Not since Xerox PARC has a company fumbled its future as badly as Sun has.
The mouse at Xerox PARC could not be used to drag a window around the screen.
Then we had our technical visionary, Stephen Hoover, who runs the famous Xerox Parc in Palo Alto.
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As these ecosystems expand, the world will move steadily closer to the ubiquitous-computing model envisaged by Xerox PARC's Mark Weiser.
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Before that, he worked at Apple for 5 years, and before that, Xerox PARC for 12 years, and before that, IBM.
In some ways, Google represents the internet-era equivalent of Bell Labs or Xerox PARC legendary corporate research outfits that shaped the evolution of technology in earlier periods.
He borrowed the characteristic features of the Macintosh the mouse and the icons on the screen from the engineers at Xerox PARC, after his famous visit there, in 1979.
Simonyi was at Xerox PARC in the 1970s when its scientists famously created the laser printer and the graphical user interface that the company failed to capitalize on.
The first was the graphical user interface, using a mouse as a pointing device, which Jobs adapted (some might say stole) from Xerox PARC and SRI to make the Macintosh.
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Information design gurus have tried for years, mostly unsuccessfully, to help users organize their data in a better way than the file-and-folder metaphor dreamed up at Xerox PARC in the 1970s.
The FAST system is the first step in an effort to use Xerox PARC's expertise in physics, engineering and computer science to invent and commercialize new technologies for biology and health care.
The real lesson to be drawn from Xerox PARC is that large corporations should aggressively pursue breakthrough invention and work to improve their ability to take advantage of the fruits of those efforts.
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It would be another bit of sweet vindication for Xerox PARC, which was maligned for years as the lab that invented great stuff--the computer mouse, the point-and-click interface, Ethernet networking--but did little to let Xerox shareholders cash in on it.
It turns out, in fact, that preparing for such a switch is one of the reasons why Jobs returned, explains Larry Tesler, who jumped from Xerox Parc to Apple after introducing Jobs to the idea of a graphical operating system.
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For example, dozens of people saw the graphical user interface set-up at the Xerox PARC facility in Palo Alto, but it was Jobs who, in 1979, perceived it differently and went on to adopt and adapt the technology for what ultimately became the first Macintosh computer, in 1984.
Xerox and Parc did not see the full potential of the GUI and have, over the years, been criticised for allowing their ideas to fall into more visionary hands.
But it could be argued that there were some projects that Xerox and Parc failed to exploit - ones that changed the world and made billions of dollars for other companies.
Hoover notes that Xerox nine years ago set up PARC as an independent (but wholly owned) business unit inside Xerox.
Stephen Hoover is CEO of PARC, a Xerox company that works with Fortune Global 500 and medium-sized companies, startups, and government agencies and partners to invent, co-develop, and deliver new business opportunities.
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Since joining PARC, a Xerox company approaching its 10-year anniversary as a business for open innovation with multiple clients, I have been focused on the following question: just what will happen to invention and innovation in this second economy?
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But today Parc, still owned by Xerox, operates independently and is very proactive.
Metcalfe's legend in tech circles grew out of Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) labs in the 1970s.
Xerox, at its Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), invented the graphical user interface, ethernet communications and the language of digital printing.
PowerCloud Systems is a spinout from the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), the legendary subsidiary of Xerox responsible for the creation of Ethernet, the Graphical User Interface (GUI), and the laser printer among other innovations.
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Xerox executives failed to grasp the potential of many of PARC's inventions and it was left to other firms to develop them fully, and enjoy the profits.
Xerox ( XRX - news - people ) PARC facility in Palo Alto, but it was Jobs who, in 1979, perceived it differently and went on to adopt and adapt the technology for what ultimately became the first Macintosh computer, in 1984.
Maybe Xerox executives thousands of miles away did not fully appreciate what was going on in Parc's top secret corridors until it was too late.
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