[SCC_Active_Members] the Quirks in Reviving CS books

[Lee Courtney]

Ed et al,

> p.s. another issue: what about setting up a CHM Press, 
> similar to what the AAAI did. Then people can donate the 
> copyrights to "classics" to the CHM and the CHM can choose to 
> republish (sooner or later). I am guessing that MIT Press or 
> Stanford Press would be willing to enter into a publishing 
> partnership as MIT Press did with the AAAI.
> 
> We would need an editor of the CHM imprint.  A volunteer 
> could easily do the job.

This could be as little as an "electronic" reprint. For example, Christian
Langreiter has obtained reprint permission for Knuth's A Programming
Language. Christian and I have a couple of cosmetically clean editions for
scanning. 

Facilitating publishing of classics, either bits or atoms, would be great
and CHM could provide a home for these works much as the SCC is trying to do
with software.

Talking with Allison the Museum already has a defined process for accepting
ownership of IP. Next step would be to wrap a "CHM Press" program around
"Computing Classic's Series". Doing this in conjunction with the ACM would
be great. 

Lee Courtney


> -----Original Message-----
> From: scc_active-bounces at computerhistory.org 
> [mailto:scc_active-bounces at computerhistory.org] On Behalf Of 
> Edward Feigenbaum
> Sent: Thursday, March 09, 2006 10:42 AM
> To: Bernard L. Peuto
> Cc: 'SCC active'
> Subject: [SCC_Active_Members] the Quirks in Reviving CS books
> 
> Dear Bernard and all,
> 
> Bernard's idea is a good one. I just want to remind those who 
> may or may not have participated in the ACM contest/survey, 
> that there was an important quirk in the survey.
> 
> Books that are still in print were not eligible, even if they 
> are "classics." An example is the  1963 "Computers and 
> Thought" that was edited by myself and Julian Feldman.  I 
> asked McGraw Hill to return the copyright to me and Feldman, 
> and then we donated it to the American Association for 
> Artificial Intelligence.
> AAAI Press and MIT Press then reprinted it as a "classic". So 
> it is not out of print, and therefore was not eligible.
> 
> That may have happened in the case of several other 
> "classics". For example, Knuth's famous books on the Art of 
> Programming are still in print (and sell vigorously, I think).
> 
> Anything we can do to augment Bernard's suggestion so as  to 
> handle these quirky cases?
> 
> Best wishes to all, and continued congratulations on the 
> great effort by the volunteers and the CHM staff,
> 
> Ed Feigenbaum
> 
> p.s. another issue: what about setting up a CHM Press, 
> similar to what the AAAI did. Then people can donate the 
> copyrights to "classics" to the CHM and the CHM can choose to 
> republish (sooner or later). I am guessing that MIT Press or 
> Stanford Press would be willing to enter into a publishing 
> partnership as MIT Press did with the AAAI.
> 
> We would need an editor of the CHM imprint.  A volunteer 
> could easily do the job.
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