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Stubby, but a start

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'''PLATO''' was a very early, innovative computer-based learning system developed at the University of Illinois; it ran on [[mainframe]]s, driving large numbers of interactive [[terminal]]s. (In the late 1960s, custom plasma monochrome [[bit-mapped display‎‎]]s were produced for it, to allow [[graphics]] to be used.) It later became a product for [[Control Data Corporation]], the builders of the mainframes on which it ran (at one point, a [[CDC 6600]]).

PLATO also birthed very early examples of many things which later became key elements of online communities, including instant messaging, [[email]], message boards, chat rooms, and multi-player [[video game]]s. The exact import of these is unclear, since many other early system had similar features, e.g. [[Compatible Time-Sharing System|CTSS]] had email. While PLATO did not directly influence the early [[ARPANET]] community, very large numbers of users were exposed to PLATO, and so its ideas had a means to be adopted elsewhere.

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==Further reading==

* Brian Dear, "The Friendly Orange Glow: The Untold Story of the PLATO System and the Dawn of Cyberculture", Pantheon, New York, 2017 - A detailed, well-researched history; short of technical detail in some areas, though

[[Category: Software]]

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 ==Further reading==
-* Brian Dear, "The Friendly Orange Glow: The Untold Story of the PLATO System and the Dawn of Cyberculture", Pantheon, New York, 2017 - A detailed, well-researched history; short of technical detail in some areas, though
+* Brian Dear, ''The Friendly Orange Glow: The Untold Story of the PLATO System and the Dawn of Cyberculture'', Pantheon, New York, 2017 - A detailed, well-researched history; short of technical detail in some areas, though
 [[Category: Software]]

PLATO - Revision history

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Jnc: Stubby, but a start