01/01/06 intro.me

01/01/06 intro.me
Also see "The Education Of Michael Hart"


An Introduction To Michael S. Hart


Much of me is obvious, at least to those who know me,
but I have packed as much as I can into my ~60 years,
"burning my candle at both ends with a blowtorch," so
it make take a little while to even cover the basics.

The most basic thing about me is that I wake up every
day with the desire to make the world a better place.

Most of the entries here will be attached to an essay
or article I have written, and I will try to post any
relevant ones to my blog and give their filenames.

The top line in most of these is the date I started a
piece and the filename.  In the blog a .txt is added.

intro.me becomes intro.me.txt to keep browsers happy.

Most of these files have right hand justification put
in as I write them, and would appear correctly in any
program that honors hard returns and mono-spacing.  I
can't guarantee how proportional spacing would look--
it totally depends on your choice of font and size.

*

There are times when I don't know whether to start at
the beginning or the end or with principal thoughts.

Today I feel it should be principal thoughts.

*

Even at the age of one I was aware of mathematics, as
my mother was quite famous for teaching math teachers
around the nation and the world.  My earliest memory,
related elsewhere, is demonstrating math skills to my
godfather, Jim Siburg; I thought this was just before
my second birthday, but he assures me it was probably
nearly half a year earlier.

I didn't realize the mathematical relationship levers
had at the time, but I did realize that leverage is a
VERY powerful force, and that if I learned to use it,
I could literally move mountains.

The mountain I chose to move was the mountain made up
of ignorance and illiteracy.

"Break Down The Bars Of Ignorance And Illiteracy" was
the first Mission Statement of Project Gutenberg, the
central feature of my life and career.  The second is
"Encourage The Creation And Distribution Of eBooks."

*

I should also add that I am a very lucky person.

I can probably list dozens of lucky events that I can
say there wouldn't be a Project Gutenberg without.

Anyone who does something as big as Project Gutenberg
without acknowledging luck is not at all like me.

It would take too much time to list them all here.

I suppose I can't say that having great parents is in
the category of luck, as they created me on purpose--
but they should get more credit that anyone can give.
I would have to give them a score of 98 or 99, and it
would probably be unfair not to mention that I should
not have been as strong without my brother.

In an even more direct manner, my brother is somewhat
responsible for the creation of Project Gutenberg, as
it was his college roommate who gave me the account I
used to make the very first step on the path in 1971,
the path that became Project Gutenberg, on what later
became the Internet.

I was just the right person at the right place at the
right time with the right sense of leverage, combined
with the right sense of idealism, and a background in
both electronics and books.

People always ask me how I came up with the idea, and
my response is always that it obviously couldn't have
been as hard for me as it would have been for someone
else, or I wouldn't have been able to do it.

I could do it because I grew up in a home full of the
right combination of books and electronics, which was
a very rare thing in the early 1950's, and with great
respect for those books and electronics, which may be
just as rare, even today.

[I should mention that my parents each had 3 careers,
and met as codebreakers in WWII.]

My Dad was an English professor and hi-fi nut, and my
Mom taught me math, literally on her knee, and a nice
combination was just right for me to make the leap to
combine Shakespeare and computers when the time came.

That's how Project Gutenberg began.

Why it continued was due to understanding of leverage
and the willingness to keep cranking away at the huge
lever of the Internet for 17 years before anyone gave
me any responses, other than that I was crazy to want
to put books into computers.

My luck also includes the help of department heads at
major universities, professors, computer geeks and an
incredibly wide assortment of some 40,000 persons who
have volunteered to help with Project Gutenberg, with
nothing to show for it other than the accomplishments
of building the first eLibrary, and my thanks.

I should also mention a few friends who helped me get
through some very rough times, and at least one who I
can tell you has helped me nearly every single week--
but none of them want the credit.

I have dedicated my life to bringing education and/or
literacy to as many people as possible, trying to get
a sort of "Neo-Industrial Revolution" started, to put
the knowledge of the world in the hands of everyone.

There will be entire articles in this series about an
assortment of people who have tried to stop me, or at
least to slow down the process.

Hopefully I will be able to provide a balanced report
including equal portions of the positive and negative
aspects of my career, and how the world views it.

Suggestions and comments always welcome.

Michael Stern Hart
Internet User ~100
Founder
Project Gutenberg