EXXON RESEARCH AND ENGINEERING COMPANY
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\ EDWARD E. DAVID, JR.

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PRESI Ep: (AREA CODE 201)

    

May 14, 1979
Y LFF rep OF THE eres

Dear Josh:

Ann and I much enjoyed being with you and your several distinguished
guests. I particularly was stimulated by our discussions. We thank
you for including us.

Your paper on "The New Literacy" is very interesting and important.

The social implications seem to me to exceed the utility of the activity.
Not only might it encourage a return to concise and precise written
communication, but also it may well encourage a consensus or colleagial
style of management in institutions. Many are finding this mode
essential as organizations become more complex requiring several
subunits to be involved in working on problems or formulating policy.

You may be interested that several of us at Bell Labs had a vision of
this sort of thing back in the 60's. We were working on Multics and
Unix at the time. Our thoughts even included "computer-aided"
conversations; for example, joint editing of manuscripts, policy
statements, or EUGRAMS! Needless to say, I am enthusiastic about
your concepts and your important role in implementing them at Stanford.

Again, thanks for the hospitality, and I look forward to further
collaboration.

Best wishes,

£2

Dr. Joshua Lederberg
President

Rockefeller University
1230 York Avenue

New York, New York 10021