1981 video about online newspapers

Here's a report from KRON in San Francisco about The San Francisco Examiner and Chronicle's forays into online news in 1981. (Thanks, Mark!)

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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Anonymous

“This guy isn’t worried about losing his job…” Hah!
franka_645

I still don’t think the internet is as spiffy-looking as maybe it should be.
mskogly

Hehe, that is so cute! I miss BBS.
InsertFingerHere

Probably the person who edited this video had no clue that someday he too would be at a keyboard.

With faster broadband, I see the end of TV stations and print.. everything will be some Internet site or VOD … it’s a grim future.
AdamGordon

My enduring interest is how well or badly we think about the future, and why. I’ve written a book on this. Anyway, this video is a great example of one of the known issues in how we subtly mis-view the future: we overestimate the length of time to fundamental change, and underestimate how totally all-permeating the change will be when it does come. This was true of forward views of the automobile, in 1900 etc., etc. We’re making the same mistake in Feb 2009, of course. – Adam Gordon, Author: “Future Savvy,” (American Management Association Press, NY, 2009)
AdamGordon

My enduring interest is how well or badly we think about the future, and why. I’ve written a book on this. Anyway, this video is a great example of one of the known issues in how we subtly mis-view the future: we overestimate the length of time to fundamental change, and underestimate how totally all-permeating the change will be when it does come. This was true of forward views of the automobile, in 1900 etc., etc. We’re making the same mistake in Feb 2009, of course. – Adam Gordon, Author: “Future Savvy,” (American Management Association Press, NY, 2009) http://www.futuresavvy.net
mhuntsbe

I teach mass media at a university, and this really turns my head. Did they have any idea where these experiments would lead for the newspaper industry? Gotta love that cradle modem!
infikitsune

“Estimated two to three thousand computer owners in the bay area”
nicol

Mint.

Anyone got a higher-res download link?
jahknow

/pwns home computer
Takashi Omoto

“Richard Halloran – Owns Home Computer” is now my favorite 80′s action movie that never existed.
Anonymous

Richard Halloran
“Owns Home Computer”

love it
paboo

Rotary dial and looks like 300 baud speed! w00t!
Anonymous

Your periodical has died of dysentery.
thebassguy

I recall the hoopla about “Videotext” and did a paper about it in college. Imagine information on-demand! Most thought it was pretty far-fetched, but a the univ of florida j-school, we were pretty excited about it. Little did we know…
annoyingmouse

If I’m ever interviewed on television “Owns Home Computer” is exactly what I want put under my name. Actually, now that I think about it, “Owned Home Computer” below my name is what I want put on my headstone when I die.
dross1260

What a jewel.

“exceptions are pictures, ads and comic.”
Yet poster “ad” shows “pictures” on screen.

TWO HOURS! I sense throttling.

Damn you Herb Caen…
Xenu

Sometimes I forget that the SF Examiner used to be a real newspaper. (These days it’s like the NY Post, only with less credibility.)
JPW

â€œWeâ€™re not in it to make money.â€

How prophetic is that?!
Dan

The twenty-cent street edition?!?

I… feel… old.

I just bopped over to the Chronicle site, and it’s nice to see they have made a few improvements in speed since 1981 (I think I owe them five bucks though).
Anonymous

This technology they speak of – how can I get it?
Suburbancowboy

The Sun’s version of the “tele-paper” featured an ASCII page 6 girl.
infinity

oooh! look at all those cool old computers! i remember being the only kid on the street and certainly the only girl i knew who “owns a home computer.” mmm… g33ky fun! thx for posting this! I’m now gonna go bring up my TI-99/4A emulator on my Mac and try to remember how to program in extended basic.
Anonymous

Such simpler times.
el_rey_misterioso

What’s really jarring is that television news segments have not changed at all in 28 years.
robstercraw

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