As a college freshman at the University of Illinois in 1977/78, some courses included a "lab" that required completion of your homework on a newfangled computer system called PLATO. You can read the wikipedia history of PLATO by clicking on this link.

If you ever worked on the PLATO system, you might be interested in a book on the history of PLATO called The Friendly ORANGE Glow authored by Brian Dear. The title is a reference to the amber screen on the proprietary PLATO terminal. These were flat plasma panels invented specifically for this application, and the precursor to the modern plasma display.

Two features of the PLATO system included "Talkomatic" which was a chat room feature, and "term-talk" which was an instant messaging feature. "Term-Talk" allowed any user to "page" another user and chat peer-to-peer just like modern instant messaging. "Talkomatic" was a simple chat room. The display showed you six channels (I think...) and the names of up to six users in each channel. You chose which channel you wanted to enter by touching the screen. Yes...these terminals had touch-screen technology. It was a primitive system of LED's laid out on a grid around the edge of the display and functioned like an 'electric eye'. Touch the screen at a particular point and you break the beam. That corresponded to a particular command on the screen and away you go.

Users came from the network of interconnected universities and a few non-university installations as well. I was an occasional Talkomatic user during that time. Keep in mind that this technology was developed and deployed in the 1970's, if not earlier, and it was 1977 when I had my "first experience."

You'd be surprised at how much the modern internet owes to the concepts that were part of the PLATO system.

It wasn't until the mid-90's, when the computer reseller that I worked for had dial-up, that I got on-line with the internet as we know it today.

I believe one of the first searches that I did on Alta-Vista was for porn...

tony b.