Dynabook
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This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (November 2008) |
The Dynabook concept, created by Alan Kay in 1968,[1][2] described what is now known as a laptop computer or (in some of its other incarnations) a tablet or slate computer with nearly eternal battery life and software aimed at giving children access to digital media. Adults could also use a Dynabook, but the target audience was children.
Part of the motivation and funding for the Dynabook project came from the need for portable military maintenance, repair, and operations documentation. The paper-form of the field repair documentation for a single tank was larger than the tank itself.[citation needed] Eliminating the need to move mountains of difficult-to-access paper in a dynamic military theater provided significant U.S. Department of Defense funding.
Though the hardware required to create a Dynabook is here today, Alan Kay still thinks the Dynabook hasn't been invented yet, because key software and educational curriculum are missing.[citation needed] When Microsoft came up with its tablet PC, Kay was quoted as saying "Microsoft's Tablet PC, the first Dynabook-like computer good enough to criticize," a comment he had earlier applied to the Apple Macintosh.[3]
Toshiba also has a line of sub-notebook computers called DynaBooks.
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[edit] Original concept
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This concept was created two years before the founding of Xerox PARC. Kay wanted to make “A Personal Computer For Children Of All Ages.” The ideas led to the development of the Xerox Alto prototype, which was originally called “the interim Dynabook”.[4][5] It embodied all the elements of a graphical user interface, or GUI, as early as 1972. The software component of this research was Smalltalk, which went on to have a life of its own independent of the Dynabook concept.
Kay wanted the Dynabook concept to embody the learning theories of Jerome Bruner and some of what Seymour Papert— who had studied with developmental psychologist Jean Piaget and who was one of the inventors of the Logo programming language — was proposing.
The hardware on which the programming environment ran was relatively irrelevant.
[edit] Later works
Since the late 1990s, Kay has been working on the Squeak programming system, an open source Smalltalk-based environment which could be seen as a logical continuation of the Dynabook concept.
Alan Kay is actively involved in the One Laptop Per Child project that uses Smalltalk, Squeak, and the concepts of a computer for learning.
[edit] References
- ^ Richards, Mike (January 23, 2008). "Why the iPhone makes 2008 seem like 1968 all over again". Open2. http://www.open2.net/blogs/scitechnature/index.php/2008/01/23/why_the_iphone_makes_2008_seem_like_1968.
- ^ Steinberg, Daniel H. (April 3, 2003). "Daddy, Are We There Yet? A Discussion with Alan Kay". O'Reilly Media. http://openp2p.com/pub/a/p2p/2003/04/03/alan_kay.html.
- ^ Levy, Steven (April 30, 2001). "Bill Gates Says, Take This Tablet". Newsweek. http://www.newsweek.com/2001/04/29/bill-gates-says-take-this-tablet.html.
- ^ Computer History Museum - 40th Anniversary of the Dynabook
- ^ Wired-The Laptop Celebrates 40 Years
[edit] External links
- A Personal Computer for Children of All Ages, Alan C. Kay, Aug. 1972
- From the Dynabook to Squeak - A Study in Survivals
- The World in your Own Notebook. A scanned magazine article from The Best of Creative Computing Volume 3
- Sketchpad, Grail and the Interim Dynabook: Alan Kay QuickTime movie clip from a conference The History of the Personal Workstation, 27 May 1986 [Dead Link]
- Tracing the Dynabook: A Study of Technocultural Transformations, a Ph.D. dissertation about the Dynabook project and vision
- Toshiba's dynabook R - a lowcost (185$) tablet PC
- Did Steve Jobs Steal The iPad? Genius Inventor Alan Kay Reveals All. Wolfgang Gruener. Tom's Hardware. April 17, 2010.
