Q: What information do you particularly want?

A: We want to know what code you authored or worked on or with, what vendors you work for or with, what products you worked on or with. We are interested in origins --- when exactly new features first appeared in the UNIX releases you worked on, and where exactly they came from. Anything new had to be invented from scratch, or borrowed from elsewhere, or some combination of the two. We want to know what you personally remember about the origins of the thousands of innovations that make up UNIX. If you are aware of any litigation involving the code, product or release, or any copyrights, patents, or trade secret protections on the code, or any prior art, please tell us what you know. Also, if you have any evidence, such as contemporaneous documents, or have code you can legally donate, or books or manuals, please tell us.

Q: How do I get started?

A: Please start by going to the Home page and creating an account, which involves picking a handle and providing us with an email address, so we can send you a password. When you are logged in for the first time, please click on the Profile tab to change your password right away.

On that same page, you will find a form you can fill out, if you so choose. You will be able to indicate what info you wish publicly shared and what you prefer to provide us at Grokline privately. Please provide Grokline with whatever proof you can, by letting us know what documentary evidence you have on hand. Let us know if we can contact you.

Q: Where do I put UNIX information?

A: Just click on the UNIX Timeline tab and then choose either the List by Vendor or List by Product page. Find the code you personally have knowledge about and then click on the name of the vendor or release or product, at which point you will see a comment box with instructions.

Here too, you are free to provide as much or as little personal information as you wish. You can provide information about UNIX publicly, while remaining anonymous to the public as the person submitting the information, while privately indicating your handle to us at Grokline, by clicking on the anonymizer box. Or you can show your handle publicly, so your comments are associated with you.

You can also suggest additional products, vendors, releases and features. If you see a comment someone else has made that you believe is not accurate or which you can amplify and/or confirm or refine, feel free to add a comment with your correction or addition.

Q: Can I contribute privately or anonymously?

A: Yes. Information can be provided privately, either by email or snail mail, anonymously if you wish, although that may reduce its value. Grokline's software has been designed so you can provide information at the level of privacy you prefer. You can write to Pamela Jones at OSRM, 730 5th Avenue, 9th Floor, New York, NY 10019, or reach her by email at pj at osriskmanagement.com.

Q: Who can make a useful contribution to Grokline?

A: Anyone who made a personal contribution in the past to the UNIX code-base, whether as an author, project manager, release manager, tester, or in another development role, (including working for a client being sent code by a vendor and sending patches back), as well as historians and others who can help us trace the history of UNIX and UNIX-like code.

Q: I'm not quite sure what you mean by feature or function:

A: This category is not precise, admittedly, but we will have a List by Feature/Function page, and you'll be able to see from the list what we mean. You'll be able to submit your information according to this interim classification scheme, or, if you have knowledge of functionality that does not seem to correspond to any of the features we list, simply submit it as a suggested addition or tell us about it in a comment.

Q: Can I use the site if I am not a registed contributor?

A: Yes, of course. However, while you can find information without a user account, you can't comment or provide information without logging in, unless you choose to contact us privately. The information on the site is organized by:

• vendor,
• product line,
• date,
• release, and
• function or feature.

We ask everyone to be respectful of others and avoid bad language, and we appreciate your cooperation. This is a working site, and we need to avoid distractions. We reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments.