Thursday, December 11, 2008

Ancient teleconference demo... of mouse, screen-sharing, hypertext, and more!

Yesterday was the 40th anniversary of what The Register calls "The Mother of All Demos". They're not kidding. You can see it in a video that captured the presentation. Here are some highlights:
  • It starts out with 1 minute 30 seconds of text explaining how the whole production was set up, after which he jumps into his demonstration.
  • He starts showing the hyperlinking at 15:50.
  • He explains his mouse and his one-handed text entry device at 27-30 minutes in.
  • Someone else joins in to work on the same screen at 57 minutes in.
It's fascinating to watch, with all the glitches he hits and the things he has to explain along the way. Be sure to read the article and the explanatory text at the front of the video to get a full appreciation of this demo. It's history right before your eyes.

No comments: