NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] 1980 Video: "Telefuture" - Everything Old is New Again!
1980 Video: "Telefuture" - Everything Old is New Again!
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000773.html
Greetings. The next historical artifact from my archival video
extraction project ( http://bit.ly/bnARSi [Lauren's Blog] ) is a
particularly fascinating short news report called "Telefuture" -- I'm
dating it to the late 1979 to 1980 time period. I've also bracketed
the beginning and end of this report with a couple of other hopefully
interesting/amusing clips that I've recovered from the archive.
This video segment looks forward to the predicted world of
television-based information services, and in so doing demonstrates
the fascinating "arc of technology" that so often is visible with the
benefit of 20/20 hindsight ( http://bit.ly/eong3 [YouTube] ).
As you'll see, the report concentrates on Teletext -- and Viewdata
(aka "Videotex") services -- the former delivered as vertical blanking
interval data on broadcast signals, the latter over telephone modems.
While Teletext systems (e.g. the BBC's "Ceefax") remained popular
in Europe (the BBC system is reportedly still operational, scheduled
to end with the termination of analogue TV broadcasting in 2012),
Teletext never really got beyond the experimental stage in the U.S.
(I do still have a working Teletext box from my work with the
system -- but of course there's nothing for it to display!) Meanwhile,
Viewdata was largely supplanted by PC-based dial-up services and the
like.
Various hybrids were also proposed, including the use of touch-tone
telephones to request Teletext pages, which would then be delivered to
the particular subscriber via the broadcast data stream. My own
"Stargate" system, that I installed at the "Superstation WTBS"
uplink to experimentally transmit Usenet netnews data many years ago,
was actually a Teletext technology system, though in my case decoders
fed received data to PCs, rather than using television displays.
That "arc of technology" I mentioned is especially noteworthy today,
as we watch efforts to "converge" Internet applications back to home
televisions, via devices such as TiVo, Google TV, Apple TV, and
various others. Viewed in this light, those predictions from three
decades ago don't look silly at all.
Finally, you'll note from the report that even back then, concerns
were already being expressed that these new technologies could
threaten traditional newspapers and other related media outlets.
Indeed, everything old is new again.
1980 Video: "Telefuture": http://bit.ly/eong3
[YouTube] (~5 minutes)
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com)
http://www.vortex.com/lauren
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
Co-Founder, PFIR (People For Internet Responsibility): http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, NNSquad (Network Neutrality Squad): http://www.nnsquad.org
Founder, GCTIP (Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance):
http://www.gctip.org
Founder, PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein
Google Buzz: http://bit.ly/lauren-buzz