[My reaction: wow wow wow wow wow. It’s really hard to write anything meaningful while in the presence of someone who has given so much, been the source of so many ideas, and whose vision has only been realized (so far) in the smallest part. I am so humbled and awed. The fact is, that with all the debate and frustration and excitement, Doug Engelbart’s vision gets to the core of what matters and why any of us should be engaged in education and technology, not for teaching and learning, not for entertainment and communication, but to make something better of the world and ourselves, to augment what humans are and find a way to what we can be.]
NMC Fellow Recognition for Innovation, Creativity and Learning
Introduced by Lev Gonick and with Kristina Hooper Woolsey.
In 1964 Doug Engelbart presented a demonstration of ideas that would influence technology for the next 45 years (and beyond), and bringing to the forefront the idea of human capability augmentation. Without what he did much of what this conference—and the NMC—is about would not be possible.
[I never tire of watching the video of “The Mother of All Demos”]
The turning point for Engelbart came when he sat and asked himself what he should focus on and the answer that came to him was: how can I maximize the effect of my work to help all mankind? “Since the beginning of human history we’ve been augmenting ourselves. How much difference does that make? Think of the invention of the plow and what it did. …Which brought me to the idea of augmenting the human intellect collectively.”
“There’s an unexplored frontier out there.”
“I think of the way technology will change the way we think and communicate… and I don’t mean we’ll communicate via email, but how our symbols and context will be wholly changed. … people keep saying we’re there now. And then later we’re there now. No, we aren’t there.”
Engelbart introduced the idea of “Network Improvement Communities” (NICS). It’s a value system… when the networks connect us there is a possibility to truly augment the human condition.
Kristina Woolsey: “It’s an evolution… the poor dolphin came on land and then went back to sea… it’s on-going. There’s a lot left to do. The mouse is great, for me particularly, but Doug has a much larger and more important idea. The mouse is one part, but remember even in the beginning there was another chording/stringing machine, and many more ideas of how we navigate and explore information. Even with something as simple as a mouse we have only a tiny piece of the big picture, that is one way of many to think about this space. … This isn’t about machines, but about the way cultures change. Some people are scared. And when you’re the one being changed… another thing we don’t talk about enough: linking. The ability to have specific and non-linear connections. That was a big deal… the fact that it isn’t seen as a big deal is itself a big deal! Doug gave us the platform to begin. It’s easy to think of media as a thing we do or share, but that’s not what Doug means and not what we should mean either… it’s what we say and who can say it and how we can share it.”
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A new book, “The Engelbart Hypothesis: Dialogs with Douglas Engelbart” by Valerie Landau and Eileen Clegg in conversation with Doug Engelbart explains Engelbart’s vision for an Augmentation Framework and includes chapters by Woolsey and Gonick. http://engelbartbook.com
The book by Valerie Landau and Eileen Clegg has not been approved by his company, his daughter, or even by him. Do not rely on it for facts.