Chapter 16

1968
Douglas Engelbart and William English - ARC

• introduced the use of demos to prove the importance of their research
• 1968 Fall Joint Computer Conference in San Franciso presented their most famous demo of interactive computing - pre-Internet
• ARC was creating tools to express and share concepts -> led to WYSIWYG layout tools
• creation of tools for expert computer users like any other craft -> led to more "user friendly" systems that first-timers could operate
• users would use tolls to create better tools -> software with its vast gulf between users and creators, working against piracy of software
• allow peopel to work together to solve problems with computers ->a network of communication to share resourses -> arrival of the ARPANet ->the Internet

It's cool to hear about the beginning of these large computer demos after we've been watching so many TED conferences. I have no idea what WYSIWYG is, or what exactly it is that they presented at their famed 1968 demo but it must have been amazing.