ON-Line System

The oN-Line System, also known as "NLS", was a multi-year project at the Stanford Research Intitute (now known as SRI International) to create to tools to "augment" human intelllectual capabilities. The project was managed by Douglas Engelbart, who was was inspired by the visionary article "As We May Think" from the July 1945 issue of The Atlantic Monthly.

Some of the major developments of the project included the mouse, hypertext, and the graphical user interface. During a Joint Computer Conference in December 1968, Engelbart demonstrated NLS in a presentation that came to be known as "The Mother of All Demos". This in turn inspired Alan Kay, who would join Xerox PARC as a research scientist.