[SPG_Active_Members] SPG Meeting Notes

[Courtney, Lee]

Hi All,

Meeting notes from the 9/26/2007 Software Preservation Group meeting are
below. Comments, corrections welcome...

NEXT MEETING: 12/5/2007, CHM

Regards,

Lee Courtney
lee_courtney at acm.org


Software Preservation Group - Computer History Museum
Wednesday September 26, 2007
5:30-7:30pm
Meeting Room: Hopper

In Attendance
=============
Bernard Pueto
Phil Guste
Kathe Guste
Paul McJones
Lee Courtney
H. D. Gladney
Al Kossow
Paula Jabloner
Kirsten Tashev
Randy Neff
Eric Petrich
Dave Redell

Agenda
======
1) SPG next steps presentation - Al and Kirsten 20 minutes
2) Discussion 60 minutes
3) Project group updates (as needed) 30 minutes
4) Wrap-up/Next Steps 10 minutes 

Notes
=====
Kirsten presented ideas behind the slides Al and her had prepared
(attached PDF). 

Meetings have been useful, but...
- feel they can be less frequent
- want less overhead for Al
- need a leader within the group, Al doesn't have the bandwidth

Issues staff is facing...
- dealing with all the material in the Software Collection. Al has
started to read, but is only one person and cannot scale to do all the
work. Needs help with tasks of reading and processing media.
- 

Proposed new role for SPG...
- more supportive of staff
- more workshop focused than monthly meeting oriented. Currently there
are proposals for a couple workshops (Al - Software Preservation). Would
like input on more workshop ideas.
- do more oral histories around software pioneers

Discussion
----------
Presentation on surface appears to be changing charter from an proactive
substantial project orientation on par with staff work, to one where the
SPG is primarily chartered with supporting staff initiated efforts. In
other words oriented primarily towards assisting the Software Curator
and the Museum's Software Collection, rather than a peer effort where
one of the tasks being working with the Software Collection.

Pointed out that, on the surface, this appeared to be a major shift in
the Charter of the group. SPG (nee SCC) was chartered to create a
community of collection and preservation for software, strongly
associated with (if not housed) by CHM. [softwareArchive1.doc - paper by
Len for reference]. Idea was to initiate an effort to a) collect the
Top-1000 software artifacts, b) create a panel of judges to advise the
Museum on software collection, and c) at a minimum lay the groundwork
for the "Attic and the Parlor".

Per Al and Kirsten this is not the intent of the proposal - rather is to
get CHM staff the help they desperately need processing the Collection.
Consensus that this is a function of SPG - to assist the Software
Curator with collection and preservation. 

[There was more discussion on this topic, but I believe this is the
essential thrust. Please post corrections if you have more to add - Lee]

Conclusions
-----------
1. Lee will carry administrative tasks for the SPG. Notes, meeting
announcements, agendas, administrivia, coordination. 
2. Will meet face to face every quarter. Meeting will follow Al's
quarterly status report by one week. That way Al can report to SPG
progress made with the Collection. 
3. Go ahead with workshops - general agreement this is a good idea.
4. SPG will continue be a home for individual projects around collection
and preservation activities that enhance and support the mission of the
Museum. For example, FORTRAN, LISP, APL, NLS, Greenstone repository
efforts already in progress. Others as interest from members develops.
But in addition SPG will work to aid Al Kossow with the tasks associated
with processing the existing Software Collection - e.g. reading tapes,
cataloging, etc. 
5. November 7th tentative date for first workshop - Software
Preservation

Project Reports
===============
APL - Lee
No new APL progress to report as Lee has spent the last few months
helping the Museum acquire a large quantity of software (and hardware)
for Scientific Data Systems (SDS) Series 910, 920, and 930 systems.
Several hundred paper tapes, magnetic tapes, documentation for software,
etc. Now in the process of being cataloged. Essentially all the user
contributed library along with SDS developed software from 1964 on.

APL work to pick up again soon.

NLS - Phil
Have figured out a mechanism to allow people to run NLS on a DEC-20
emulator. Can use VMWare(?) to run an emulator and make available a
relatively easy to run distribution.


Action Items
============
Lee - notes
Lee - announcements and prep for next meeting in December
Kirsten - distribute CHM Mission Statement to SPG list
Kirsten - distribute oral history "Hit List" to SPG


NOTE!!!!!!!!
NEXT MEETING DECEMBER 5th
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