History
This is what one of our previous Auditors wrote about the founding of Netsoc :
"Once upon a time long long ago there lived a bunch of wasters who were mainly found in the bowels of UCD (Computer labs to the uninitiated). The guys were Niall Richard Murphy, and Stephen Fegan, who by funny coincidence all happened to share the same names as the guys who were the first two Netsoc Auditors.
One day the guys were bored and I mean really bored. So bored in fact that they were talking about the Internet. Something that someone said sparked an idea and it was a good idea (it didn't often happen but when it did, people ducked). However it was quickly forgotten and later in the evening Niall thought about trying to give UCD student access to the Internet. I mean talk about farfetched. If I didn't know better I would have said he was high at the time - but he was only on the first floor. For some strange reason Steve thought it was a good idea too but then they realized that there were a lot of obstacles to be faced like where to get the money and how to approach Computing Services about it. And that was the end of that.
Until.........after Christmas when Niall had time on his hands again (someone had given him a watch for Christmas). Somehow the idea of providing access to the Internet to the UCD student body or at least some of it remained and eventually he decided to approach a couple of UCD's other techno-nerds with the idea. (Did I mention that these guys had time to spare?) Between them Steve, Niall, and two others, Peter Cox and Fergal Daly began to set the foundations of the society. Unfortunately the college authorities weren't too happy with them digging big holes in the floor so that was soon stopped. But while they had been leaning on their shovels they had realised that the easiest way to do what they wanted woud be to do it as a College society (funnily enough). Between them the technical side was soon up and running at least occasionally.
Then it came to the fund-raising part....... Now these guys (while brilliant around computers) just can't sing, so since the busking didn't go down too well they decided to apply for a grant to the Student Forum. The forum must have had money to throw away because they gave Netsoc over £2,000. I still haven't met the society's fairy godmother but she was definitely looking out for Netsoc back then. Dr. Dennis Jennings and Dr. Niall O'Reilly of Computing Services were amazingly supportive when Steve and Niall went to talk to them about Netsoc. They got the go ahead to give accounts to a limited number of people during Fresher's week 1995. And that's how Netsoc started."
It's been over 16 years since our humble beginning where are we now? With the original mandate to provide Internet access to the college populous being filled, Netsoc has evolved by providing a varying range of services. Netsoc provides its members with accounts on its servers, hosting space on UCD's network for developing websites and personal projects as well as system administration training. We also host various tech talks and tutorials on all things technology. Previously this has included web site design, PC building and programming talks, amongst others.