Mitch Kapor: The Lotus Developer Who Pioneered Desktop Collaboration
Mitch Kapor: The Lotus Developer Who Pioneered Desktop Collaboration Mitch Kapor is one of the most influential figures in the development of the personal computer. He is best known for founding Lotus Development Corporation and inventing Lotus 1-2-3, the first widely used spreadsheet software. He also founded the Electronic Frontier Foundation and was the first chairman of the Mozilla Foundation. Born in 1950s in Brooklyn, New York, Kapor was a precocious student with a penchant for problem-solving and machines. He studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), graduating with a degree in psychology in 1973. In the late 1970s, he founded Software Arts, a software consultancy that eventually led to the invention of the first widely-used spreadsheet program, Lotus 1-2-3. Developing Lotus 1-2-3 was revolutionary, as it allowed users to run complex calculations and analysis on their own computers, instead of relying on large mainframes. The program also enabled users to wo...