Documentary Organization of Canada
• 1983 – First meetings, first intervention letter. CIFC is founded in Toronto.
• 1985 – First newsletter is sent - by fax. It eventually becomes POV Magazine.
• 1988 – Montreal chapter (later to be known as Quebec chapter) is formed.
• 1991 – A National Executive is formed - John Walker, President.
• 1991 – First edition of POV Magazine, edited by Wyndham Wise – Geoff Bowie, first Publisher.
• 1994 – The first edition of Hot Docs is held- Paul Jay was Chair of CIFC and Founding Chair of Hot Docs!
• 1995 – Atlantic chapter is formed.
• 1996 – BC chapter is formed.
• 1997 – Hot Docs incorporates as a separate charitable organization.
• 1998 – First coast-to-coast National Executive elected - Gary Marcuse, Chair.
• 2003 – The CIFC changes its name to DOC.
• 2006 – Ottawa chapter is formed.
• 2006 – Newfoundland chapter is formed.
• 2007 – Winnipeg chapter is formed.
• 2008 – Alberta chapter is formed.
• 2009 – Newfoundland chapter folds.
History of telecommunication
An early experiment in electrical telegraphy was an 'electrochemical' telegraph created by the German physician, anatomist and inventor Samuel Thomas von Sömmerring in 1809, based on an earlier, less robust design of 1804 by Spanish polymath and scientist Francisco Salva Campillo. Both their designs employed multiple wires (up to 35) in order to visually represent almost all Latin letters and numerals. Thus, messages could be conveyed electrically up to a few kilometers (in von Sömmerring's design), with each of the telegraph receiver's wires immersed in a separate glass tube of acid. An electric current was sequentially applied by the sender through the various wires representing each digit of a message; at the recipient's end the currents electrolysed the acid in the tubes in sequence, releasing streams of hydrogen bubbles next to each associated letter or numeral. The telegraph receiver's operator would visually observe the bubbles and could then record the transmitted message, albeit at a very low baud rate. The principal disadvantage to the system was its prohibitive cost, due to having to manufacture and string-up the multiple wire circuits it employed, as opposed to the single wire (with ground return) used by later telegraphs.