The oNLine System, or NLS, was created by Douglas Englebart and the Augmentation Research Center team at Stanford Research Institute. The computer system was years ahead of it’s time, designed as a collaboration system, it employed the use of hypertext, the mouse, video monitors, and many other aspects of today’s modern computers.
Funding came from U.S. agencies ARPA and NASA as well as the U.S. Air Force. It was designed around an SDS 940 time sharing computer. With a 96MB storage disk, it could support up to 16 workstations equipped with a mouse, monitor and what was known as a chord keyset. Devlopment was done in 1968 and it was demonstrated publicly in San Francisco December 8th, 1968. Eventually the system would be outdated by a steep learning curve and the emergence of the distrubuted computing model.
