Shortly after the days when I loosely intermingled with many of the PCC folk, I joined Apple Computer and had this dream of a machine designed around the idea of usability, which, in 1978, I dubbed "Macintosh". That worked out pretty well. I can still buy one. And if I couldn't, there's still Windows, a sort of low-fidelity copy hammered out of crude materials up north somewhere. After Apple, I started a company (having coined the term) called "Information Appliance" that was profitable, but not profitable enough for the VC people who seem to want money in larger doses than we were providing (they might be less greedy today... nah.) Since Information Appliance Inc. I've been a consultant and writer, musician and model plane flier, busy with a happy family (which, Mr. Tolstoy, are not all the same). I recently wrote a book, The Humane Interface which reached No. 36 on the best-seller list at Amazon last weekend (this note is being written 2001 03 03), and which has required 3 printings with a 4th now in preparation, in less than a year. The book's being translated into 5 languages, and is in use as a text or required reading at over a dozen universities. (end of advt. Got carried away there, but I am proud of this book). This interest tells me that the time is ripe for a new revolution in human-computer / human-web / borg interface design. In the early days of the PCC, I was disgusted with the large, overblown computers then available, and saw that we could do more with microprocessor-based products. I wrote, argued, and designed and was delighted to be part of a culture that felt as I did. Now I am disgusted with the large, overblown operating systems, desktop interfaces, pedestrian internet interfaces, and gargantuan hardware appetites of today's software. We can do a lot more with a lot less, and do it a lot better. The revolution has gotten fat and lazy. OUR WORK IS NOT DONE! |
