The Work and Vision of Ubiquitous Computing at Xerox PARC

This article explores the early development of ubiquitous computing, a research vision of computation embedded into everyday life which accompanied a concrete agenda of technological development. Attributed to Xerox PARC computer scientist Mark Weiser, this article traces the practical work of Ubiquitous Computing as deployed by Weiser in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Examining the concepts of Ubiquitous Computing alongside its prototypes, technologies, personnel, and financing reveals the often conflicting practical requirements Weiser, as manager of PARC’s Computer Science Lab, used the vision to fulfill, and contextualizes the vision’s intellectual organization within its pragmatic operation.