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System</title></head><body>
<div>Here was my reply to Bill Donelson:</div>
<div>At 11:07 AM -0800 3/16/04, Alan Kay wrote:</div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Hi --</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>At 6:35 PM +0000 3/16/04, William
Donelson wrote:
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Dear Alan</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Long time, no speak. I hope you are
well.</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>A friend of mine pointed out your notes
on the internet concerning my MIT work "The Spatial Data
Management System", which formed my Bachelor's Thesis of 1975 and
Master's Thesis of 1978. Dr Bolt later wrote several reports on this
work for our sponsors, as well as a book "The Human
Interface".</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Although you reference Nick Negroponte
and Dick Bolt, I have discovered that Dr Bolt has never provided any
references to my earlier works in the lab. I cannot understand
why this is, as Mr Bolt designed a completely different system which
was<b> never</b> implemented.</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>OOPS</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>The design work on the SDMS I and SDMS II
systems which were completed in the 1975-1980 time period was at least
85% my own work, assisted by Mr Chris Schmandt, Mr Joe Rice, and many
others in the Architecture Machine Group at the time. As anyone there
will tell you, Dr Bolt had little to do with the design of the
systems.</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Unfortunately, your mistaken references
are not the only ones on the internet. I am lucky to have friends who
have reported this to me, and I would certainly appreciate your
consideration in the future. (You can confirm my work with Chris
Schmandt, who is now a professor at the MIT Media Lab).</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>I believe you, and I remember your name
-- I just wasn't aware of the extent of your
contribution.</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br>
I do have a videotape of the system in action, in which Dr Bolt sits
in the chair and operates the system, which may be
misleading...</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>This is where I got a large part of my
misattribution. In fact there is a conversation between Bolt and you
on the video, along with the existential question "Who is Bill
Donelson?".</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Can you point me to the page on the
internet that needs to be corrected? Perhaps I can get it corrected.
I'm very sorry that I didn't have the correct references. I've long
been a big admirer of this work (I think it was the best single UI
design of the 70s), but for some reason, I don't have any of the
primary documentation about it, just secondary.</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Best wishes, and let's fix
it,</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Alan</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br>
Regards,<br>
William Donelson<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><tt>--</tt></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>@<br>
@ "THE most sophisticated virtual tours!"
- The Daily Mail<br>
@ http://www.armchair-travel.com for
Virtual Travel (R)<br>
@<br>
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@</blockquote
>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br></blockquote>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<div>At 9:54 PM -0500 3/16/04, Alan Grimes wrote:</div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>This sounds interesting but I think you
e-mailed the wrong person. =\<br>
<br>
William Donelson wrote:<br>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Dear Alan<br>
<br>
Long time, no speak. I hope you are well.<br>
<br>
A friend of mine pointed out your notes on the internet concerning my
MIT work "The Spatial Data Management System", which formed
my Bachelor's Thesis of 1975 and Master's Thesis of 1978. Dr Bolt
later wrote several reports on this work for our sponsors, as well as
a book "The Human Interface".<br>
<br>
Although you reference Nick Negroponte and Dick Bolt, I have
discovered that Dr Bolt has never provided any references to my
earlier works in the lab. I cannot understand why this is, as Mr
Bolt designed a completely different system which was* never*
implemented.<br>
<br>
The design work on the SDMS I and SDMS II systems which were completed
in the 1975-1980 time period was at least 85% my own work, assisted by
Mr Chris Schmandt, Mr Joe Rice, and many others in the Architecture
Machine Group at the time. As anyone there will tell you, Dr Bolt had
little to do with the design of the systems.<br>
<br>
Unfortunately, your mistaken references are not the only ones on the
internet. I am lucky to have friends who have reported this to me, and
I would certainly appreciate your consideration in the future.
(You can confirm my work with Chris Schmandt, who is now a professor
at the MIT Media Lab).<br>
<br>
I do have a videotape of the system in action, in which Dr Bolt sits
in the chair and operates the system, which may be
misleading...</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br>
Regards,<br>
William Donelson</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
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