It seemed like a good idea at the time: A brief history of Journal of Vision

The time was 1984. The internet was ten years into the future, but a digital world was busy being born. In scientific labs, computers were becoming commonplace, if still expensive. Large VAX computers shared by many researchers were the norm, but with the release of the Apple II in 1977 and the IBM PC in 1981, personal computers also began to infiltrate the working lives of academics. In 1982, the SMTP standard for email interchange was published, leading to rapid growth in the use of email for informal scientific communications. To Albert Ahumada and myself, this instant and inexpensive medium seemed perfect for transmission of a more formal sort of scientific communication: the journal article. In 1984, at NASA Ames Research Center where we both worked, we submitted a proposal: