Curt, (01)
The Computer History Museum's Software Collection Committee has
several test bed projects aimed at developing methodologies for
collecting and preserving software, as the CHM currently does for
hardware and other artifacts. I'm leading the NLS/Augment
restoration project. We have several team members, including
Jonathan Cheyer, Adam's brother. We also have several advisory team
member, including Doug Engelbart and Jeff Rulifson. I've first met
Doug in 1986, when I was just starting the collaboration technologies
group at HP Labs. (02)
The reason I'm writing is to ask for your help. One of the major
goals of the project is to make the NLS/Augment system itself,
together with its source code and documents available for study and
new development on a non-commercial basis.
We've successfully cloned NLS/Augment, and are in the process of
creating a installable version. (03)
One idea we've considered is to release a DVD to coincide with SRI's
60th anniversary. The DVD would include an installable version of
NLS/Augment, extracted documentation and source code, related
literature, a bibliography, a set of web pages to organize the
collection. It would also include a new Java based AugTerm we have
built that runs as an applet in a web browser and works with the SRI
chord keyset and a mouse. (04)
Before doing that, though, we need to ascertain the status of
copyrights to the system and related documentation. We've spent over
a year tracing ownership and getting copyright releases from
potential owners along the way. No one claims to own it, although we
have evidence that all of them have at one time or another. In short,
NLS/Augment appears to be an orphaned work from a copyright standpoint. (05)
Our strategy has been to get releases from each of them to the effect
that they have no records of owning it, but have no problem for their
part with CHM releasing copyrighted material on a non-commercial
basis. Thanks to help from Lew Platt at Boeing and Vint Cerf who used
to be at MCI, we have releases from Boeing and British Telecom, and
expect to have one from MCI shortly. (06)
The final release we need before asking the CHM legal committee to
approve our moving forward is from SRI. We realize that that SRI
sold NLS to Tymshare, but having such a release would provide
documentation covering the SRI to Tymshare part of the story and
enable us to complete our case for NLS/Augment being an orphaned work. (07)
If you are willing to authorize such a release, please let me know
who at SRI I should work with. I can provide the text for existing
releases as examples of what we're looking for. (08)
I should mention, too, that we're also investigating the feasibility
of creating reproduction chord keysets and possibly mice, since we
anticipate that the release of NLS/Augment, together with Doug's new
Hyperscope project, will generate renewed interest. I've discussed
this idea briefly with Adam Cheyer and John Toole, and I'd like to
discuss it with you at some point to see if something might be done
jointly with SRI, CHM, and possibly Logitech. I should have a
detailed proposal ready within a month. (09)
Best regards, (010)
Philip Gust
Nouveau Systems, Inc.
3120 De La Cruz Blvd., Suite 120
Santa Clara, CA 95054 (011)
phone: +1 650 961-7992
fax: +1 520 843-7217 (012)
mailto: gust@NouveauSystems.com (013)
Nouveau Systems products seamlessly integrate collaboration,
information management, processes automation, and capture of
mission-critical knowledge. To learn how Nouveau Systems products
can help your organization drive innovation, visit:
http://www.NouveauSystems.com (014)
_________________________________________________________________
Message Archives: http://chm.cim3.net/forum/nls-legal/
Shared Files: http://chm.cim3.net/file/work/project/nls-restore/
Community Portal: http://www.computerhistory.org/
To Post: mailto:nls-legal@chm.cim3.net
Community Wiki: http://chm.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?NLS_Restoration (015)
|