Press Release
Paris, 07/20/2004
The Worldwide Newton Association was founded in April 2004 to promote the Newton computing platform and to gather together Newton users from around the world. Its first main activity was to organize the Worldwide Newton Conference, taking place in Paris on September 4th and 5th.
Adam Tow, a Newton developer since the early days, commented on the creation of the association with these words: "I think it's a good idea to formalize a Newton community since it's all being done on an ad-hoc basis right now." The association also counts Grant Hutchinson among its early supporters, who welcomed the creation of the association with these spontaneous words: "Oh, that is cool. Count me in." Early members of the association include Larry Yaeger and Walter Smith, two essential architects of the Newton platform who worked for Apple.
Larry Yaeger lead the group responsible for the last generation of the handwriting recognition, the one that "now works", as John Sculley once wrote. Walter Smith was responsible for the NewtonScript language which is considered as one of the best prototype-based object-oriented languages ever designed. NewtonScript is a key feature of the NewtonOS, leading the foundation of the unequaled ease of use of the Newton.
These two honorary members are joined by John Sculley, who takes on the roll as Honorary President of the Worldwide Newton Association.
Born in 1939, John Sculley was a president of Pepsi Cola USA until he was appointed president and CEO of Apple Computer in 1983. During his time at Apple, John Sculley was progressively searching for a revolutionary approach to computer systems. In his visionary book Odyssey, published in 1987, he described a new device called the Knowledge Navigator. The Knowledge Navigator was perceived to be a device which could access a large networked database of hypertext information and use software agents to assist searching through that information. Apple Computer produced several concept videos showcasing the idea and subsequently became the foundation for the Newton project.
With the ideal of the Knowledge Navigator as its goal, the project became a key technology project within Apple. "Newton and many of the other related projects had some really extraordinary talent working on them", John Sculley was to write in 1998. John Sculley eventually coined the expression "Personal Digital Assistant" and used it to refer to the Newton. Newton users actually consider that the PDA acronym as having two meanings. The term Personal Digital Assistant should be used to refer exclusively to the Newton, and other hand held devices should be defined as Portable Data Access. This dichotomy stresses how much closer to the Knowledge Navigator concept the Newton is and still remains. In fact, for most Newton users the Newton is an essential assistant, some of us even call it their second brain.
John Sculley kept Apple on the "Newton track" for as long as he was CEO of the company, claiming that this was the future of computing. For that outstanding feat, we will never be able to thank him enough. Since the Worldwide Newton Association only exists because of the Newton, it is an honor and a privilege to have John Sculley as our Honorary President.
About John Sculley
John Sculley was president of Pepsi Cola USA and CEO of Apple Computer (1983-1993). His passage in both companies were marked by several management successes: Pepsi became number one in US marketshare; Apple's revenue increased from $600m to $8b. In addition to the concept of the Newton, John Sculley can be proud of the success of the Apple PowerBook, which eventually became the best selling notebook. For his achievements, he was named "Man of the Year" by Financial World in 1992 and was chosen CEO of the Decade for Marketing by Financial News Network. John Sculley is currently chairman of Verified Person.
About the Worldwide Newton Association
The Worldwide Newton Association is a legal structure created in Paris in April 2004. Its president is Ronnie Simon, one of the founding members.
One can join the association online:
http://worldwide-newton.asso.eu.org/join/
About the WorldWide Newton Conference
The Worldwide Newton Conference will take place on September 4th and 5th in Paris at the Institut Culturel Hongrois (92, rue Bonaparte, 75006 Paris). The speakers include Larry Yaeger and Adam Tow.
The full program is available online and registrations are possible online as well:
http://wwnc.newtontalk.net/
Press Contact
Nicolas Zinovieff, secretary of the Worldwide Newton Association
E-mail: nicolas.zinovieff@worldwide-newton.asso.eu.org/
Phone: +33 6 83 68 46 41
Posted by jupiter2
at 7:43 AM EDT
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Updated: Monday, 26 July 2004 7:46 AM EDT
Updated: Monday, 26 July 2004 7:46 AM EDT