AT&T Archives: Electronic Information Systems (1979)

New AT&T Archive videos every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at techchannel.att.com
The Electronic Information Service (also called videotex) was the Bell System's bid in 1979 at creating, basically, the internet, though outside of the actual internet (which, at this time, existed in academic circles, and USENET had also just been created).
Bell had been in the business of data communications from the start - going back to the 1930s. But the company framed their computerized EIS not as much as a communications tool as an information feed, primarily for distributing the phone book and some headlines/sports scores over phone lines to a terminal. This system was rolled out in a few select markets as a test. It would later be refined, and somewhat improved, into a different system called Viewtron.
The system launched the same year as Compu-Serve, and it was one of several nascent services to attempt to bring data communications to the consumers, rather than just businesses or academia. And navigating this industry was a tricky proposition; this kind of service was vehemently opposed by newspapers in many areas, who thought it might supplant their business - and their advertiser dollars. Which is a debate that's still current, more than 30 years later.
Footage courtesy of AT&T Archives and History Center, Warren, NJ

[@zachswy]

1979: “we don’t have the internet, but we do have gigantic, expensive, power hungry terminals that can access a phone book.” 2021: *sitting on the toilet watching old films about 1979’s most advanced consumer computer networks on a pocket sized supercomputer that my mom gave me for free when she got a newer supercomputer for her pocket.*

[@nintendo9231889]

Lol me too 😆 💩

[@peterssynthetics-independe6786]

bahahahahahahah

[@RBLevin]

That require a terminal hermetically mounted on a desk with an integrated power supply. Google circa 1979.

[@Madness832]

"Sit at home, press a few buttons & have the information come to me?!!" Now you're really pulling my leg!

[@richard200923322]

I don’t see how this could ever take off.

[@nathanventura548]

70s design is so cozy and inviting.

[@JrGoonior]

I was born in 1970, the late 70's, early 80's design was warm and relaxing a lot of browns and earth tones. I kind of miss it.

[@steve1978ger]

I like the subdued color schemes, however, the actual design of things often was rather appalling. Heaps and mounds of plastic that looked nice in a picture, but weren't really made with actual living humans in mind.

[@dylanhinkel3548]

If you look at 70's furniture and styling in an actual building you'll realize why it went away. Disgusting green tweed chairs and brass everywhere on top of very dark brown.

[@JohnEdwardBerry]

We owe these pioneers a lot.

[@cmburke7]

Indeed, we found you still have unpaid charges for directory assistance from 1979.

[@Cruisey]

If there's any way to streamline the process of speaking to you about your extended warranty, you can be sure they will take full advantage of it.

[@robertlock5501]

indeed!

[@tma2001]

1979: "we're almost inundated with the amount of information that's available to us - information explosion - one of the worlds newest and most respectable cliches." 2019: you have no idea!

[@ursmeyer2147]

2021: You have no idea!

[@nintendo9231889]

@@ursmeyer2147 2022: I'm tired of the information glut

[@wakkowarner4288]

2022: TMI... make it go away..

[@Cruisey]

Now it's MISinformation that we're inundated with. If only those pioneers back then really knew what they were getting us all into... 😂

[@coreybabcock2023]

2022

[@tonioteach84]

1:17 "Hello, I'm Floyd Calber. And that's not bad when you think about it." Good on you, Floyd.

[@davesaunders3334]

Glad somebody else noticed that.

[@luisreyes1963]

Floyd Kalber was a Chicago TV news anchor back then.

[@makeadifference4all]

AT&T's next trial will have "a smaller and more attractive terminal, additional services and system enhancements such as color, graphics, animation, textual advertising information about products, prices, and specials, and other features now under development" (17:57). That list would become Apple and Google's business plans 20 years later.

[@alexkuhn5078]

reminds me of the old card-catalog computer terminals we had to use in libraries back in the 90s, that bare-bones text interface

[@spensert4933]

iii green screen ipac

[@Progrocker70]

One thing I liked about those is that navigating was fast. Click and next screen instantly came up! No glitches, lagging or waiting.

