In 1968, who gave a presentation about e-mail, hypertext, word processing, video conferencing, and the mouse?

• A. Steven Jobs
• B. Bill Gates
• C. Douglas Englebart
• D. Stephen Wozniak

Answer: (C)

This question tests knowing who gave the 1968 demonstration that showcased email, hypertext, word processing, video conferencing, and the mouse. The presenter was Douglas Engelbart, leading the Augment team at Stanford Research Institute, who delivered the famous Mother of All Demos at the Fall Joint Computer Conference in San Francisco. In that live demo, he demonstrated the NLS (on-Line System), a networked interactive computer system that integrated electronic mail, word processing, hypertext-like linking, collaborative editing, video conferencing, and the computer mouse. The combination of these capabilities in one cohesive demonstration helped shape how we think about human–computer interaction and the evolution toward personal computing and the internet. The other figures—Steven Jobs and Stephen Wozniak—became prominent later with Apple, presenting consumer-oriented computers in the 1970s, while Bill Gates rose to prominence in software development afterward; they were not responsible for this 1968 demonstration.