Digital pioneer
Today’s most common online activities originated with Ohio’s own CompuServe. BY PATTY YODER
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t’s a debate that’s been raging for more than 30 years — something that’s part of almost everyone’s lives, yet every day, people stumble over how to pronounce a three-letter word that describes a digital image: “GIF.” Does it have a hard “G,” like “gift,” or should it sound more like the peanut butter? Ohioans have the home-court advantage in the debate. New Milford resident Steve Wilhite, in fact, is the computer engineer who developed the Graphics Interchange Format in the 1980s. In the decades since then, he’s used a classic TV ad to teach people how to say it: “Choosy developers choose GIF.” Wilhite invented the GIF while he worked at CompuServe, an early tech company that was based in central Ohio. Although the name may not mean much to anyone under 40, CompuServe played a pivotal role in the early days of the Information Age. Digital breakthroughs still in use today originated there, including online shopping, stock research, and self-serve airline tickets.
The CompuServe team poses for a company photo outside its Columbus headquarters in 1996. At its peak, CompuServe had 135 employees.
30 OHIO COOPERATIVE LIVING • JANUARY 2022
