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Friday, March 17, 2006
"America's High Tech "Invisible Man"
By T. D. Taborn
You may not have heard of Dr. Mark Dean. And you aren't alone. But almost
everything in your life has been affected by his work.
See, Dr. Mark Dean is a Ph.D. from StanfordUniversity. He is in theNational
Hall of Inventors. He has more than 30 patents pending. He is a vice president
with IBM. Oh, yeah. And he is also the architect of the modern-day personal
computer. Dr. Dean holds three of the original nine patents on the computer
that all PCs are based upon. And, Dr. Mark Dean is an African American.
So how is it that we can celebrate the 20th anniversary of the IBM personal
computer without reading or hearing a single word about him? Given all of the
pressure mass media are under about negative portrayals of African Americans on
television and in print, you would think it would be a slam dunk to highlight someone like Dr. Dean.
Somehow, though, we have managed to miss the shot. History is cruel when it
comes to telling the stories of African Americans. Dr. Dean isn't the first
Black inventor to be overlooked Consider John Stanard, inventor of the
refrigerator, George Sampson, creator of the clothes dryer,
Alexander Miles and his elevator, Lewis Latimer and the electric lamp. All of
these inventors share two things:
One, they changed the landscape of our society; and, two, society relegated
them to the footnotes of history. Hopefully, Dr. Mark Deanwon't go away as
quietly as they did. He certainly shouldn't. Dr. Dean helped start a Digital
Revolution that created people like Microsoft's Bill Gates and Dell Computer's
Michael Dell. Millions of jobs in information technology can be traced back
directly to Dr. Dean.
More important, stories like Dr. Mark Dean's should serve as inspiration for
African-American children. Already victims of the "Digital Divide" and failing
school systems, young, Black kids might embrace technology with more
enthusiasm! if they knew someone like Dr. Dean already was leading the way.
Although technically Dr. Dean can't be credited with creating thecomputer --
that is left to Alan Turing, a pioneering 20th-century English mathematician,
widely considered to be the father of modern computer science -- Dr. Dean
rightly deserves to take a bow for the machine we use today. The computer
really wasn't practical for home or small business use until he came along,
leading a team that developed the interior architecture (ISA systems bus) that
enables multiple devices, such as modems and printers, to be connected to
personal computers.
In other words, because of Dr. Dean, the PC became a part of our daily lives.
For most of us, changing the face of society would have been enough. But not
for Dr. Dean. Still in his early forties, he has! a lot of inventing left in
him.
He recently made history again by leading the design team responsible for
creating the first 1-gigahertz processor chip.. It's just another huge step in
making computers faster and smaller. As the world congratulates itself for the
new Digital Age brought on by the personal computer, we need to guarantee that
the African-American story is part of the hoopla surrounding the most stunning
technological advance the world has ever seen. We cannot afford to let Dr. Mark
Dean become a footnote in history. He is well worth his own history book.
PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO EVERY BLACK PERSON YOU KNOW
By T. D. Taborn
You may not have heard of Dr. Mark Dean. And you aren't alone. But almosteverything in your life has been affected by his work.
See, Dr. Mark Dean is a Ph.D. from StanfordUniversity. He is in theNational
Hall of Inventors. He has more than 30 patents pending. He is a vice president
with IBM. Oh, yeah. And he is also the architect of the modern-day personal
computer. Dr. Dean holds three of the original nine patents on the computer
that all PCs are based upon. And, Dr. Mark Dean is an African American.
So how is it that we can celebrate the 20th anniversary of the IBM personal
computer without reading or hearing a single word about him? Given all of the
pressure mass media are under about negative portrayals of African Americans on
television and in print, you would think it would be a slam dunk to highlight someone like Dr. Dean.
Somehow, though, we have managed to miss the shot. History is cruel when it
comes to telling the stories of African Americans. Dr. Dean isn't the first
Black inventor to be overlooked Consider John Stanard, inventor of the
refrigerator, George Sampson, creator of the clothes dryer,
Alexander Miles and his elevator, Lewis Latimer and the electric lamp. All of
these inventors share two things:
One, they changed the landscape of our society; and, two, society relegated
them to the footnotes of history. Hopefully, Dr. Mark Deanwon't go away as
quietly as they did. He certainly shouldn't. Dr. Dean helped start a Digital
Revolution that created people like Microsoft's Bill Gates and Dell Computer's
Michael Dell. Millions of jobs in information technology can be traced back
directly to Dr. Dean.
More important, stories like Dr. Mark Dean's should serve as inspiration for
African-American children. Already victims of the "Digital Divide" and failing
school systems, young, Black kids might embrace technology with more
enthusiasm! if they knew someone like Dr. Dean already was leading the way.
Although technically Dr. Dean can't be credited with creating thecomputer --
that is left to Alan Turing, a pioneering 20th-century English mathematician,
widely considered to be the father of modern computer science -- Dr. Dean
rightly deserves to take a bow for the machine we use today. The computer
really wasn't practical for home or small business use until he came along,
leading a team that developed the interior architecture (ISA systems bus) that
enables multiple devices, such as modems and printers, to be connected to
personal computers.
In other words, because of Dr. Dean, the PC became a part of our daily lives.
For most of us, changing the face of society would have been enough. But not
for Dr. Dean. Still in his early forties, he has! a lot of inventing left in
him.
He recently made history again by leading the design team responsible for
creating the first 1-gigahertz processor chip.. It's just another huge step in
making computers faster and smaller. As the world congratulates itself for the
new Digital Age brought on by the personal computer, we need to guarantee that
the African-American story is part of the hoopla surrounding the most stunning
technological advance the world has ever seen. We cannot afford to let Dr. Mark
Dean become a footnote in history. He is well worth his own history book.
PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO EVERY BLACK PERSON YOU KNOW
Comments:
There shouldn't be one black I.T. professional that does not know this fact. I for one did not. Thanks for your blog entry.
I've linked it to my blog and will be telling others.
d.williams
http://blackprimetime.blogspot.com/
The spot for black baby boomers
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I've linked it to my blog and will be telling others.
d.williams
http://blackprimetime.blogspot.com/
The spot for black baby boomers
