Norm Meyrowitz is an adjunct professor of the Practice of Computer Science at Brown University who is recognized for his work on linking and multimedia technology for the internet and for the evolution of web development software.
Myrowitz received a BS in Computer Science from Brown in 1981 and in the 1980s served as a codirector of the university’s Institute for Research in Information and Scholarship, where he led the development of Intermedia, a hypermedia system that influenced both the creator of the web and the creator of the Mosaic web browser. He coined and popularized the term “anchor,” used today as the HTML tag for links in all web pages. In the mid-1980s, he helped start two ACM conferences, OOPSLA (Object-Oriented Programming, Systems, and Languages) and Hypertext '87, which continue to this day. Following his work in academia, Myerowitz worked for several years as the director of system/user software for pen/tablet pioneer GO Corporation before transitioning to his role as president of product development at Macromedia (later acquired by Adobe). At Macromedia, he oversaw a variety of web development and multimedia products, including Shockwave, Dreamweaver, Flash, and Flash Player, the latter of which was installed on more than 90% of personal computers in its heyday in the 1990s and early 2000s.
