How to help

Each of these is more than enough for one person, so all help is appreciated.

Interviews
Figuring out a prioritized list of who to interview, designing those interviews; sending media teams to conduct the interviews. Each interview is basically a small movie production, which means each one needs a project coordinator. These will be done in conjunction with the Oral Histories program at the Computer History Museum.

This task is significantly budget constrained, so don’t expect it to move quickly.

Cataloging
Going through archives and keeping track of the items in them. Some items are just not worth keeping, some items can be scanned / digitized, and some items need to be properly preserved. The cataloging database will keep track of these, but some amount of expertise in computer graphics is necessary to perform this triaging.

Cataloging will be hosted by the Computer History Museum. It’ll take place in their warehouse in Fremont, California. The museum will provide the equipment equipment and training, as the cataloging results will go into their database.

Software development
This is better discussed than trying to write a description here. There are so many avenues to explore, it could be a book.
For starters the emphasis should be on 3D clients to Cadmus. Specifically, sending queries (probably SPARQL) and getting results (probaby JSON) which need to be placed in a 3D display for interaction. Screens are de-emphasized – use an XR device.
Further down the line other possibilities could be interesting. For example, an Evans&Sutherland PS2 PSLIB emulator. This would enable running old JPL code, if it can be extracted.
However, a couple of examples: Soon we’ll need to import JSON into the Oxigraph server. This will start with defining some entities for the KB. Then, per above, there’ll need to be some clients that construct and send SPARQL queries and display the results with 3D graphics.

Developer program
In progress

Knowledgebase administration
Managing Google Cloud Services and the KB software. It appears that this will be conventional site admin.

Formatting and Proofreading
The Institute requires a substantial volume of written content. Besides the need for proofreading, each publication target has their own way of doing things, and the content has to be adjusted for each one.

SEO
Do you know anything about this? Would you like to apply it? Bear in mind that the content is a knowledgebase undergoing constant R&D, so it might not be the typical role.

Digitizing old media
Much original computer graphics material is stored on old media, just waiting to see the light of a monitor again. 16mm films and COM prints, where colors have shifted and faded over the decades, and the prints are too fragile to be projected. 9 track magtapes and ¾" videos, where the media are too fragile for a regular reader.
These all require careful recovery processes. There are labs which can carry out the processes. For magnetic media, once the data is extracted, then it will require software to translate old data formats into current practice.
Each unit of historical media is an entire project, needing a coordinator.

Taxonomy development
This is something of a research topic. Although taxonomy tech is current practice, there’s a good likelihood that the approach in Cadmus will be a step to something more complex. In coordination with researchers, we’ll be developing taxonomies, as well as investigating the idea of what is a taxonomy.

Ontology development
This is something of a research topic. Some concepts in a history knowledgebase are obvious, some are not, especially given the mission and goals of the Institute. In coordination with researchers, we’ll be developing an ontology for the knowledgebase, and quite possible more than one.

Updating historic code
An Evans & Sutherland Picture System 2 emulator? An SGI 3xxx emulator? Could be fun! But depending on how much historic code can be recovered, it could also be really educational to resurrect "ancient" software.

Fundraising
iBeing a nonprofit with no revenue stream, the Institute is constantly on the lookout for funding.

Grant identification and preparation
Proactive identification of grant possibilities and bringing them to the Institute’s attention. Writing proposals for identified grants.

Marketing and promotion
Is this you?

Outreach
TBD

Legal
For starters, expected work will be in contracts and IP protection. Pro bono work especially appreciated, which I believe qualifies as an in kind donation.

Assistant to the Director
Sort of a projet manager, but not really, since there is no product schedule. Keeps track of who’s doing what and how they’re doing.

Made in Elements