The Early Years & Video Games

AOL is a web portal and online service provider originally founded back in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, a service that hosted multi-player games for the Atari 2600, and later Commodore 64 gaming system. Their initial idea was to provide a service for buying music on demand, an idea decades ahead of its time, was rejected by Warner Bros. and they pivoted to temporary downloads of video games.

In 1985, the company changed its name to Quantum Computer Services and began focusing on dedicated online services for video game systems and early computers. By using computing power of the system or computer as opposed to just that of the terminal, their Q-Link system had capabilities that other providers of the time could not match. During this period, the company introduced many innovative online features such as graphical chat environments and interactive  For a short time in 1988, the company partnered with Apple Computer, the relationship was shorted lived, and when it ended, the company changed its name to America Online.

The Golden Era of the 90s

In February 1991, AOL for launched for DOS and Windows. In the early 90s, the average subscription lasted for 25 months. In an attempt to boost their total number of users, advertisements began inviting modem users to “Try America Online for FREE, promising free software and trial membership. This era is probably best remembered for their “carpet bombing” marketing campaign which looked to distribute as many free trial AOL disks as possible through nonconventional distribution partners. At one point, 50% of the CDs produced worldwide had an AOL logo on them. The strategy worked, and by the mid-90s, AOL had surpassed it main competitors, GEnie, Prodigy, and CompuServe.

Over the next several years, AOL launched services with many education providers including the National Education Association, Library of Congress, and the US Department of Education. They offered the first real-time homework help service, the first service by children for children, the first online service for parents, the first online courses, the first omnibus service for teachers, and the first parental controls for online access. Through their partnerships the looked to maximize the internet’s educational possibilities.

Up until 1996, AOL charged it users an hourly fee for access, when they changed over to a flat monthly fee. This change lead to a flood of new users and within 3 years their user base grew to 10 million, and by 1997 about half of all US homes with internet access had it through AOL. 

Merger, Rebrand, and Decline

In January 2000, AOL and Time Warner announced plans to merge. From its initiation, the merger struggled. AOL tried to evolve to match the changing demands of the internet access, introducing Security Sevices and Active Virus Shield. As more and more users migrated away from AOL, they announced they would start providing many of the services only available to their paying customers for free. These included AOL Instant Messenger, AOL Video, AOL Local, and of AOL webmail. Unfortunately all these moves did was temporarily delay the inevitable. By November 2007, AOL’s customer base had been reduced to just over 10 million subscribers, and the company was forced to layoff nearly 40% of their employees. In 2008, Time Warner announced it would split AOL into two companies, one focusing on internet access, the other on advertising. Within a year Time Warner fully shed AOL, spinning it off as an independent company.

Rebirth & Digital Media

After the merger with Time Warner failed, AOL needed a new direction, and began to shutter many of the services that they were known for including chat rooms. In an attempt to rebrand as a digital media company, AOL purchased Patch Media, which was a network of community-specific news and information sites that focused on individual towns and communities, TechCrunch, and the Huffington Post. During this period, AOL had two distinct branches: digital content creation, which were culturally very successful, with partnerships with PBS and others that culminated in a Emmy nomination in 2014; and online video advertising. These moves allowed AOL to grow for a short time as they successfully competed with Yahoo, Google, and Microsoft in terms of online ad revenue. In February 2013, AOL reported its first growth in quarterly revenue in 8 years.

Unfortunately later that year AOL began shuttering parts of its business, in particular Patch Media, ushering in an end to the hyper local era of AOL. The next year Verizon announced plans to purchase AOL. The move made sense for Verizon, broadening its advertising sales platform and content creation, but it also meant an end to the AOL that had existed for 30 years.

1. AC1 - AOL Computer Community Center (Environment): A computer lab where people gather and gain access to computers and other technology they may not have access too. In addition, a knowledgeable staff will be available to help people use the tech and there will be after school programs for children who need a place to go and need access to computers.

2. AOL Home Helper Group (Service): A “geek squad” that will go older people’s home to help them set up and use their technology (i.e. computers, modem, wifi networks, phones, etc.). They will then periodically check back in with these people.

3. AOL Technology Self-Sufficiency Seminar (Event): Geared towards people with greater mobility, they will be arranged meetings where experts help people with technology they bring including phones, computers, etc. The seminar will be held in a group setting so that people from the community can work together to better understand. Experts will also give talks at these seminars.

4. AOL Accessible Education Center (Environment and Educational): A Continuing Education center that will offer classes ranging from vocational to exploratory for a wide range of ages in the community. The classes will be offered throughout the day so that they will be accessible to anyone who is interested and the classes will be affordable with the opportunity to take them for free.

