Editing Michael S. Hart

{{Short description|American author, founder of Project Gutenberg (1947–2011)}}
{{other people|Michael Hart}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Michael S. Hart
| image              = Michael Hart at HOPE Conference (cropped).jpg
| caption            = Michael Hart of Project Gutenberg at [[Hackers on Planet Earth|H.O.P.E]] Conference, 2006
| birth_name         = Michael Stern Hart
| birth_date         = {{Birth date|mf=yes|1947|03|08}}
| birth_place        = [[Tacoma, Washington]], U.S.
| death_date         = {{Death date and age|mf=yes|2011|09|06|1947|03|08}}
| death_place        = [[Urbana, Illinois]], U.S.
| resting_place      = 
| resting_place_coordinates = <!-- {{coord|LAT|LONG|display=inline,title}} -->
| known_for          = [[Project Gutenberg]]
| alma_mater         = [[University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign|University of Illinois]]
| occupation         = Author
| website            = {{URL|hart.pglaf.org}}
}}

'''Michael Stern Hart''' (March 8, 1947&nbsp;–&nbsp;September 6, 2011)<ref name="Gutenberg_Founder">{{citation |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Michael_S._Hart |title=Michael S. Hart |publisher=Project Gutenberg |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170706045140if_/http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Michael_S._Hart |archive-date=6 July 2017}}</ref> was an American author, best known as the inventor of the [[e-book]] and the founder of [[Project Gutenberg]] (PG), the first project to make e-books freely available via the [[Internet]].<ref name="Gutenberg_Founder" /><ref name="Hobbes_netTL">{{cite web |url=http://www.zakon.org/robert/internet/timeline/ |title=Hobbes' Internet Timeline |access-date=17 February 2009}}</ref><ref name="Guardian">{{cite news|first=Alison| last=Flood |work=The Guardian |title=Michael Hart, inventor of the ebook, dies aged 64 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/sep/08/michael-hart-inventor-ebook-dies |date=8 September 2011}}</ref><ref name="NYT">{{cite news |first=William |last=Grimes |work=[[The New York Times]]|title=Michael Hart, a Pioneer of E-Books, Dies at 64 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/09/business/michael-hart-a-pioneer-of-e-books-dies-at-64.html?pagewanted=all |date=8 September 2011}}</ref>  He <!-- Early ARPANET and the Internet are not the same thing -->published e-books via [[ARPANET]] years before the Internet existed,<ref name="Schofield_ZD">{{cite web |url=https://www.zdnet.com/article/more-about-project-gutenbergs-michael-hart-rip/ |title=More about Project Gutenberg's Michael Hart, RIP |last=Schofield |first=Jack |date=14 September 2011 |work=ZDNet's Tech Industry}}</ref><ref name="ComputerWorld_UK">{{citation |url=http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/2011/09/michael-hart-1947---2011-prophet-of-abundance/ |title=Michael Hart (1947–2011): Prophet of Abundance |publisher=Computer World |place=UK |work=Open Enterprise |type=blog |date=8 September 2011 |first=Glyn |last=Moody |url-status=dead |archive-url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20110912070936/http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/2011/09/michael-hart-1947---2011-prophet-of-abundance/ |archive-date=12 September 2011 }}</ref> and later on [[Bulletin board system|BBS]] networks<ref name="Gutenberg_1992">{{citation |url = https://www.gutenberg.org/about/background/history_and_philosophy.html |publisher=Project Gutenberg |title=The History and Philosophy of Project Gutenberg |first=Michael S. |last=Hart |date=August 1992}}</ref> and [[Gopher (protocol)|Gopher servers]].<ref name="Chronicle_HighEDU">{{cite news |first=Michael Jon |last=Jensen |title=Michael Hart, 1947–2011, Defined the Landscape of Digital Publishing |work=[[Chronicle of Higher Education]] |date=12 September 2011 |url=http://chronicle.com/article/Michael-Hart-Who-Defined-the/128953/}}</ref>

Hart devoted his life after founding PG in 1971 to [[digitize|digitizing]] and distributing literature from works in the [[public domain]] with free and expired copyrights. The first e-books<ref name="Schofield_ZD" /><ref name="News_Gazette">{{cite news |work=The News-Gazette |title=Michael Hart |url=http://www.news-gazette.com/obituaries/2011-09-10/michael-hart.html |date=8 September 2011}}</ref> were typed in [[plain text]] format<ref name="ComputerWorld_UK" /><ref name="Gutenberg_1992" /> and published as [[text file]]s; other formats were made available later. Hart typed most of the early e-books himself; later, volunteers expanded the project.<ref name="Schofield_ZD" /><ref name="Kahle">{{cite web |url=http://brewster.kahle.org/2011/09/07/michael-hart-of-project-gutenberg-passes/ |title=Michael Hart of Project Gutenberg Passes |last=Kahle |first=Brewster |date=7 September 2011 |work=Brewster Kahle's blog}}</ref><ref name="Wired_1998">{{cite web |url=http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive/6.11/wired25.html?pg=3 |title=Michael Hart Builds A Digital Athenaeum |last=Frauenfelder |first=Mark |date=November 1998 |work=The Wired 25 - 6.11}}</ref>

