

Obituary for Michael Stern Hart, Project Gutenberg Founder - hornokplease
http://www.gutenberg.org/w/index.php?title=Michael_S._Hart

======
bane
Really, sad. But his legacy lives on in one of the finest projects on the
internet. It's provided me and my family with countless hours of enjoyment and
immensely lowered the cost of ownership of my Kindle.

Imagine my wonderful surprise when I found not just one, but an entire library
of Oz and Edgar Rice Burroughs novels that I quickly disseminated to all of
the youngsters in my extended family ... then watched them spend hours
entertained by these century old tails of fantasy and adventure.

No project has proven more firmly that our modern endless extensions to
copyright is hopelessly wrong headed.

~~~
Mizza
> No project has proven more firmly that our modern endless extensions to
> copyright is hopelessly wrong headed.

This. Wikipedia is a fantastic free cultural work, but it can never replace
the historical and cultural significance of free primary sources themselves.

------
spanktheuser
Michael Hart was a fantastic guy to know back in the early 90s as the Internet
was transforming from a research network into a popular phenomenon. He'd
foreseen this eventuality in the late 70s and made Project Gutenberg in part
so it would be there when the world needed it. I'll always remember Michael
rollerblading through Champaign-Urbana in his trademark ruby spandex singlet.
And his incredible ability to scrounge computer parts. He once invited me to
drive through the night to score an obsolete supercomputer that was allegedly
sitting beside a dumpster at the University of Minnesota. He wanted to get to
those hard drives before the rain did. Sadly, I turned him down - I had a
first date that night. I don't remember her name. But I'll always remember
Michael. And miss him.

------
bootload
_"Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable people attempt
to adapt the world to themselves. All progress, therefore, depends on
unreasonable people."_

I really like this quote. I discovered Gutenberg looking for something to read
on the train pre-ebooks days. I really got sick of having to take books so I
wanted a way to get books onto my PalmIII. [0] Searching around for anything
in text format I stumbled onto Gutenberg. How do you get the text into the
palm in a readable format? Using open source software like Plkr. [1] If you
ran Linux the morning routine would go something like this:

* sync PC with Palm ~ <http://flic.kr/p/mhmuK>

* manually select Gutenburg novels to read & add to plkr.

* plkr client would crawl various web sites I read, compress the pages & sync with the pilot.

* read on the train.

I'd make this morning/evening habit. I benefited from Harts vision for many
years.

    
    
        "My father read an assortment of these made 
         available to him by Cambridge University in 
         England for several months in a glass room 
         constructed for the purpose.  To the best 
         of my knowledge he read ALL those available. 
         . .in great detail. . .and determined from 
         the various changes, that Shakespeare most 
         likely did not write in nearly as many of 
         a variety of errors we credit him for, even 
         though he was in/famous for signing his name 
         with several different spellings." [2]
    

Hart was certainly well read. You can open random classics like _Macbeth_ &
find his comments like this one in the forward of Macbeth.

[0] 2005OCT151730, Palm III, diary in use ~
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/52909493/in/set-720575...](http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/52909493/in/set-72057594088577955)

[1] _"An Open Source Success Story: A History of Plucker"_ ~
<http://www.plkr.org/about>

[2] Project Gutenberg, _"The Tragedie of Macbeth"_ by William Shakespeare,
July, 2000. <http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/2264/pg2264.txt>

~~~
gruseom
_"All progress, therefore, depends on unreasonable people." I really like this
quote._

