[SIGCIS-Members] First instructional videos for Macintosh?

Tue Sep 9 12:56:41 PDT 2014

Hi Marc,

Thank you for your thoughtful reply. Could I ask a few follow-up questions?

>
> Nothing much like Engelbart's NLS has ever reached the mass market, and if
> it suddenly did today it would need to overcome 30 years of habit.
>

Can you say more about that? What parts of Engelbart's NLS do you think
are still missing? 

And have they not reached the mass market because of a learning curve? Or
what other potential reasons?

>
> Incidentally, Doug did have quite a bit of contact with Apple in the '80s
> and there were people there who had huge respect for him. But there weren't
> many direct results.
>

Do you mean that people didn't carry on his ideas at other companies like
Apple? What ideas do you think were lost and why?

>
> If you want to learn more about Engelbart and the mouse, there are a lot
> of resources I can point you to. The bulk of the archives of his group at
> SRI as well as his personal papers are with us or at Stanford Libraries,
> and we collaborate extensively.
>
> We did an event in Doug's memory last December, here's a writeup and
> several links:
> http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/chm-fellow-douglas-c-engelbart/
>

This writeup is wonderful. Thank you! Ted Nelson's Eulogy is also quite
moving.

> Here are some searches related to Engelbart and the mouse within our
> "Revolution" exhibition:
> http://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/search?q=engelbart,
> http://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/search?q=mouse&x=0&y=0,
>
> We also have extensive video footage of Doug in our collection, as well as
> a "show and tell" interview with Bill English, co-inventor of the mouse
>
> If you're telling the story of the mouse the 20 years between its
> invention in 1964 and its popularization with the Mac is heavily focused
> around Xerox PARC; I can also point you to resources for that part of the
> history. You might also want to mention the Logitech story (they funded
> Engelbart's offices out of gratitude, starting in the '80s).
>
> Best, Marc
>
> Marc Weber <http://www.computerhistory.org/staff/Marc,Weber/>  |
> marc at webhistory.org  |   +1 415 282 6868
> Internet History Program Founder and Curator, Computer History Museum
>
> 1401 N Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View CA 94043
> computerhistory.org/nethistory
> Co-founder, Web History Center and Project, webhistory.org
>
>
>
> On Sep 9, 2014, at 10:26 AM, Luisa Emmi Beck wrote:
>
> Thank you everyone! On a related note- I'm wondering whether anyone on the
> list has thoughts about the angle of my story (whether it is historically
> accurate and whether the design tension I'm raising is relevant and
> interesting to you):
>
> I'm fascinated by Doug Engelbart's early three-button mouse and chorded
> keyset system. Some people I've talked to say that Doug used it for almost
> all tasks except for when he was typing long texts- which is when he
> switched to using the QWERTY keyboard). When Steve Jobs commissioned IDEO
> to design the mouse for Lisa, he told David Kelley to only include one
> button. And the keyset was entirely lost.
>
> The reason most people mention is that the keyset and three-button mouse
> were difficult to learn. They required recall whereas the simple on-button
> mouse relied on drop-down menus and that the user recognize the relevant
> icons. But people who saw Doug use the keyset and three-button mouse said
> that he was much more efficient with it than anyone who relied solely on
> the one-button mouse and keyboard. Doug taught everyone (even secretaries,
> his children, etc. how to use the keyset and three-button mouse).
> Generally, when designing systems, Doug seems to be more focused on making
> devices that are *learnable* and high performance as opposed to simple
> (which is what Steve Jobs focused on to make Lisa with it's one-button
> mouse marketable).
>
> So my key questions are:
>
>    - What happened to the chorded keyset? Why didn't it become popular?
>    - What are the key differences between Doug Engelbart's and Steve Jobs
>    design philosophy?
>    - What (if anything) do we lose by designing systems that focus so
>    much on *simplicity *and *usability* instead of *learnability*
>    - What might Doug think of the Apple products that so many of us use
>    today? Did Apple trade high-performance systems for the sake of "usability"?
>    - Apple products and Apple's design philosophy are everywhere
>    today. Is there anything we’ve lost with the Apple design philosophy? Or
>    that Doug might think we’ve lost?
>
> I would be curious to hear your thoughts about any of these points.
> Thanks!
> Luisa
>
>
> On Tue, Sep 9, 2014 at 9:32 AM, Paul McJones <paul at mcjones.org> wrote:
>
>> Here’s a 15 minute promotional/instructional video from 1983, of Apple’s
>> Lisa computer that was soon eclipsed by the Macintosh:
>>
>> http://www.guidebookgallery.org/videos/lisa1983
>>
>> By the way, this website, GUIdebook <http://www.guidebookgallery.org/>
>> "a website dedicated to preserving and showcasing Graphical User
>> Interfaces, as well as various materials related to them”, is filled with
>> interesting artifacts, including a transcript of the previously-discussed
>> 1984 Macintosh Guided Tour, a similar one for Lisa, and much, much more.
>>  The website was created by Marcin Wichary.
>>
>> On Sep 8, 2014, at 8:28 PM, Luisa Emmi Beck <emmi.beck at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Hi SIGCIS members,
>>
>> I'm working on a radio story about the history of personal computing.
>>
>> I would like to find instructional videos for the first Macintosh or
>> other personal computers. The goal is to give listeners a sense for how new
>> and incredible the idea of personal computing was in the 1970s. Does
>> anyone on this list know of where I could find such videos? I haven't been
>> able to find anything on YouTube but I'm hoping to be able to track down a
>> few instructional videos (or at least the audio portion of the videos).
>>
>> Thanks!
>> Luisa
>>
>> (510) 856.7475
>> http://luisabeck.com/
>>  _______________________________________________
>> This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list
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>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Luisa
>
> (510) 856.7475
> http://luisabeck.com/
>  _______________________________________________
> This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list
> of SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at
> http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ and you can change your subscription
> options at http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members
>
>
> Marc Weber <http://www.computerhistory.org/staff/Marc,Weber/>  |
> marc at webhistory.org  |   +1 415 282 6868
> Internet History Program Founder and Curator, Computer History Museum
>
> 1401 N Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View CA 94043
> computerhistory.org/nethistory
> Co-founder, Web History Center and Project, webhistory.org
>
>

-- 
Luisa

(510) 856.7475
http://luisabeck.com/
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