| Home > Of things Mac > Steve Jobs and Phill Schiller bring John Sculley's 1987 Knowledge Navigator to life! |
| Steve Jobs and Phill Schiller bring John Sculley's 1987 Knowledge Navigator to life! | | Date Created: 09 Aug, 2006, 02:41 AM |
 Last week I offered to the Law Institute of Victoria a half day seminar on Personal Knowledge Management for lawyers, something to help them earn professional development points.
It went down very well, from the feedback so far received.
It came after I offered the same Institute a free hour long seminar on the same subject last year, as a non-paying teaser, a way for me to test my theories on what I presumed would be a tough cynical audience (they were pussycats and lapped it up), as well as test out my Keynote presentation skills to an audience very used to seeing Powerpoint presented in the usual boring manner - all text and dull, logoed backgrounds.
I made sure I kept text to a minimum, and graphics and movies to maximum.
I started with a cynical, dystopian view of the impact of technology in the future - the opening credit sequence to the 1973 film, Soylent Green, a pre-Ken Burns effect masterpiece of editing. I use it often when presenting to groups about the social impact of technology. The film is set in 2022, 50 years from the time it was made, but only 16 years from now. Yikes! (Considering I saw it when first released in the cinema). |
Because I had a very short time to present some complex concepts in Knowledge Management, I also need a more positive image or movie that told of how technology might help us learn, share, collaborate, research, archive, and inform.
What better movie to use than the Apple-produced 1987 5 mins feature, the Knowledge Navigator.
This was an idea inspired by he does who does not get mentioned much around Apple websites, John Sculley.
But Sculley, who also gave us the Apple Newton Messagepad, was a thinker of some depth, and you can locate his writings about knowledge, hypertext and so on by Googling about the web. |
 Do you remember the Knowledge Navigator?
Set in 2010, it shows a Berkeley professor (same college that Steve Wozniak attended, by the way) coming home, and opening his diary on his desk (right).
But this is no ordinary diary. It's an Apple Navigator.
As he opens, it we hear the familiar Apple bong so beloved of Mac Plus owners. |
Soon enough an electronic "valet" speaks to him, reminding him of appointments and missed phone calls, which becomes a running joke.
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We learn that the good professor needs to give a lecture that afternoon to students on deforestation in South America, in particular Brazil, and so calls up some statistics.
But he's also reminded of a female colleague doing similar research in Africa on dwindling forests, and just like you might in iChat, is connected with her and a videoconference commences, with each comparing their own research findings. |
Let's come forward almost 20 years, to WWDC 2006.
Steve Jobs and Phil Schiller are fooling around with the new Photobooth features of iChat as they'll appear in Leopard.
Phil plays some practical jokes with Steve, just like Woz might have all those years ago.
But then things turn to more serious topics as Phil decides to display some of the new iChat's more knowledge sharing capabilities.
We see him share pictures from iPhoto, and movies too. But then he gets more serious and we see how he can use a Keynote presentation in all its glory, with transitions and builds.
And what serious matter is he demonstrating for his presentation?
Rainforest loss in South America! (see below). |
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If we just transposed Phil's picture from bottom left of frame to top left, he'd make a great electronic valet don't you think?
Here's another shot from WWDC, with Steve at the iMac on stage, and Phil on the big Moscone screen (below). |
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Now I ask you.
Coincidence or Steve and Phil having fun with the audience and showing how close iChat is getting to Sculley's dream of a Knowledge Navigator in 2010?
Four more years, Steve.
I can hardly wait. |
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