Editing Dan Bricklin

{{short description|VisiCalc inventor}}
{{Infobox scientist
| image             = Dan Bricklin - 2007.jpg
| name              = Dan Bricklin
| birth_date        = {{birth date and age|1951|7|16}}
| birth_place       = [[Philadelphia]], [[Pennsylvania]], U.S.
| alma_mater        = [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] ([[Bachelor of Science|SB]])<br>[[Harvard University]] ([[Master of Business Administration|MBA]])
| known_for         = [[VisiCalc]]<br>[[wikiCalc]]
}}
'''Daniel Singer Bricklin''' (born July 16, 1951) is an American businessman and engineer who is the co-creator, with [[Bob Frankston]], of [[VisiCalc]], the first [[spreadsheet]] program. He also founded Software Garden, Inc., of which he is currently president, and [[Trellix (1995–2004)|Trellix]],<ref name="Trell.NYT">{{Cite news |last=David F. Gallagher |date=April 16, 2001 |title=Popular Web Publishing Service to Get Help From Trellix |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/16/technology/popular-web-publishing-service-to-get-help-from-trellix.html |quote=Dan Bricklin, the founder and chief technical officer of Trellix}}</ref> which he left in 2004.<ref name="EI">[http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/BRICKLIN.Fleming.HTML Daniel Bricklin Bio]. CS Dept. NSF-Supported Education Infrastructure Project. Accessed January 3, 2011.</ref> He currently serves as the chief technology officer of Alpha Software.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Software |first=Alpha |title=Alpha Software - The Team Behind Alpha Software |url=https://www.alphasoftware.com/people.asp |website=www.alphasoftware.com}}</ref>

His book, ''Bricklin on Technology'', was published by Wiley in May 2009.<ref>{{Citation |last=Bricklin |first=Dan |title=Bricklin on Technology |date=May 2009 |url=http://www.bricklin.com/bontech/ |pages=512 |publisher=Wiley Publishing, Inc. |isbn=978-0-470-40237-5}}</ref> For his work with [[VisiCalc]], Bricklin is often referred to as "[[List of people considered father or mother of a field#Computing|the father]] [[Spreadsheet#History|of the Spreadsheet]]". He was one of six people spotlighted when [[Computer|the Computer]] was denoted "Machine of the Year" by ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine in 1982.

==Early life and education==
Bricklin was born in  [[Philadelphia]], where he attended [[Akiba Hebrew Academy]]. He began his college as a [[mathematics]] major, but soon switched to computer science. He earned a [[Bachelor of Science]] in [[electrical engineering]] and [[computer science]] from the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] in 1973, where he was a resident of [[List of MIT dormitories#Bexley Hall|Bexley Hall]].<ref name="TS">[http://www.techstars.org/mentors/dbricklin/ Dan Bricklin Co-creator of VisiCalc, and Founder of Software Garden, Inc.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101231035123/http://www.techstars.org/mentors/dbricklin/ |date=2010-12-31 }}. [[TechStars]]. Accessed Jan 3 2011.</ref><ref name="EI" />

Upon graduating from MIT, Bricklin worked for Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) where he was part of the team that worked on [[WPS-8]]<ref name="Spira2011">{{Cite book |last=Jonathan B. Spira |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eC016EMcTmoC&q=%22WPS-8%22%20%20%22DEC%22&pg=PA53 |title=Overload!: How Too Much Information is Hazardous to Your Organization |date=18 April 2011 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1-118-06417-7 |page=53 |quote=...I spoke with Dan Bricklin, the co-inventor of [[VisiCalc]], who was on the team at DEC that developed WPS-8 in the mid-1970s...}}</ref> until 1976, when he began working for FasFax, a cash register manufacturer. In 1977, he returned to education, and was awarded a [[Master of Business Administration]] from [[Harvard University]] in 1979.<ref name="EI" />

