The oN-Line System (NLS), developed by Douglas Engelbart’s team, was one of the earliest systems to explore interactive computing as a collaborative medium. It introduced concepts such as the mouse, hypertext, shared documents, and real-time collaboration—decades before they became mainstream.

NLS was not a product but a system for augmenting human intellect. Its goal was to improve collective problem-solving by improving how people think together. Nearly every modern collaborative tool traces its lineage back to the ideas first demonstrated in NLS.