WebMath: About iMath - a short history

[Ron Fitzgerald]

I find the comments of Dr. Hunt interesting an more than a tad ironic. It
must have entirely escaped Dr. Hunt that charging for his goods and
services makes him one of those proprietary math vendors he holds in such
distain.

"A proprietary math vendor casts the open math into a closed and
proprietary
package.  The result is strange syntaxes, black box computation engines,
proprietary protocols and limited interfaces.  It is impossible for any
single vendor to meet the diverse needs of math users.  The vendor becomes
a
bottleneck and stumbling block."

Contributions to math and math education can be made and sustained and
should be made and sustained by a variety of interests. This should include
all parties research, not for profit and profit motivated organizations.
Dr. Hunt's finger pointing will not provide the open forum required for the
proliferation of mathematical ideas and solutions.

Ron Fitzgerald
President
MathResources Inc.



----------
> From: Stephen M. Hunt <steve at imath.org>
> To: webmath at camel.math.ca
> Subject: WebMath: About iMath - a short history
> Date: June 29, 2000 11:37 PM
> 
> iMath is modeled after the W3C as a participatory consortium.  It is
> currently owned by the staff of iMath.  Affiliates are also able to take
a
> proprietary interest in iMath.  We would like the affiliates to be the
> long-term owners of the consortium.  Any institution can affiliate and we
> plan to open up individual affiliation.
> 
> iMath was founded on the principle that math (fonts and presentation
syntax
> and tools, transport protocols, computation and visualization syntax and
> engines) should not be proprietary.  Math is the most universal of all
> languages.  iMath is seeking to make open math infrastructure universally
> available.
> 
> Many of us have worked with the proprietary math vendors.  We became
> involved with these vendors primarily because of our interest in
enhancing
> math use and math education through their tools.  We left because we felt
> that they would never be able to deliver a solution that would
universally
> benefit math, and because we thought we could see a way in which this
could
> be accomplished.
> 
> The solutions developed by the math vendors started at academic
institutions
> and the significant algorithms they use continue to be developed and
evolved
> by the academic community.
> 
> A proprietary math vendor casts the open math into a closed and
proprietary
> package.  The result is strange syntaxes, black box computation engines,
> proprietary protocols and limited interfaces.  It is impossible for any
> single vendor to meet the diverse needs of math users.  The vendor
becomes a
> bottleneck and stumbling block.
> 
> iMath works on design of open math specifications and reference
> implementations.  We add math to existing open languages in a uniform and
> consistent way.  We evolve the open frameworks to support math.  Our
> implementations are free and open source to those who agree to maintain
> interoperability - the formal process through which this happens is
> affiliation.
> 
> We began in May 1999 and have made good progress over the last year with
all
> the key technologies now in place.  We are very pleased at the positive
> response and support we receive from those math users that have engaged
> iMath.
> 
> If you have any questions or would like iMath to visit your institution
to
> hold a free iMath workshop, please do email me or the group as
appropriate.
> 
> Regards
> 
> Steve
> 
> Dr Stephen M. Hunt
> Director
> Internet Math Consortium
> steve at imath.org
> http://www.imath.org
> 
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