While a student at Harvard Business School, Bricklin co-developed VisiCalc in 1979, making it the first electronic spreadsheet readily available for home and office use. It ran on an [[Apple II]] computer, and was considered a fourth generation software program. VisiCalc is widely credited for fueling the rapid growth of the personal computer industry. Instead of doing financial projections with manually calculated spreadsheets, and having to recalculate with every single cell in the sheet, VisiCalc allowed the user to change any cell, and have the entire sheet automatically recalculated. This could turn 20 hours of work into 15 minutes and allowed for more creativity.<ref name="EI" /><ref name="Inventors">[https://archive.today/20120527034402/http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa010199.htm The First Spreadsheet - VisiCalc]. About.com: Inventors. Accessed January 3, 2011.</ref>

==Career==

===Software Arts===

In 1979, Bricklin and Frankston founded Software Arts, Inc., and began selling VisiCalc, via a separate company named [[VisiCorp]]. Along with Frankston, Bricklin started writing versions of the program for the Tandy TRS-80, Commodore PET and the Atari 800. Soon after its launch, VisiCalc became a fast seller at $100.<ref name="EI" /><ref name="Inventors" />

Software Arts also published [[TK/Solver]]<ref>a numeric equation solving system</ref> and Spotlight, a desktop organizer for the IBM Personal Computer."<ref name="TK2.NYT">{{Cite news |last=David E. Sanger |date=April 9, 1985 |title=Lotus Set to Acquire Software Arts |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/04/09/business/lotus-set-to-acquire-software-arts.html}}</ref>

Bricklin was awarded the [[Grace Murray Hopper Award]] in 1981 for VisiCalc. Bricklin could not patent VisiCalc, since software inventions were not eligible for patent protection at the time.

Bricklin was chairman of Software Arts until 1985, the year that Software Arts was acquired by [[Lotus Development Corporation|Lotus]].<ref name=TK2.NYT/> He left and founded Software Garden.

===Software Garden===
Dan Bricklin founded Software Garden, a small consulting firm and developer of software applications, in 1985. The company's focus was to produce and market “Dan Bricklin's Demo Program”. The program allowed users to create demonstrations of their programs before they were even written, and was also used to create tutorials for Windows-based programs. Other versions released soon after included demo-it! He remained the president of the company until he co-founded Slate Corporation in 1990. In 1992, he became the vice president of [[Phoenix, Arizona|Phoenix]]-based<ref name="PhoenixAtHand">{{Cite news |last=Peter H. Lewis |date=February 9, 1992 |title=The Executive Computer; Stunning Spreadsheet, Minus Keyboard |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/02/09/business/the-executive-computer-stunning-spreadsheet-minus-keyboard.html}}</ref> Slate corporation, and developed ''At Hand'', a [[pen-based]] spreadsheet.<ref name=PhoenixAtHand/> When Slate closed in 1994, Bricklin returned to Software Garden.<ref name="EI" />

His "''Dan Bricklin's Overall Viewer''" (described by ''The New York Times'' as "a visual way to display information in Windows-based software")<ref name="NYT94">{{Cite news |last=Glenn Rifkin |date=November 13, 1994 |title=Sound Bytes; The Serenity of a Loner |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/11/13/business/sound-bytes-the-serenity-of-a-loner.html}}</ref> was released in November 1994.

==={{visible anchor|Trellix}} Corporation===
In 1995 Bricklin founded [[Trellix (1995–2004)|Trellix Corporation]], named for ''Trellix Site Builder''.<ref name="Trellix.BuildNYT">{{Cite news |last=Larry Magid |date=December 18, 2003 |title=Setting Out the Welcome Mat at Your Home on the Web |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/18/technology/basics-setting-out-the-welcome-mat-at-your-home-on-the-web.html |quote=.. to create .. web pages with a tool called Trellix Site Builder.}}</ref>

Trellix was bought by Interland (now [[Web.com]]) in 2003, and Bricklin became Interland's [[chief technology officer]] until early 2004.<ref name="EI" />

===Current work===
Bricklin continues to serve as president of Software Garden, a small company that develops and markets software tools he creates, as well as providing speaking and consulting services.

He has released [http://www.notetakerhd.com Note Taker HD], an application that integrates handwritten notes on the Apple [[iPad]] tablet.

He is also developing [[wikiCalc]], a collaborative, basic spreadsheet running on the Web.

