> "The revolution of the 1980s was discovering how to make
> the computer personal," he said. "In the 1990s, the
> revolution is making it interpersonal."
Aaargh! [obNeXTRef: This used to be Steve's battle cry]
Well, bully for Weiser -- but note that ubiquitous computing is no longer his
major tagline -- esp since he's got a business role rather than blue-sky
research now.
Haven't heard from dpiX -- they own that 300DPI LCD display technology.
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August 14, 1996 5:45 PM ET
New CTO appointed at Xerox PARC
By _Maria Seminerio_
Mark Weiser, the former head of the Computer Science Laboratory at Xerox
Corp.'s Palo Alto Research Center, has been appointed chief technology officer
at PARC, replacing Malcolm Thompson, who leaves to become CEO at the Xerox
unit dpiX.
Weiser, a former computer science professor at the University of Maryland,
said his goal as CTO is to drive even more cutting-edge innovation at the
center, where the Windows PC interface and the LAN were born.
"The theme that infuses the whole place is making technology that fits with
people," said Weiser. The center's nascent three-dimensional technology
projects will eventually play a significant role in business computing, he
said, because the technology enables a more transparent interface between user
and machine.
One example is a 3-D "timewall" now being developed at the center, which
displays a computer user's access to documents in a format that makes it
instantly obvious how the documents are related to each other, when they were
created and when they were last accessed, he said.
This technology will allow the user to find precise information more quickly,
while maneuvering in a more natural way, Weiser said.
"The revolution of the 1980s was discovering how to make the computer
personal," he said. "In the 1990s, the revolution is making it interpersonal."
The Internet revolution will result in everything from light switches to
copying machines leveraging the World Wide Web through technology that is more
intuitive than intrusive, Weiser said.
"People are natural navigators in a 3-D environment," he said. "Think of
driving down a highway at 70 miles per hour. You wouldn't be able to do this
if you could only see a few feet ahead."
PARC, in Palo Alto, can be reached at _http://www.parc.xerox.com/_, and more
information on Weiser can be found at _http://sandbox.parc.xerox.com/weiser/_.