I would call Xerox PARC as "Inspiration PAR'K'". It structured the way we compute everyday. I was so connected and inspired from Xerox PARC. 3 reasons (i) Gooey, (ii) The Alto and (iii) My advisor Jack Carroll worked as visiting scientist.

Establishment and Leadership

Foundation (1970)

Founded in 1970 by Xerox Corporation to diversify beyond the copier business and enter the office systems market

Located in Palo Alto, California, deliberately distant from Xerox headquarters

Key Leadership Chain

Jack Goldman (Xerox Director of Research): Initiated PARC's creation and recruited George Pake.

George Pake (PARC Director): Former physicist and Provost of Washington University; recruited Bob Taylor.

Bob Taylor (Computer Science Lab Manager): Former Director of ARPA's Information Processing Techniques Office; known for exceptional research management; co-managed CSL with Jerry Elkind; recruited many key researchers.

Research Laboratories

Computer Science Laboratory (CSL)

Led by Bob Taylor.

Focus: Systems research and hardware development.

Key Projects: Alto, Ethernet, laser printing.

Systems Science Laboratory (SSL)

Where Alan Kay's group worked

Focus: Software systems and user interfaces.

Key Projects: Smalltalk, dynamic object-oriented programming.

Key People and Their Contributions

Hardware Team

Chuck Thacker: Led Alto hardware design; principal designer of the processor and display controller.

Butler Lampson: System architecture and software design; contributed to many aspects of Alto development; emphasized simplicity.

Ed McCreight: Worked on disk controller development; contributed to Alto's microcode.

Bob Metcalfe & David Boggs: Developed Ethernet; Metcalfe initially worked on ARPANET connection.

Gary Starkweather: Developed laser printing technology; created the scanning laser output terminal.

Software and Research Team

Alan Kay: Developed the Dynabook concept; led the Smalltalk development team.

Dan Ingalls: Developed the BitBlt primitive; key contributor to Smalltalk.

Jim Mitchell: Worked on compiler development; contributed to Mesa language development.

Stuart K. Card: Pioneer in Human-Computer Interaction; developed the Model Human Processor; co-authored seminal works on HCI.

Ron Rider: Worked with Butler Lampson on the Research Character Generator (RCG); contributed to laser printing development.

Major Technical Achievements

Hardware Systems

• Alto Computer (1973): First personal computer with a graphical user interface (GUI), bitmap display, mouse interface, and window-based UI.

Relatively simple processor – only 160 chips in 1973.

Used 16 program counters for multitasking.

• Ethernet (1973-1974): Initially 2.94Mb/s, later standardized to 10Mb/s; local area networking with collision detection.

• Laser Printing: EARS (Ethernet Alto Research character generator and Slot); Dover printer; later became the Xerox 9700 commercial product.

First commercial laser printer: IBM 3800 (1975).

Hardware Systems

Smalltalk: First complete object-oriented programming environment; influenced modern programming languages; real object-oriented programming (distinct from contemporary OOP).

Mesa Programming Language: Used in the Xerox 8000 network system; advanced programming language features.

WYSIWYG Text Editors (Bravo and Gypsy): Influenced modern word processors.

PUP (PARC Universal Packet): Influenced TCP/IP.

Commercial Impact and Products

Xerox Star 8010 (1981): $17,000; complete office setups over $50,000; ~25,000 units sold.

HP LaserJet (1984): $3,500 (equivalent to $8,500 today).

Early Television Exposure

1979: PARC created a television commercial for the Alto showcasing email and printing.

Filmed in PARC's lobby using actual employees.

Later Developments

1988: Pioneered "ubiquitous computing" concept.

1991: Created early tablet prototypes: PARCTab (palm-sized) and a 5-pound tablet.

Contributed to IPv6 and HTTP-NG protocols.

2002: Spun off as an independent Xerox subsidiary.

Alumni founded influential companies like Adobe and 3Com.

Three researchers became Turing Award winners.

Impact and Legacy

Influenced the development of Apple Lisa and Macintosh, Microsoft Windows, modern personal computing interfaces, object-oriented programming, Ethernet networking, and laser printing technology.

Return on investment estimated at $35-50 trillion to the world.

The laser printer alone returned 200x the entire PARC investment.

Many innovations became foundational to modern computing.

Contributed significantly to early internet development through the PARC Universal Packet system.

Recruitment Patterns

University Connections: Berkeley Computer Corporation alumni, Carnegie Mellon University, MIT, University of Utah.

ARPA Network: Bob Taylor's connections from ARPA; research community relationships.

Industry: Xerox internal transfers (like Starkweather); other tech companies.

Culture and Environment

Exceptional talent – reportedly had "50 of the top 100 computer scientists."

Intense intellectual discourse and productive arguments ("Type Two" arguments focusing on understanding).

Emphasis on simplicity in design and implementation.

Subsidized lunch rooms to encourage collaboration and idea sharing.

Rapid project development due to minimal bureaucracy.

Researchers were highly skilled and deeply critical thinkers.

Located near Stanford University.

Built their own hardware (Alto) to "live in the future."

Focused on solving real problems rather than theoretical ones.

Emphasized practical experimentation over optimization.

Made enough working examples of inventions for widespread use.

Belief in "living in their own mess" – using what they created.

Relationship with Xerox

Part of Xerox's attempt to diversify beyond copiers.

Established because ARPA (now DARPA) reduced funding for computing research.

Xerox "fumbled the future" by not commercializing many key innovations due to the "innovator's dilemma."

Legacy Issues

Former employees note PARC failed to effectively commercialize many innovations.

Some argue the Xerox Star wasn't a failure but simply ahead of its time.

PARC continues work in AI, IoT, digital manufacturing, and workplace technology.

Key Quotes

"The best way to predict the future is to invent it" – Attributed to PARC researchers.

"Things go a lot better when you actually solve a problem."

"I didn't know it was hard" – Ivan Sutherland.

Bob Taylor's team philosophy: "Type Two" arguments – focusing on illumination rather than winning.

On PARC's practical approach: "Don't even worry…if you've got some crazy guy who's really good or girl who's really good, don't worry about what they want to do, give them some money and see what happens."

"The purpose of arguing is not to win but to illuminate."

Butler Lampson was "always pounding for simplicity."

Some the people I read their work on HCI + Somewhere I heard, Who connected to PARC!

John M Carroll, Susanne Bodker, Bill Buxton, Stuart K Card, Elizabeth F Churchill, Paul Dourish, Keith Edwards, Jerome Elkind, Bill English, Adele Goldberg, Marti Hearst, Bruce Horn, Dan Ingalls, Ted Kaehler, Alan Kay, Ralph Kimball, David Levy, Jock D Mackinlay, Thomas P Moran, Martin Newell, Daniel Russell, Robert Taylor, Larry Tesler.

References

Card, S. K. (n.d.). Talk by Stuart K Card. YouTube. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/LO4_FAHwXz8?si=iQieEpitf-skdhAj

Card, S. K. (n.d.). Talk by Stuart Card. YouTube. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/DYy7uWSvn6o?si=TqLlkWHYKGzi9dhQ

Kay, A. (n.d.). Talk by Alan Kay. YouTube. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/dZQ7x0-MZcI?si=tv1n8rGDMLc54CjF

Kay, A. (n.d.). Talk by Alan Kay, Turing Award. YouTube. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/ymF94cFfzUQ?si=8t2QAczAsRH-9jUo

Read byte magazine atricles related to Xerox PARC.