article featured image55 years ago, the ‘Mother of All Demos’ foresaw modern computing
Oregon Public Broadcasting | Dec. 9, 2023 | Kami Horton
“On Dec. 9, 1968, Oregon-born engineer and inventor Douglas Engelbart hosted a computer demonstration so groundbreaking it is known today as the “Mother of All Demos. [...] Early in his career, Engelbart decided that his life’s work would focus on solving humanity’s problems. He recognized that computers could not only help with that work, but also accelerate it. [...] He envisioned computers as communication tools that could help people learn, collaborate and tackle complex problems.”

article featured imageDouglas Engelbart facts for kids
Kiddle Encyclopedia | Nov 14, 2023 | Staff
“Early in his career he decided (1) he would focus his career on making the world a better place; (2) any serious effort [in this pursuit would require harnessing] the collective human intellect of all involved; (3) if you could dramatically improve how we do that, you'd be boosting every effort on the planet to solve important problems – the sooner the better; (4) computers could be the vehicle for dramatically improving this capability.”
Related Articles: Computer mouse Facts for Kids | History of personal computers facts for kids | the Mother of All Demos | Keyboard facts for kids | Turing Award facts for kids |

article featured imageDouglas Engelbart - Inventing the 21st Century
Diffusion Podcasts | Jun 19, 2023 | Ian Woolf
In this Podcast, “we look back to the man who wanted to augment human intelligence to help us work together to solve the world's most complex problems, and in doing so invented the 21st Century. How do we get smart enough to solve the really difficult problems? Douglas Engelbart said "the better we get at getting better, the faster we will get better" where our problem-solving abilities are constantly improved, and therefore so is everything we do!"
See also Avail Formats | Show Notes

article featured imageExtended Mind interview with Donald Clark
Learning Hack Podcasts | Dec 7, 2022 | Donald Clark & John Helmer
“In this episode of Great Minds on Learning, John Helmer interviews Donald Clark exploring The Extended Mind. Where do our thoughts live? And if, as some theorists contend, they do not observe physical limitations, but extends to our technology tools and physical surroundings, what are the implications for learning?” Includes Great Mind Doug Engelbart's vision on collective intelligence. See also: Episode Notes | Detail: Learning Theorists | Detail: Engelbart on Collective IQ

article featured imageLate Great Engineers: Douglas Engelbart - personalising the computer The Engineer | Aug 4, 2022 | Nick Smith “American engineer Douglas Engelbart is usually described as the inventor of the computer mouse. But there’s so much more to his pioneering career than a simple pointing device.”

article featured image A Machine for Thinking: How Douglas Engelbart Predicted the Future of Computing Netguru | Jul 28, 2022 | Steven Johnson “More than 50 years ago, Douglas Engelbart gave the "Mother of All Demos" that transformed software forever. The computer world has been catching up with his vision ever since.” See Also: About the Hidden Heroes Series

article featured imageThe Public Debut of a Dream
CNI | Jul 22, 2022 | Gardner Campbell
“Doug Engelbart’s “Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual Framework” 60 Years On: In October, 1962, Dr. Douglas C. Engelbart published a document that synthesized over a decade of research and careful thought, a document that would illuminate the work he would do for the rest of his career. 'Augmenting Human Intellect' is both a research report and a visionary manifesto for how computers and human beings could co-evolve to foster the highest levels of human flourishing. Engelbart sought to empower humanity’s capabilities to address its most complex problems, and he saw networked computing as an essential part of that capability...”

article featured imageDoug Engelbart, edge notched cards, and early links ACM | Jun 28, 2022 | Sean Haas From HUMAN '22: Proceedings of the 5th Workshop on Human Factors in Hypertext, June 2022. EXCERPT: "This October will be the 60th anniversary of the publication of Doug Engelbart's Augmenting Human Intellect. The eventual product of this research, NLS, was a highly influential computerized hypertext system. However, the path towards augmentation started outside the traditional digital realm. Within Augmenting Human Intellect Engelbart describes how he kept a series of linked notes using edge notched cards...” See Keynote Abstract | Conference Program

article featured imageWhy The Metaverse Must Be Deeply Human-Centric Forbes | Jun 14, 2022 | Forrester Key Takeaways From 13th annual Augmented World Expo (AWE)- including “Most people involved in creating the foundations of XR are motivated by a perspective that at its core is humane and driven to help others, not just further the interests of those who design the systems [...] citing UX pioneer Doug Engelbart’s vision of computers that steer human experiences toward 'how the world should work.'”

article featured imageHow the Graphical User Interface Was Invented IEEE Spectrum | May 20, 2022 | Tekla Perry & John Voelcker “Three decades of UI research came together in the mice, windows, and icons used today”

article featured imageNetworking Communities Reshaping Learning | Jan 20, 2022 | Tom Haymes “An improvement community that puts special attention on how it can be dramatically more effective at solving important problems, boosting its collective IQ by employing better and better tools and practices in innovative ways, is a networked improvement community (NIC). If you consider how quickly and dramatically the world is changing, and the increasing complexity and urgency of the problems we face in our communities, organizations, institutions, and planet, you can see that our most urgent task is to turn ICs into NICs.”

article featured imageDouglas Engelbart in a Flow of Inspirations OIINEWS | Dec 10, 2021 | Bill Dutton “The mouse was one concrete invention that arose from his Augmented Human Intelligence Research Center [...] where he and a small group of colleagues began developing the NLS, [pioneering] the use of computing to complement human intelligence, what he called “augmented intelligence” rather than artificial intelligence (AI)." While Engelbart was in part inspired by Vannevar Bush through his article ‘As We May Think’, Engelbart in turn inspired others, such as Ted Nelson of Hypertext and Xanadu fame.

article featured image75 Years of Innovation: Computer Vision SRI | Dec 7, 2021 | Staff Writers “SRI International has contributed to the blurring of the boundaries between humans and computers [...] From the humble computer mouse to augmented reality and computer vision, SRI has made computing more human, more compelling, and widened the scope of its use for the good of humanity.” From the series 75 years of innovation at SRI International

article featured imageHuman Movements in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) Springer | 2022 | Cezary Biele New book “Shows what can be learned from movements of the human body, from face, hand, leg, and foot to the whole body movement Discusses these human-centric issues in the development, design, analysis, and implementation of the HCI systems” Engelbart’s research covered in two chapters - see TOC | Part of series on Computational Intelligence | More at Historic Firsts: Personal & Interactive at dougengelbart.org

article featured imageAdvent of Computing - Podcast 2021 Sean Haas | 2021 | Sean Haas “Advent of Computing, the podcast that talks about the shocking, intriguing, and all too often relevant history of computing. A lot of little things we take for granted today have rich stories behind their creation, in each episode we will learn how older tech has led to our modern world.” This two-part podcast on Doug Engelbart's oN-Line System (NLS) details the evolution of the world's first personal, interactive, collaborative, hypermedia, networked system that was featured in the now famous 'Mother of All Demos'. Could use some fact-checking, but largely well researched, with great insight, well told!
Check out NLS: Part 1 | NLS: Part 2 | The Engelbart Audio Collection

article featured imageEngelbart: Collective intelligence and IQ Plan B | Nov 20, 2021 | Donald Clark “He also put forward an early and full vision of collective intelligence and the idea of collective IQ. He envisioned much of this before the advent of the internet but foresaw the importance of networked knowledge and the networked organisation.” See Also: Extended Minds Interview | Post this is Part Of