==Early life==
Michael Hart was born on March 8, 1947, in Tacoma, Washington. His father was an accountant and his mother, a former [[cryptanalyst]] during [[World War II]], was a business manager at a retail store. In 1958 his family relocated to [[Urbana, Illinois]], and his father and mother became college professors in [[William Shakespeare|Shakespearean studies]] and [[mathematics education]], respectively. Hart attended the [[University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign|University of Illinois]], graduating in just two years with a degree in Human-Machine Interfaces.<ref name="poynder">{{cite web | url=http://poynder.blogspot.com/2006/03/interview-with-michael-hart.html |title=Preserving the Public Domain: Interview with Michael Hart |last=Poynder |first=Richard |date=9 March 2006 |work=Open and Shut?: The Basement Interviews}} ([https://archive.org/download/The_Basement_Interviews/Michael_Hart_Interview.pdf in pdf])</ref> He then attended but did not complete graduate school. He was also, briefly, a street musician.<ref name="Economist">{{cite news |url=http://www.economist.com/node/21530075 |title=Michael Hart |newspaper=[[The Economist]] |date=24 September 2011}}</ref>

==Project Gutenberg==
{{Main|Project Gutenberg}}

During Hart's time at the University of Illinois, the computer center gave Hart a user's account on its computer system; Hart's brother's best friend was the [[Mainframe computer|mainframe]] operator and gave an account with a virtually unlimited amount of computer time; its value at that time has since been variously estimated at $100,000 or $100,000,000.<ref name="Gutenberg_1992" /> Although the focus of computer use there tended to be [[Computer data processing|data processing]], Hart was aware that it was connected to a network (part of what would become the [[Internet]]) and chose to use his computer time for information distribution. Hart related that after his account was created on July 4, 1971, he wanted to "give back" by doing something that could be considered to be of great value. He happened to have with him a copy of the [[United States Declaration of Independence]], which he had been given at a grocery store after watching [[fireworks]] for the [[Independence Day (United States)|Independence Day]] celebration earlier that evening. He typed the text into the computer but was told that it would be unacceptable to transmit it to numerous people at once via [[e-mail]].<ref name="Gutenberg_1992" /> Thus, to avoid crashing the e-mail system, he made the [[e-text]] available for people to download.

This was the beginning of Project Gutenberg as the first [[digital library]]. Hart began posting text copies of such classics as the [[Bible]] and the works of [[Homer]], [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]], and [[Mark Twain]]. As of 1987 he had typed in a total of 313 books in this fashion. Then, through being involved in the University of Illinois PC User Group and with assistance from Mark Zinzow,<ref name="Schofield_ZD" /><ref name="Kahle" /> a programmer at the school, Hart was able to recruit volunteers and set up an [[infrastructure]] of [[mirror website|mirror sites]] and mailing lists for the project. With this, the project was able to grow much more rapidly.

The mission statements for the project were:

<blockquote><poem>"Encourage the Creation and Distribution of eBooks"
"Help Break Down the Bars of Ignorance and Illiteracy"
"Give As Many eBooks to As Many People As Possible"<ref name="Gutenberg_1992" /></poem></blockquote>

His overall outlook in the project was to develop in the least demanding format possible: as worded in ''[[The Chronicle of Higher Education]]'', to him, open access meant "open access without proprietary displays, without the need for special software, without the requirement for anything but the simplest of connections."<ref name="Chronicle_HighEDU" /> His initial goal was to make the 10,000 most consulted books available to the public at little or no charge and to do so by the end of the 20th century.<ref>{{Cite book | author1=Day, B. H. | author2=Wortman, W. A. | year=2000 | title=Literature in English: A Guide for Librarians in the Digital Age | page=[https://archive.org/details/literatureinengl00dayb/page/170 170] | publisher=Association of College and Research Libraries | location=Chicago | isbn=0-8389-8081-3 | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/literatureinengl00dayb/page/170 }}</ref>

