Friends of Time Celebrate Quicktime’s big 10

Despite cold, driving San Francisco rain, over 450 people who have ever worked on QuickTime turned out to celebrate the technology on its tenth anniversary. “I’m happy that this community exists, and that these people are here. I can’t wait to see what happens in the next ten years,” said Frank Casanova, director QuickTime product marketing at Apple.

The invitation only event, held at the Foreign Cinema establishment in San Francisco’s Mission district, was put on by the Friends of Time, a group comprised of those who are or have been instrumental in QuickTime’s success. The event was to benefit Friends of Time’s QuickTime museum. “Our first deliverable was our website, which is to celebrate, document and educate on the milestone artifacts and great content of QuickTime,” said Carlos Montalvo, Friends of Time member and the first Vice President of Apple’s interactive media group. “Ideally we want a permanent website to store and document the artifacts of QuickTime,” said Montalvo.

Friends of Time is in Negotiation with San Jose’s Museum of Innovation and Technology to store the over eight hundred and counting unique pieces of QuickTime History, as well as the many key images and media created using the technology. During the party, Friends of Time used the facility’s projection equipment to show flicks of key QuickTime moments and content.

Mitchell Weinstock, founder of Friends of Time, told MacCentral that Friends of Time maintains contact with the over one thousand innovators, visionaries and marketers who have worked on QuickTime since it was finished on Dec. 1, 1991. “What all these people have in common,” said Weinstock, “is that they have worked to make QuickTime pervasive, persistent and personal.”

While many attendees did do a little networking at the party, most came to renew old ties with friends and co-workers. Almost everyone interviewed said that they came to meet some old friend or another, and to meet members of Apple’s current QuickTime team.

Many attendees flew in just for the event. Carolyn Goates, a former QuickTime product manager, flew up from the Los Angeles area just for the evening. Goates’ experience is not atypical, said Montalvo. “We have people from all over the world here — even as far away as Europe and Japan.”

Partygoers were entertained by the Long Beach rock band bird3, and were also treated to dinner and drinks. A longtime computer industry tradition was observed as goodies were given away to lucky attendees. This ranged from preeminent products and entertainment titles created with QuickTime, to top tier Sorenson applications and a Sanyo ID4 digital camera.

The mood of the party was nostalgic, but not in any sort of melancholic way. Many looked at the artifacts on display in an upstairs balcony and noted that he or she used to use this or worked on that. Montalvo summed it up best, “We all did something special. The future of QuickTime is as bright or brighter than its past.”