[@wrightmf]

Growing up I remember those Model 33 Teletypes as used by news agencies and I thought it would be so cool to have one myself. Then in early 1980s getting involved with computers, I finally got my own Model 33 for only $100 (my childhood dream come true!). But I didn't have time to figure out interfacing RS232 to it (does it have this, machine I had didn't), eventually I found someone to take it away. But I was thinking maybe get one, make an interface to my PC and demo it for nostagic thrills. After all it is big, noisy, and scary. Yep, I'm old enough to have had a Compuserve account in 1983. To make use of my Electronic Mail, I had a S100 Bus computer (and it was a hot setup with two 8" drives). My modem was an acoustic type where you plop the handset of a Bell System Model 500 telephone into the cradle. I got this modem at a kludge sale, it was labeled "$15 not working" but I took my chances and it worked fine. I used 300 baud because I was too poor to afford the high speed 1200 baud that rich people used.

[@wrightmf]

continuing on about Compuserve and usenet, I found the space forum which regularly I dialup, connect (300 baud), and print news summaries someone reposts from UPI feeds. It was convenient to keep up on Shuttle news, in 1984 there was no internet like we know now (i.e. NASA gossip via NASAwatch). But shortly after this person got dinged for reposting UPI news feeds without permission and it was gone. Arrg, I had to wait for either CNN bulletins or the monthly NSS newsletter.

[@ExpressoMechanicTV]

Ah, those were the days...

[@stephk42]

was that an IMSAI system?

[@Nash1a]

By the late 80 and well into the 90, my dad had several teletypes, a model 15, 2 model 33s, and even a model 43. These were all used at various times in his ham radio hobby as terminals. Radio Teletype was also used heavily by MARS (military affiliate radio service) which he was also heavily involved with but has since become obsolete.

[@mesofius]

@@wrightmf I think we were frequenting the same forums back in the 80s

[@apl175]

13:14 - that's still the correct phone number for Nemith Motors but of course it's Nemith Nissan now.

[@richardshansky3040]

I think I remember The Source in late 80’s. Accessed it by dial-up modem.

[@kalaskrille]

This video blew my mind. It's simply amazing.

[@marcfield1234]

Oh look. The internet before the internet. Awesome.

[@scratchdog2216]

I seem to have misplaced 40 years. Damn that was fast!

[@DanaTheInsane]

Funny how that happens, isn't it?

[@DanaTheInsane]

I can still remember being hunched over a dumb terminal in the public library back in 1979.

[@JohnMichaelson]

I remember using those microfilm reel machines that stored years worth of a newspaper or magazine and had a motor to spin through the pages. That was high tech when I was a kid.

[@MattSiegel]

We Don't Know Yet, But We're Working On It

[@CharlesEBright]

For 1979 this was pretty good. Nothing has changed that much. Speed and graphic interfaces made things easier and more appealing to use.

[@melissaadami3144]

Nothing has changed that much? You gotta be kidding!

[@CharlesEBright]

That's right it hasn't changed much. Watch the video again and sit and compare today's tech to 70's and you'll see the concepts are the same. The only thing different is the method of delivery.

[@Cruisey]

@@melissaadami3144 Having the depository of all human knowledge at your disposal and then using terminal to look up opening times. 😂 Friend, nothing has changed. 🤣

[@YourMajestyTheKing]

Wonder if they ever imagined a Future Job that has people checking if there are any beheading video uploads to this EIS.

[@jaworskij]

4:05 looking further out? Yes DBS existed since the mid-1980s, however most of the programs that were good in the 80s, after that programming on television went way downhill by the 90s and the by the 2000s people were more on the Internet. DBS had it today. It was in the mid 80s to the late 80s very short time.

[@brucel.6078]

What a time to be alive!

[@c0smoKram3r]

It's crazy how many of these Bell videos are just phone evolution not revolution

[@RADIUMGLASS]

in 1999 this seemed 40 years old.

[@ExpressoMechanicTV]

This so perfectly illustrates that there is no such thing as 'state of the art'. No sooner does it come to pass, something better is developed almost immediately. Brilliant, at the time, though.

[@Nash1a]

I don't think that is true. Certainly there is such a thing as state-of-the-art. You simply have to accept that its a moving target. And that anything that is state of the art now wont be for very long.

[@nintendo9231889]

@@Nash1a military tech is state of the art, usually ahead of anyone else.

[@Nash1a]

@@nintendo9231889 I'm not disagreeing that the military is usually the most advanced. But they are OFTEN not on the current versions of operating systems. When it comes to security I think they take the approach its safer just to keep everyone out rather than to install the latest OS which may have new and unknown vulnerabilities. I think maybe its the nomenclature "State of the art" that bothers me. Its NOT a static state. Its a condition of continual flux.

