One of the first major efforts supported by ARPA's Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO) was the Project on Mathematics and Computation (Project MAC), the world’s first large-scale experiment in personal computing, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Orchestrated within the general context of broad-based command and control research suggested by the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and based on the vision of the founding IPTO Director, J.C.R. Licklider, Project MAC was oriented toward achieving a new level of human-computer interaction. A major thrust of Project MAC was to develop general purpose time-sharing capabilities, which later influenced the design of computer systems for commercial and defense uses. Within years of its start, Project MAC would evolve into the world’s first online community, complete with online bulletin boards, email, virtual friendships, an open-source software exchange—and hackers.
