Contents
Douglas Engelbart
Inventing the computer mouse and demonstrating an early vision of interactive, collaborative computing.
Augmenting Human Intellect · NLS demonstration
- Born
- 30 January 1925
- Birthplace
- Portland, United States
- Died
- 2 July 2013
More people
Douglas Engelbart
Engelbart wanted computers to help people think and work together. His team’s 1968 demonstration combined a mouse, linked documents and remote collaboration years before these became familiar desktop tools.
Early life
Oregon upbringing
Grew up around Portland before studying electrical engineering at Oregon State.
Wartime service
Worked as a Navy radio and radar technician, then completed his degree and later a Berkeley doctorate.
Career
- 1957
Stanford Research Institute
Joined SRI and developed his programme for improving human intellectual work.
- 1960s
Augmentation Research Center
Led the team that built the NLS interactive computer system.
- 1988
Bootstrap Institute
Co-founded an institute with his daughter Christina to advance collaborative problem-solving.
Contributions
Augmenting Human Intellect
Published his research framework for computers as tools for knowledge work.
NLS demonstration
Showed live editing, links, a mouse and remote collaboration in a landmark presentation.
Mouse patent
Received the patent for his pointing device, whose early prototype was built by Bill English.
Beyond computing
A larger purpose
Saw technology as a way to improve how groups address difficult problems, rather than simply automate calculation.
Family collaboration
Worked with his daughter to sustain his ideas through the institute later named for him.
Sources & photo credit
Life, career and references ↗Institutional biography and contributions ↗Photo: SRI International. CC BY-SA 3.0 · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.
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