Dan Bricklin
E682900
Dan Bricklin is an American software engineer and entrepreneur best known as the co-creator of VisiCalc, the first widely used spreadsheet program for personal computers.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Dan Bricklin canonical | 6 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T7699618 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Dan Bricklin Context triple: [VisiCalc, developer, Dan Bricklin]
-
A.
Allan Kayser
Allan Kayser is an American actor best known for playing Bubba Higgins on the sitcom "Mama’s Family."
-
B.
John Simon Ritchie
John Simon Ritchie, better known as Sid Vicious, was the bassist of the pioneering English punk rock band the Sex Pistols and an icon of the 1970s punk movement.
-
C.
Gary Kildall
Gary Kildall was an American computer scientist and entrepreneur best known as a pioneer of microcomputer operating systems and the founder of Digital Research.
-
D.
Fernando J. Corbató
Fernando J. Corbató was an American computer scientist best known for pioneering time-sharing operating systems and helping to lay the foundations of modern interactive computing.
-
E.
Henny Backus
Henny Backus was an American actress and author, best known for her work on stage and screen and for co-writing humorous books with her husband, actor Jim Backus.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Dan Bricklin Target entity description: Dan Bricklin is an American software engineer and entrepreneur best known as the co-creator of VisiCalc, the first widely used spreadsheet program for personal computers.
-
A.
Allan Kayser
Allan Kayser is an American actor best known for playing Bubba Higgins on the sitcom "Mama’s Family."
-
B.
John Simon Ritchie
John Simon Ritchie, better known as Sid Vicious, was the bassist of the pioneering English punk rock band the Sex Pistols and an icon of the 1970s punk movement.
-
C.
Gary Kildall
Gary Kildall was an American computer scientist and entrepreneur best known as a pioneer of microcomputer operating systems and the founder of Digital Research.
-
D.
Fernando J. Corbató
Fernando J. Corbató was an American computer scientist best known for pioneering time-sharing operating systems and helping to lay the foundations of modern interactive computing.
-
E.
Henny Backus
Henny Backus was an American actress and author, best known for her work on stage and screen and for co-writing humorous books with her husband, actor Jim Backus.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (46)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
computer programmer
ⓘ
entrepreneur ⓘ human ⓘ software engineer ⓘ |
| areaOfInfluence |
business computing
ⓘ
personal productivity software ⓘ |
| awardReceived |
Computer History Museum Fellow Award
ⓘ
MIT Corporate Leadership Award ⓘ
linked to:
MIT awards
|
| coCreated | VisiCalc ⓘ |
| coFounded |
Software Arts
ⓘ
Trellix Corporation ⓘ |
| countryOfCitizenship | United States of America ⓘ |
| developed | VisiCalc ⓘ |
| educatedAt |
Harvard Business School
ⓘ
Massachusetts Institute of Technology ⓘ |
| employer |
Software Arts
ⓘ
Software Garden ⓘ Trellix Corporation ⓘ |
| familyName | Bricklin ⓘ |
| fieldOfWork |
personal computing
ⓘ
software ⓘ spreadsheets ⓘ |
| founded | Software Garden ⓘ |
| genre | business software ⓘ |
| givenName | Dan ⓘ |
| hasActivity |
podcasting about computing history
ⓘ
public speaking on technology and innovation ⓘ |
| hasRole |
chief technology officer
ⓘ
software architect ⓘ |
| hasWebsite | personal blog ⓘ |
| hasWritten | articles on software and entrepreneurship ⓘ |
| influenced |
Lotus 1-2-3
ⓘ
Microsoft Excel ⓘ
linked to:
Excel
development of later spreadsheet programs ⓘ |
| knownFor |
co-creating the first widely used spreadsheet program for personal computers
ⓘ
pioneering electronic spreadsheets ⓘ |
| languageOfWorkOrName | English ⓘ |
| name | Dan Bricklin ⓘ |
| notableAchievement | helped popularize personal computers in business through VisiCalc ⓘ |
| notableConcept | electronic spreadsheet ⓘ |
| notableWork |
Trellix web site building tools
ⓘ
VisiCalc ⓘ |
| occupation |
computer programmer
ⓘ
entrepreneur ⓘ software engineer ⓘ |
| residence | United States of America ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Dan Bricklin Description of subject: Dan Bricklin is an American software engineer and entrepreneur best known as the co-creator of VisiCalc, the first widely used spreadsheet program for personal computers.
Referenced by (6)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.