Facebook? Twitter? Instagram? We all did it 40 years ago.
Facebook FaceTime. Google+ pages. Hash tags to Twitter and Instagram. These technologies seem so new, right?
But this holiday season, when you are using your huge collection of Apple gadgets to connect with friends and family at a distance through social media, it is worth remembering that all these social services have existed for a long time.
Before Facebook and Facetime, before Google+ and Twitter were Plato and Bell Picturephone, Dynabook and Xerox LiveBoard. Social media is nothing new. Now they just have the best packaging - and the best marketing.
')
Does the name LiveBoard mean nothing to you? Never heard of Plato? Then it is time for a little historical excursion. And before you take on your iPad and Tumblr, give a little time to the social media of the past decades. After all, your iPad would not have been without Alan Kei's DynaBook. Without them, you would be left with nothing but festive champagne - and the subsequent hangover.
Three decades before Yelp and Craigslist was the Community Memory Terminal. In the early 1970s, several such terminals were installed in San Francisco and Berkeley, providing access to an electronic bulletin board hosted on the XDS-940 mainframe.
It began as a social experiment, the purpose of which was to see whether people would willingly share their lives using a computer - “a kind of computer flea market”, “a communication system that allows people to come into contact with each other on the basis of mutual interest,” wrote then brochures.
It was a proto-Facebook-Twitter-Yelp-Craigslist with a database for finding neighbors, selling items, recommending restaurants, status updates with graphics and comments.
“In fact, it was one of the first attempts to give ordinary people access to a computer,” writes Mark Weber, curator of the Computer Museum in California.
But Computer Memory Terminal was not a new social idea. Thirty years before it, Memex existed.
Well, it was nothing more than an idea, but the idea was very new then. Memex table in a way “instantly deliver files and materials on any subject to an operator”.
In theory, Memex stored information on microfilms and indexed it with the help of holes in them. The user entered the code on the keyboard, and the mechanism showed the desired movie on a flat, tablet-like screen. “It was like a URL, just for microfilm,” says Weber.
Friends could view the microfilm reels together, punching new holes for cross-referencing new information or putting all the information together. “This idea is still very underdeveloped even on the web, it concerns the exchange of bookmarks,” says Weber. "There are millions of ways to do this on the web, but only a few of them work."
The system was also designed to store photos of notes, letters, souvenirs and pictures. In other words, it is a prototype of a tool for converting handwriting into indexed digital files.
One of the first online communities inadvertently grew out of PLATO, an educational system developed at the University of Illinois. David Woolley built a platform based on Plato Notes, a forum that allowed him to communicate on various topics.
“Creating an online community has never been a goal for PLATO, and if you don’t think about it, how could this have happened? None of us have ever seen such communities before, ”explains Woolley. Plato was originally a system where students could study subjects, such as fractional distillation or the anatomy of the visual system. But Notes contributed to the interaction of students.
“There were two kinds of Notes - public and private, which worked like e-mail. And it allowed the system to take off, ”writes Weber.
Then there was a message board, chat rooms, instant messages, news and games in PLATO - everything that social networks give you today.
FaceTime? In 1964, we already had Bell Picturephone, a futuristic device with a video camera, telephone, and monitor that looked like an alien head.
Yes, after the presentation at Disneyland, people lost interest in him. Few people wanted to pay $ 16 for 15 minutes. A call to the Picturephone required an appointment and in some cases a separate trip, since they were set up in New York, Washington and Chicago.
“This is the most important computer that has never been built. This is the ancestor of the laptop and tablet, ”writes Mark Weber.
DynaBook is a concept created by the legendary computer scientist Alan Kay in the late 60s. Kay describes the DynaBook as a “wearable everywhere” device that can bring “libraries and schools (not to mention shops and billboards” to the house ”) -“ a personal computer for children of all ages. ”
DynaBook - which looks like an enlarged cross between an iPad and a Blackberry - has stored 500 pages of text or several hours of music on removable magnetic media. "Imagine vending machines that will sell additional information (from encyclopedias to adventure novels," Kay wrote then. In his opinion, the device would then cost $ 500 or about 2,750 by now.
The Standford Research Institute van is the birthplace of the Internet, wireless networks and Skype. At least that's what Weber says about him.
In this bread van, turned into a mobile research laboratory, the Internet pioneers, including Vint Cerf, connected to other networks via a radio channel. He played a key role in the development of TCP / IP, and also served as a prototype for packet voice systems like Skype.
Xerox LiveBoard looks more like a big, flat-panel TV, but it's actually an interactive whiteboard. With the 67-inch screen, people were able to hold newsgroups and exchange documents in the process. “It was like WebEx 20 years ago.” Says Weber.
The project died in 2000, only 2,000 modules were sold.
Simon is the first smartphone. He could work as a personal organizer, send faxes, mail and electronic pages. He did not have a browser, but there were applications, such as notepad, drawing and address book, and most importantly - the touchscreen.
It cost $ 900, a little more than the iPad.
Before the dawn of smartphones, a mobile browser meant a text universe in which only a few sites operated. iMode has changed this - at least in Japan.
This Japanese device gave access to mail, streaming video, weather, maps, bookstores, games, and financial data on thousands of sites. This phone could serve as an electronic wallet, buying soda in vending machines. "In 1999 it was a mobile web."
Social media entered the arena only in the new millennium, you say? If.
In the 1980s and 1990s, proprietary online services such as CompuServe and AOL existed that offered mail, chat forums, weather, stock data and travel reservations. All that was needed was a modem.
“All these online systems were social in the sense that they had user-generated content with many interactions between users. They are about people who have logged in and expressed themselves, ”says Weber.
And now we are in the present. Enjoy your champagne. And a hangover.
