This sounds interesting but I think you e-mailed the wrong person. =\

William Donelson wrote:

> Dear Alan
>
> Long time, no speak. I hope you are well.
>
> 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".
>
> 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.
>
> 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.
>
> 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).
>
> 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...
>
> Regards,
> William Donelson
>