Douglas Engelbart

Definition - What does Douglas Engelbart mean?

Douglas Engelbart is an electrical engineer who pioneered many areas in personal computing and Internet technologies. Engelbart was deeply concerned about using technology to augment human intellect, and received funding to open the Augmentation Research Center in 1963. Through his work at the center, Engelbart invented many technologies including:
  • The mouse
  • A working hypertext and hypermedia system
  • Groupware
  • WHYSIWYG text editing
  • Internet videoconferencing
  • Graphical user interface (GUI)
  • Window-based operating systems

Techopedia explains Douglas Engelbart

Douglas Engelbart is most famous for the “mother of all demos,” which he gave on December 9, 1968. Engelbart rolled out a working package of technology representing technological leaps in every area of computing while also creating new areas. One area that still lags behind Engelbart’s demo is program compatibility. Engelbart envisioned that all computing tools would one day be able to operate seamlessly with each other. Instead, we have a different program for every function, and very few of them play well together. On the whole, however, many of Engelbart’s inventions have now become mainstream, although it took decades for technology to catch up to his vision.

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