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The Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (later Corporation), most commonly known as MECC, was an organization founded in 1973. The goal of the organization was to coordinate and provide computer services to schools in the state of Minnesota; however, its software eventually became popular in schools around the world.[1][2] MECC had its headquarters in the Brookdale Corporate Center in Brooklyn Center.[3][4][5]

History

MECC Logo circa 1978

Origins

During the 1960s, Minnesota was a center of computer technology, a "Midwestern Silicon Valley". IBM, Honeywell, Control Data and other companies had facilities in the state. In 1963, their presence inspired a group of teachers at the University of Minnesota College of Education's laboratory school to introduce computers into classrooms via teleprinters and time-sharing. The group began with long-distance calls to Dartmouth College's General Electric computer to use John George Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz's new Dartmouth BASIC language, then moved to Minneapolis-based Pillsbury Company's own GE computer. In 1968 20 suburban Minneapolis school districts and the College of Education founded Total Information for Educational Systems (TIES) to provide time-sharing service on a HP 2000, training, and software. The presence of computer-company employees on many school boards accelerated TIES's expansion and helped make Minnesota a leader in computer-based education.[6][1][7]: 215 

TIES's success, and similar projects run by Minneapolis Public Schools and Mankato State University,[6] led to the founding of MECC in 1973[1] by the state legislature. As a Joint Powers Authority, with the support of the University of Minnesota, the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System, and the Minnesota Department of Education,[8] MECC's role was to study and coordinate computer use in schools for both administrative and educational purposes. Schools, including the universities, had to get MECC's approval for most computing expenses, and were also its customers for computer-related services. After study of educational needs, a single educational computer center in the Minneapolis area was recommended for use by schools throughout the state[6] (the University of Minnesota's MERITSS computer provided time-sharing services to its campuses and to state universities).[2][7]: 215 

Computing facilities

SUMITS, a UNIVAC 1110 mainframe was installed at the MECC facility at 1925 Sather, address later changed to 2520 Broadway Drive), next to Highway 280. A sturdy industrial building originally used for electrical maintenance, part of the building was already occupied by the University of Minnesota's Lauderdale computing facility. SUMITS was a batch processing system, however, not time-sharing, and its performance failed to meet the terms of the contract. In 1977 it was replaced with a Control Data Corporation Cyber 73 mainframe,[6] known as the MECC Timesharing System (MTS). It became the largest such system for education in the world, with up to 448 simultaneous connections[7]: 214  from up to 2000[7]: 216  terminals throughout the state, most of them ASR33 teleprinters, connected at 110 and 300 baud through telephones by using acoustically coupled modems. After several years most of the phone lines were replaced with direct circuits to schools across the state.

By 1982 MTS had more than 950 programs in its library.[7]: 218  One of the most popular was The Oregon Trail, originally written for the Minneapolis Public Schools' computer.[1] Programming was the largest single use for MTS, with up to 45% of the system used for one of almost one dozen computer languages.[7]: 217  To support its larger number of users—70 to 80% of all Minnesota public schools in 1981,[8] and available to 96% of Minnesota students from 7 am to 11 pm daily by 1982[7]: 214 —primarily using programs written in the BASIC[6][9] language, both timesharing systems developed shared memory (MULTI) BASIC systems. Through this and less efficient methods, multiuser programs and chat systems appeared in addition to electronic mail and BBS programs; some of these were derived from MERITSS programs.[10]

While some of the ideas may have been derived from MERITSS, the multi programs were more efficient. The MERITSS chat program, even though it operated via fast access system files, could not match the efficiency of a MULTI chat program that copied the input/output into memory to be delivered to the user.

The University of Minnesota Computer Center (UCC as it was called then) rejected implementing MULTI due to concerns about system stability. UCC tried to retrofit the MULTI-mail program for its own use because of the good user interface. It was not possible. They then tried again with an older fast access system file version, and while it worked, it was unreliable. After doing test runs with several other Universities mail programs, two developers at UCC implemented their own version, which also contained a message board feature, and was the campus wide e-mail solution for a couple of years.

