Leonardo's Laptop, 2000-2004

Series IX consists of book proposals, chapter drafts and notes, proposed illustrations, permission requests, peer reviews, correspondence, publication publicity, reviews and powerpoints, publicity flyers etc. from presentaton around the world, regarding the preparation, writing and publishing of Shneiderman's book entitled Leonardo's Laptop: Human Needs and the New Computing Technologies, which was published in 2002 by MIT Press. In this book Dr. Shneiderman sought to raise computer users' awareness of what technology could do for them and to challenge hardware and software developers to build products that support human needs. He proposed Leonardo Da Vinci as an inspiration muse for "new computing" and asked how Da Vinci might have used a laptop and what applications he might have created. Shneiderman sought to shift focus from what computers can do to what users can do. A key concept was "universal usability" for young, old, novice, expert, abled and disabled. The book proposed new applications in education, medicine, business and government, and also addressed larger questions of technology's potential to support creativity, consensus-seeking and conflict resolution. The book also challenged assumptions about trust, privacy and the digital divide and drew from the thinking of Rachel Carson, Freud, Lewis Mumford, Ralph Nader, C. P. Snow and Frank Lloyd Wright.

Arrangement is in order as received from Ben Shneiderman.