William Cattey

I did not do much for PCC. (I think I wrote a letter to the editor or two.) But PCC did a lot for me! I started reading PCC when I entered high school in 1974. I got interested in educational computing (mostly as a way to convince my school to give me more computer-toys to play with.) Now educational computing is my career. I work on MIT's school-wide computing infrastructure, Athena, and it keeps me well stocked with computer-toys.

I believe my letter to the editor was about Interpreter Languages -- I was hoping there'd come along simple, inexpensive ways to give interested people programming environments. To date, the best approach I have ever seen in this realm is Alan Kay's Squeak project. The Squeak Home Page It has been interesting to watch computing go from something done by a few people with access to expensive machinery to something that's as much a beneficiary and a victim of consumerism as the television set.

I am excited that PCC is working on an archive project. At MIT, in addition to computing infrastructure, I'm working on digital libraries. I had the great fortune to meet Larry Tesler for the first time at the DL98 conference. In my digital library work, I helped put MIT theses online. The MIT Thesis Server I am currently helping with a collaboration between Hewlett Packard and the MIT Libraries, DSpace

I am pleased that the various founders and those touched by PCC are getting back in touch. Ours is a vision of computing being a fun humanity-enhancing activity. As Alan Kay aptly put it in his Squeak lecture, "The computer revolution hasn't happened yet." But we're working on it.