It surprises me, in retrospect, that Sun Microsystems didn't give Englebart an office, some equipment, and a couple of assistants, at least. This doesn't seem like a huge expense for a company the size that Sun got to be, and I was under the impression they had a few groups doing exploratory stuff, of various kinds, already.
But I know no specifics, such as whether he approached them or what they might have said.
Did you ever try finding funding for an ambitious project? Companies generally laugh at you, unless you can achieve something within 3 months (which is a typical time scale) or already work there and do other jobs. Speaking from experience here, despite the fact that my stuff is nowhere near as interesting as Engelbart's.
When I visited Logitech US headquarters in 2001 Guerrino de Luca mentioned Doug Engelbart having office space for his endeavours as a 'thank you' for paving the way for their initial product.
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It surprises me, in retrospect, that Sun Microsystems didn't give Englebart an office, some equipment, and a couple of assistants, at least. This doesn't seem like a huge expense for a company the size that Sun got to be, and I was under the impression they had a few groups doing exploratory stuff, of various kinds, already.
But I know no specifics, such as whether he approached them or what they might have said.
Did you ever try finding funding for an ambitious project? Companies generally laugh at you, unless you can achieve something within 3 months (which is a typical time scale) or already work there and do other jobs. Speaking from experience here, despite the fact that my stuff is nowhere near as interesting as Engelbart's.
But companies such as IBM have a longer time span.
Logitech did something like this in the 1990s. Couldn't tell you the specifics, but you'd see Engelbart around their offices.
When I visited Logitech US headquarters in 2001 Guerrino de Luca mentioned Doug Engelbart having office space for his endeavours as a 'thank you' for paving the way for their initial product.