Where Were You When PLATO Was Born?

PLATO, cradle of so many firsts, was born 50 years ago. Next week the Computer History Museum is hosting a two-day conference to celebrate the anniversary. Microsoft's Ray Ozzie, who worked on PLATO as an undergraduate, will be one of the keynote speakers. Co-producer Brian Dear has put together a list of today's technology notables and what they were doing in 1973, the year that social computing suddenly blossomed on PLATO.

Um...

[Codename Dutchess]

Where were you when PLATO _WAS BORN_?

Then I read that PLATO was born 50 years ago.

Then I read that someone put together a list of what people were doing in 1973.

So, I'm to understand that 2010 - 1973 = 50.

In an infinite void of nothingness....

[FunPika]

...because I wasn't born yet.

Re:So, What Is PLATO?

[flydpnkrtn]

Dude make friends with Wikipedia and Google... you guys should hang out

Re:So, What Is PLATO?

[WrongSizeGlass]

Dude make friends with Wikipedia and Google... you guys should hang out

I don't RTFA, so why on earth would I Wiki or Google it? Isn't that what the other slash-monkies are for? Eventually someone will post something informative or of value. ;-)

Re:So, What Is PLATO?

[vanyel]

While you can find out what it is without too much trouble, that doesn't detract from the fact that the summary would be vastly improved if it had included that information in the first place.

Re:So, What Is PLATO?

[dwarfsoft]

I love Wikipedia and Google, but it is a Platonic love...

Re:So, What Is PLATO?

[flydpnkrtn]

Cool posts and good stories like this are why I still read Slashot... thanks for the interesting writeup man

Re:So, What Is PLATO?

[Anonymous Coward]

I think you're being a tad harsh - /. is a site with a reasonably wide audience and not every technological field is of interest to every geek here (other than a general interest in all technologies), so it's not unreasonable to ask that a summary gives some indication of what the subject of it actually is. That way, if it's something our geek should know about, he can go read up on it, while if it's something of limited interest to our geek, he can decide whether it's worth his time and at the very least file that as useful information. You can't seriously expect everyone who arrives here to already know in advance about every single part of the entire history of the field they work in so they can make an instant judgement call on whether an article has value based on the inclusion of one acronym - surely if someone comes here and reads up on a bit of history they didn't already know about on the basis of a well-written summary that leads them into the article, then that's a good thing?