Why recall forgotten pioneers?

Human-computer interaction is only one specific kind of mediating interface. If we want a broader understanding of interactions, we should be willing to think about other and earlier kinds of interfaces. Bibliographies are a kind of mediating interface between a reader and literature; there are “soft” technologies such as categorization schemes and indexing systems that mediate in both digital and non-digital technologies, and people as intermediaries are, in a sense, interfaces.

The following four pioneers - interested in interfaces, from this very broad definition - have been widely forgotten, until the recent revival of interest in the history of the organization of information…