Mark D. Weiser (July 23, 1952 – April 27, 1999) was an American

computer scientist A computer scientist is a scientist who specializes in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation. Although computer scientists can also focus their work and research on ...

and chief technology officer (CTO) at Xerox PARC. Weiser is widely considered to be the father of ubiquitous computing, a term he coined in 1988. Within Silicon Valley, Weiser was broadly viewed as a visionary and computer pioneer, and his ideas have influenced many of the world's leading computer scientists.

Early life and education

Weiser was born in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, Illinois, to David and Audra Weiser. He grew up in

Stony Brook, New York Stony Brook is a political subdivisions of New York#Hamlet, hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the Administrative divisions of New York#Town, Town of Brookhaven, New York, Brookhaven in Suffolk County, New York, United States, on the No ...

. He moved to

Sarasota, Florida Sarasota () is a city in and the county seat of Sarasota County, Florida, United States. It is located in Southwest Florida, the southern end of the Tampa Bay area, and north of Fort Myers, Florida, Fort Myers and Punta Gorda, Florida, Punta Gord ...

, to study

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

at New College of Florida but dropped out in his second year when he ran out of money. He then moved to

Ann Arbor, Michigan Ann Arbor is a city in Washtenaw County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851, making it the List of municipalities in Michigan, fifth-most populous cit ...

, where he found a job as a

computer programmer A programmer, computer programmer or coder is an author of computer source code someone with skill in computer programming. The professional titles ''software developer'' and ''software engineer'' are used for jobs that require a progr ...

. While working as a computer programmer he began taking

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

classes and excelled to the point that he was directly admitted into a master's program at the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

. He studied Computer and Communication Science at the University of Michigan, receiving an M.A. in 1976, and a Ph.D. in 1979.

Career

Weiser later taught computer science at the

University of Maryland, College Park The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD i ...

and became associate chairman of the department in 1986. Weiser joined PARC (then Xerox PARC) in 1987 and became manager of its computer science laboratory in 1988, the same year he pioneered the concept of ubiquitous computing. He became PARC's chief technology officer in 1996.

Honors

In 2001, the

Association for Computing Machinery The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a US-based international learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 and is the world's largest scientific and educational computing society. The ACM is a non-profit professional membe ...

's special interest group in operating systems (SIGOPS) established the Mark Weiser Award for individuals who innovate within operating systems research. The Mark D. Weiser Excellence in Computing Scholarship Fund at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

was also established in Weiser's memory.

Personal life

In addition to his work in the field of computer science, Weiser was also the

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for the

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

experimental An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs whe ...

rock band, Severe Tire Damage, which was the first band to broadcast live over the Internet. On April 27, 1999, Weiser died of liver failure that was caused by cancer.

Ubiquitous computing and calm technology

During one of his talks, Weiser outlined a set of principles describing ubiquitous computing: * The purpose of a computer is to help you do something else. * The best computer is a quiet, invisible servant. * The more you can do by intuition the smarter you are; the computer should extend your ''unconscious''. * Technology should create calm. In ''Designing Calm Technology'', Weiser and John Seely Brown describe '' calm technology'' as "that which informs but doesn't demand our focus or attention."

Low-powered portable computing

Weiser advocated to look at performance in non traditional ways. Instead of measuring computational performance in MIPS, he focused on increasing the instructions per joule of

energy Energy () is the physical quantity, quantitative physical property, property that is transferred to a physical body, body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of Work (thermodynamics), work and in the form of heat and l ...

, pushing the

computer industry A computer is a machine that can be programmed to automatically carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (''computation''). Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as ''programs'', ...

toward low-powered portable computing.

Works

The Computer for the 21st Century
- '' Scientific American Special Issue on Communications, Computers, and Networks'', September, 1991

References

External links

Tribute Site
established at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

*
Designing Calm Technology
{{DEFAULTSORT:Weiser, Mark American computer scientists 1952 births 1999 deaths American chief technology officers Ubiquitous computing researchers Place of death missing University of Michigan alumni University of Maryland, College Park faculty People from Harvey, Illinois Scientists at PARC (company)