Robert Gaskins

Robert Gaskins is an American software developer. He is one of the creators of PowerPoint, and an expert and author on the history of the English concertina.

Education and professional work

Gaskins was educated in Computer Science at University of California, Berkeley, and subsequently did interdisciplinary graduate study in literature and computing.[1]

In the early 1980s Gaskins worked five years as manager of computer science research at Bell Northern Research, an international telecommunications R&D laboratory in Silicon Valley.[1] Subsequently, he joined Forethought, Inc., where the development of PowerPoint was begun.[2]

Gaskins was the entrepreneur behind the development of PowerPoint, later known as Microsoft PowerPoint after acquisition by Microsoft in the early 1990s. Lee Gomes wrote in The Wall Street Journal:[3]

Robert Gaskins was the visionary entrepreneur who in the mid-1980s realized that the huge but largely invisible market for preparing business slides was a perfect match for the coming generation of graphics-oriented computers.

Many original documents written by Robert Gaskins during the early history of PowerPoint's strategy and development are online for public access.[4]

After leaving Microsoft, Gaskins became somewhat renowned as an expert on the history of the English concertina.[5][6][7]

References
  1. "Robert Gaskins". Retrieved 2018-03-14.
  2. Gaskins, Robert (2012). Sweating Bullets: Notes about Inventing PowerPoint. Vinland Books. ISBN 9780985142421. Retrieved 4 June 2015.
  3. Gomes, Lee (2007-06-20). "PowerPoint Turns 20, As Its Creators Ponder A Dark Side to Success". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 4 June 2015.
  4. Gaskins, Robert. "PowerPoint History Documents". Retrieved 4 June 2015.
  5. Atlas, Allan (2009-12-05). "George Grove's Article on the 'Concertina' in the First Edition of A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1878) — Introduction". International Concertina Association — Historical Document series. Retrieved 2018-03-14.
  6. "Wheatstone & Co. Concertina Ledgers at the Horniman Museum, London". Horniman Museum. Retrieved 2018-03-14.
  7. Williams, Wes (2013). "Concertina History". Concertina History Resource. Retrieved 2018-03-14.


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