Deta
About Deta
Deta is a company whose purpose is to design computing products to help people think better.
We want to create delightful experiences that enhance human intelligence in the many forms it presents, whether understanding, decision making, or creativity. That's our starting point.
Deta Surf is a notebook for the internet that aims to put us — the user — in the middle of the information important to us and help us think and create on top of it. Here's more of our thinking behind it.
Personal computing for an intelligent world
Many of the best ideas start in personal notebooks
Notebooks are deeply personal. They contain our most private thoughts, but have also resulted in many of humanity's greatest discoveries. It's a deeply rich and personal medium supporting a depth and diversity of creative thought.
Personal computers and web browsers
Today, we do much of our thinking on personal computers, but the web browser has taken over it.
On the one hand, it makes sense, because the web is so engaging and powerful. But there are two big problems.
First, it's a tool for consuming, not creating.
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Second, it's not personal. It's taken our data and splattered it all over the web.
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Deta Surf
Deta Surf is an intelligent multi-media notebook that takes a swing at this problem. It's early, but reflects ideas that we wanted to see for reclaiming our data, our place in the middle of it, and our role: not only as a consumer, but as a creator.
Surf is built to be personal & open. This means data is stored locally in open formats, code is open source, and the user can choose AI models (including local!).
Surf is modern, in the sense that you can plug the web directly into AI as you think through a problem and create something new.
But its design was also inspired by much older ideas — early personal computers, desktop operating systems, early browser environments like Hypercard & the humble but mighty personal notebooks that we still find ourselves going back to. Many decisions reflect this, and owe a deep debt to them.
Acknowledgements
Building Surf has been a journey that started long before the first line of code was written. It builds on the foundations laid by our earlier explorations — Space, Base, Drive, and Micros — and carries forward the spirit of making computing more personal and accessible.
To the people who inspired and shaped our ideas; to our community cheering us along; to our investors, family & friends supporting us; and to every team member who contributed: thank you.
The Deta Team,
past and present
