Mountain View in Santa Clara County, California — The American West (Pacific Coastal)

Online Systems and Personal Computing

Public Demonstration, 1968

— IEEE Milestone in Electrical Engineering and Computing —

Online Systems and Personal Computing Marker image. Click for full size.

Photographed By Craig Baker, September 23, 2021

1. Online Systems and Personal Computing Marker

Inscription. Commonly termed the "Mother of All Demos,” Douglas Engelbart and his team demonstrated their oNLine System (NLS) at Brooks Hall in San Francisco on 9 December 1968. Connected via microwave link to the host computer and other remote users at SRI in Menlo Park, the demonstration showcased many fundamental technologies that would become ubiquitous, including collaborative online editing, hypertext, video conferencing, word processing, spell checking, revision control, and the mouse.

Erected 2017 by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

Topics and series. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Communications • Industry & Commerce • Science & Medicine. In addition, it is included in the IEEE Milestones in Electrical Engineering and Computing series list. A significant historical date for this entry is December 9, 1968.

Location. 37° 24.886′ N, 122° 4.66′ W. Marker is in Mountain View, California, in Santa Clara County. Marker can be reached from Shoreline Boulevard just north of U.S. 101, on the right when traveling north. Located at the Computer History Museum. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 1401 N Shoreline Blvd, Mountain View CA 94043, United States of America. Touch for directions.

Other nearby markers. At least 9 other markers are within walking distance of this marker. First RISC Microprocessor (here, next to this marker); SPICE

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(here, next to this marker); Birthplace of Silicon Valley (here, next to this marker); SPARC RISC Architecture (here, next to this marker); DIALOG Online Search System (here, next to this marker); Shakey: The World's First Mobile Intelligent Robot (here, next to this marker); Moore’s Law (here, next to this marker); The Floating Gate EEPROM (here, next to this marker); Computer History Museum (here, next to this marker). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Mountain View.

More about this marker. The Brooks Hall mentioned on the inscription is an underground convention facility, currently disused, under the San Francisco Civic Center Plaza.

Also see . . .
1. Doug Englebart Institute - Doug's Great Demo: 1968. Videos of the “Mother of all Demos” are on this page.

On December 9th, 1968 Doug Engelbart appeared on stage at the Fall Joint Computer Conference in San Francisco's Civic Auditorium to give his slated presentation, titled "A Research Center for Augmenting Human Intellect."
Photographed By Craig Baker, September 23, 2021

2. Online Systems and Personal Computing Marker
Ten IEEE markers at this location.
He and his team spent the next 90 minutes not only telling about their work, but demonstrating it live to a spellbound audience that filled the hall.

Instead of standing at a podium, Doug was seated at a custom designed console, where he drove the presentation through their NLS computer residing 30 miles away in his research lab at Stanford Research Institute (SRI), onto a large projection screen overhead, flipping seamlessly between his presentation outline and live demo of features, while members of his research lab video teleconferenced in from SRI in shared screen mode to demonstrate more of the system. Masterminding the whole production was lead engineer Bill English. As the session came to a close, the audience erupted into a standing ovation.

(Submitted on December 4, 2021.)

2. 6 min trailer for “The Mother of all Demos”. (Submitted on December 4, 2021.)

Computer History Museum image. Click for full size.

Photographed By Craig Baker, September 20, 2021

3. Computer History Museum

Credits. This page was last revised on December 4, 2021. It was originally submitted on September 27, 2021, by Craig Baker of Sylmar, California. This page has been viewed 316 times since then and 25 times this year. It was the Marker of the Week December 5, 2021. Photos: 1, 2, 3. submitted on September 27, 2021, by Craig Baker of Sylmar, California.