Between the Lines

Larry Dignan, Andrew Nusca and Rachel King

Mitch Kapor: From Lotus 1-2-3 to Second Life

By | February 12, 2008, 5:59am PST

Summary: In this Super Techies video interview, Mitch Kapor discusses his career as a tech entrepreneur. He discusses his early experiences working on the first PC spreadsheet, Visicalc, and his subsequent founding of Lotus Development, creating the most ubiquitous business tool of its time. He also talks about competing with tech titans Bill Gates and [...]

In this Super Techies video interview, Mitch Kapor discusses his career as a tech entrepreneur. He discusses his early experiences working on the first PC spreadsheet, Visicalc, and his subsequent founding of Lotus Development, creating the most ubiquitous business tool of its time. He also talks about competing with tech titans Bill Gates and Steve Jobs; his involvement in the Electronic Frontier Foundation; the fate of his pet personal information manager project, Chandler; his attraction to the Wikipedia model of peer production; and his current role as chairman of the board at Linden Lab, creator of the virtual community Second Life.

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RE: Mitch Kapor: From Lotus 1-2-3 to Second Life
Imprecator 13th Feb 2008
The article mentions that Kapor worked with Visicalc, which was the first PC spreadsheet (and quite a success in its time), Kapor made his first dollars selling a graphics addon for Visicalc, which gave him enough money to found Lotus Development Corporation.
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First PC sreadsheet?
KTLA 12th Feb 2008
"From Lotus 1-2-3 to Second Life
In this Super Techies video interview, Mitch Kapor discusses his tech career from work on the first PC spreadsheet"

First PC spreadsheet, eh? Lotus 1-2-3? As if...
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Try reading the article.
itpro_z 12th Feb 2008
The quote is "the first PC spreadsheet, Visicalc,". Visicalc was the first spreadsheet, from what I remember, and was responsible for making the early PCs a true business tool. Some have said that it was Visicalc that motivated IBM to enter the market with their first PC.
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Yes
Sheeva 13th Feb 2008
VisiCalc pre dates Lotus and both can still do the job quite well.
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The article mentions that Kapor worked with Visicalc, which was the first PC spreadsheet (and quite a success in its time), Kapor made his first dollars selling a graphics addon for Visicalc, which gave him enough money to found Lotus Development Corporation.

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