Our timeline may be linear, but this blog is not going to be. Let’s jump to the middle of the timeline, right between the start and the present.
By mid-2004 Alan and Priscilla had been living in Ashland, Oregon for almost ten years. Best known for its Shakespeare festival, Ashland also sports a classic July 4 parade, literally down Main Street.
Alan’s startup Open Door Networks (lots more on that in the future) had continued working with what had grown into the networking division at Apple. Apple provided Open Door with a then-cutting-edge XServe, which included a new technology called QuickTime Streaming.
Working with his new partner-in-crime Jim Teece (lots more on Jim in the future), the two along with a number of community members implemented a very early, basic proof-of-concept of a streaming system that many of us take for granted these days: we streamed the July 4 parade! From multiple locations nonetheless.
The video windows were tiny, the quality was incredibly low, there were various hiccups. But it all worked!
The day after the parade, the front page headline of the local daily paper read “Tour de Fourth” and included Alan’s quote “We have had nearly 10,000 users log on to watch the parade.” The enthusiasm with which this embryonic technology was embraced would be a hallmark of many things to come. And what fun!
