Great Group: Xerox PARC

Jeremy Pesner

Great Group: Xerox PARC (CSL)

The Makers of the Modern Computer

History

Founded in 1970 Run by Bob Taylor Brought in the best Computer Scientists from

around the country he had met through ARPA (one of them: Alan Kay)

A long process to get in, including a public presentation

Greatest collection of minds after Manhattan project (so say Bennis & Biederman)

What made it great?

Pyramid Structure – All scientists reported directly to Taylor

Didn't matter if they were unpleasant Free from administrative details, worked on the

projects they wanted Only one requirement: Weekly meeting to critique

each other Were shielded from main Xerox office by Taylor “Religious zeal” for their work – were reimagining the

computer

Alan Kay

Dissertation: Interactive computer which would “aid in the visualization and realization of provocative notions.”

(Consider what computers were then) Invited by Taylor to join PARC and work on

interactive computing At 30, one of the oldest people there

Awesome dude Exposed to art, music, literature –

connected a lot of dots

What Did Alan Kay Create?

The Alto - Alan Kay had visions for the new version of a computer, used theories of interaction and learning more than science

Object-Oriented Programming - A new paradigm for programming languages. Made them easier to learn and understand. Used in all major languages today

Graphic User Interface – Do you know how annoying it is to access files by terminal?

Dynabook (concept) - “Self-contained object manipulator... the size and shape of an ordinary notebook.”

PARC's Progeny

In Short...