Great questions, John. (01)
I think visions help shape the future ... but then very few are
endowed to come up with the ones that really matter. (02)
If you ask me, I'd say - one really shouldn't ask about vision,
mission, deliverables, process, plans, execution, all in the same
question. They belong to different levels of granularity (or aspects).
Maybe they are meant to be answered by different people (with
different talents.) (03)
Someone in the Engelbart community just shared this link, which I am
re-sharing here: http://worrydream.com/Engelbart/
... the author has put it more eloquently than all the Doug Engelbart
obituaries I've read the last 2~3 days. It actually responded to some
of your questions ... with some sad, but true answers. (04)
Back to Doug Engelbart's DKR (Dynamic Knowledge Repository) ... (05)
* gathering from the Engelbart 2005 talk, he seems to be saying that
this is not (just) technology ... it is the a co-evolving
infrastructure of "human systems" and "tools systems." (06)
* see "AUGMENTING HUMAN INTELLECT: A Conceptual Framework" By Douglas
C. Engelbart, October 1962 -
http://www.dougengelbart.org/pubs/augment-3906.html"; ref.
http://www.dougengelbart.org/pubs/augment-3906.html (07)
* not to forget, though, that the DKR is but a means to an end - ref.
Engelbart's vision and mission statement -
http://bootstrap.cim3.net/vision_mission.html (08)
... again, if you ask me, I'd say, in the last 11~12 years of Ontolog,
all of us here have been instantiating a DKR - augmented by our tools
(archived mailing list, wiki/psmw, cloud storage, conference calls,
... ), and collaboratively building a body of knowledge, over this
networked improvement community (NIC.) (09)
Regards. =ppy
-- (010)
On Fri, Jul 5, 2013 at 7:13 AM, John F Sowa <sowa@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> There was a thread on the Ontology Summit list about Doug Engelbart.
> The last two notes on that thread (by Peter Yim and me) raised some
> interesting issues about his life's work. (Copies below)
>
> His last major project proposed a Dynamic Knowledge Repository (DKR)
> as the basis for augmenting human intelligence. Peter's note points
> to the slides and audio of a talk, which Doug E. presented to the NSF
> in 2005. My note has some historical background. Following is a
> brief definition of DKR with further links:
>
> http://www.dougengelbart.org/about/dkrs.html
>
> The Wikipedia article on DKR doesn't show any funding for the ideas:
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_Knowledge_Repository
>
> The DAML project, which led to the current tools for the Semantic Web
> also ended in 2005. As tools, they have been useful for many purposes.
> But they represent a bottom-up approach that doesn't have the vision
> of Tim B-L's book on the Semantic Web or the vision of Doug E's DKR.
>
> Questions about vision: How useful is it? Tools are necessary for
> implementing software, but by themselves, they don't suggest any
> directions or goals for further development. How useful are goals?
> Without funding, goals just sit on a web site. But there are huge
> numbers of tools that just sit on a web site (see Sourceforge).
>
> But a good collection of tools that embody an infectious "meme" can
> be copied and spread. Note history: Doug E. and his colleagues
> presented the mouse and related tools in a famous demo in 1968. It
> took a lot of hard work at Xerox PARC to make it a product ten years
> later. Then Steve Jobs copied it as the Mac in 1984, but it required
> Bill Gates & Co. to copy it as Windows 3.1 to make it the universal
> GUI for computers. That development took more than 20 years.
>
> Are there lessons we can learn from these developments?
>
> What are they?
>
> John (011)
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Re: [ontolog-forum] [ontology-summit] Doug Engelbart passed
> away last night
> Date: Thu, 4 Jul 2013 11:30:50 -0700
> From: Peter Yim <peter.yim@xxxxxxxx>
> Reply-To: [ontolog-forum] <ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: [ontolog-forum] <ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> I went through my archives and managed to dig up this 2005 talk by
> Doug Engelbart at NSF for Susan Turnbull's Expedition Workshop. This
> is probably the most recent talk of his that I have on archive. In
> Doug's own words, he provided us a glimpse into his vision.
>
> It's available online now* ...
>
> == Special Invited Talk by Dr. Douglas C. Engelbart ==
>
> * Date: 1 Sep 2005
> * Venue: NSF
> * Host: Susan Turnbull (GSA) - NITRD Expedition Workshop
> * Opening Intro by: Simon Szykman (then, NCO/NITRD Director)
>
> * Invited Speaker: Doug Engelbart
>
> * Topic: Facilitating the Evolution of our Collective IQ - What our
> Organizations and Governments Could Do
>
> * Slides:
>
>http://bootstrap.cim3.net/file/pub/presentation/Expedition_Workshop/2005-09-01_Building_High_Performance_Organizations/Doug_Engelbart_2005_09_01.pdf
>
> * Audio recording: [ 2:02:00 ; mp3 ; 13.96 MB ]
> -
>
>http://bootstrap.cim3.net/file/pub/presentation/Expedition_Workshop/2005-09-01_Building_High_Performance_Organizations/DougEngelbart-NSF-Talk_20050901.mp3
>
> ( ... *this material has actually not been available online, following
> the closure of that workshop series around mid-2010, until now.)
>
> =ppy
>
> ---------- original message ----------
> From: John F Sowa <sowa@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> Date: Thu, Jul 4, 2013 at 6:52 AM
> Subject: Re: [ontology-summit] Doug Engelbart passed away last night
> To: ontology-summit@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> On 7/3/2013 6:22 PM, Jack Ring wrote:
>> Doug's favorite input device was a set of keys on two levels
>> (like piano or court reporter).
>
> From http://sloan.stanford.edu/mousesite/1968Demo.html
>> On December 9, 1968, Douglas C. Engelbart and the group of 17
>> researchers working with him in the Augmentation Research Center
>> at Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, CA, presented
>> a 90-minute live public demonstration of the online system, NLS,
>> they had been working on since 1962. The public presentation was
>> a session of the Fall Joint Computer Conference held at the
>> Convention Center in San Francisco, and it was attended by about
>> 1,000 computer professionals. This was the public debut of the
>> computer mouse. But the mouse was only one of many innovations
>> demonstrated that day, including hypertext, object addressing
>> and dynamic file linking, as well as shared-screen collaboration
>> involving two persons at different sites communicating over a
>> network with audio and video interface.
>
> Most of that group later migrated to Xerox PARC, where they developed
> the WIMPy interface (Windows, Icons, Menus, and Pointing device).
> Xerox sold some very expensive workstations based on that technology.
> But they occupied a tiny niche until Steve Jobs visited PARC and
> adapted the ideas.
>
> Following is a shorter excerpt from the 1968 demo combined with a short
> talk by Doug E. in 2004. It also shows the piano-like keys on the left
> of the usual keyboard:
>
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23174052
>
> For more detail about the visit to PARC by Steve Jobs and his crew,
> see http://lowendmac.com/orchard/05/apple-lisa-history.html
>
> From that article:
>> Convinced that the technology at PARC could help Apple usher in the 1980s,
>> Jobs offered Xerox a killer deal: Apple, which was privately owned at the
>time,
>> would allow Xerox to invest $1 million in Apple, which was sure to soar in
>> value when the company went public in 1981 - in exchange for two guided tours
>> of PARC's technology. Xerox happily accepted and gave Jobs and a team of Lisa
>> project engineers a tour.
>
> That's a good example of the famous "Reality Distortion Field" generated
> by Steve Jobs: "If you allow me to steal your company's secrets, I'll
> allow you to invest a million dollars in my company."
>
> John
>
>
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