My wife and I have different tech heroes. She is a fan of Doug Engelbart. I have always admired Bill Atkinson. Mr Atkinson worked for Apple as a graphics person. He wrote MacPaint and later one of the most influential computer programs of all time – HyperCard. A triangulation interview with Mr. Atkinson provides some insight into his creativity and productivity while at Apple.
I spent possibly more than a thousand hours creating stuff in HyperCard. At one time, I had 200 disks with my first study skills system available to students in the UND library. HyperCard was the perfect example of a low floor and high ceiling digital creativity app. I wish Apple would not have decommissioned it. This was before the days of coding for all and computational thinking, but it would be the perfect tool for developing these competencies.
Atkinson continues to do creative, visually-oriented things to this day. His recent work focuses on digital printing and postcards. His interest in postcards is based in his concern that our focus on digital imagery leaves behind little in the way of physical artifacts. What will be available to the next generation to provide a record of previous generations? Will digital imagery be passed on and examined? I do think this is something we all need to consider.
Atkinson’s partial solution is to encourage the continued use of postcards and he has attempted to offer a service that allows anyone to send high quality postcards using personal imagery. These are large in size and laminated for increased longevity and quality. We have used his application for the iPad during our trips and the quality is as advertised. There are now similar apps. I can’t say I have tried them because I like Atkinson’s message and his commitment to this idea.
“This is a labor of love. I want to see the postcard rescued. It’s going to die, if we don’t do something,” he said. “I am now a digital postal worker — I shepherd along these little packets of love. Nobody sends hate mail on a postcard. I want it to be beautiful, not like junk mail.” [comment from Atkinson]