[@Kitsaper]

PS Caller ID is still the best invention yet, in my opinion. 90% of people who called me (like my sister) can send me a letter instead!

[@user2C47]

They could have had a similar - and unfoolable - in the 70s with some extra CO equipment and a "smart" phone that can accept and display dial pulses. This would be the same system used for billing, and only available to some customers.

[@DelilahThePig]

An entire appliance on its own table which functions essentially as a phone book? The developers of these technologies never quite got it that with an input and a display, the possibilities are endless. Even in 2018, assuming I forgot my smart phone, I would rather just use a phone book.

[@mharris5047]

I use my computer now but years ago I had 10-12 phone books sitting in my office for the different areas I needed to call. I think the last phone book I received from the phone company was sent over a year ago, I haven't use a phone book in several years as it is easier to go to Google, type in the listing I need and get it that way. 411 service via cell phone is available if I am not home (411 exists for landlines as well but cellular 411 is cheaper to use). I suppose I could use Google on my smartphone as well but it is difficult for me to type accurately using the on screen keyboard -- it is simply too small for accurate typing for long periods of time (I miss my Blackberries with a physical keyboard, it was small but the way they designed the keys I could actually use it accurately). A terminal system like this one would have been useful to me in 1979, I would like to have had one in my home office and in my office at work (I was a university professor). I finally connected my home to the internet in 2005, after I retired. I started using the internet at work in the early 1990's.

[@riceboy1701e]

Two people are still using dial-up modems and COBOL.

[@jamesslick4790]

I hate to break this to you, but even now (2017). Millions of lines of COBOL code are still running daily,

[@mspysu79]

@@jamesslick4790 Billions, according to estimates by the SHARE organization and IBM 45 billion, and 1 billion added each year.

[@jamesslick4790]

@@mspysu79 Probably true with Fortran as well!

[@mspysu79]

​@@jamesslick4790 There is still Fortran being developed or used and the language is still being updated as is COBOL, but the main language for scientific and mathematical programming is now C or it's variants. The use of C started in the 70's and 80's when UNIX started to proliferate universities.

[@jamesslick4790]

@@mspysu79 No argument

[@gooddayhuman]

Log on, enter terminal number, pull up autodial numbers, find number for police - this is all so much more efficient than calling 911 like those regular folk have to do.

[@davidmeland5440]

I lived 2 miles from Microsoft and we didn't get 911 until 1987,. The year after Microsoft went public. The number to Call the police was 885-3131. Less than 10% of the US had anything like 911 in 1979.

[@gooddayhuman]

@@davidmeland5440 We had a sticker on the phone with police, fire, doctor, etc. But as kids we were terrorized into memorizing them!!

[@KevinInPhoenix]

In those days you could dial 0 for operator and speak to a person. That's how you contacted emergency services.

[@williamschultz8470]

AT&t and AT&t learning Network rocks

[@youtubeaddict-1868]

What?! I haven't used a phone book in like probably 7-10 plus years. Last time I called an operator 20 years. Google in its infancy right here.

[@Kitsaper]

Ever since they introduced the Poloroid camera, they suddenly think we can see each other on screens across the world from our kitchen. I don't want the grocer or the children's school calling and seeing me in my curlers anyway. Can we just get the mail to run right? 15 cents a letter is robbery for the service my mailman gives. Next they'll be saying we can call people from the car. Bless their hearts.

[@ataricom]

Who was this video made for? It's oddly specific and seems more like a sales pitch than a lot of their more educational videos.

[@nandanm3826]

Good to know, thank you for sharing.

[@BigEightiesNewWave]

Pam I forgot how to operate it can you come over tonight and show me how😂

[@SouthernRailfan]

Neat. Was there a Receiver Off hook tone that was not the rapid beeping noise for this switch type: ATT/Philps Tel 5ESS-PBX Host?

[@robertlock5501]

There's something quite neat about sitting at my Linux box watching a video on Bell Labs precursors to the internet

[@rooneye]

10:52 that computer is so fucking cool!

[@stargazer7644]

It'll never catch on...

[@Perktube1]

8:17 - I like those curtains.

[@davidmeland5440]

Am I the only one who's first modem was a 50 Baud to access the local BBS (Bulletin Board Services) ? I bought it from a Senior in High School when I was a Freshman, with my Paper Route money. I used it with my Commodore 64

[@brettburgeson3836]

I started out with a 1200 baud modem. You got me beat.

