Professor Michael Dertouzos

Citation

(2002), "Professor Michael Dertouzos", Kybernetes, Vol. 31 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/k.2002.06731aab.001

Professor Michael Dertouzos

Professor Michael Dertouzos, Director of the Computer Science Laboratory, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology-(MIT), was born in Athens on Novemeber 5, 1936. He died in Boston Massachusetts, on August 27, 2001, aged 64.

We all have reason to be grateful for the pioneering work of Professor Dertouzos. He was director of the computer science laboratory at the Massachusetts Institue of Technology and made important contributions to many areas of computing and in consequence to systems and Cybernetics. His most important contributions to the many areas of computing was undoubtedly his early and continued support for the World Wide Web Consortium, This is the body it will be recalled, that develops common web standards and keeps them free.

It is accepted, of course, that the idea of a non-profit group to guide the web had been floated by Timothy Berners-Lee, the British inventor at the first web conference in 1994 at Geneva, Switzerland. It was clear that the project needed backing from the US and Professor Dertouzos was able to secure it. The Consortium was then given a permanent home at MIT when it signed up to a partnership with the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN). The Web Consortium now has more than 400 companies and institutions as members.

Professor Dertouzos was also involved in much of the pioneering work in information technology that changed our traditional ways of doing business and in communications. It will be recalled that MIT was one of the main participants in the evolution of Arpanet, which was the precursor of the Internet. It also was a key player in the development of the X Window system which enabled computers to be shared over a network by providing easy access to remote programs. Dr Dertouzoz was also involved in many significant projects and developments including work on time-sharing systems, computer networking and also encryption of data. These initiatives culminated in many. of the projects MIT was to be involved with. For example, the current project called Oxygen, which with $50 million funding is aimed at making computers easier to use. It aims to use voice recognition and information exchange to automate and increase the efficiency of repetitive tasks.

It was Dr Dertouzos who predicted that computers will not just sit on desks but will be embedded in appliances. He was also, throughout his career involved with the political and business worlds. Amongst his many activities he chaired a White House advisory group for the redesign of the presidential information systems and was a significant contributor to the Clinton-Gore plans for a national information infrastructure. He was involved with the concepts of a global information society and contributed to initiatives in Europe and in many other continents.

He wrote a number of successful books including "What Will Be: How the New World of Information Will Change our Lives" (1997), which was translated into. 15 languages. In 2001 he wrote: Unfinished Revolution, which pointed out that the transformation of our society by the use of computers and networks has only just begun. He called for a move to "human-centred" computing. Just before his death he is quoted as saying "I consider our present state on the internet as being five per cent towards the ultimate destination of the information revolution".

No one can fail to appreciate his contribution to computer science or his vision of progress and the way in which he engaged the prestige and power of MIT to ensure that the World Wide Web remained open and free.