Engh 101 Fall 2012, Final Exam Paper on Xerox Parc--Brief Historical Argument
For Mon Dec 17th, write a 2-3 page paper
(typed and double spaced) on one of the questions below. Include at least three in-text cites and a works-cited
page. See Diana Hacker's
Research and
Documentation Online to review citation formats. See Hacker, for
example, on how to reference
video clips on your works cited page, and how to cite a
book. Also study carefully the
sample paper on her site for how to include headers, titles, etc. Make sure
you clearly define the issue you are exploring and set out your thesis somewhere
near the beginning of the paper. Do not try and cover too much since this is a
short paper you are writing it in a limited period of time. You are
required to see one of the LLC tutors as you work on paper #4. You can
brainstorm or go over drafts. You can also meet this requirement by seeing
a tutor if you revise paper #3. In either case, include a statement of what you went
over in your session and what you changed as a result.
You can write on one of the following questions:
- "Did Xerox Blow It" by failing to market one or more of the
inventions developed at Parc? This paper covers some of the same
ground as question #2 but focus more on the claim that Xerox "blew it"
(389-398) because it failed to commercialize the inventions of its scientists and
engineers. You may want to introduce this paper
by discussing Steve Jobs visit to Xerox Parc in December of 1979 and the
questions Jobs raised about Xerox during and after his visit (Hiltzik
329-345, 423-4) .
In developing your argument, you should cover at least one invention
discussed by Hiltzik as well as his ideas on Xerox's failures and/or Clayton Christensen's notion of
disruptive innovation.
One fruitful area where you might apply Christensen's ideas would be in
explaining Xerox's relative success in commercializing the laser printer
(Hiltzik 127-144) or
Ethernet (178-192) as opposed to its failures with the Alto (261-5, 278,
283-287) or the Star (243-253, 261-270).
NOTE: You do not have time to read Christensen's book
The Innovator's Dilemma now but may want to look at it later along with
his four part
Fortune
Global Forum lecture on YouTube (New Delhi, 2007).
- Who was the most interesting and/or important figure who worked
at Parc and why?
In addition to individuals like Bob Taylor, Alan Kay, Gary Starkweather
(Hiltzik 127-144) and Bob Metcalfe (178-193) who we
have or will talk about in class, Hiltzik covers several other figures and inventions
you could write about instead (choose only one figure for paper #4). These include Charles Simonyi, Tim Mott and
Larry Tesler, who worked on the Bravo and Gypsy word
processing programs (194-210); Dick Shoup and Alvy Ray Smith, who worked on
Superpaint and video graphics (229-241); and David Liddle, who brought the
Star office system to market (242-256, 361-370).
For an introduction to some of these later options, watch the interview with
the developers of the Gypsy Word processing program,
Tim Mott and
Larry Tesler on the companion website to the book
Designing Interactions. On the same site is an interview with
David Liddle, who was the project leader on the development of the Xerox
Star. If you decide to work on Liddle and the Star, you should watch his
Xerox Star 8010 Final Demo at Xerox Parc from 1998.