Microcomputer technology

As MECC's Cyber 73 entered into service, microcomputers began to appear. In 1978 it appeared that features wished for in the classroom, such as a graphical display,[6] were available. Through an evaluation and bidding process, the Apple II was chosen by MECC for state schools over other candidates, such as the Radio Shack TRS-80; the win was an important early deal in the history of Apple Inc.[1] Any school in the state could buy Apple computers through MECC for a substantial discount[8] without having to go through complex evaluation and purchasing procedures. Through this "enviable showcase" Apple sold more than 2,000 computers during the next three years,[11] making MECC's the company's largest reseller.[6] In late 1981 MECC switched to a discount agreement for the Atari 400 and 800.[11] The use of microcomputers quickly increased, with 85% of school districts using them by 1981 compared to 75% for time-sharing,[7]: 217  and the Cyber 73 shut down in 1983.[10]

MECC developed hundreds of microcomputer educational programs,[1] many converted from the time-sharing original;[6] by 1979 some MECC programs for the Apple II could be downloaded from the timesharing system.[2][10] MECC distributed The Oregon Trail and others in its library to Minnesota schools for free, and charged others $10 to $20 for diskettes, each containing several programs.[6] Projector slides, student worksheets, and other resources for teachers accompanied the software.[12]

As control over computer resources moved to local levels within Minnesota, MECC's focus on selling software grew.[6] Beginning in 1980 with the Iowa Department of Education, 5,000 school districts around the world purchased site licenses for MECC software.[1][6] It distributed 250,000 copies of MECC software around the world by 1982,[7]: 218  and the "Institutional Membership"[13] business became so successful that state subsidies ended. In 1983 MECC became a taxable, profit-making company, owned by the state of Minnesota but otherwise independent.[1][6] By the 1985-1986 school year MECC offered more than 300 products[13] and had about $7 million in annual sales.[14]

Activities

During its lifetime, the company produced a number of programs that have become well-known to American Generation X and Y students.[1] Besides Oregon Trail, others were The Secret Island of Dr. Quandary, The Yukon Trail, The Amazon Trail, Odell Lake, Zoyon Patrol, Number Munchers, Lemonade Stand, Spellevator, Storybook Weaver, Freedom! and DinoPark Tycoon

Closure

MECC was financially successful and dominated the market for Apple II software used within schools, but its management believed that the company needed more capital in order to compete for the home market and to develop software for other platforms, such as the IBM PC and the Macintosh. As the state of Minnesota did not have the capital to fund such plans, it spun off the company as a private corporation in 1991 to the venture capital fund North American Fund II[6][15] for $5.25 million. An IPO followed in March 1994 and the publicly traded company, with about $30 million in annual revenue—about one third from The Oregon Trail[6]—was acquired by SoftKey in 1995 for $370 million in stock.

Although MECC continued to develop software, including the successful Oregon Trail II in 1995, its offices in Brooklyn Center closed[1] in October 1998[16] due to layoffs.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lussenhop, Jessica (2011-01-19). "Oregon Trail: How three Minnesotans forged its path". City Pages. Retrieved 2011-01-20.
  2. ^ a b c and Canada. "ED220932 - Managing Technology Change. "MECC: A Management History."". ERIC. Retrieved 2007-01-03.
  3. ^ "The Road to MECC." MECC. February 3, 1997. Retrieved on June 1, 2010.
  4. ^ "Brooklyn Center city, Minnesota." U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved on June 1, 2010.
  5. ^ "The Road to MECC Graphical Map." MECC. February 3, 1997. Retrieved on June 1, 2010.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n LaFrenz, Dale. "An Interview with DALE LAFRENZ". Charles Babbage Institute/Center for the History of Information Processing, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Retrieved 2011-01-22.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Office of Technology Assessment (1982). Informational technology and its impact on American education. United States Government Printing Office.
  8. ^ a b c Mace, Scott (1981-12-07). "Minnesota's MECC educates next generation of computer users". InfoWorld. Retrieved 2011-01-20.
  9. ^ "MECC Quick Reference Guide for BASIC Language Version 3.1" (PDF). Former MECC User. Retrieved 2008-01-28.
  10. ^ a b c Steve Taffee. "MECC Timeline". MECC Alumni. Archived from the original on 2009-08-10. Retrieved 2007-01-03.
  11. ^ a b Freiberger, Paul (1981-11-02). "Atari and MECC reach an agreement". InfoWorld. Retrieved 2011-01-22.
  12. ^ Zamora, Ramon (1981-07-20). "MECC's Educational Software Packages". InfoWorld. Retrieved 2011-01-22.
  13. ^ a b Bouchard, R. Philip (1986-02-24). ""Letters"". InfoWorld. Retrieved 2011-01-22.
  14. ^ Mace, Scott (1985-12-02). "Christmas Contenders". InfoWorld. Retrieved 2011-01-22.
  15. ^ MECC Timeline http://web.archive.org/web/20090810141841/geocities.com/meccalumni/Timeline902.html
  16. ^ MECC Timeline http://web.archive.org/web/20090810141841/http://www.geocities.com/meccalumni/Timeline979.html

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