GQ – Jan 28 – Though computer-dating was still a new concept in 1965—back then, the answers to personality questionnaires were converted into punch cards which were fed into computers the size of small cars—two rival outfits had already popped up at Harvard: Operation Match and Contact Incorporated. Very little distinguished the two companies. Operation Match sold its questionnaires for $3. Contact charged $4. "I don't know why all this social networking stuff starts at Harvard," says Chris Walker, now 66, then a player at the center of Harvard's first geek-on-geek war. David Dewan—then a Harvard MBA candidate—was spoiling for a fight. He told the Crimson that Operation Match's questionnaire was "less sophisticated, appealing to the big, Mid-west universities." In response, it appears, the founders of Operation Match alerted the campus police that Dewan was about to paper Harvard Yard; Dewan was collared on the steps of Winthrop House for the dubious crime of "distributing questionnaires without a permit." Dewan began winding down his computer dating service in 1967. As for Operation Match, Walker and his partners set up an office in New York, but struggled. "It was easier when we had a captive audience, people at single-sex colleges with time on their hands and high hormone levels," Walker says. "We all felt it was time to move on with real careers." Operation Match was bought by a student marketing company. FULL ARTICLE @ GQ
Mark Brooks: Where's the idating industry version of Kayak.com? It's about time we made a success of a search aggregator. (Full Disclosure: Chris Walker / DatingStartsHere.com are a client of Courtland Brooks)
