John, (01)
At 01:16 PM 2/17/2005, John Toole wrote:
>Phil,
>
>Some more detailed background on each, particularly what we think we
>know about it would be very helpful. (02)
NLS/Augment is arguably the genesis of hypertext, linked media online
webs. Augment is the commercial outgrowth of Douglas Engelbart's NLS
(oN-Line System collaborative software system, developed at SRI (then
Stanford Research Institute) from approximately 1964 to 1977. (03)
Douglas C. Engelbart, at SRI, grew and directed a pioneering computer
research lab, the Augmentation Research Center (ARC). The lab, which at
its height had a staff of up to 47, pioneered modern interactive
computing and working environments. Among the lab's developments, were
"NLS" (oNLine System) which integrated the "mouse," display editing,
windows, cross-file editing, idea/outline processing, hypermedia, and
groupware, including shared-screen teleconferencing and
computer-supported meeting room capabilities. NLS/Augment is arguably
the genesis of hypertext, linked media online webs. Augment is the
commercial outgrowth of Douglas Engelbart's NLS (oN-Line System
collaborative software system, developed at SRI (then Stanford Research
Institute) from approximately 1964 to 1977. (04)
In 1977, a company called Tymshare Inc., bought NLS, hired its creator
as a Senior Scientist, and offered commercial services based upon NLS,
which they re-named Augment.. Tymshare was already somewhat familiar
with NLS; back when ARC was still operational, it had experimented with
its own local copy of the NLS software on a minicomputer called
OFFICE-1, as part of a joint project with ARC. When Tymshare was later
acquired by McDonnell Douglas in 1984, he worked with the Aerospace
Components Division of MDC on issues of integrated information system
architectures and associated evolutionary strategies, extending the work
done originally at SRI. In 1982 Tymshare was acquired by McDonnell
Douglas. Active development of NLS was more or less finished by late
1968 , and McDonnell-Douglas appears to have completely stopped working
with the product upon Englebart's retirement in 1986. (05)
McDonnell-Douglas, last known owner of the copyrights to the system
merged with Boeing in 1997 in a $13 billion stock-swap. (06)
>I would also need some idea of
>what possible backup postions I might be able to take. Email would be
>fine. (07)
The ideal would be to release Augment into the public domain.
The rationale is that the Augment system is largely of historical
interest in studying the evolution of basic computing concepts.
Making Augment freely available would facilitate the widest study
of this system by computer scientists and historians. It is important
to release the system now, while many of the people who worked
on it are still alive and able to aid in understanding its architecture
and place it in its historical context. Holding it back from this
community would serve no useful commercial purpose for Boeing. (08)
One fallback position would be to release it under some kind of open
source license to ensure that it is used only for the purpose of
study and not for commercial purposes without a commercial use
license. Alternately, Boeing might release it under a more limited
license, such as an open source or "hobbyists only" license to
ensure that it is used only for non-commercial purposes. This would
be a more complicated and less satisfactory solution because
Boeing would need to develop or select an appropriate license and
a way to enforce it. (09)
Another position that might be simpler for Boeing would be to ask
Boeing to transfer all its rights in Augment to the CHM, which will
act as a custodian of this historical artifact. Boeing may be able to
benefit from a tax write-off for the donation. The CHM could then
form a committee to recommend whether and how Augment would
be made available to the community. That essentially transfers the
burden of making the decision from Boeing to an entity that is better
qualified to make the determination. (010)
>On the Tops-20, are we now trying to get it in the public domain as an
>artifact? (011)
DEC eventually released TOPS-20 under a "hobbyists only" license.
While this is probably sufficient for most purposes, the system is
of great historical but no longer of any commercial significance, so it
would be worthwhile contacting someone at HP about modifying the
license to put TOPS-10/20 into the public domain. Hard to say
who to approach. Either Shane Robison or Ann Livermore might be
the right person to talk with, but of course they have their hands full
just now. (012)
>Although I admit to using Tops-20 myself in years past, I
>don't recall a lot of the operational specifics. (013)
It's kind of interesting that everyone of a certain age seems to have
worked on TOPS-10 or TOPS-20 at some point. That arguably makes
it one of the most influential operating systems from an historical
perspective. At one of these events, it would be interesting to take
an informal pole of how many people in the audience have worked on
one of these systems. One interesting item I just learned about
TOPS-20 is that most of the volume management capabilities that
Veritas now provides for Unix were built in to TOPS-20 three decades
ago, including disk spanning, striping, and an early form of RAID. (014)
>Thanks. (015)
Kathe and I hope to see you tonight. (016)
>--John
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Philip Gust [mailto:gust@NouveauSystems.com]
>Sent: Thursday, February 17, 2005 8:58 AM
>To: John Toole
>Cc: Peter P. Yim; Jonathan Cheyer
>Subject: Contacting Boeing
>
>John,
>
>Sorry that we didn't have a chance to talk after the meeting.
>Thanks for offering to talk with Lou Platt at Boeing about the
>legal status of NLS/Augment. I'm glad that you and Jonathan
>Cheyer had a chance to talk about it in advance.
>
>We'd really like Boeing to place NLS/Augment into the public
>domain, including copyrights and any other kind of IP. We
>discussed oter kinds of licenses, such as a "hobbyists" only
>license (as DEC did with TOPS-20), GPL, and various open
>source licenses. We concluded that none of these types of
>licenses would serve the goals of preserving NLS/Augment
>and making it widely available as well or as simply as putting
>it in the public domain.
>
>In conjunction with the NLS/Augment license issue, we also
>discussed the licensing status of TOPS-20, which is the OS
>under which NLS/Augment runs. As I mentioned, DEC made
>it available under a peculiar "hobbyists" only license. We'd
>like to recommend contacting HP to determine whether they
>would entertain releasing TOPS-20 to the public domain.
>While not as urgent as the NLS/Augment license, it is an
>impediment to making NLS/Augment widely available. We
>think that it is something HP might be willing to entertain,
>and that you and the museum are in a unique position to
>initiate this discussion.
>Peter, Jonathan and I would be happy to meet with you to
>discuss this and give you whatever background information
>you need to approach Boeing and possibly HP. Please let
>us know what we can do to help on this.
>
>
>
>Philip Gust
>Nouveau Systems, Inc.
>
>phone: +1 650 961-7992
>fax: +1 508 526-8142
>
>
>mailto: gust@NouveauSystems.com (017)
Philip Gust
Nouveau Systems, Inc. (018)
phone: +1 650 961-7992
fax: +1 508 526-8142 (019)
mailto: gust@NouveauSystems.com (020)
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