That's not the quote. Ironically, it has been bowdlerized:
[http://books.google.com/books?id=fYDSuENw1BoC&pg=PA189&#...</a><p>Besides
using correct syntax for 1903, the language of the original is incomparably
more alive.<p>This can't be Hart's doing. A man who devoted his life to
preserving original texts (including this quote itself in <a
href="http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/26107/pg26107.txt"
rel="nofollow">http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/26107/pg26107.txt</a>)
would never have had the bad taste to botch it like this. I suppose if whoever
did had bothered to quote the title, he would have renamed it <i>People and
Superpeople</i>.

~~~
bootload
thx @gruseom 2 things I didn't know, source of the quote & _bowdlerized_ :
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Bowdler>

------
warwick
Five years ago I was at HOPE Number Six and Michael Hart was the Saturday
keynote speaker, giving a talk on his work at Project Gutenberg. I didn't know
very much about it, but I recognized the name. There were Project Gutenberg
discs floating around the conference so I snagged one and had a look.

I don't really remember anything specific from the talk, but I remember it was
inspiring. It was called "Using eBooks to Break Down the Bars of Ignorance and
Illiteracy". There's audio of the talk online, and I think I need to hear it
again.

The next day was the last day of the conference, and as was usual Jello Biafra
was the getting far less attention than the other keynote speakers. They'd
closed off the back part of the main hall, a hall which had been filled to
capacity and then some for Michael, and some of us were tossing around beach
balls. I pounded one particularly hard and hit some guy in the back of the
head with it. When he turned around I recognized Michael. I don't think he was
too happy with me in that moment.

With the eloquence that only a twenty year old can muster, I stuck my hand out
and said "I love your work. It's fucking absurd." That's about the highest
compliment I can give a person, and I'm glad to see that Shaw quote in the
obituary. It says what I was awkwardly trying to express.

The tension drained out of the situation, and he shook my hand before turning
back to his companion and returning to his conversation. I went back to
playing with beach balls.

I admire what Michael built, and I admire how he did it. Project Gutenberg was
slow but steady, and will continue past his death. I can only aspire to
leaving that kind of a legacy.

Goodbye Michael. I loved your work. It's fucking absurd.

------
pragmatic
Good interview: [http://poynder.blogspot.com/2006/03/interview-with-
michael-h...](http://poynder.blogspot.com/2006/03/interview-with-michael-
hart.html)

(Link at the end to a pdf with interview).

I was curious about how he funded this project.

Excerpt from interview: RP: Do you get a salary from the Project Gutenberg
Literary Archive Foundation, which was founded, I believe, in 2000? MH: No. We
don't attract enough funding for that. RP: So what do you live on today? MH:
It's been two years since my last pay check, but if you save all your salary
when you do get one, $100,000 will go 10 years with no salary, at $10,000 a
year.

Interesting that he lived so cheaply in order to work on something he loved.

~~~
dredmorbius
Working on something you truly love has a very high value. And that value
isn't taxable ;-)

------
abalashov
I suppose many would consider this both indecorous and perverse, but I really
am curious about the cause of death in cases such as these. It is usually
omitted in cases of suicide or some particularly nuanced, possibly
embarrassing disease.

I don't care about specifics, I am just disturbed when all reports tiptoe
around the cause of death as if it just "spontaneously" happened to a man who
was merely 64.

It sounds from some of his recent public writings like he may have been
struggling with a terminal disease, but not being an associate of his, I have
no way of knowing that.

~~~
officemonkey
People die at all ages and for all kinds of reasons. If your curiosity is
morbid, you can probably hunt around for it. If you have respect for others
privacy, you'll accept the information given.

Obituaries should celebrate a life, not explain a death.

~~~
alister
It is not unhealthy or insensitive (which is what "morbid" means) to know
cause of death.

Knowing cause of death has value for public discussion about policy, health,
and medicine. Even if it's something like suicide or AIDS, we'll know that we
should be paying more attention to preventing those.

IMDB and Wikipedia always list cause of death when it's known. Are they morbid
too?

The obituary writer is free to write it any way he wants, but you seem to be
arguing that it's wrong to _include_ the cause of death. The reason we're
reading this particular obituary at all is because we want to know more about
the person. How is a list of surviving relatives, his home town, or age any
more relevant or important to mention than cause of death?

~~~
bryanlarsen
The cause of death is important to know in the aggregate: 1 person died last
year in the United States from alien laser beams.

In the specific, it's morbid, yes.

------
petercooper
Fancy adding something like "Founder of Project Gutenberg" to the title here?
Just think it'd catch on better, and he's definitely a guy worth remembering
:-)

Update: Eh, that'll do ;-)

------
wyclif
This is 403ing now, which is a shame because I've been using Project Gutenberg
since like _forever_ and really wanted to read this. Can anybody copypasta?

~~~
ig1
Here you go:

Michael Stern Hart was born in Tacoma, Washington on March 8, 1947. He died on
September 6, 2011 in his home in Urbana, Illinois, at the age of 64. His is
survived by his mother, Alice, and brother, Bennett. Michael was an Eagle
Scout (Urbana Troop 6 and Explorer Post 12), and served in the Army in Korea
during the Vietnam era.

Hart was best known for his 1971 invention of electronic books, or eBooks. He
founded Project Gutenberg, which is recognized as one of the earliest and
longest-lasting online literary projects. He often told this story of how he
had the idea for eBooks. He had been granted access to significant computing
power at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. On July 4 1971, after
being inspired by a free printed copy of the U.S. Declaration of Independence,
he decided to type the text into a computer, and to transmit it to other users
on the computer network. From this beginning, the digitization and
distribution of literature was to be Hart's life's work, spanning over 40
years.

