As people flooded to factories during the Industrial Revolution, many tools were invented to ease the management overload. Typewriters replaced illegible handwriting. File cabinets stored more information than any clerk could remember (and also won the gold medal at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair!) Tools like these paved the way for offices as we know them today.

Fast forward to the 1950s, when computers came into the workplace. At first, they were lifeless, room-sized monsters that operated on paper and punch cards. They were used solely for number-crunching. Then something magical happened in the 1970s!

A generation of pioneers saw the computer as something far beyond a number-crunching machine. They dreamt a future where computers could amplify imagination (Alan Kay), augment intellect (Doug Engelbart), and expand our thoughts far beyond text on paper (Ted Nelson). A tool unlike anything we have seen before.