[Air-l] The History of that "Other" Internet: PLATO

[Art McGee]

> Why did Plato die (or is it still alive?)...

PLATO "died", or rather, it didn't continue to grow, because
it's existence was too closely tied to the Control Data
Corporation and it's Cyber computers. As time went on, CDC
computers became much more of a tiny niche product, only
used for certain limited scientific and engineering apps.
Unlike UNIX, NOS and PLATO weren't about to get ported to
any new platforms. Even IBM eventually passed CDC in the
network front by providing much of the hardware and
software that the BITNET ran on.

Most important, PLATO "died" due to the rise of more
egalitarian computing. In addition to UNIX and it's
portability to so many different types of platforms
at different costs, the other nail in the coffin was the
emergence of the dialup Bulletin Board System, which put
the idea of PLATO in the hands of the average person, and
took it out of the hands of the elite in universities and
research environments. Of course, none of this was unique
to PLATO. All the old proprietary systems eventually
passed away as people moved on to systems where all
could participate.


Art McGee
Communications & Technology Consultant
amcgee at freeshell.org
(510) 967-9381