Hart was an ardent technologist and futurist. A lifetime tinkerer, he acquired
hands-on expertise with the technologies of the day: radio, hi-fi stereo,
video equipment, and of course computers. He constantly looked into the
future, to anticipate technological advances. One of his favorite speculations
was that someday, everyone would be able to have their own copy of the Project
Gutenberg collection or whatever subset desired. This vision came true, thanks
to the advent of large inexpensive computer disk drives, and to the ubiquity
of portable mobile devices, such as cell phones.

Hart also predicted the enhancement of automatic translation, which would
provide all of the world's literature in over a hundred languages. While this
goal has not yet been reached, by the time of his death Project Gutenberg
hosted eBooks in 60 different languages, and was frequently highlighted as one
of the best Internet-based resources.

A lifetime intellectual, Hart was inspired by his parents, both professors at
the University of Illinois, to seek truth and to question authority. One of
his favorite recent quotes, credited to George Bernard Shaw, is characteristic
of his approach to life:

"Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable people attempt
to adapt the world to themselves. All progress, therefore, depends on
unreasonable people." Michael prided himself on being unreasonable, and only
in the later years of life did he mellow sufficiently to occasionally refrain
from debate. Yet, his passion for life, and all the things in it, never
abated.

Frugal to a fault, Michael glided through life with many possessions and
friends, but very few expenses. He used home remedies rather than seeing
doctors. He fixed his own house and car. He built many computers, stereos, and
other gear, often from discarded components.

Michael S. Hart left a major mark on the world. The invention of eBooks was
not simply a technological innovation or precursor to the modern information
environment. A more correct understanding is that eBooks are an efficient and
effective way of unlimited free distribution of literature. Access to eBooks
can thus provide opportunity for increased literacy. Literacy, the ideas
contained in literature, creates opportunity.

In July 2011, Michael wrote these words, which summarize his goals and his
lasting legacy: “One thing about eBooks that most people haven't thought much
is that eBooks are the very first thing that we're all able to have as much as
we want other than air. Think about that for a moment and you realize we are
in the right job." He had this advice for those seeking to make literature
available to all people, especially children:

"Learning is its own reward. Nothing I can say is better than that." Michael
is remembered as a dear friend, who sacrificed personal luxury to fight for
literacy, and for preservation of public domain rights and resources, towards
the greater good.

This obituary is granted to the public domain by its author, Dr. Gregory B.
Newby.

------
sspencer
I saw a wonderful talk at HOPE 6 concerning Project Gutenberg, and can only
assume it was Michael Hart speaking. It made me donate on the spot.

As a staunch supporter of paper books I don't often read eBooks, but I can
completely understand and appreciate what an immense resource they are to
those less fortunate (and picky about their medium!) than I am. Rest in Peace,
Mr. Hart. Your legacy will live for years and years to come.

------
russellallen
Project Gutenberg is a vision of what the future could be if we choose. RIP
Michael, you done good.

------
mechanical_fish
_One thing about eBooks that most people haven't thought much is that eBooks
are the very first thing that we're all able to have as much as we want other
than air._

He sure was right about that. It's one of the really big ideas, the kind that
is going to take several more decades to really sink in.

------
danieldk
I remember going to a dual-talk in Amsterdam of Michael Hart and Richard
Stallman. I went to see Stallman, I returned energized by Hart's vision. He
was a convincing visionary person that dedicated is life to the good of all
people.

The world needs more Michael Stern Harts.

------
steve8918
I really admire people who strongly believe in something and dedicate their
lives to it. I wish I were made of the same stuff.

~~~
0x12
We're all made of the same stuff. You are too. You can do almost anything
other people can, all you have to do is get up and do it. Some do, some don't.
There is still plenty of time for you.

Rest in peace Michael Hart and thank you for endless evenings of reading both
in the past and in the future.

Project Gutenberg will live on forever or at least as long as a single copy
remains. Building a library is one very worthwhile thing to do with your life.

------
ryanwaggoner
The George Bernard Shaw quote is wrong. The actual quote is:

 _"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress
depends on the unreasonable man."_

Source: <http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/26107/pg26107.html>

------
beerglass
Am I the only one who is getting 403 forbidden error on the link?

~~~
sixtofour
Go to the main site, then follow the obit link.

------
neanderdog
Bless you good Sir.

