Not many people would have heard of Alan Kay in India. If people have heard of him then they mostly associate him with the first object oriented programming language, Smalltalk. Alan Kay was more than language designer.

He was the first one to think about a portable computer (for kids!) way back in the 60s and 70s.  It was called the Dynabook. If you have gawked at the iPad then our industry has finally caught up with Kay's vision.  Kay also pioneered the first windowing system and enhanced the graphical user interface to an extent that Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak were bowled out looking at the future of computing. Kay turned 70 this February and he believes that the computer revolution hasn't happened yet. He has influenced more people, more businesses and professional disciplines than anyone. I was surprised to find that Accenture had drawn a lot of Kay's expertise in keeping ahead of the competition during 80s. Kay has won the Turing Award from ACM which is called the Nobel of computer science.

To celebrate his turning 70, his colleagues at the ViewPoint Institute have put together a book which has essays from some of best people in the world of technology and business he worked with. It is fun to read Kay's ideas. I believe every entrepreneur should read Kay's papers and ideas. You can download a PDF copy of the book here.