[rohrpost] Michael S. Hart (1947-2011)

[Karl Dietz]

>
> in memory
>
> > Michael Stern Hart (1947-2011)
> > Obituary for Michael Stern Hart
> >
> > Michael Stern Hart was born in Tacoma, Washington on March 8, 1947. He
> > died on September 6, 2011 in his home in Urbana, Illinois, at the age
> > of 64. His is survived by his mother, Alice, and brother, Bennett.
> > Michael was an Eagle Scout (Urbana Troop 6 and Explorer Post 12), and
> > served in the Army in Korea during the Vietnam era.
> >
> > Hart was best known for his 1971 invention of electronic books, or
> > eBooks. He founded Project Gutenberg, which is recognized as one of
> > the earliest and longest-lasting online literary projects. He often
> > told this story of how he had the idea for eBooks. He had been granted
> > access to significant computing power at the University of Illinois at
> > Urbana-Champaign. On July 4 1971, after being inspired by a free
> > printed copy of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, he decided to
> > type the text into a computer, and to transmit it to other users on
> > the computer network. From this beginning, the digitization and
> > distribution of literature was to be Hart's life's work, spanning over
> > 40 years.
> >
> > Hart was an ardent technologist and futurist. A lifetime tinkerer, he
> > acquired hands-on expertise with the technologies of the day: radio,
> > hi-fi stereo, video equipment, and of course computers. He constantly
> > looked into the future, to anticipate technological advances. One of
> > his favorite speculations was that someday, everyone would be able to
> > have their own copy of the Project Gutenberg collection or whatever
> > subset desired. This vision came true, thanks to the advent of large
> > inexpensive computer disk drives, and to the ubiquity of portable
> > mobile devices, such as cell phones.
> >
> > Hart also predicted the enhancement of automatic translation, which
> > would provide all of the world's literature in over a hundred
> > languages. While this goal has not yet been reached, by the time of
> > his death Project Gutenberg hosted eBooks in 60 different languages,
> > and was frequently highlighted as one of the best Internet-based
> > resources.
> >
> > http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Michael_S._Hart
> >
> > rip
> >
> >
> >
> > On 11 Jul 2005 10:52:29 [[Michael S. Hart]] wrote: ==
> >
> > <snip>
> >
> > As far as I can tell, the entire open source movement, whether you are
> > tracing it back through programming to Stallman or though eBooks to me,
> > is based on the logic of creating the symmetrical power structure only
> > available through putting things on the Internet for all to download.
> >
> > </snip>
> >
> > out of:
> > [Upd-discuss]
> > On the 'Creative Commons': A Critique of the Commons without Commonalty
> >
> > .
> >
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> "Michael Hart" <hart at pglaf.org>
> >>>> To:     "Union for the Public Domain" <upd-discuss at lists.essential.
> org>
> >>>> Subject:        [Upd-discuss] Comment on Yahoo eBook Project
> >>>> Date:   Mon, 3 Oct 2005 10:58:46 -0700 (PDT)
> >>>>
> >>>> re:
> >>>>
> >>>> http://chronicle.com/free/2005/10/2005100301t.htm
> >>>> http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,615155003,00.html
> >>>> http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051003/ap_on_hi_te/online_book_project_1
> >>>> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4304192.stm
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> Yet another consortium of multi-billion dollar institutions
> >>>> has thrown its hat into the eBook/eLibrary ring today, just
> >>>> 9 months before the 35th Anniversary of Project Gutenberg's
> >>>> placement on the Internet of the first eLibrary element, on
> >>>> July 4th, 1971.
> >>>>
> >>>> Last December 14th Google used a multi-million dollar blitz
> >>>> of television, radio and print media to announce the Google
> >>>> Print revolution: "Today is the day the world changes," but
> >>>> so far it has been difficult to get even a handful of books
> >>>> from their project, some 10 months later.
> >>>>
> >>>> I am wondering of the news media will give the same kind of
> >>>> coverage to a second such announcement, which will also put
> >>>> up an alliance of an Internet search engine giant with some
> >>>> multi-billion dollar libraries.  I will be watching all the
> >>>> news programs tonight in eager anticipation, as I was doing
> >>>> last December, but I fear that "once burned/twice cautious"
> >>>> might take some of the wind out of their sails/sales.
> >>>>
> >>>> However, this effort has one huge advantage:  "The Internet
> >>>> Archive," run by my friend Brewster Kahle.  Brewster is one
> >>>> person who has a proven ability to put an enormous resource
> >>>> on the Internet for the whole wide world to use.
> >>>>
> >>>> This different is such that I am willing to bet that Yahoo!
> >>>> gets off to a better start in the next 10 months than did a
> >>>> rather completely false start by Google.
> >>>>
> >>>> Of course, the real test will be to see how long it takes a
> >>>> project such as this to reach a million eBooks, since there
> >>>> are already well over 100,000 eBooks already available free
> >>>> for the taking on various Internet sites, perhaps 50,000 of
> >>>> them from the various Project Gutenberg sites.
> >>>>
> >>>> Here's a hope that a few years from now anyone can have the
> >>>> advantage of a million book home library, and in even a few
> >>>> years more to ten million books sitting on one inch of your
> >>>> own bookshelf next to your computer.
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> Michael S. Hart
> >>>> Founder
> >>>> Project Gutenberg
> >>>> http://www.gutenberg.org/
> >>>> _______________________________________________
> >>>> Upd-discuss mailing list
> >>>> Upd-discuss at lists.essential.org
> >>>> http://lists.essential.org/mailman/listinfo/upd-discuss
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> ------- Ende der weitergeleiteten Nachricht / End of forwarded
> message -------
> >>>> --
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> >>>> --
> >>>>
> >>>>
>