>Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2005 10:53:17 -0800
>To: Lew Platt <lewplatt@aol.com>
>From: Philip Gust <gust@NouveauSystems.com>
>Subject: Follow-up of our discussion at HP Retiree's lunch on Computer
>History Museum
>Cc: John Toole <toole@computerhistory.org>
>Bcc: nls-restore@chm.cim3.net
>
>Lew,
>
>It was nice to see you again at the HP Retiree's luncheon this week. Your
>reflections on the HP culture gave me food for thought as a
>"retiree". It also gave my wife Kathe a new perspective as someone who is
>still with HP. We'd both like to thank you for that.
>
>When we talked before lunch, I told you that Kathe and I are involved with
>the Computer History Museum, as part of the Software Collection
>Committee. The committee is developing methods for the museum to collect,
>preserve, and exhibit software, as it currently does with hardware. We
>feel a particular urgency to act quickly, while the artifacts and some of
>the people who worked on them are still available.
>
>The committee has launched a handful of pilot preservation projects, lead
>by committee members who are familiar with some of the most historically
>important pieces of software. I am leading the project to preserve NLS
>(oNLine System), an early knowledge management system created by Douglas
>Engelbart and his team at SRI from 1964 to 1977. NLS is a seminal piece
>of software that pioneered such things as hypermedia, windowed user
>interfaces, display editing, screen sharing, and groupware. Ironically,
>the best known by-product from this work is the mouse. Doug and several
>members of his team are now advisory members for the preservation project.
>
>An issue that invariably comes up in software preservation projects is
>ownership and the right for the museum to collect, preserve, and exhibit
>the software. Kathe has researched the issue, and has discovered that
>through a series of acquisitions, Boeing is the current owner of NLS,
>later commercialized as Augment.
>
>While NLS is no longer of any commercial value, it is important for
>learning about early software architectures and development techniques.
>The last known copy of NLS/Augment, complete with all the source code and
>documentation, is running on a PC based PDP-20 emulator that a few
>volunteers help Doug maintain. Doug would like to see NLS/Augment
>preserved by the museum, and made freely available to the software community.
>
>That is why, on behalf of Doug and the Computer History Museum, I am
>asking for your help. I am requesting that Boeing formally release
>NLS/Augment into the public domain, and allow Doug and the museum to make
>it available without restriction to anyone who would like to study, use
>it, or build on the concepts that it embodies. By doing this under the
>auspices of the Computer History Museum, Boeing may even be able to
>realize some tax advantage by having it recognized as a contribution by
>the museum. John Toole, the Executive Director of the Computer History
>Museum, is open to discussing such an arrangement.
>
>I appreciate your interest in this, and your offer to help us locate
>someone within Boeing who can authorize what we are asking. In the likely
>event that it is not feasible for Boeing to trace this internally across
>all the acquisitions and mergers, I would suggest that Boeing consider
>issuing a simple letter releasing any interest it may have in the software
>to the public domain. Doug just turned 80, and I know that this would be
>the best birthday present anyone could possibly give him.
>
>Best regards,
>
>
>=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
>Background and Chain of Ownership of NLS/Augment
>
>Douglas C. Engelbart grew and directed a pioneering computer research lab,
>the Augmentation Research Center (ARC) at SRI,. 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.
>
>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. 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.
>
>McDonnell-Douglas, last known owner of the copyrights to the system merged
>with Boeing in 1997 in a $13 billion stock-swap.
>
>=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
>
>
>
>Philip Gust
>Nouveau Systems, Inc.
>
>phone: +1 650 961-7992
>fax: +1 520 843-7217
>
>
>mailto: gust@NouveauSystems.com (01)
Philip Gust
Nouveau Systems, Inc. (02)
phone: +1 650 961-7992
fax: +1 520 843-7217 (03)
mailto: gust@NouveauSystems.com (04)
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