InfoconDB

Presented at HOPE Number Six (2006), July 22, 2006, 2 p.m. (Unknown duration).

No description available.

Presenters:

Michael S. Hart as Michael Hart
Michael Hart started Project Gutenberg in 1971 when he was given an operator's account with $100,000,000 of computer time in it by the operators of the Xerox Sigma V mainframe at the Materials Research Lab at the University of Illinois. Michael decided there was nothing he could do in the way of "normal computing" that would repay the huge value of the computer time he had been given. So he had to create $100,000,000 worth of value in some other manner. An hour and 47 minutes later he announced that the greatest value created by computers would not be computing but would be the storage, retrieval, and searching of what was stored in our libraries. He then proceeded to type in the Declaration of Independence which was posted as the first electronic book, or eBook. The premise on which Michael based Project Gutenberg was that anything that can be entered into a computer can be reproduced indefinitely - what Michael termed "replicator technology." The concept of replicator technology is simple: once a book or any other item (including pictures, sounds, and even three dimensional items) can be stored in a computer, then any number of copies can and will be available. Everyone, everywhere, can have a copy of a book that has been entered into a computer. Creating a free electronic library has been Michael's life mission and work. More information can be found at http://hart.pglaf.org.