Teh Internets: The early years

Amazing video of 1981 San Francisco local news segment on accessing the newspaper online. Of course, the words "online" or "internet" weren't even in use yet. They just talk about reading the newspaper on your "home computer."

For as much as we think of technological change as occurring at this breakneck pace, that was 1981, and we had already sniffed out the idea of transmitting content via computer. There were rotary phones involved, yes, but the concept was fully formed. But it wasn't until December 2008 that the internet finally surpassed the newspaper as our secondary source of news (after the TV).

The award for most prescient prediction goes to the newspaper representative who says that, as cool as the "electronic newspaper" may be, he doesn't expect they'll make much money on it.


h/t