CAPE NATIVE JACK RICKARD TURNS HOBBY INTO COMPUTER MAGAZINE

LITTLETON, Colo. -- What started as a simple hobby, turned into a career for Cape Girardeau native Jack Rickard.

He is the son of Jack and Ben Rickard and is a 1973 graduate of Notre Dame High School.

Boardwatch Magazine began about nine years ago with the help of Jack Rickard's personal computer and a modem.

The computing magazine developed after Rickard found a list of bulletin board service numbers that were no longer valid. So he decided to publish an online list of updated numbers for the Colorado area.

Rickard admits that as part of an ever-changing field, the beginning days at the magazine were frustrating.

"It's not been an overnight success," Rickard said. "It's just grown until we've gotten here."

Boardwatch is a guide to using computers as a communications device, he said.

"We cover bulletin boards and do some stories," Rickard said. "It's for the readership who want to operate their own bulletin boards."

Rickard said that Boardwatch is not a magazine for the beginner.

"It's fairly technical," he said. "There are some things for the novice, but you have to be pretty serious."

From a monthly newsletter with almost 50 subscribers, the magazine's circulation has grown to 110,000. And that's just about the size Rickard wants to stay.

Since 1989, Rickard has devoted much of his time to the Boardwatch project.

"That's my life," he said, adding that he sometimes works 12- to 16-hour days. And much of that time is spent on the computer.

His current interest on the Internet is special-interest groups.

"Downloading software and e-mail are no longer interesting," he said. He is currently subscribing to a coffee discussion group and has read a bulletin board list about ratite -- exotic bird -- ranchers.

Rickard said people have a need to be heard, and online systems cater to that need.

"They will form communities gathered around topics of interest, not geography," he said.

If a person is interested in raising exotic birds, for example, and can't join a local club or group, online discussion groups make finding information easier.

"It frees them from the boundaries of geography and time normally associated with the interest," Rickard said.

He added that the World Wide Web has made it easier for nontechnical people to get online.

"It's inherently more interactive than TV or radio," Rickard said. "It's part of the trend of wanting to be heard."

And Rickard hears from his family in Cape Girardeau via fax machine and telephone more than electronic mail.

"It's the next best thing to visiting," his mother said.

Last year, Jack gave her a new computer and laser printer.

"I had a Commodore before and it was serving my needs quite well, but it blew his mind that I had such an obsolete computer," she said.

Ben Rickard said her son was not interested in electronics as a child. After joining the U.S. Navy, he began working with electronic equipment and computers.

He later worked as a technical writer for several defense contracting companies. He left that profession in 1989 to begin working full time as editor and publisher of the magazine.

"He absolutely loves what he's doing," Ben Rickard said. "It's been successful for him."

And to help others be successful with online adventures, Rickard holds an annual computing conference.

The One BBSCon convention, attended by online bulletin board services and users, will be held next month in Tampa, Fla.

The conference is a gathering place for people who operate services, Rickard said. About 4,000 people attended last year's conference in Atlanta.

"It's a networking expo," he said. This year's seminars will provide the latest information about operating bulletin board services, World Wide Web sites and the Internet services.