UW News

May 1, 2008

Then and now: The message of Bill Gates III

This school year, University Week, the UW campus newspaper for faculty and staff, turns 25. To note the occasion, throughout the year we’ll revisit some stories from our past, in no particular chronological order, and then providing a brief update on how things have changed over our quarter-century.

“It’s not the technology itself that’s interesting, it’s the empowerment.” That’s what Bill Gates III told an audience at the UW when he visited on Feb. 2, 1993, to help celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Computer Science & Engineering Department. University Week ran a story about the event in its Feb. 4, 1993, issue.


On that day in 1993, Gates talked about the future of computing, saying that future computers will be as different as the huge, room-filling machines of the early days were to mid-‘90s systems. “This will empower people,” he said. “One of our assumptions is that people are interested in interaction with information and prefer that to the passive nature of television viewing.”


The former Microsoft CEO struck a similarly optimistic note in his April 25 “Bill Gates Unplugged” address to a packed house at Kane Hall, which was part of the Washington Weekend celebrations. He talked of his days finding computer time at the UW, joking, “I was here a lot, but not as a student.” (See his talk on UWTV, http://www.uwtv.org/programs/displayevent.aspx?rID=24441&fID=5203.)

And while he used to speak of “a computer on every desk” he updated that to “a computer in every desk,” and other advances to come, including much more pervasive and fluid interaction with computers.



He concluded his talk — and this era of his public life, since this was the last stop on his speaking tour — telling students, “What my generation was able to do really pales in comparison to what you’ll be able to do” another 30 years from now.