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# Moderating The Plato@50 Innovations In Hardware Session at Computer History Museum (CHM)
- URL: https://www.philmckinney.com/moderating-the-plato50-innovations-in-hardware/
- Published: 2010-06-24T21:57:10.000Z
- Updated: 2016-06-10T13:57:26.000Z
- Description: I was recently requested by the Computer History Museum to moderate a session on Plato Hardware that was part of a two day event celebrating the 50 year aniversary of Plato. If you asking “what is Plato?” then you are missing a key … Around 1959 Chalmers Sherwin, a physicist at the University of Il
- Author: Phil McKinney
- Tags: Blog, Speeches, CHM, computer history museum, plato, Technology, uiuc, #wp, #wp-post, #philmckinneycom, #Import 2023-05-01 05:17

I was recently requested by the [Computer History Museum](http://www.computerhistory.org/?ref=philmckinney.com) to moderate a session on Plato Hardware that was part of a two day event celebrating the 50 year aniversary of Plato. If you asking “what is Plato?” then you are missing a key …

>  
>  
> Around 1959 [Chalmers Sherwin](http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chalmers%5FSherwin&action=edit&redlink=1&ref=philmckinney.com), a physicist at the University of Illinois, suggested a computerised learning system to William Everett, the engineering college dean, who, in turn, recommended that Daniel Alpert, another physicist, convene a meeting about the matter with engineers, administrators, mathematicians, and psychologists. After weeks of meetings they were unable to suggest a single-design system, yet, before conceding failure, Alpert mentioned the matter to laboratory assistant [Donald Bitzer](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald%5FBitzer?ref=philmckinney.com), who had been thinking about the problem, suggesting he could build a demonstration system.

> Bitzer, regarded as the Father of PLATO, recognized that in order to provide quality computer-based education, good graphics were critical (this at a time when 10 character per second teletypes were the norm). In 1960, the first system, PLATO I, operated on the local [ILLIAC I](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ILLIAC%5FI?ref=philmckinney.com) computer. It included a television set for display and a special keyboard for navigating the system's function menus; in 1961, PLATO II, featured two users at once.Convinced of the value of the project, the PLATO system was re-designed, between 1963 and 1969; PLATO III allowed “anyone” to design new lesson modules using their [TUTOR programming language](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TUTOR%5F%28programming%5Flanguage%29?ref=philmckinney.com), conceived in 1967 by biology graduate student Paul Tenczar. Built on a [CDC 1604](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDC%5F1604?ref=philmckinney.com), given to them by [William Norris](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William%5FNorris?ref=philmckinney.com), PLATO III could simultaneously run up to 20 lessons, and was used by a local facilities in [Champaign-Urbana](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champaign-Urbana?ref=philmckinney.com) that could enter the system with their custom [terminals](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer%5Fterminal?ref=philmckinney.com).  
>  

Out of Plato, came technologies that we now take for granted such as:

- The [invention of plasma displays](http://www.plasmatvscience.org/plasmatv-history3.html?ref=philmckinney.com)
- Mutiplex modems
- [Lotus Notes](http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/lotus/library/ls-NDHistory/?ref=philmckinney.com) (invented by Ray Ozzie) is based on [Plato Notes](http://www.platohistory.org/blog/2010/03/the-significance-of-notes-coming-before-personal-notes.html?ref=philmckinney.com)
- Social networks/[Communities/Boards](http://www.platohistory.org/blog/2010/04/long-before-the-well-there-was-plato.html?ref=philmckinney.com)
- Email
- Instant Messaging/Chatting
- [First denial of service attack](http://www.platohistory.org/blog/2010/02/perhaps-the-first-denial-of-service-attack.html?ref=philmckinney.com)

… and keep in mind that this all came about in the late 1960's and early 1970's!

I myself was a user of Plato during my years at University of Illinois at Chicago. In my case, my original dream was to be Architecture (I wanted to be the next [Frank Lloyd Wright](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank%5FLloyd%5FWright?ref=philmckinney.com)). During my senior year in high school, I was selected to be part of an NSF program that would allow advanced high school students to also take college classes. It was during these class that I first saw a computer (IBM 360) and the first time I saw a Plato terminal. The impact – I changed my major from Architecture to Computer Science …

I think its worked out for me ….

Below is the “Innovations in Hardware” session that I facilitated on behalf of the [Computer History Museum](http://www.computerhistory.org/?ref=philmckinney.com).