%xmlchars; ]> mc00170 Guide to the Michael Rulison Collection of Osborne Computer Club Newsletters, 1981-1988 Processed by: Todd Kosmerick and Kelly Clark;machine-readable finding aid created by: Todd Kosmerick and Kelly Clark North Carolina State University Libraries, Special Collections Research Center 2007 Machine-readable finding aid derived from xml authoring program Finding aid written in English. 2007 Updated because of processing by Kelly Clark. Guide to the Michael Rulison Collection of Osborne Computer Club Newsletters, 1981-1988 MC 170 North Carolina State University Libraries Special Collections Research Center &ncsuaddr; Todd Kosmerick and Kelly Clark, 2007 Todd Kosmerick, 2007 Kelly Clark, December 2007 Descriptive Summary North Carolina State University Libraries, Special Collections Research Center Rulison, Michael v. E. Michael Rulison Collection of Osborne Computer Club Newsletters, 1981-1988 MC 170 24 archival boxes 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. For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Special Collections Research Center Reference Staff. English Information for Users Restrictions to Access

Collection is open for research; access requires at least 24 hours advance notice.

 Acquisitions Information

Gift of Michael Rulison, 2007 (Accession no. 2007-0248)

 Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Michael Rulison Collection of Osborne Computer Club Newsletters, MC 170, Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh, NC

 Copyright Notice &ncsucpyrt;

Processed by Todd Kosmerick and Kelly Clark, 2007

Encoded by Todd Kosmerick, 2007; updated by Kelly Clark, December 2007

 Biographical Note

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.

 Scope and Content Note

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.

 Online Catalog Terms

The following terms have been used to index the guide to the collection in the NCSU Library's online catalog.

Individuals Rulison, Michael v. E. Topics Osborne 1 (Computer) -- Periodicals. Computer programming -- Periodicals. Detailed Description of the Collection 11Raleigh (N.C.) Osborne Computer Club Newsletters, "R. O. C. C. Pile," 1982-1984 12Raleigh (N.C.) Osborne Computer Club Newsletters, "R. O. C. C. Pile," 1985-1987 13Raleigh (N.C.) Osborne Computer Club, 1982 14First Osborne Group (Palo Alto, Calif.) Newsletters, "Foghorn," 1982-1983 15First Osborne Group (Daly City, Calif.) Newsletters, "Foghorn," 1983-1984 16First Osborne Group (Daly City, Calif.) Newsletters, "Foghorn," 1984 17First Osborne Group (Daly City, Calif.) Newsletters, "Foghorn," 1984 18First Osborne Group (Daly City, Calif.) Newsletters, "Foghorn," 1984 21First Osborne Group (Daly City, Calif.) Newsletters, "Foghorn," 1985 22First Osborne Group (Daly City, Calif.) Newsletters, "Foghorn," 1985 23First Osborne Group (Daly City, Calif.) Newsletters, "Foghorn," 1985 24First Osborne Group (Daly City, Calif.) Newsletters, "Foghorn," 1985-1986 25First Osborne Group (Daly City, Calif.) Newsletters, "Foghorn," 1986 26First Osborne Group (Daly City, Calif.) Newsletters, "Foghorn," 1986 27First Osborne Group (Daly City, Calif.) Newsletters, "Foghorn," 1986 28First Osborne Group (Daly City, Calif.) Newsletters, "Foghorn," 1986 31First Osborne Group (Daly City, Calif.) Newsletters, "Foghorn," 1986-1987 32First Osborne Group (Daly City, Calif.) Newsletters, "Foghorn," 1987 33First Osborne Group (Daly City, Calif.) Publications, "Foglight," 1986-1987 34First Osborne Group (Daly City, Calif.) Publications, "Foglight," 1987-1988 35First Osborne Group (Daly City, Calif.) Publications, "Foglight," 1988 36First Osborne Group (Daly City, Calif.), 1983-1986 37Chicago's (Ill.) First Osborne Group Newsletters, "PIP," 1983-1985 38Chicago's (Ill.) First Osborne Group Newsletters, "PIP," 1985-1986 39Chicago's (Ill.) First Osborne Group Newsletters, "PIP," 1987 310Chicago's (Ill.) First Osborne Group Newsletters, "PIP," 1988 41South King County and Tacoma (Wash.) Osborne Groups Newsletters, "Skoglet and Toggle," 1984-1985 42Seattle-Tacoma (Wash.) Area Osborne Groups Newsletters, "Toggle," 1985 43Seattle-Tacoma (Wash.) Area Osborne Groups Newsletters, "Toggle," 1986 44Seattle-Tacoma (Wash.) Area Osborne CP/M Groups Newsletters, "Toggle," 1986 45Seattle-Tacoma (Wash.) Area Microcomputer Groups Newsletters, "Toggle," 1986-1987 46Seattle-Tacoma (Wash.) Area Microcomputer Groups Newsletters, "Toggle," 1987-1988 47Miscellaneous Osborne Computer Group Newsletters, 1985-1986 48Clippings, Byte Magazine, 1985 49The Portable Companion for Osborne Computer Users, Magazine, January/February, 1985 410Osborne Computers and Computer Programming, 1981-1986, undated