[@davidmeland5440]

@@brettburgeson3836 I hope I can find it some day. Old tech is really becoming popular and it's probably more rare than I realize.

[@KevinInPhoenix]

The first modem I bought was an acoustic coupler modem that was 110/300 Baud. That was in 1980.

[@KevinInPhoenix]

@@brettburgeson3836 1200 baud modems were the worst. They had no error correction so any noise on the line would show up as garbage on the screen. The 2400 baud modems and faster had error correction.

[@chazlyons273]

So, let me see if I got this right. I can make a phone call with my computer! Geeet ouuta heeere.

[@riceboy1701e]

Yes! Even better...soon you will be able to shop for stuff using a computer too! OOH! AAHHH! And talk to people. And I've heard great things about the thing called "internet" and electronic mail! Sounds like a lot of fun!

[@AleksandarGrozdanoski]

What will they think of next - pagers? :-p

[@Mathin3D]

Researching the Cadillac CT6 while watching this video...

[@l27tester]

THAT Internet thing will never take off :)

[@jamesb8305]

imagine porn on this thing.

[@AnthonyGoodley]

I hope you love ASCII artwork. That would be about as good as it would get.

[@cdoublejj]

8008

[@StereoMike06]

Can't wait to show the idiot IT folks at my office who said they can't install a click to dial function for our Avaya Phones for any on screen numbers. They did it back in 1979!!

[@user2C47]

Are your computers connected to the phone like this one is?

[@kevincaldwell4707]

I miss when IT was this simple.

[@tombrunila2695]

It still is! Today IT-professionals just make everything sound difficult.

[@BigEightiesNewWave]

Yep 70s. We only had coppertone and avocado 😁

[@777jones]

1979 was a hell of a drug!

[@johnrauner2515]

Not knocking. But it is hilarious that they had to mail in their list of personal numbers they wanted on this computer information system.

[@spensert4933]

Why not just dial the ffing phone #?

[@gooddayhuman]

5:40 Scooby-Doo style animation

[@BigEightiesNewWave]

The internet is only Joyce Brothers weather or horoscope😂

[@DarthChrisB]

Where can I buy it?

[@Jimmyzb36]

You Gotta start somewhere!

[@joeybrooks]

45 years later and the Internet is still 25% Joyce Brothers

[@desmisc9911]

CTRL-ALT-DEL

[@DanielPierce]

This is really the early early internet

[@acoustic61]

I'm getting rid of my iphone to get one of these!

[@mutestingray]

Was it me or was auto dial very slow? Was it replicating the rotary pulses?

[@KevinInPhoenix]

It wasn't the dialing speed that was slow. Telephone company switching offices used mechanical switches to route the calls. Long distance calls in that time took 15-20 seconds before the call would start ringing.

[@sdhproductions8877]

I think I used Oracle (or something similar) in college in the 90s.

[@Perktube1]

13:04 - just type in Datsun...

[@spensert4933]

You can now brag on who is on your speed dial!

[@ajc5869]

ugh, this will never ever take off.

[@papadop]

I wonder what Pam is doing today.

[@janruudschutrups9382]

10:42 "That's right, hit that D."

[@mel816]

It looks like this was pretty much the US version of France's Minitel service (but this one never caught on)

[@The_Boctor]

"Information is like potato chips." Yeah, makes you wonder why most websites did away with page numbers and went for infinite scrolling. Oh, wait.

[@jr2904]

I remember having GTE in southern California as a kid, then it turned into Verizon

[@arthurweems2839]

wow we use Oracle now

[@toymachine4253]

Arthur Weems That's the name of our inventory system.

[@KevinInPhoenix]

The modern Oracle is a database. Back in the day it was an EIS.

[@rach1530]

Technology has advanced exponentially in the last hundred years, cray. I wonder if the trend will continue or if we’ll slow down….maybe we have slowed down. Is Moore’s law still a thing?

[@richardfeynman5560]

1979 and they had a Return key. Now in 2021 I can't find it. No key that says "Return" on it. Just like the "Any" key I'm searching for years now... And the Dial key...? And Joyce Brothers? The past was so advanced!

[@KevinInPhoenix]

Before the PC the keyboards had a Return key instead of an Enter key. The original IBM PC keyboard had an Enter key labeled with a down-back arrow.

