While at xerox corp.’s palo alto research Center in the 1970s, computing pioneer and visionary Alan Kay originated the idea of a computer screen with overlapping windows, a point-and-click interface and the personal computer. Not bad.

As it turns out, he had an earlier and even more fantastical 1968 vision of a product that will loom large in our collective future: the Dynabook. As he imagined it, the Dynabook would be a "portable interactive per-sonal computer, as accessible as a book." He imagined that it would be linked to a network and offer users a synthesis of text, visuals, animation and audio. The idea of the Dynabook was extraordinary in an era when affordable mini-computers cost $100,000–and the only flat panel display was a one-inch square.

Kay’s Dynabook is typically thought of as the intellectual great-grandfather of the laptop PC. That’s slightly off the mark. The real implementation of his vision is the Tablet PC, which was introduced in November. Skeptics doubt its acceptance because of some short-term shortcomings. They are dead wrong.

Unlike a laptop computer, the Tablet PC is designed to go everywhere not just as a PC but as a replacement for the kind of freeform, unstructured and visual paper-based activities that have survived the digital revolution. It boasts a powerful microprocessor and long battery life. It also connects wirelessly to other PCs and to the Internet. Numerous vendors are shipping Tablet PCs in anticipation of a computing relationship revolution.

Tablet PCs can capture and index notes, diagrams and doodles as well as provide optical character recognition to translate handwriting into digital form as MS Word documents. These capabilities are only the infrastructure for a paradigm shift in functionality. As Kay sees it, "The toughest problem has still not been fully solved … creating software that facilitates dynamic interactions between the computer and its user." In fact, software applications are beginning to appear that are specific to the Tablet PC. Some early examples:

Alias Sketchbook Pro: Collaborate with colleagues to brainstorm, trouble-shoot and make decisions. A visual sketchbook for diagrams and presentations.

Tablet Planner from FranklinCovey: Offers advanced digital planning based on the well-known paper planning system. Now you can toss your paper planner.

Microsoft OneNote: Enables people to capture, organize, reuse and share their notes. Pairs the flexibility of a paper notebook with the efficiency, organization and access of digital media.

Kay describes the ultimate approach as metamedia–holding all the media you can think of, as well as ones you haven’t thought of yet, he says. "The computer allows you to capture important ideas, whatever the form of their expression, and convey them in a way that will help other people understand them, and maybe even add to them."

That’s what the Tablet PC is all about, and that’s why it’s going to be a runaway success.