Design Perspective 1984

I was also a member of the IP / SO (Information Provider / Service Operator) Committee of the Videotex Industry Association. We represented the "content implementation" roles.

Though the majority of the committee members represented large (huge) corporations with very specific market agendas, a subset of us represented the independent design-and-implementation boutiques.

Our perspective was more of a "worm's eye view", inasmuch as we serviced arange of the larger players. As a result, we had a unique understanding of the practical dynamics of the marketplace.

http://www.jcvtcs.com/-papers-tcs/design-perspective.html Note: Produced on a dot matrix printer. Classic.

Before We Called It the Web The early 80's saw the "first wave" of investment in consumer-oriented interactive online digital services, known at the time as "Videotex".

Videotex was Graphical, Consumer-oriented, and Easy-to-use.

Videotex was the Web It was still very early days: The PC had barely been invented, the mouse was non-existant, standards were haphazard, graphics were crude and communications bandwidth was laughable. Still, we got it to happen.

Ultimately though, Videotex was an idea whose time hadn't quite come just yet. But it was a visionary model of things to come.