3 April 1964

Here is a brief note about arrangements for the April 13 Symposium at SRI on Text Manipulation. We shall start off at 8:00 a.m. checking people in and giving them name tags. At 8:15 we expect a quorum to be ready to go.

We'll begin by settling the ground rules for the day and having each person stand up for something like a fiveminute introduction of himself, his organization's activity in the area of concern, and his own interest, activity and attitudes in this area. It will be time then for a coffee break (about 10:00), during which we will draft groups of people to talk in more detail during the second half of the morning and the first half of the afternoon. I am tentatively thinking of a division of topic between these two sessionstypewriter only, and CRTequipped work stationsbut we may find other more meaningful divisions. Lunch will be furnished on our premises. The second half of the afternoon we can split up into argument groups, have a debate, put up a panel discussionwe'll see how the topics and factions shape up by then.

Late afternoon we plan for demonstrations of the relevant SRI and Stanford facilities. The organized part of the day ends there, but we shall line up a place for "nohost" cocktails and dinner that could hold the whole crowd, so that circulation and argument can continue as long as interest, energy and time hold out.

The enclosed map should help you find us. The main entrance of the main building is the one to usewe'll meet you there. We have blackboards and a 35 mm slide projector available; if you need other visual aids let us know.

D. C. Engelbart