This collection contains newsletters of various Osborne Computer user groups for the years 1982 to 1988 as well as some related items. Included are the publications of the First Osborne Group (Foghorn and Foglight), the Chicago user group (PIP), the Seattle-Tacoma area group (Toggle) and the Raleigh Osborne Computer Group or the Raleigh Other Computer Group (R.O.C.C. Pile).
Michael Rulison has had a long career in research in the Research Triangle area of North Carolina. While associated with the Research Triangle Institute, he authored A Study of State Uses of Smith Island (1970) for the North Carolina Department of Conservation and Development. During the 1980s, while with the Center for Population and Urban-Rural Studies, he wrote several technical reports of travel studies for the Travel and Tourism Division of the North Carolina Department of Commerce. He later worked for the Institutional Research program at North Carolina State University. Rulison has also been involved with Osborne computer user groups, RTPNet, the Triangle Open Source Lab, and the North Carolina Consumers Council. The Osborne Computer Corporation released the first widely available personal computer, the Osborne 1, in 1981, inspiring groups of computer programming hobbyists all over the country.
Michael Rulison has had a long career in research in the Research Triangle area of North Carolina. While associated with the Research Triangle Institute, he authored A Study of State Uses of Smith Island (1970) for the North Carolina Department of Conservation and Development. During the 1980s, while with the Center for Population and Urban-Rural Studies, he wrote several technical reports of travel studies for the Travel and Tourism Division of the North Carolina Department of Commerce. He later worked for the Institutional Research program at North Carolina State University. Rulison has also been involved with Osborne computer user groups, RTPNet, the Triangle Open Source Lab, and the North Carolina Consumers Council.
The Osborne Computer Corporation was founded by Adam Osborne in 1980 and set out to produce and market the first portable personal computer packaged with software, an innovation that foresaw the usefulness of personal computers not only for computer programming hobbyists but for the practical purposes of word processing and the like for businesses and individuals. The Osborne 1 computer was released in 1981 and ran on the CP/M operating system. Adam Osborne and his company gained the most notoriety for what has been termed the "Osborne Effect." In 1983, Adam Osborne began boasting about the new and improved products the Osborne company was working on, killing demand for the Osborne 1, which would be made obsolete by the new technology. As a result, sales dropped off, and the company was forced to declare bankruptcy in 1983 before any of its new products were complete.
This collection contains newsletters of various Osborne Computer user groups for the years 1982 to 1987 as well as some related items. Included are the publications of the First Osborne Group (Foghorn and Foglight), the Chicago user group (PIP), the Seattle-Tacoma area group (Toggle), and the Raleigh Osborne Computer Group, also known as the Raleigh Other Computer Group (R.O.C.C. Pile).
These newsletters vary in production quality from hand-stapled desktop-published mailings , like R.O.C.C. Pile, that were circulated by smaller groups and tend to be about 8 pages long, to more professionally produced newsletters, such as Foglight, that are printed on newsprint, folded and stapled to resemble a journal, and tend to be around 20 pages long. The newsletters are all printed in two colors with very few photographs, although there are often illustrations. Given the nonprofessional nature of these computer clubs, most of the early content was composed by club members and included tips, tricks, and strategies for programming Osborne computers. However, as the computer clubs grew, newsletters often had regular writers and editors who shared their expertise with the wider programming community.
The nature of the NC State University Libraries' Special Collections means that copyright or other information about restrictions may be difficult or even impossible to determine despite reasonable efforts. The NC State University Libraries claims only physical ownership of most Special Collections materials.
The materials from our collections are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study, pursuant to U.S. Copyright law. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials. Any materials used for academic research or otherwise should be fully credited with the source.
This collection may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations. Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which North Carolina State University assumes no responsibility.
[Identification of item], Michael Rulison Collection of Osborne Computer Club Newsletters, MC 00170, Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh, NC
Gift of Michael Rulison, 2007 (Accession no. 2007-0248)
Processed by Todd Kosmerick and Kelly Clark, 2007
Encoded by Todd Kosmerick, 2007; updated by Kelly Clark, December 2007
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[Identification of item], Michael Rulison Collection of Osborne Computer Club Newsletters, MC 00170, Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh, NC
The nature of the NC State University Libraries' Special Collections means that copyright or other information about restrictions may be difficult or even impossible to determine despite reasonable efforts. The NC State University Libraries claims only physical ownership of most Special Collections materials.
The materials from our collections are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study, pursuant to U.S. Copyright law. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials. Any materials used for academic research or otherwise should be fully credited with the source.
This collection may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations. Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which North Carolina State University assumes no responsibility.
