Douglas C. Engelbart was born on 30 January 1925 in Oregon. Now he is mostly famous for inventing the first computer mouse and his pioneering works in human-computer interactions, networking, graphic user interface and other IT-related spheres. During World War II, Engelbart worked as a radio technician. After its end, he was greatly influenced by Vannevar Bushs ideas, and this partly prompted him to pursue a career in engineering. Having obtained a Bachelor of Engineering Degree in Oregon State University, Engelbart proceeded to UC Berkeley, where he earned his PhD. After graduation, he tried to find practical applications for his doctorate research and soon secured a position at Stanford Research Institute, where he continued his work. Douglas Engelbart emphasized the belief that it is possible to develop more effective ways of manipulating information and computer technologies. He founded the Augmentation Research Centre, and along with other scientists, Engelbart largely foreshadowed the arrival of the graphical user interface, multiple windows, and other elements of modern PC. He and his followers focused on tool development for online collaboration, and their work was actively supported by many governmental organizations. In 1970 Engelbart patented the so-called position indicator for a display system which is now known as the computer mouse, yet he derived no profit from his invention because his patent expired in 1987, long before the revolution in information technologies. In the seventies, Douglas Engelbart slipped into obscurity, and although such companies as Tymshare and McDonnell Douglas took considerable interest in his research, they never committed funds to continue it. At the present moment, he and his daughter Christine are the managing directors of the company, the Bootstrap Institute, which develops Open Hyper-Document Systems (OHS). The Bootstrap Institute is located in the territory of the Logitech Corp, the worlds largest producer of computer mice.
References
Association for Computing Machinery. Douglas Engelbart – The Inventor of the First Computer Mouse.
Forster, J (2001). Effective writing skills for public relations. New York Kogan Page Publishers.