The Mother of All Demos

A name retroactively applied to a landmark computer demonstration, presented by Douglas Engelbart on December 9, 1968. The 90-minute presentation essentially demonstrated almost all the fundamental elements of modern personal computing:

  • windows,
  • hypertext,
  • graphics,
  • efficient navigation and command input,
  • video conferencing,
  • the computer mouse,
  • word processing,
  • dynamic file linking,
  • revision control,
  • and a collaborative real-time editor
  1. ​Menus, Metaphors and Materials: Milestones of User Interface Design​