Curt, (01)
I wanted to make sure my message got through. Our email server has
had some problems in the last week. (02)
Best regards, (03)
At 05:38 PM 3/17/2006, Philip Gust wrote:
>Curt,
>
>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.
>
>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.
>
>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.
>
>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.
>
>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.
>
>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.
>
>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.
>
>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.
>
>
>Best regards,
>
>
>Philip Gust
>Nouveau Systems, Inc.
>3120 De La Cruz Blvd., Suite 120
>Santa Clara, CA 95054
>
>phone: +1 650 961-7992
>fax: +1 520 843-7217
>
>mailto: gust@NouveauSystems.com
>
>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 (04)
Philip Gust
Nouveau Systems, Inc.
3120 De La Cruz Blvd., Suite 120
Santa Clara, CA 95054 (05)
phone: +1 650 961-7992
fax: +1 520 843-7217 (06)
mailto: gust@NouveauSystems.com (07)
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 (08)
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