Some 55 years ago a 25 year-old from Oregon wondered what to do with his life. He first decided to dedicate his career to the betterment of mankind. Later, when trying to settle on a suitably important mission, he got overwhelmed by the complexities of the important missions he looked at and realized we have to work together to solve them. This made him decide to focus his career on helping us solve urgent, complex problems collectively.

 

He realized computers could help. This was a time when users fed computers punched cards and got cards with different punches back when the computer was done. This young man had been a radar engineer in the Navy, and he realized that if you could interact 'live' with a radar it should be possible to interact with a computer via a console similar to a radar station and a keyboard.

 

This young man's name was Doug Engelbart, and he went on to develop what we think of today as modern, interactive computing - a computer you can use in real-time, not one you wait a day for. Additional inventions to complete the picture came quite naturally to him: the mouse, word processing, hypertext, email and so on.

 

Yet he never intended to be an inventor. Doug Engelbart is a philosopher who has influenced the way modern people work and communicate - we have only seen the start of the implementation of his vision.

 

The last weekend in January 2005, in Menlo Park, California, he celebrated his 80th birthday. He was joined by many of those whom he'd worked with over the years, as well as close friends and family. We would like to honor him and his work, his vision and his dedication to augmenting us, not simply automating us.

 

For many of us, the demonstration of the oN Line System (NLS) in 1968 represented an epiphany of understanding of the power of non-numeric, interactive computing in pursuit of knowledge management. The richness of this vision continues to exceed our present grasp and represents an aspiration for all of us who seek to transform human ability to amass and comprehend an increasing amount of information.

 

Doug, we are only beginning to understand your vision. We honor you and thank you for improving our lives and those of millions around the world, few of whom have ever heard your name.

 

signed,

Ted Nelson, Marlene Mallicoat, Mary Coppernoll, Karen O'Leary, Alan Kay, Larry Tesler, Vint Cerf, Tim Berners-Lee, Howard Rheingold, Bruce Horn, Keith Martin, Frode Hegland, Fleur Klijnsma, Therese Hegland, Sarah Walton, John Markoff, Mikhail Seliverstov, David Mery, Douglas Rushkoff, Stuart Gannes, Matt Rosin, Paul Cairns, Harold Thimbleby, Bill Daul, Dan Lynch, Smokey Wallace, Hirohide Yamada, Shinya Yamada, Tatsuya Aki Uyetani, Masanori Yasumitsu, Udy Ravid, Brock Craft, Guy Howard, John Toole, Steven Brewster, Mei Lin Fung, Steve Schmidt, Yuki Pollard, Anthony Christopher, Dave Farber, Ann Duvall, Bill Duvall, Caryn Brooks, Ed Leahy, Dorai Thodla, BJ Fogg, Nick Ragouzis, Nina Maystrovich, Bruce Damer, Peter Yim, Dirk van Nouhuys, Ruben Kleiman, Rob Stephenson, Jack Park, Martin Haeberli, Prasad Kaipa, George Por, Elizabeth Churchill, Charles Dornbush, Margaret Chambers, Andrew Pam, Rise Ciufia, Joy Tang, Harvey Lehtman, Bernie DeKoven, Geof Drummond, Bob Johansen, Joseph Hentz, Patrick McKercher, Dorothy Denning, Daniel Delacruz, Tanya Truong, Valerie Landau, Laleh Shahidi, Chuck Spidell, Rebecca Sheranian, Pauline Amos, Claudia Welss, Kathleen Biersteker, Charles H. Irby, John T. Maloney, Denise Gant, Aimee Babb, Stephan Engel, Marc Wathieu, Dean Meyer, Bill Ives, Paul King, Roy Pea, Jamie Dinkelacker, Sarah Faisal, David A. Potter, Sheldon Brahms, Pito Salas, Caroline Rose, Antonio Cisternino, Dan Gould, Lars Heyerdahl, Mark Interrante, Eugene Eric Kim, Anthony Citrano, Dave Crocker, Jake Feinler, Nicholas Carroll.

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