Cool! (bump)
2008/9/24 Yoshiki Ohshima <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > There will be an interesting event. It is even sponsored by OLPC! > > http://www.computerhistory.org/events/index.php?id=1221864610 > > -- Yoshiki > > ---------------------- > > CHM Presents > The 40th Anniversary of the Dynabook > > > SPONSOR > Sponsored by One Laptop Per Child > > Alan Kay, Charles Thacker, and moderated by Steve Hamm, BusinessWeek > > > DATE & TIME > Wednesday, November 05, 2008 > > 6:00 p.m. Member's Reception - CHM Members only > 7:00 p.m. Program > Wine for the Member's Reception provided by the Mountain Winery > > LOCATION > 1401 N. Shoreline Boulevard > Mountain View, CA 94043 > > Call 650-810-1005 for information. > > ABSTRACT OF TALK > The roots of "personal computers" -- that is, machines that are not shared > between users -- date back to at least the late 1950s. Within a decade, > several more of these "one machine, one user" computers were developed; and > the idea of a user having direct control over the computer was established, > at least within academia. > > In 1968, young computer scientist Alan Kay gave a presentation on the FLEX > Machine at a meeting of computer science graduate students and saw the first > working versions of a new flat panel plasma display technology. This led to > discussions about how nice it would be to (someday) place the FLEX computer > itself on the back of such a display to make a notebook-sized computer. > > A visit a few months later to MIT computer scientist and educator Seymour > Papert and to a school with children doing advanced math with Papert's LOGO > programming language, produced an epiphany in Kay. He decided to make "A > Personal Computer For Children Of All Ages." This was to be in the form of a > compact notebook using both tablet and keyboard, a flat-screen display, GUI, > and the wireless networking that defense funding agency ARPA was starting to > experiment with. > > This idea eventually acquired the name "Dynabook" as an homage to what the > printed book has meant to civilization and learning. It is also a gesture to > a future in which not just the content of "books" will be dynamic, but the > relationship of people to computers will itself also change. > > The founding of Xerox PARC a few years after the Dynabook concept provided > support and a context for developing many of these ideas. In fact, the PARC > "Alto" workstation was originally called "the interim Dynabook". Many of the > results from this research influenced commercial computing, including the > bit-mapped screen, high-quality text and graphics, overlapping windows and an > icon-based GUI, desktop publishing, object-oriented programming, and many > others. > > Join Steve Hamm of BusinessWeek as he moderates a panel discussion to > celebrate this idea that provided metaphor, motivation and inventions for the > personal computers of today. > > This event is generously sponsored by One Laptop Per Child. > > Panelists: > - Alan Kay > - Charles Thacker > - TBD > _______________________________________________ > Olpc-open mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/olpc-open > _______________________________________________ Olpc-open mailing list [email protected] http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/olpc-open
