How Did it Happen?

When development of CU-SeeMe began in July 1992, the only real-time videoconferencing software for the Internet required expensive hardware which severely limited the number of potential senders and receivers. The philosophy of the Cornell project was to start immediately with available, affordable hardware and deploy and use it as rapidly as possible, gaining hands-on experience and stimulating creative thinking as to the possible beneficial uses. By opening Internet videoconferences to Macintosh users, the CU-SeeMe team hoped to accelerate the adoption and usefulness of desktop conferencing, including live video. Because CU-SeeMe uses simple but efficient video frame-differencing and compression algorithms, it opens networked videoconferencing capability to users of lower cost desktop computers, and enabling broader participation in desktop video technology. During 1993 this grassroots development strategy was realized as interest in CU-SeeMe grew rapidly with training and user support from the New York State Educational Research Network (NYSERNet). NYSERNet spread the word among Internet users by providing one of the first "public" reflectors encouraging users to try the technology and test their connections.