8. ENTHUSIASM – The Enthusiasm of Douglas Engelbart
Ten years earlier, he was living in Mountain View, California, engaged, and working at a new job at the Ames Research Center, a government agency that researched aircraft technology and later became part of NASA. He was happy but wanted more. It was at this period of his life, with his new family and career in front of him, he decided he needed to maximize his contribution to mankind. He realized the world needed new levels of group understanding and the ability to work collectively to solve problems. This was when it all came together for Douglas. In a moment of genius inspiration, he was gripped by an exciting vision of what his contribution would be. As he recalled it, “All of sudden — wham! — I got an image of myself sitting at a screen with all kinds of symbols on it manip- ulated by a computer that could be operated through various input devices. Other people had their display units and you could connect them. Everybody could share knowledge. Suddenly the potential of interactive, collaborative com-
puting became totally clear.” This, he decided, would be his crusade. The year was 1951.
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