Editing Mark Weiser

{{short description|American computer scientist}}

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| birth_date        = {{birth date |1952|07|23}}
| birth_place       = [[Harvey, Illinois]], U.S.
| death_date        = {{death date and age |1999|04|27 |1952|07|23}}
| death_place       = [[Palo Alto, California]], U.S.
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'''Mark D. Weiser''' (July 23, 1952 &ndash; April 27, 1999) was an American [[computer scientist]] and [[chief technology officer]] (CTO) at [[PARC (company)|Xerox PARC]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/05/01/business/mark-weiser-a-leading-computer-visionary-dies-at-46.html|title=Mark Weiser, a Leading Computer Visionary, Dies at 46|last=Markoff|first=John|date=1999-05-01|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-04-09|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Weiser is widely considered to be the father of [[ubiquitous computing]], a term he coined in 1988.<ref name=":0" /> 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.<ref name=":0" />

==Early life and education==
Weiser was born in [[Chicago]], Illinois, to David and Audra Weiser. He grew up in [[Stony Brook, New York]].<ref name=":0" /> He moved to [[Sarasota, Florida]], to study [[philosophy]] at [[New College of Florida]] but dropped out in his second year when he ran out of money.<ref name=":0" /> He then moved to [[Ann Arbor, Michigan]], where he found a job as a [[computer programmer]].<ref name=":0" /> While working as a computer programmer he began taking [[computer science]] classes and excelled to the point that he was directly admitted into a master's program at the [[University of Michigan]].<ref name=":0" /> He studied Computer and Communication Science at the University of Michigan, receiving an [[Master of Arts|M.A.]] in 1976, and a [[Doctor of Philosophy|Ph.D.]] in 1979.<ref name=":0" /> 

==Career==
Weiser later taught computer science at the [[University of Maryland, College Park]] and became associate chairman of the department in 1986.<ref name=":0" />

Weiser joined [[PARC (company)|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]].<ref name=":0" /> He became PARC's [[chief technology officer]] in 1996.<ref name=":0" />

==Honors==
In 2001, the [[Association for Computing Machinery]]'s special interest group in operating systems (SIGOPS) established the [[Mark Weiser Award]] for individuals who innovate within operating systems research.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sigops.org/awards/mw/|title=The Mark Weiser Award {{!}} ACM SIGOPS|language=en-US|access-date=2019-05-02}}</ref> The Mark D. Weiser Excellence in Computing Scholarship Fund at the [[University of California, Berkeley]] was also established in Weiser's memory.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Students/Awards/21/|title=Student Award: Mark D. Weiser Excellence in Computing Scholarship {{!}} EECS at UC Berkeley|website=www2.eecs.berkeley.edu|access-date=2019-05-02}}</ref>

==Personal life==
In addition to his work in the field of computer science, Weiser was also the [[drummer]] for the [[avant-garde]]/[[Experimental rock|experimental]] [[Rock music|rock]] band, [[Severe Tire Damage (band)|Severe Tire Damage]], which was the first band to broadcast live over the Internet.<ref name=":0" />

On April 27, 1999, Weiser died of liver failure that was caused by cancer.<ref name=":0" />

==Ubiquitous computing and calm technology==
{{Rquote|right|Ubiquitous computing names the third wave in computing, just now beginning. First were mainframes, each shared by lots of people. Now we are in the personal computing era, person and machine staring uneasily at each other across the desktop. Next comes ubiquitous computing, or the age of calm technology, when technology recedes into the background of our lives.|Mark Weiser}}

During one of his talks,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jwLWosmmjE|title=Computer Science Challenges for the Next 10 Years|last=Weiser|first=Mark|date=November 1, 1996|website=YouTube|publisher=Rutgers University|access-date=7 March 2016}}</ref> 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'',<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.karlstechnology.com/blog/designing-calm-technology/ |title= Designing Calm Technology |last=Weiser |first=Mark |date= 3 May 2017 |access-date=May 8, 2019}}</ref> 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 [[Instructions per second#Millions of instructions per second (MIPS)|MIPS]], he focused on increasing the [[instructions per joule]] of [[energy]], pushing the [[computer industry]] toward low-powered [[Mobile computing|portable computing]].<ref name=":0" />

==Works==
*"[https://web.archive.org/web/20141022035044/http://www.ubiq.com/hypertext/weiser/SciAmDraft3.html The Computer for the 21st Century]" - ''[[Communications, Computers, and Networks (Scientific American)|Scientific American Special Issue on Communications, Computers, and Networks]]'', September, 1991

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book |last1=Tinnell |first1=John |title=The Philosopher of Palo Alto: Mark Weiser, Xerox PARC, and the Original Internet of Things |date=2023 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |location=Chicago |isbn=978-0226757209}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080905233018/http://www-sul.stanford.edu/weiser Tribute Site] established at [[Stanford University]]
* "[https://people.csail.mit.edu/rudolph/Teaching/weiser.pdf Designing Calm Technology]"

{{Ambient intelligence}}

{{Authority control}}

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