NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Video: "Challenge of Change" (1961)
Video: "Challenge of Change" (1961) To understand where you're going, it's important to know where you've been. Demonstrating that point is another in the occasional viewing recommendations I've been making from the (really quite stellar) AT&T Archives, this one a 1961 16-minute short. "Challenge of Change" looks at the then current business telecom landscape, and attempts to postulate the future. http://j.mp/KFXyHj (YouTube) A few notes on this gem. First, while I never actually saw a punch card reading telephone, I most definitely did know a firm here in L.A. that gathered payroll data via a room full of old keypunch machines that had been modified to accept calls and punch cards via touch tone phones. This was back probably in the 80s (they also had a modern minicomputer, which was much less used!) OK, let's face it, rocket-based package delivery didn't pan out. But before you smile too knowingly at the misses, remember that some of the best technologists and futurists of their time worked on this film, and we might do well to even get as close as they did when postulating the technological world of a half century from now. One last thing. Those card dialers were really neat. They *are* really neat. I have one. Spare cards, too. But they do *not* dial as fast as suggested in that film. Believe me. Enjoy "Challenge of Change" ... --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org Founder: - Data Wisdom Explorers League: http://www.dwel.org - Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org - Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org - PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com Google+: http://vortex.com/g+lauren / Twitter: http://vortex.com/t-lauren Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com _______________________________________________ nnsquad mailing list http://lists.nnsquad.org/mailman/listinfo/nnsquad