Date: Mon, 03 Dec 2001 07:17:35 -0500

Mr. Rod Welch
rowelch@attglobal.net
The Welch Company
440 Davis Court #1602
San Francisco, CA 94111 2496

Subject:

Publication Online Mental Augmentation

Good morning, Rod.

Much appreciate your response and your interest as demonstrated by pulling some previous, related correspondence together.

There are a few things that need clarification on my part:

1. My idea was that you become the managing editor, using your management tool.

2. The managing editor's role is primarily an organizational one, i.e. project management. This includes ways and means, project efficiency, these kind of things. Initially, this would include attracting volunnteers willing to take on specific tasks.

3. The e-journal was "officially" started after Doug had agreed to this duting my visit in May of this year. I had some experience with this kind of shoestring operation prior to joining the Institute as volunteer webmaster. There was some strong advocacy among Doug's friends to get the journal going.

Fleabyte, as an e-journal introduces and must continue to introduce some novel, experimental ways of working. Question is whether the outcomes of these may be legally protected for potential revenue generation for Bootstrap, or for Fleabyte (to pay people), or both. The traditional view of editorial funding through advertising is out. I guess that PBS (public broadcasting) is the better model. I imagine that this would be a serious concern for a managing editor. Myself, I just haven't got the time to even contemplate such matters. I am not looking for personal revenue, but wish to avoid much personal expense.

I see that much of my "editorial time" need to go to study literature on the "human side" of the augment equation. (Most people in the Valley work on the "tool side," a part for which I am not well equipped.) I believe that effective augmentation - as a future way of life - is more than screwing digital tools onto insufficiently well understood minds and must take into account that the brain is more than an info processing machine in the sense we ordinarily perceive that, i.e. without regard for private emotional and cultural factors, etc.

My present conduct is geared mainly toward developing Fleabyte as a demo of the shaping a DKR in an e-journal setting more than to maximizing content publishing, but not ignoring the latter.

So, here is the short of it. You probably will sit on this for awhile and may have some more questions. It is well to give things a good thought.

I am cc'ing Bootstrap's CPCtee so as to be sure, in all fairness to all, nobody will be faced with surprises.

Sincerely,

Henry

Henry K van Eyken
vaneyken@sympatico.ca

Copy to:

1. Doug Engelbart, dengelbart@yahoo.com
2. Jack Park, jackpark@thinkalong.com
3. Eugene Eric Kim, eekim@eekim.com
4. Mei Lin Fung, meilin@ix.netcom.com