Videotex

== == =What is it?=

Videiotex is regarded as precursor of today's online services. It defines as the delivery of textual information over wide telephone networks to the consumers. Televisions (video) were used to display the information that was limited to text (tex) and hence the name, videotex.

=How does it work?=

By connecting the user's dumb terminals to central mainframe computers that stored all the neccessary information through the use of telephone lines.

=Real Time Examples?=

The world's first videotex service was established in England in 1978 and was named Prestel

=The User Friendly Innovation?=

In 1982 Steve Case, the founder of America OnLine came up with the idea of transforming videotex into an easy-to-use product since it was complicated, and from his thinking online services became the big force it is today.

=Sources Used=

LaRose and Straubhaar (2004). //Media Now. Understanding Media, Culture and Technology.// Fourth Edition. Thomson Learning