5. AOL New Friends Group Travel Program (Service): Geared towards older individuals and couples, it will be tour group travel for people from within a community who may not have the opportunity or ability to travel on their own. This will be a variety of travel options from domestic to international and some of the travel could be partially subsidized.

6. AOL Collaboration Center and Workspace (Environment): A community workspace where people could come to work and meet other entrepreneurs from the community and collaborate. It could operate as a sort of incubator for up and coming starts up from the area, offering some of the amenities normally only available if one works in an office.

7. AOL Community Meet Up and Potluck (Event): An opportunity for communities to gather together in the old fashion way, face to face, with fun activities and ice breakers to bring people closer together and finished off with a large pot luck with food brought by the members of community.

8. Verizon/AOL Community WiFi (Co-branding Opportunity): A collaboration between Verizon and AOL to bring free WiFi to communities so that people have the opportunity to have hi speed access to the internet anywhere in the community. This would allow people access who normally wouldn’t.

9. AOL Neighborhood Language Center (Environment): A community school that offers language classes geared towards people looking to learn a new language later in life. The goal is to bring people together so that they will have a better understanding and connection to the global community.

10. AOL Family Calendar & Photo Share (Service): A website/app where family members can post photos and daily updates of their children for older generations and other family members to enjoy creating a better connection between generations.

11. AOL Job Training Workshop (Environment): A one stop shop where people can get help with resumes and other career services. There will also be vocational workshops to help people with skills that will allow them easier integration back into the workforce.

12. AOL Community Game Night (Event): In the spirit of community and connection, a night of fun and games where the community can get together and play board games. The fun and games will create new relationships and bring people closer together.

13. AOL Local Stop and Shop Market (Environment): A store where local artisans and food producers can sell their food and wares to the community. Buying local will help strengthen communities and create lasting connections between its residents.

14. AOL Life Skills Center (Service): A place where people can go to learn important life skills not generally covered in traditional education such as how to do your taxes, understanding a mortgage, etc. This will be largely geared towards people just leaving college who may not be fully prepared for life in the real word, but would be a useful for anyone who needs help.

15. AOL Hand-Me-Down Electronics (Service): Technology is often replaced long before it is no longer useful, upgraded for the newer model with more features. However these replaced electronics still have use elsewhere. This program would allow people to recycle their electronics, which AOL will send abroad to communities that need them so that people around the globe will have access to technology and the ability to connect with the rest of the world.

16. AOL Student Exchange Program (Co-branding): In collaboration with top universities across the world, the exchange program would allow students to spend 1-3 weeks during inter-semester to take classes and explore different cultures. These are not semester’s abroad but rather shorter programs available to students who for various reasons don’t have the opportunity to attend semester long programs.

17. AOL International News Exchange (Service): The world is saturated with bad and numerous media corporations to cover them. Oftentimes this leads to positive stories being overlooked and uncovered. This service isn’t about covering all the news, it is a collaborative service where people around the world can upload positive local stories and read similar stories from around the globe, in an effort to humanize different cultures.

18. Global Technology Summit (Event): Collaborative summit where companies around the globe will gather together to share exciting new ways in which they are using tech in the hopes of building partnerships and a more cooperative corporate global community.

19. AOL WFH Connection Portal (Service, Co-Brand with Verizon): The opportunity to work from home is a perk of the modern work space, however often times the ability to work from home is limited by the strength of internet connection and other technology available at home. By partnering with verizon, AOL can provide companies and there employees secure networks, stronger connection speeds and tech necessary to increase productivity at home.

20. Employee Re-Training Program (Service): You can teach old dogs new tricks! As technology evolves it is important for the  people in the workplace to keep up to date with technology. AOL would provide a training services to keep people up to date on the technology and make sure no one is getting left behind.

21. AOL Global House Swap (Service): Air BnB is a creative way to look at global travel, however safety on one end, and the uncertainity of who one is renting to on the other, are problems. To solve these issues, AOL has created an online community where people can converse with others and “swap” houses for vacations. This allows more knowledge of who is using the house and more open communication between renters.

22. AOL Online Tutoring (Service): A service for students to get individualized help on classes on regular intervals. The tutor will help the students develop organizational skills and proper study practices to help them skills that will help them succeed. The individualized lesson plans and on-call help will push students to do their best in school and life.

23. AOL Micro-Financing for Developing Countries (Service): A service that will allow corporate entities and individuals help finance work projects in developing countries through micro-financing loans. This will bridge cultures and allow for the building on a stronger global community.

24. AOL Freelance Coder Portal (Digital Center): A digital center where companies can post and bid on coding work from freelance coders across the globe. This will build a stronger global work community and increase access to talented workers.