But this holiday season, when you are using your huge collection of Apple gadgets to connect with friends and family at a distance through social media, it is worth remembering that all these social services have existed for a long time.
Before Facebook and Facetime, before Google+ and Twitter were Plato and Bell Picturephone, Dynabook and Xerox LiveBoard. Social media is nothing new. Now they just have the best packaging - and the best marketing.
')
Does the name LiveBoard mean nothing to you? Never heard of Plato? Then it is time for a little historical excursion. And before you take on your iPad and Tumblr, give a little time to the social media of the past decades. After all, your iPad would not have been without Alan Kei's DynaBook. Without them, you would be left with nothing but festive champagne - and the subsequent hangover.
Community Memory Terminal (1973)
Three decades before Yelp and Craigslist was the Community Memory Terminal. In the early 1970s, several such terminals were installed in San Francisco and Berkeley, providing access to an electronic bulletin board hosted on the XDS-940 mainframe.
It began as a social experiment, the purpose of which was to see whether people would willingly share their lives using a computer - “a kind of computer flea market”, “a communication system that allows people to come into contact with each other on the basis of mutual interest,” wrote then brochures.
It was a proto-Facebook-Twitter-Yelp-Craigslist with a database for finding neighbors, selling items, recommending restaurants, status updates with graphics and comments.
“In fact, it was one of the first attempts to give ordinary people access to a computer,” writes Mark Weber, curator of the Computer Museum in California.
Memex (1945)
But Computer Memory Terminal was not a new social idea. Thirty years before it, Memex existed.
Well, it was nothing more than an idea, but the idea was very new then. Memex table in a way “instantly deliver files and materials on any subject to an operator”.
In theory, Memex stored information on microfilms and indexed it with the help of holes in them. The user entered the code on the keyboard, and the mechanism showed the desired movie on a flat, tablet-like screen. “It was like a URL, just for microfilm,” says Weber.
Friends could view the microfilm reels together, punching new holes for cross-referencing new information or putting all the information together. “This idea is still very underdeveloped even on the web, it concerns the exchange of bookmarks,” says Weber. "There are millions of ways to do this on the web, but only a few of them work."
The system was also designed to store photos of notes, letters, souvenirs and pictures. In other words, it is a prototype of a tool for converting handwriting into indexed digital files.
PLATO (1960)
One of the first online communities inadvertently grew out of PLATO, an educational system developed at the University of Illinois. David Woolley built a platform based on Plato Notes, a forum that allowed him to communicate on various topics.
“Creating an online community has never been a goal for PLATO, and if you don’t think about it, how could this have happened? None of us have ever seen such communities before, ”explains Woolley. Plato was originally a system where students could study subjects, such as fractional distillation or the anatomy of the visual system. But Notes contributed to the interaction of students.
“There were two kinds of Notes - public and private, which worked like e-mail. And it allowed the system to take off, ”writes Weber.
Then there was a message board, chat rooms, instant messages, news and games in PLATO - everything that social networks give you today.
Bell Picturephone (1964)
FaceTime? In 1964, we already had Bell Picturephone, a futuristic device with a video camera, telephone, and monitor that looked like an alien head.
Yes, after the presentation at Disneyland, people lost interest in him. Few people wanted to pay $ 16 for 15 minutes. A call to the Picturephone required an appointment and in some cases a separate trip, since they were set up in New York, Washington and Chicago.
DynaBook (1968)
“This is the most important computer that has never been built. This is the ancestor of the laptop and tablet, ”writes Mark Weber.
DynaBook is a concept created by the legendary computer scientist Alan Kay in the late 60s. Kay describes the DynaBook as a “wearable everywhere” device that can bring “libraries and schools (not to mention shops and billboards” to the house ”) -“ a personal computer for children of all ages. ”
DynaBook - which looks like an enlarged cross between an iPad and a Blackberry - has stored 500 pages of text or several hours of music on removable magnetic media. "Imagine vending machines that will sell additional information (from encyclopedias to adventure novels," Kay wrote then. In his opinion, the device would then cost $ 500 or about 2,750 by now.
SRI Van (1977)
The Standford Research Institute van is the birthplace of the Internet, wireless networks and Skype. At least that's what Weber says about him.
In this bread van, turned into a mobile research laboratory, the Internet pioneers, including Vint Cerf, connected to other networks via a radio channel. He played a key role in the development of TCP / IP, and also served as a prototype for packet voice systems like Skype.
Xerox LiveBoard (1990)
Xerox LiveBoard looks more like a big, flat-panel TV, but it's actually an interactive whiteboard. With the 67-inch screen, people were able to hold newsgroups and exchange documents in the process. “It was like WebEx 20 years ago.” Says Weber.
The project died in 2000, only 2,000 modules were sold.
IBM Simon Phone (1993)
Simon is the first smartphone. He could work as a personal organizer, send faxes, mail and electronic pages. He did not have a browser, but there were applications, such as notepad, drawing and address book, and most importantly - the touchscreen.
It cost $ 900, a little more than the iPad.
iMode Phone (1999)
Before the dawn of smartphones, a mobile browser meant a text universe in which only a few sites operated. iMode has changed this - at least in Japan.
This Japanese device gave access to mail, streaming video, weather, maps, bookstores, games, and financial data on thousands of sites. This phone could serve as an electronic wallet, buying soda in vending machines. "In 1999 it was a mobile web."
CompuServe (1980 - 1990)
Social media entered the arena only in the new millennium, you say? If.
In the 1980s and 1990s, proprietary online services such as CompuServe and AOL existed that offered mail, chat forums, weather, stock data and travel reservations. All that was needed was a modem.
“All these online systems were social in the sense that they had user-generated content with many interactions between users. They are about people who have logged in and expressed themselves, ”says Weber.
And now we are in the present. Enjoy your champagne. And a hangover.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/163807/
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