I happened to be driving in today and heard forum on the radio. The topic was the anniversary of ‘the demo’ or ‘The Mother of All Demos’.
I didn’t know about it or Doug until I went to a tribute to Doug and the demo given at the SRI campus by the ACM. Until then I thought it was all done at Xerox PARC. It was not. Great stuff did happen there, but the demo is really a singular even that can really mark the begining. It was an amazing event given the technology of the day.
Doug was at the SRI talk with some of the other researchers on his team. An amazing group. It is a shame that all he gets credit for is the mouse. His openness and big ideas haven’t even been truly realized yet. They were thinking about collaboration, structured Hypertext (like the web), and more. If you get a chance, watch the video online.
Thank you all who were part of the ARC at SRI. You did make a difference.