Applied Data Research, Software Products Division records
Scope and Content Note
The Applied Data Research (ADR) Software Products Division Records consist of company records and subject materials accumulated by Martin A. Goetz during his twenty-eight year (1959-1987) career with the company. Researchers should note that these materials do not constitute the official corporate records of Applied Data Research or the Software Products Division. Rather, the records reflect Goetz's activities and interests in his various official capacities as senior programmer and project manager, senior vice president and chief technology officer, president of ADR, and most specifically, director of the Software Products Division, a role he held for the bulk of his tenure at ADR. Researchers should use the ADR Software Products Division Records in tandem with the personal papers of Martin A Goetz (CBI 159).
The collection documents the Software Products Division's involvement in the development of the software industry, its activities relating to patent and copyright protections for software, separate pricing for software and hardware, bundling, antitrust issues, and relations with IBM.
Goetz filed his ADR Software Product Division materials by subject, according to his current needs and interests, many of which overlapped or coincided with one another. CBI has grouped the papers into ten series reflecting the company's business functions, as well as Goetz's activities in his capacity as an ADR executive. Series include: Annual Reports, Legal, Management, Marketing, Organizational Charts, Patents, Presentations by Martin Goetz, Products, Sales, and Alphabetical Files. However, researchers should note that Goetz's original arrangement of the files remains to some extent intact. This is most evident in the patent materials and the alphabetical files. Therefore, for example, files titled "Dann v. Johnston" or "Computation Planning, Inc." cover a range of years and include a variety of record types, including correspondence, memoranda, reports, notes, and published documents, which may have significance for other topics as well.
Dates
- Creation: 1959-1987
Creator
- Applied Data Research. Software Products Division. (Organization)
Language of Materials
English
Access to materials:
Access to the collection is unrestricted.
Copyright:
The Charles Babbage Institute holds the copyright to all materials in the collection, except for items covered by a prior copyright (such as published materials). Researchers may quote from the collection under the fair use provisions of the copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code).
Historical Note
Applied Data Research (ADR) was founded in 1959 by seven former UNIVAC I programmers: Martin Goetz, Sherman Blumenthal, Ellwood Kauffman, Dave McFadden, Bernard Riskin, Robert Wickenden, and Stephen Wright. Headquartered in Princeton, New Jersey, the company provided independent contract programming to companies including RCA, Bendix, and Sperry Rand, as well as to the United States government.
In 1965, ADR established its Proprietary Software Division (renamed the Software Products Division in 1973) and released AUTOFLOW, an automatic computer documentation system which produced flow charts. With the release of AUTOFLOW, ADR became the first company to sell a software product commercially, independent of hardware. Martin A. Goetz headed the Proprietary Software Division from its inception and in 1968 was awarded the first U.S. patent for a software computer program for his "Sorting System." Although the patent was assigned to ADR, the program was never developed as an ADR product. Goetz received a second patent in 1970 for his "Automatic System for Constructing and Recording Display Charts," the computer program behind the ADR product AUTOFLOW. Other ADR software products included Vollie (an online programming tool), ROSCOE (Remote OS Conversational Operating Environment, an online programming tool with a timeshare facility), MetaCOBOL (a COBOL programming aid), Librarian (a source program retrieval and maintenance system), and IDEAL (Interactive Development Environment for an Application Life-cycle, an application development tool).
ADR filed a civil antitrust suit against International Business Machines (IBM) in April 1969, accusing IBM of limiting competition in the computer industry and specifically noting IBM's bundling practices. The ADR suit was one of a series of similar suits filed against IBM in 1968 and 1969, including Programmatics, Inc. (a subsidiary of ADR) v. IBM, Control Data Corporation v. IBM, and Data Processing Financial General Corp. v. IBM. These four cases were consolidated for pre-trial proceedings and discovery in the District of Minnesota in July 1969. One year later, ADR was awarded a temporary restraining order against IBM which prohibited IBM from offering free distribution of CRJE, a bundled IBM software product in direct competition with ADR's proprietary product ROSCOE. Three of the four consolidated cases were eventually settled and dismissed, including ADR v. IBM, which was settled out-of-court in August 1970 for two million dollars. The U.S. Justice Department also filed suit against IBM for antitrust violations in 1969, starting a case that lasted thirteen years. In June 1969, while involved in these cases, IBM announced that, with the exception of its operating systems, starting in January 1970 it would unbundle its software from its hardware.
Ameritech acquired ADR as a wholly owned subsidiary in 1986. In 1988, Computer Associates purchased ADR and integrated the company into its Systems Products Division and new Information Products Division.
CEOs and Presidents of ADR:
- Ellwood Kauffman, CEO and President 1959-1963
- Richard C. Jones, CEO and President 1963-1970
- John Bennett, CEO and President 1970-1984
- John Bennett, CEO 1984-1988
- Martin A. Goetz, President 1984-1986
- Denny Strigl, President 1986-1988
Extent
29 boxes (8.5 cubic feet)
Abstract
The collection consists of company records and subject materials accumulated by Martin A. Goetz during his twenty-eight year (1959-1987) career with the company. The collection documents the Software Products Division's involvement in the development of the software industry, its activities relating to patent and copyright protections for software, separate pricing for software and hardware, bundling, antitrust issues, and relations with IBM.
Arrangement of Collection
The materials in this collection are arranged into the following groups:
- Annual reports, 1966-1986
- Legal, 1963-1981
- Management, 1959-1986
- Marketing, 1969-1987
- Organizational Charts, 1969
- Patents, 1959-1982
- Presentations by Martin Goetz, 1974-1986
- Products, 1963-1987
- Sales, 1967-1987
- Alphabetical, 1963-1987
Acquisition:
The records were given to the Charles Babbage Institute by Martin A. Goetz in February 2001 and July 2003.
General
Acronyms used in this finding aid:
- ADAPSO = Association of DAta Processing Service Organizations
- ADR = Applied Data Research, Inc.
- CONTU = National Commission on New Technological Uses of Copyrighted Works
- PSD = Proprietary Software Division, Applied Data Research, Inc.
- SPD = Software Products Division, Applied Data Research, Inc.
Subject
- Goetz, Martin A., 1930- (Person)
- International Business Machines Corporation (Organization)
- Applied Data Research. Software Products Division. (Organization)
- Title
- Applied Data Research, Software Products Division Records, 1959-1987. Finding Aid.
- Author
- Prepared by Carrie Seib, Matthew James Buell, and Josh Knatterud-Hubinger, January 2002; revised by Carrie Seib, July 2003.
- Date
- 2004
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- English
Collecting Area Details
Contact The Charles Babbage Institute Archives Collecting Area
Elmer L. Andersen Library
222 - 21st Avenue South
Minneapolis MN 55455
612-624-5050
cbi@umn.edu
