Softrek2 — How Did We Get Here?

After we lost our business and all our savings to the historic 2008 flood in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, we were hit with the added challenge of my (Jim’s) cancer. As serial entrepreneurs of a “certain age” we were uninsurable as far as the medical insurance industry was concerned. Fortunately when my cancer was discovered, we were poor enough to get Medicaid and it was a race to get coverage before I died. Social Security Disability later made us “too rich” for Medicaid. Timlynn took a job in the local Nordstrom distribution warehouse where we were eventually able to get health insurance through her employer. In addition to her unexpected but thankfully discovered kidney cancer, she “blew out” a hip and wore out her eyes working to get us company-based medical insurance (pre-ACA). An artificial hip and cataract surgeries added to the challenge of Timlynn’s cancer battle. At a particularly low point during our mutual recoveries, I suggested that we try to live our post-cancer “Bonus Rounds” like we are the stars of our own reality TV show… Softrek2 is one of the “shows” on our imagined Personal Television Network. :D :D

This year — 2015 — is a banner year for Jim and me. We both survived stage 4 cancer battles in 2012–2013. And, spent a good part of 2014, asking ourselves “Why did we get to survive?” and “What are we going to do with our Bonus Round?”

Jim’s battle had been the worst. He would have died in a matter of months had he not gotten the aggressive chemotherapy and extensive radiation treatments that saved his life. Jim is a Cancer Warrior! Me? I am one incredibly lucky Cancer Survivor.

A 12 mm kidney stone in the left kidney totally ruined July 4th weekend for us in 2013. But scanning the left kidney actually discovered a large inoperable tumor in the right one — beginning to metastasize, but not yet leaving the kidney. The robot assisted surgeon who removed the right kidney tells me every time I see him, how unbelievably lucky I am. That huge kidney stone saved my life!

And, so we asked ourselves again and again: “Why did we get to survive?” and “What are we going to do with our Bonus Round?” They were linked together.

Jim’s recovery from cancer treatments was a slow, very slow process. There were days when all he could do was curl up with the cats in his arms and sleep. Weeks later he would unpack a box or two still waiting for attention from our last move a couple of years ago. One box held his cache of old Softalk magazines — hauled along on every single move we’ve made over the last 30 plus years, and there have been quite a few.

Softalk magazine so deeply captured the incredible buzz and bubble in those very early years of the microcomputer revolution — 1980 to 1984. It showcased the leaders, snap-shot the trends, reviewed hard and soft ware, and documented the rise of micro-computing as it headed into the mainstream.

Jim had the start of his career as a high-tech serial entrepreneur in the late 1970's when he and three other Control Data employees in Baltimore left their jobs to create one of the first microcomputer software companies, MUSE Software. After leaving MUSE to found an innovative flatline store fixture venture in the Park Heights’ Enterprise Zone in Baltimore City, Jim heeded the suggestion of local non-risk-oriented bankers who suggested he, “Go west, young man” where investors might better appreciate the disruptive potential of his high tech dreams.

The original Softrek-mobile — a 1973 BMW 2002. You won’t believe what Bear & Jim had to do to get a microcomputer to run while “on the road” in 1892.

The original Softrek adventure was Jim’s way of getting from the East to West coast. Jim talked the editor and publisher of Softalk into sponsoring his and Bear Fitzgerald’s journalistic travels on behalf of the magazine… to seek out and write about the “rest of us” who used microcomputers and not just those who were the “makers” of the fledgling industry. Once he and Bear had worked their way around and across the country, they went to work for Softalk Publishing during the middle period of its most explosive growth.

Softalk magazine was important to Jim; it was important to tens of thousands of Boomers and Bloomers who raced to embrace high tech in the early days. And, suddenly it hit him. One of the most important things Jim could do with his Bonus Round was to get the full run — all 48 issues of Softalk magazine — digitized, curated, and preserved for all of us who read it then, and for future generations who will one day ask, where did it all begin.

That was indeed a project for us to do. With a bit of research and a lot of networking, we determined that our Softalk archive treasure needed to be scanned, curated, and preserved, a.k.a. “ingested,” into the Internet Archive — a non-profit founded to provide “permanent access for researchers, historians, scholars, people with disabilities, and the general public to historical collections that exist in digital format.”

At the incredible bargain rate of ten cents a page for full digitization and repository “ingestion,” we were excited to be able to cover the costs for adding our Softalk collection into the Internet Archive. We were thrilled, too, that we were able to do this in celebration of our 25th wedding anniversary in February, 2015.

The Midwest Regional Scanning Center of the Internet Archive is located in the literal bowels, the cavernous basement, of the huge Allen County Public Library. In this photo collage, Center Manager Jeff Sharpe greeted us to begin the digitization process. By hand delivering our Softalk magazine collection, we were able — in good #SmartTrip learning fashion — to learn all about the Archive’s digitization workflow and repository management. We even got to personally scan the first two issues of Softalk into the permanent collection of the Archive.

The Internet Archive Regional Scanning Center in Fort Wayne Indiana is the closest to us at home here in Cedar Rapids Iowa. To get our collection to Indiana we immediately thought “road trip.” Well, we actually had two reasons for revving up our ’94 Caddy for travel.

One of our Bonus Round agendas in 2015 was to be selected as Community Representatives for the Digital Public Library of America. The DPLA brings together in a single platform and portal, open access to a wide range of digitized materials from the Library of Congress, HathiTrust, the Internet Archive, and many universities, public libraries, museums, and private organizations. And DPLAfest — the annual meeting for community reps and all things DPLA — was coming up in April, in Indianapolis — just a two hour drive to Fort Wayne.

Softalk magazines to Fort Wayne, DPLAfest in Indianapolis— why this looked like a major road trip shaping up — a digital life road trip… “Hey, it’s Softrek2.”