Even a Mouse
On December 9, 1968, the world changed just a bit.
On that day, computer pioneer Douglas Engelbart unveiled a number of innovations at what has come to be called "The Mother of All Demos." The demonstration was held at the Convention Center in San Francisco, at the Fall Joint Computer Conference, and it showcased the work of SRI International's Augmentation Research Center.
Among other things, the presentation was made by a geographically distributed team. The demo featured video conferencing, teleconferencing and email (hence the distributed team), hypertext, and the computer mouse.
The prototype mouse was actually used to control a networked computer system demonstrating hypertext linking, real-time text editing, multiple windows with flexible view control, cathode display tubes, and shared-screen teleconferencing.
Though numerous attempts have been made to displace it, the mouse is arguably the biggest innovation in the development of personal computing - just try to imagine life without it if you doubt that!
On December 9, 2008 at Stanford University's Memorial Auditorium, SRI International will present a commemorative 40th anniversary of this conference, featuring Douglas Engelbart himself.
For a chuckle, check out the video of the original demonstration:
On that day, computer pioneer Douglas Engelbart unveiled a number of innovations at what has come to be called "The Mother of All Demos." The demonstration was held at the Convention Center in San Francisco, at the Fall Joint Computer Conference, and it showcased the work of SRI International's Augmentation Research Center.
Among other things, the presentation was made by a geographically distributed team. The demo featured video conferencing, teleconferencing and email (hence the distributed team), hypertext, and the computer mouse.
The prototype mouse was actually used to control a networked computer system demonstrating hypertext linking, real-time text editing, multiple windows with flexible view control, cathode display tubes, and shared-screen teleconferencing.
Though numerous attempts have been made to displace it, the mouse is arguably the biggest innovation in the development of personal computing - just try to imagine life without it if you doubt that!
On December 9, 2008 at Stanford University's Memorial Auditorium, SRI International will present a commemorative 40th anniversary of this conference, featuring Douglas Engelbart himself.
For a chuckle, check out the video of the original demonstration:
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