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The closest present-day analog to Engelbart's collaborative editing demo (edit: I mean specifically the document-editing portion, not the video etc.) is not scr
by gruseom 13y ago
The closest present-day analog to Engelbart's collaborative editing demo (edit: I mean specifically the document-editing portion, not the video etc.) is not screen-sharing, but modern collaborative editors (Google Docs, Etherpad), which do provide multiple cursors. Thus the screen-sharing analogy is a straw man, and the author hasn't really made his case against "drawing correspondences to our present-day systems" from Engelbart's visionary work. He may still be right, but I'd like to know why.
- GuiA 13y agoIn Engelbart's original demo, the users can see each other, talk, collaboratively work on a document, and do together pretty much anything that the computer offers. The full OS, including the GUI, is intended to be multi-user. Google Docs et al. only offer one aspect of that; all they aspire to do is solve the problem of "collaborative editing of a document". But say we need to work on something that involves listening to audio together or watch a video or use a third party program, we're SOL with Google Docs. What Engelbart's vision aspired to do was to allow people to work together through computers, no matter what the work was. Document editing is a microscopic facet of that.
- gruseom 13y agoGoogle Docs et al. only offer one aspect of that; all they aspire to do is solve the problem of "collaborative editing of a document" Yes, but it's just the aspect the OP criticizes screen-sharing (as a proxy for present-day technology) for missing. I take your point that these things could be better integrated, though.