About a year before they came up with the internet, two guys from ARPA got together and started writing about computers as communications and social networking tools.
It's kinda neat to read that 40 years ago, people were already writing bits like:
A communication system should make a positive contribution to the discovery and arousal of interests."
"What will on-line interactive communities be like? In most fields they will consist of geographically separated members, sometimes grouped in small clusters and sometimes working individually. They will be communities not of common location, but of common interest."
"At a project meeting held through a computer, you can thumb through the speaker’s primary data without interrupting him to substantiate or explain."
"To appreciate the importance [sic] the new computer-aided communication can have, one must consider the dynamics of 'critical mass,' as it applies to cooperation in creative endeavor."
It's also funny because throughout, there are cartoons and "technical terms" such as "mice" are in quotes.
David Freedman
Strategists & Planners