Clarence Ellis (computer scientist)
| Clarence "Skip" Ellis | |
|---|---|
| Born | Clarence Arthur Ellis 11 May 1943 Chicago, Illinois, USA |
| Died | 17 May 2014 (aged 71) Boulder, Colorado, USA |
| Residence | Boulder, Colorado, USA |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | Computer Science, Groupware, Computer-supported cooperative work, Workflow |
| Institutions |
Ashesi University College University of Colorado, Boulder University of Texas, Austin Xerox PARC Stanford University Massachusetts Institute of Technology Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation |
| Alma mater |
Beloit College University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
| Thesis | Probabilistic Languages and Automata (1969) |
| Doctoral advisor | David E. Muller |
| Doctoral students | Kwang-Hoon Kim Karim Keddara Paulo Barthelmess Aubrey J. Rembert Carlos Maltzahn |
Clarence "Skip" Ellis was an American computer scientist, and Emeritus Professor of Computer Science and Cognitive Science at the University of Colorado at Boulder. While at the CU-Boulder, he was the director of the Collaboration Technology Research Group and a member of the Institute of Cognitive Science. Ellis was the first African-American to earn a Ph.D. in Computer Science (1969), and the first African-American to be elected a Fellow of the ACM (1997). Ellis was a pioneer in Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) and Groupware. He and his team at Xerox PARC created OfficeTalk, one of the first groupware systems. Ellis also pioneered Operational Transformation, which is a set of techniques that enables real-time collaborative editing of documents.
Clarence Ellis was born on May 11, 1943 in Chicago, Illinois. In 1958, at age 15, Ellis applied for a job as a graveyard shift computer operator at the manufacturing firm Dover to earn money to help his family. He was offered the job because he was the only applicant. Although his job title was computer operator, his main duties were to walk around all night and be visible to prevent break-ins, and to watch over, but not touch, the company's new computer. At the time, Dover's computer was based on vacuum tube technology (2,400 vacuum tubes), used punch cards as input and output, and filled an extremely large room. In Ellis' free time on the job, he read and re-read the dozens of computer manuals that came with the machine. He taught himself as much as possible about the machine without touching it. Two months after he started the job, Ellis helped the company through an emergency. They had run out of unused punch cards, and needed to use the computer to process payroll by morning. During the emergency, Ellis was the only one who knew how to recycle the used punch cards. He lifted the hood of the computer and disabled the parity check circuitry. The used punch cards were recycled and the company was able to process the payroll. After this experience, the company began to seek him out whenever they had computer problems, and even asked him to operate and program the computer for them. Ellis states that this experience helped ignite his passion for computing.
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