PARC's Longevity

PARC is better than NASA

That should get your attention.

In a Harvard Business blog (http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/sviokla/2009/07/organized_information_is_the_n.html), John Sviokla argued that we need another ambitious project like NASA's Apollo on organizing information. Then, he concludes by arguing that for a cost of $100 million, PARC is a better investment than NASA's $150 billion.

With all due respect, I suspect his is a minority view. A better description is that both PARC and NASA spectacularly fulfilled their respective raison d’être in intended dimensions and beyond.

PARC's Longevity

Indeed, in my mind, a more interesting question is how has PARC kept up its role as a world leading source of technology and innovation.

For those who are looking for the Cliffs Notes version on PARC's longevity, the short answer is that PARC has continuously evolved existing know-how and invested in new ideas as each new generation of global technology and innovation come on-line.

I should start a new short series on PARC's longevity.

In the meantime, here is an interactive tool that highlights some of the milestones at PARC since 1970. (http://www.parc.com/about/milestones.html)

Organized Information at PARC

Coming back to John Sviokla's entry, PARC has a lot of investment into this precise issue. Here is a blog that talks about the notion of Augmented Reality as a way of intelligently organizing information. (http://blogs.parc.com/blog/2009/07/augmented-reality-increasing-collective-intelligence/)

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