On June 30, 1970, the world’s first commercial video conferencing service launched in Pittsburgh with an inaugural call from Pittsburgh Mayor Peter Flaherty to Alcoa Chairman and CEO John Harper. AT&T’s “Picturephone” system allowed the two to speak “face-to-face,” even though they were blocks away from each other.
Learn more about this bit of history and the recent recreation of the event from Chris Harrison and Andrew Meade McGee of Carnegie Mellon University.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary — June 30, 2020 — current Pittsburgh Mayor William Peduto and Alcoa Chairman Michael G. Morris will video chat, as their predecessors did a half century ago.
