Wow!

I can't think of any company or group of companies which has done more to
get computing technology into the hands of people than HP/DEC/Compaq, nor a
more appropriate setting for "The Future: Part Two" to move from ideaspace
to reality.  If you think the past ten years have been exciting, hang onto
your hats -- the best part of the ride is just ahead!

Gary

  ----- Original Message -----
  From: William Cole
  To: m.rueger at acm.org ; andreas.raab at gmx.de ;
squeak-dev at lists.squeakfoundation.org
  Sent: Monday, November 25, 2002 11:52 PM
  Subject: Alan Kay to Join HP


  November 26, 2002

  A Computing Pioneer of the 1970's Joins Hewlett-Packard

  By STEVE LOHR

        Alan Kay, a personal computing innovator who was a leader of Xerox's
  pioneering Palo Alto Research Center in the 1970's, has joined
        Hewlett-Packard as a senior researcher.

  His arrival at Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, which the company is
  announcing today, comes at a time when the company is hoping that research
  can point to new markets in personal computing and give the company an
edge
  against Dell Computer - the pacesetter in today's personal
  computer business and a company known more for operational excellence than
  product innovation.

  Hiring Dr. Kay is an investment in Hewlett-Packard's innovation strategy.
  Throughout his career, Dr. Kay has worked on the design concepts and
  underlying technology to improve the interaction between people and
  computers. In the late 1960's, when computing was done on room-size
  mainframe computers, Dr. Kay described a concept computer he called the
  Dynabook. It would weigh little more than a book; rest on the user's
  lap; and come with a flat-panel screen, a keyboard and a stylus, since it
  would recognize handwriting. It would communicate wirelessly.

  The computer industry has been pursuing the Dynabook ever since. The
  recently introduced Tablet PC models, made by PC companies like
  Hewlett-Packard and running Microsoft software, is the latest entry.

  At the Xerox research center, better known as PARC, Dr. Kay led the team
  that put a graphics-capable display, overlapping windows, icons and a
  point-and-click user interface into a working computer called the Alto.
  Apple's Macintosh and Microsoft's Windows are descendants of the Alto.

  Dr. Kay and a few PARC colleagues, notably Dan Ingalls and Adele Goldberg,
  also developed Smalltalk, an influential programming language that
  uses blocks of code, known as objects, that are put together, like the
  cells that make up the human body, to build applications.

  At Hewlett-Packard, Dr. Kay, who is 62, intends to continue pursuing his
  goal of improving the experience of computing. "The goal is to show
  what the next big relationship between people and computing is likely to
  be," Dr. Kay said in an interview.

  The best way to do that, Dr. Kay explained, is to build prototypes that
  will "show ideas in motion."

  "The trick for a person like me," he added, "is that you get people most
  excited by something that looks like a product. And I'm betting that some
of
  it will be interesting to H.P."

  With the PC business in the doldrums, many executives and analysts say
they
  believe that the industry is entering maturity. Dr. Kay disagrees.
  Personal computing, he insisted, is "ripe for new markets - I don't think
  the real computing revolution has happened yet."

  Dr. Kay declined to discuss his ideas precisely. Starting at Xerox PARC,
he
  has focused on trying to make computing an engaging medium for play
  and learning, and he has often worked with children. After PARC, Dr. Kay
  held research positions at Atari, Apple and Disney, where his five-year
  contract ended in September 2001. Since then, he has worked mainly at a
  nonprofit organization he helped found, the Viewpoints Research
  Institute, which seeks to find ways to use computing to improve education
  for children as well as their understanding of complex systems like
  software.

  Since he left Disney, Dr. Kay has been approached by other technology
  companies besides Hewlett-Packard. But the person who recruited him at
  Hewlett-Packard, Patrick Scaglia, who heads Internet and computing
  platforms research, had studied under the same professor, Dave Evans, at
  the University of Utah, which was a wellspring of early computer graphics
  research.

  "Ultimately, it comes down to the vibes and trust," Dr. Kay said of his
  decision to join Hewlett-Packard.



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