People – Im Memoriam

Vannevar Bush (1890-1974)

Vannevar Bush (1890-1974) was an American engineer and science administrator known for his work on analog computing, his political role in the development of the atomic bomb, and the idea of the memex, which was seen decades later as a pioneering concept for the World Wide Web. In 1945, he published the essay As we may Think, in which he describes the memex system, a visonary system augmenting human memory that can be seen as a precursor of hypertext and thus the Internet.
(In part from Wikipedia, adapted)

Bio (Wikipedia): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vannevar_Bush
Bio (Scott Griffin): www.ibiblio.org/pioneers/bush.html

Rich Gold (1950-2003)

Rich Gold (1950-2003) was an artist, composer, designer, inventor, lecturer, and writer. Equally at home in the worlds of avant-garde art, academia, and business, he worked at various times for Sega, Mattel, and Xerox PARC. Gold wrote the book The Plenitude, which has been published posthumously in 2007.
(From cover of The Plenitude)

Memorial site: richgoldmemorial.onomy.com
Review of The Plenitude

Joseph C. R. Licklider (1915-1990)

Joseph Carl Robnett Licklider (1915-1990) was an American computer scientist, considered one of the most important figures in computer science and general computing history. After early work in psychoacoustics, he became interested in information technology early in his career. Much like Vannevar Bush, J.C.R. Licklider's contribution to the development of the Internet consists of ideas, not inventions. He foresaw the need for networked computers with easy user interfaces. His ideas foretold of graphical computing, point-and-click interfaces, digital libraries, e-commerce, online banking, and software that would exist on a network and migrate wherever it was needed.
(From Wikipedia, adapted)

Bio (Wikipedia): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._C._R._Licklider
Bio (Scott Griffin): www.ibiblio.org/pioneers/licklider.html

Allen Newell (1927-1992)

Allen Newell (1927-1992) has been a pioneer in Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Science, and Human-Computer Interaction. Newell worked at the RAND Corporation and later at the Carnegie Mellon University (CMU).

Here are some of Newell's contributions:

• Logic Theorist (Logic Theory Machine, LTM), thinking-aloud protocols, the General Problem Solver (GPS), production system languages (OPS, up to OPS5), the NSS chess program, SOAR (unified theory of cognition); HCI: model human processor, GOMS model

In the HCI community, Newell is best known as co-author of the classic textbook The Psychology of Human-Computer Interaction by Card, Moran, and Newell from 1983.

Memorial page (text by Herbert A. Simon): www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/biomems/anewell.html
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Newell

Jef Raskin (1943-2005)

Jef Raskin was a human-computer interface expert best-known for starting the Macintosh project for Apple Computer in the late 1970s. Raskin left Apple in 1982 and formed Information Appliance, Inc., through which he implemented his original concepts for the Macintosh.

Raskin wrote the book The Humane Interface, in which he developed his ideas about human-computer interfaces.

Official homepage: jef.raskincenter.org/home/index.html (the former address www.jefraskin.com will be redirected to this address)
Curriculum vitae: jef.raskincenter.org/home/curriculum_vitae.html
Wikipedia article: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jef_Raskin
Feature on SAP Design Guild

John Rheinfrank (1945-2004)

John Rheinfrank was a design consultant and had together with his wife Shelley Evanson the design company seeSpace. He was the founding editor of the ACM SIG CHI software design journal Interactions. He lectured at the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management and at several universities. Rheinfrank also was, often together with his wife, a speaker at events. Both wrote a chapter (Design Languages) for the classic book Bringing Design to Software, edited by Terry Winograd.

Memorial page: http://www.underconsideration.com/speakup/archives/002009.html
seeSpace (design company): http://www.seespace.com/