Services (CSD), giving the society more official status within the university.  

The first event took place in Fibbers (now Bacchus) of Parnell Street on October 17th, organised by some users in the chat room. The first event organised by the committee however, dubbed "The First Fiddle", took place in The Mean Fiddler, and also was the first Intersocs event. A more renown event was held at Christmas, the month after, in the Jolly Beggarman pub (now Kitty Kiernans) on Collins Ave, just down the road from DCU. This event has become legendary for stories of thayl@rb climbing & falling off a nearby phonebox, and further trouble at a house party later on where uninvited local ruffians ("scumbags") were dealt with by some of the society's more intimidating early members.  

In 1996/1997 both the BBS and the social events started gaining notoriety, and the society grew gradually as a result. Justin Moran (cain@rb) joined the BBS as a journalism student to write an article for An Tarbh which captures some of the spirit at the time. A popular part of the BBS was "Redbrick House", a custom style chat area in the style of a house, with different rooms. Every member joining the chat gained a certain "level" depending on how many hours they had spent, which gave a certain level of 'epic'ness to the whole thing! Overall, there was a good social spirit to the society, which centered on the BBS and newsgroup, as well as the events of the time and even a "table" in the canteen that would regularly be be populated by redbrick or STOCS people throughout the day.   

Redbrick was physically housed at this time in open CSD computer labs in the Henry Grattan, in a single rack (spray painted black) and dubbed "The Monolith".  

1000+ members. Officially the biggest society. Powerful systems, powerful influence. Awards & accolades. Recognition.