As the computer revolution in the California’s 70s unfolded a Research Center in Palo Alto, California, was the silent center of innovation that unlocked the personal computing market. Perhaps less dramatic than 1999 movie The Pirates of Sillicon Valley portraits, the technology transition from Xerox PARC to companies like Apple and Microsoft was fundamental to the development of the personal computer market. Simple to use User Interfaces (UIs) unlocked new markets: non-tech-savvy office workers, class rooms students, and general people on their living rooms.
An influent figure at the emerging study of User Interfaces was the director of Xerox PARC Mark Weiser, a visionary in the industry and cutting-edge researcher of UIs, His most famous work: The Computer of 21st Century was published in June 1999. Mark, at age 46, died a month before of that year, without seeing the publication of what came to be one of the referenced papers in the field (see ACM’s data).
Weiser was a recurrent reference on Oca (2018, MIT) and influenced many of my perspectives of Design. Later that year, 2018, events of life brought me to live in Palo Alto, California. I didn’t know that Xerox PARC meant “Palo Alto Research Center”, I was impressed. Also impressed to learn that Mark’s notebooks and office materials were given to an university five minutes away from my house: Stanford. I was in between jobs, with time, and looking for inspiration for my next adventure.
Here are photos and documents I tried to digitalize at the time (Drive Folder).
Photos
More than just a paper reference, I see him as an inspiration for the designers who think of the most profound technologies.
Thank you, Mark.