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Hi Jim:</div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="font-size: 16px;">I’ve just received the latest issues of the Annals, and have read with great interest your excellent article "Twentieth Century Computer Product Proposals: A Wealth of Information About Information Technologies and Their
Uses”. You make a very persuasive case regarding the historical value of such Product Proposals. </div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="font-size: 16px;">Your admirably succinct Abstract is worth repeating:</div>
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<span style="font-family: Aptos, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> "</span><span style="font-family: Aptos, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(23, 78, 126); line-height: normal;">T</span><span style="font-family: Aptos, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(20, 20, 19);">his
article introduces the contents of information technology (IT) vendor sales proposals and argues </span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Aptos, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(20, 20, 19);"> that they represent a large body of useful, if hidden, information about computing. It describes IBM’s </span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Aptos, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(20, 20, 19);"> proposals since the firm dominated the sale of data processing equipment for the bulk of the twentieth </span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Aptos, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(20, 20, 19);"> century. These documents are a rare form of gray corporate literature that needs to be preserved and </span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Aptos, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(20, 20, 19);"> understood. The article concludes with several recommendations for next steps.</span><span style="color: rgb(20, 20, 19);">”</span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Aptos, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(20, 20, 19);">I do hope your article gets the attention it deserves, and indeed leads to a growth in the location, preservation, accessibility and detailed study of Computer
Product Proposals, ideally not just those from IBM.</span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Aptos, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(20, 20, 19);">Cheers</span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Aptos, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(20, 20, 19);">Brian Randell</span></p>
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<p style="margin: 0cm; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">-- </p>
<p style="margin: 0cm; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </p>
<p style="margin: 0cm; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9pt; color: black;">School of Computing, Newcastle University, 1 Science Square, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE4 5TG</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0cm; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9pt; color: black;">EMAIL =
</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9pt; color: rgb(70, 120, 134);"><u><a href="mailto:Brian.Randell@ncl.ac.uk" data-outlook-id="c4d7395d-f619-4f74-b6b7-0b0d13f0d3eb" style="color: rgb(70, 120, 134); margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">Brian.Randell@ncl.ac.uk</a></u></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9pt; color: black;">
PHONE = +44 (0)786 7805578</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0cm; font-family: Aptos, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9pt; color: black;">URL =
</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9pt; color: rgb(70, 120, 134);"><u><a href="https://www.ncl.ac.uk/computing/staff/profile/brianrandell.html" data-outlook-id="7fab7ae9-6398-466d-9fd4-017faa1bbe1f" style="color: rgb(70, 120, 134); margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">https://www.ncl.ac.uk/computing/staff/profile/brianrandell.html</a></u></span></p>
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