Online Newspapers? Welcome to 1981

With all this talk about the “new media”, it is easy to forget about the technology innovations that paved the way for the coming revolution. I came across this video on youtube and I was pleasantly surprised by its contents.

It’s a news report from 1981 which talking about the crazy idea of reading your favourite newspaper on your PC screen. Perhaps it’s just me but the idea that almost 30 years ago people had the ability to this is both fantastic and depressing at the same time.

That there were media outlets willing to experiment with such infant technology, I think is testament to the adaptability of newspapers. Those involve with this experiment were pioneering something that even now most people consider “future” rather then the norm.

What upsets me about though is the sad fact that it has taken so long for such ideas to enter mainstream thinking. Had more newspapers experiment with this service, perhaps the print medium of today would be a stronger force. Who knows, perhaps if people had had more vision we would be awaiting the arrival of Web 4.0 rather then 2.0…

Still, at least this made me smile