Xerox PARC is one of the research and technology laboratories of Xerox Corporation, specializing in networks and documents, smart matter, and knowledge ecologies. During the mid-1960s Xerox Corporation began to investigate ways to extend beyond its paper copier business. A few years later a plan was established for a scientific laboratory to develop advanced physics, materials science, and computer science technologies. The region around Palo Alto, California, was earmarked after nearby Stanford University showed a commitment to work with electronics and computer companies. This region is now collectively known as Silicon Valley.

Headed by Robert Taylor, former deputy director of the agency that established ARPAnet (the precursor to the Internet), Xerox organized in 1970 a team of renowned researchers at the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) to specialize in computer and electronics research with the mandate of "creating the architecture of information." Some of the more...