PLATO


PLATO was one of the first generalized Computer assisted instruction systems, originally built by the University of Illinois (U of I) and later taken over by Control Data Corporation (CDC), who provided the machines it ran on. PLATO ran for many years at the U of I, but CDC President William Norris' plans to make it a major force in the computing world and a keystone of corporate social responsibility failed. Although the project was economically a failure and supplanted by other technologies by the time the last production PLATO system was turned off in 2006, PLATO nevertheless pioneered key concepts such as online forums and message boards, online testing, email, chat rooms, picture languages, instant messaging, remote screen sharing, and multiplayer online games. The name PLATO was chosen for its connection to teaching and only later on did it become a backronym. It was said that PLATO stood for Programmed Logic for Automated Teaching Operations but this was later disavowed and PLATO, despite usually being spelled in all caps, officially stood for nothing.