[@pinga858]

gotta look up where the nearest nukacola store is

[@k.zukarov6777]

Yea I could use one of those new quantums

[@QuaaludeCharlie]

Would like some of the equipment for my collection and to do Hobby Hacks :) QC

[@TheMichealC]

That beard is awesome! (7:40)

[@am74343]

HAHAH!! Nemith Nissan Lincoln Mercury is still there in Latham, NY, right in the same location, except now it's Fuccillo! LMAO!!!

[@GlobalTV123]

Before the Internet and the mouse. They thought people would pay for a information service that supplies general information.

[@toymachine4253]

J C People do pay for it... those who work in marketing departments, whether placing ads or getting info to target ads.

[@FesterPussbucket]

Back then people did pay for Information. That's why it wasn't so available as it is today. Anyone under 40 cannot remember what it was like to live in a world without Internet. You don't understand how it was to live without the world's information at your fingertips.

[@jeffkardosjr.3825]

When are you returning Tarkin's data tapes that you stole?

[@mesofius]

Never

[@wakkowarner4288]

My astromech ate them.

[@dan2124]

"England" ...shows Union Jack... *Facedesk*

[@Djmaxofficial]

15:49 This screen look creepy 😂

[@acoustic61]

Better wear a seat belt! That thang's a rocket ship!

[@vinnieravioli4653]

dosent oracle still exist????

[@iloveyouyoulovemeify]

he had no idea

[@vladimirrodionov5391]

I don't think the terminal is too large.

[@KevinInPhoenix]

What you see is the terminal and the phone. The modem is hidden in the desk that everything is sitting on.

[@bobmister250]

If you're buying a car, that's 6, 8, $10,000 you're spending! (Please direct me to that car!)

[@davedeville3902]

I would love to pay $10K for a NEW car today!

[@Nash1a]

I wonder how much this state-of-the-art technology cost? Probably $10,000 as well.

[@Qboro66]

You certainly can... That's just the down payment and we'll figure out the terms for the rest.

[@DanaTheInsane]

You can. With Inflation its $40,000

[@KevinInPhoenix]

A $10,000 car in 1979 would cost $42,026 today.

[@BigEightiesNewWave]

Pam.. please train me !

[@SimirJohnson]

Obviously witchcraft

[@coreybabcock2023]

40 years later information overload like facsist book

[@apolloxbacalaycapili2516]

Why does Dr. Joyce have her own category

[@davidmeland5440]

Imagine how much she paid to be the 1st ever Adsense Internet advertisement before Google? I guess Google didn't invent the concept.... they stole the idea from Bell Labs. More proof that Bell Labs invented everything!

[@Clay3613]

QUBE SHOUTOUT!

[@float_sam]

hey now.. it let us extract the resources faster then ever! now the capability for the planet to host a complex society is going to end before this video is 100 years old... pretty fun right?

[@neilmansfield8329]

The early internet

[@midnightrocker7]

but can these computers play Pacman, Donkey Kong and Mario Bros.? , that's the question

[@toymachine4253]

Midnight Rocker39 but can it play "Crysis"?

[@RinksRides]

NO bi-color asteroids only, and you have to wire your own ferromagnetic memory module.

[@rmacbobco]

It could play Hunt the Wumpus

[@rugcutter284]

3:04 did they digitally edit a cigarette out of his hand

[@stevestelly3063]

Yes then they had to get rid of his joint 16:50

[@jamesbriskin1299]

rugcutter284 no they did not. Floyd kalber was our top news man at the NBC affiliate in Chicago. Kalber had a habit of holding his hand that way.

[@777jones]

James Briskin he had a plains accent, which seems like western Minnesota to me

[@oliverharris7366]

Add 41 years onto that ladies age and she is probably no longer around.

[@lionnotube]

Robert De Niro at 2.09' ????? ;-)

[@lunarmodule6419]

LOL

[@oliverharris7366]

Am I the only one who has to post two or three times before my comments will stay.??

[@JimGardner]

CEEFAX was so much easier to use than this.

[@elijahvincent985]

The Intro music if it had an announcement voice: "This is Daily Nightly News at 8. The finest source of Important Information regarding Politics, Weather, Traffic, and More. Here's your Host for the evening: Kenan Ansux." (CNN Sucks!)

[@Jakek200]

"If you're buying a car that's 6, 8, 10,000$ you're spending"... if only that was still true today. I know, I know inflation and whatnot.