All posts in Though Leadership

My Dad finished a tour of duty as a tank commander in Vietnam, and returned home to life in rural North Carolina.  Shortly after, he was married with a child on the way (me).  Mechanically inclined, he soon found a job as a third-shift loom fixer at Cone Mills in North Carolina. Somewhere along the line, he came across a computer.

You have to grasp the setting and the momentous hurdles that propelled my Dad. With technology as ubiquitous as it is these days it is hard to imagine, but my dad grew up technologically hindered. He was the middle of 12 children in a home that did not have running water until after he came back from Vietnam. A flush toilet was not installed until the early 80’s at grandpas.

Technology bit my Dad. That computer sparked a vision. He recognized that the computer was going to revolutionize America. He began taking classes through a technical college in computer programming. I still remember the punch cards on which he saved his programs. Then he bought his first computer – laughably bulky in today’s standards with a connecting amber screen. There was no sort of game to entice (Pacman had not been invented yet) or even a graphic user interface to grab attention – but my Dad was smitten.

Today my Dad is a Senior Programmer and Analyst for a major Pharmaceutical company. He gets lost in the beauty of code – the mixed collection of garbled syntax to the undiscerning eye is an open book to him. It is there he finds glimpses of personality and even traces of humor left by the programmer. He knows the old mainframe computer languages (like FORTRAN), loves Visual Basic, and C+ and a host of other programming languages.

So, why did I write an article on my Dad on a technology blog? Because, he instilled in me a spark while I was still a child.  Before it was common to find a computer in everyone’s home, he dreamed of creating a company that would develop “automated homes.” He taught me to open my mind to possibility and to consider the potential of things not yet considered. Automated Homes and Self-Service Solutions are not too far apart.  Maybe his dream spilled over.

This story of sparked imagination is common to the industry.  The dreamers, the visionaries, they had the ability to see something in this thing called technology that opened the world to possibilities unknown. Over the next several blog post, I want to share with you a vision of where I think this technology in Self-Service Solutions may take us.

Brian Sykes, Director of Marketing

– – – Brian spoke with Ted Natt of The Pilot to give him a heads up on the Design Pods initiative.  This is a copy of his article for the paper.  Enjoy!

Ted M. Natt Jr., staff writer | Posted: Tuesday, October 15, 2013 11:55 am

Brian Sykes had two internships in college that were interesting but unfulfilling because neither gave him true workplace experience nor a sense of accomplishment.

“A traditional two-week window is a very limited exposure for accomplishing any in-depth track of learning,” said Sykes, director of marketing at Meridian Zero Degrees in Aberdeen. “Most of the time, there is little true job training, just free-reign access to the tools of the trade.”

In the annals of technology, one major milestone I would consider most do not hold knowledge of  is The Plato Hotline.  In 1977, Murray Lappe, a pre-med student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, developed the very first self-service, interactive kiosk.

To put in perspective the novelty of this machine – the first GUI (Graphical User Interface) was not yet in commercial use via the Apple LISA (which debuted in 1983) and the Apple Macintosh 128k (1984).  It was not until the early 1980’s that the term home personal-computer would be used. In fact, the later 70’s were still standard users of the punch card system of storing FORTRAN programs. I remember these from the days when my Dad was taking programming classes at the local community college. The internet, though a functional system with the military, did not yet have mainstream use – – – that would not occur until a decade later in the mid-80’s.

The Plato Hotline’s content was created on a PLATO computer system.

PLATO computer system

Interaction with this kiosk was done through a Plasma touch screen panel which was co-invented in 1964 at the University of Illinois by engineer Donald L. Bitzer. (Blitzer is currently a Distinguished University Research Professor in the Department of Computer Science at NC State University).

The Plato Hotline provided students with a way to discover movies, view maps, directories, bus schedules, extracurricular activities and college courses.  When the unit debuted April 1977, it is reported that over 30,000 students, teachers and visitors stood in line for over 6 hours for a chance to interact with this “personal computer” for the first time. Lappe and Blitzer seems to have been ahead of their time. An extra tech-history tid-bit… this was a full month before the first Star Wars debuted (or is that now considered the 4th) .

The very first self-service interactive kiosk was made for and at a university.  Though the industry has spread across a myriad of other industries, still today we at Meridian work with a number of University, College and other school systems to provide self-service solutions that accomplish a great many of the same things that The Plato Hotline provided.  From way-finding to class schedules – the information is still relevant. Strategically located, self-service solutions are a great means to direct and inform the student body, faculty and visitors. If you are part of an educational system and would like to see what a self-service solution could offer your campus, contact us today!

Attached is an info-graphic that encapsulates the process and experience of working with Meridian – from concept to completion.  Click the link below to view the full graphic.

from concept to completion…