==Other activities==
Hart was an author and his works are available free of charge on the [[Project Gutenberg]] server.  He was also a member of the [[RepRap Project]], which aims at creating a [[self-replicating machine]].<ref name="ComputerWorld_UK" />

Hart was involved in an early effort in 1993 to develop a free and openly accessible "Internet Encyclopedia", called "[[Interpedia]]". However, the effort did not go beyond the planning stage.<ref name="Reagle">{{citation |first=Joseph M Jr |last=Reagle |url=http://reagle.org/joseph/2005/historical/digital-works.html |title=Wikipedia's Heritage: Vision, Pragmatics, and Happenstance |year=2005 |section=3.2}}</ref>

==Personal life==
Hart cobbled together a living with the money he earned as an adjunct professor and with grants and donations to Project Gutenberg.<ref name="Langer">{{cite news |url= https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/project-gutenberg-creator-michael-s-hart-dies-at-64/2011/09/08/gIQA1DMFDK_story.html |title=Project Gutenberg creator Michael S. Hart dies at 64 |first=Emily |last=Langer |work=[[The Washington Post]] |date=8 September 2011 |quote=Mr. Hart, 64, was found dead Sept. 6 at his home in Urbana, Ill. He had a heart attack, said his brother, Bennett Hart.}}</ref> He supported himself by doing odd jobs and used an unpaid appointment at [[Illinois Benedictine College]] to solicit donations for the project. "I know that sounds odd to most people, but I just never bought into the money system all that much. I never spent it when I got it. It's all a matter of perspective".<ref name="Schofield_Guardian">{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/sep/13/michael-hart-obituary |title=Michael Hart obituary |first=Jack |last= Schofield |date=13 September 2011 |work=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref> Hart's expenses were minimized by his habits of using [[home remedies]], fixing his own house and car, and building computers, stereos, and other gear from discarded components.<ref name="Gutenberg_Founder" /><!-- this paragraph is close to being verbatim from source, although source is likely in the public domain -->

Hart died on September 6, 2011, of a [[Myocardial infarction|heart attack]] at his home in Urbana, Illinois. He was 64.<ref name="Guardian" /><ref name="Langer" />

== Writing style ==
Michael Hart's email messages and blog posts had equal line length paragraphs in monospaced font: he chose the wording in such a way that each line had the same number of characters.<ref name="Kahle" /><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://lists.pglaf.org/archives/list/gmonthly@lists.pglaf.org/|title=Project Gutenberg Monthly Newsletter Archive, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://hart.pglaf.org |title=Michael Hart's Online Writings}}</ref><ref name="intertext-1995">{{Cite web |url=http://www.intertext.com/magazine/v5n2/need.html |title=From Paper to the Internet: Project Gutenberg |publisher=InterText |volume=5 |number=2 |last=Snell |first=Jason |author-link=Jason Snell (writer) |date=March–April 1995
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714135157/http://www.intertext.com/magazine/v5n2/need.html |archive-date=2014-07-14 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Sample writing from his last newsletter that was distributed in July 2011:<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://lists.pglaf.org/archives/list/gmonthly@lists.pglaf.org/2011/7/|last=Hart |first=Michael S.|title=gmonthly Project Gutenberg Monthly Newsletter |date=20 July 2011}}</ref>
<pre>
As many of you know, just 5 years ago or so Australia's
Parliament voted a resolution to resist those copyright
extensions that had recently taken place in the US, EU,
and other locations, but only a few years later tumbled
into line after a few rounds of economic warfare levied
upon them by The Mouse or other long copyright holders.
</pre>

==See also==
* [[History of the Internet]]

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

==External links==
* [http://pglaf.org/hart/ Hart's personal page]
* [http://hart.pglaf.org/ Hart's Online Writings]
* {{Gutenberg author |id=958| name=Michael Hart}}

'''Selected interviews'''
* {{citation | url = http://www.friedbeef.com/interview-with-project-gutenbergs-founder/ | type = Interview | title = Project Gutenberg's Founder, the Inventor of the eBook | publisher = Fried Beef | access-date = 2010-01-25 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110908023345/http://www.friedbeef.com/interview-with-project-gutenbergs-founder/ | archive-date = 2011-09-08 | url-status = dead }}.
* {{citation | url = http://pustakam.net/?p=4108 | type = interview | title = Michael Hart and Greg Newby | language = Telugu | publisher = Pustakam}}.

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hart, Michael}}
[[Category:1947 births]]
[[Category:2011 deaths]]
[[Category:American non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:People from Urbana, Illinois]]
[[Category:University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni]]
[[Category:Writers from Illinois]]
[[Category:Writers from Tacoma, Washington]]