Take Some Time Today To Watch Doug Engelbart's Demo

from the you'll-be-glad-you-did dept

I have a presentation that I've done many times now for various corporate execs (usually from Europe) trying to understand just what makes Silicon Valley Silicon Valley. It's a fun presentation, and always creates quite a discussion. It goes into a lot of different topic areas, but my favorite part is, right in the middle of my "abbreviated history" of Silicon Valley, when I get to show some clips from Doug Engelbart's 1968 demo of what he was working on at SRI. That demo was the first time the world saw an awful lot of things that are common today: from the mouse (and, yes, he talks about naming the mouse), to a graphical user interface, to hyperlinks, among many other things (including a few computer bugs). I just gave the presentation again two weeks ago, and I realized that we were quickly approaching the 40th anniversary of the demo, which took place on December 9th, 1968.

The entire presentation is 75 minutes long, but I've embedded it below. I'm sure many of you won't have time to watch all 75 minutes, but it's absolutely worth watching at least part of it (and then you'll want to keep watching):
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: 40 years, doug engelbart, mice


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    hegemon13, 9 Dec 2008 @ 2:24pm

    Missed opportunity

    He, or those that put him up to the demo, should have patented all those ideas. The world would be much better off if the idea of a mouse or a GUI were safely owned by one man.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Karnage, 9 Dec 2008 @ 2:43pm

    Copy/Paste

    1968, reseacher shows copy and paste on a movie screen. 2007, copy/paste not on iPhone.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Beihl Gates, 9 Dec 2008 @ 2:50pm

    Who is this Enlebart imposter? Everyone knows it was I, the one and only computer inventor ever, who invented the mouse and GUI.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    Thomas Christensen, 10 Dec 2008 @ 6:07am

    Also: Licklider

    If you find this stuff interesting, you should also look into J.C.R Licklider who had a clear vision of modern computer usage and the internet in the early 60's (and went on to help create ARPA-net etc.). Lot of good quotes to be found.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    DMCA, 10 Dec 2008 @ 12:49pm

    Vid no longer available

    Thank you DMCA (most likely, I don't know the whole story)

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.