He is currently the chief technology officer of [[Alpha Software]] in Burlington, Massachusetts, a company that creates tools to easily develop cross-platform mobile business applications.

==Affiliations==
In 1994, Bricklin was inducted as a Fellow of the [[Association for Computing Machinery]]. He is a founding trustee of the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council and has served on the boards of the Software Publishers Association and the [[Boston Computer Society]].

He was elected a member of the [[National Academy of Engineering]] in 2003 for the invention and creation of the electronic spreadsheet.

==Awards==
In 1981, Bricklin was given a [[Grace Murray Hopper Award]] for VisiCalc.<ref name="Inventors" />

In 1996, Bricklin was awarded by the IEEE Computer Society with the Computer Entrepreneur Award for pioneering the development and commercialization of the spreadsheet and the profound changes it fostered in business and industry.<ref name="IEEE">[http://www.computer.org/portal/web/awards/entrepreneur Past Recipients] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101230194733/http://www.computer.org/portal/web/awards/entrepreneur |date=2010-12-30 }}. [[IEEE Computer Society]]. Accessed January 3, 2011.</ref>

In 2003, Bricklin was given the Wharton Infosys Business Transformation Award for being a technology change leader. He was recognized for having used information technology in an industry-transforming way. He has received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Newbury College. He also became a member of the [[National Academy of Engineering]].

In 2004, he was made a Fellow of the [[Computer History Museum]] "for advancing the utility of personal computers by developing the VisiCalc electronic spreadsheet."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Dan Bricklin |url=https://www.computerhistory.org/fellowawards/hall/dan-bricklin/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130509235417/http://www.computerhistory.org/fellowawards/hall/bios/Dan%2CBricklin/ |archive-date=2013-05-09 |access-date=2019-06-06 |publisher=Computer History Museum}}</ref>

Bricklin:
* appeared in the 1996 documentary ''[[Triumph of the Nerds]]'', as well as the 2005 documentary ''[[Aardvark'd: 12 Weeks with Geeks]]'', in both cases discussing the development of VisiCalc.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Dan Bricklin |url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0108601/ |access-date=2010-08-31 |website=[[Imdb.com]]}}</ref>
* introduced the term "[[friend-to-friend]] networking" on August 11, 2000.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Friend-to-Friend Networks |url=http://www.bricklin.com/f2f.htm |website=www.bricklin.com}}</ref>
* also introduced the term [[Tragedy of the commons|cornucopia of the commons]] about the same time.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Cornucopia of the Commons: How to get volunteer labor |url=http://bricklin.com/cornucopia.htm |website=bricklin.com}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://lowendmac.com/coventry/06/1107.html Dan Bricklin interview on lowendmac.com]
* [http://www.bricklin.com/ Bricklin.com]
* {{IMDb name|id=0108601|name=Dan Bricklin}}
* [http://danbricklin.com/log/2005_11_09.htm#wikicalc I'm working on a new product called wikiCalc], from Dan Bricklin's weblog on November 9, 2005, introducing [[wikiCalc]]
* [https://www.pbs.org/cringely/nerdtv/guests/#b This page has a link to Dan's interview conducted by Robert Cringely]
* [http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470500581.html Bricklin On Technology book]
* [http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_bricklin_meet_the_inventor_of_the_electronic_spreadsheet TED Talk] – "Dan Bricklin: Meet the inventor of the electronic spreadsheet"
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORvwzo-f1Sc TEDx Talk] – "A Problem That Changed The World | Dan Bricklin | TEDxBeaconStreet"

{{Hopper winners}}
{{Authority control|state=expanded}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bricklin, Dan}}
[[Category:1951 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:20th-century American Jews]]
[[Category:American electrical engineers]]
[[Category:American computer businesspeople]]
[[Category:American computer programmers]]
[[Category:Businesspeople from Philadelphia]]
[[Category:Grace Murray Hopper Award laureates]]
[[Category:1994 fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery]]
[[Category:Harvard Business School alumni]]
[[Category:MIT School of Engineering alumni]]
[[Category:Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy alumni]]
[[Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering]]
[[Category:American chief technology officers]]
[[Category:Engineers from Pennsylvania]]
[[Category:21st-century American Jews]]