The Qwerty Story

Discover an invention from the 1870s that has outlasted technological innovations — the almost random arrangement of the typewriter keyboard – through the revealing personal journeys of three entrepreneurial inventors.
The Qwerty Story provides new insight into invention, innovation, the marketplace of ideas, and how past technology impacts our present and future. The film follows the personal stories of three inventors in three distinct time periods-- Christopher Latham Sholes, who lived and worked in the late 19th century demonstrates both the success of the invention, but also the epic struggle of this process. August Dvorak, a professor in the 1930s, developed an alternative keyboard that was intended to be more efficient and easier for people to learn and use. Modern-day inventor Will Walmsley provides a modern personal story, as his miniaturized keyboard is released into the marketplace.
The stakes at the heart of the film are high for all of us who use technology. By closely examining the pathway of invention through the lens of the Qwerty layout, we see the entire process of innovation -- from idea, to prototype, to marketplace. Through this examination, we explore how history shapes our present technological reality.