The condensed files IN THIS CIM ARCHIVE disk were on the GMU MAINFRAME VAX at the time that Center for Interactive Management was operating at George Mason University. The files were copied off the GMU computer and given to John Warfield in 1991 after the Center had closed and all of Christakis's office staff had left the university

To unpack the condensed ‘packfiles' use the program file pkxarc.exe, WHICH IS INCLUDED IN EACH SUB-FOLDER. The CIM ARCHIVE is two main subdivisions, CIM1 and CIM2. One of them is the ISM software files, and the other is CIM office business, such as correspondence and reports. Presumably the ARCHIVE should hold digitized copies of all the CIM REPORTS which I am sure Warfield would like to have For my current DATABASE record, I have given this CIM ARCHIVE material an arbitrary date of 1989, because that is the date that the last CIM operations took place at GMU. The actual date of the ARCHIVE contents when and if ever cataloged separately, would be from 1984 when CIM began operations at George Mason University, until May or June 1989. I think that the Center for Interactive Management officially came to an end in May 1989, or thereabouts. I wanted the mainframe software for historical archive reasons, even though the PC DOS software for ISM had already made the VAX program obsolete. In 1991 while collecting other office records, I went over to the computer center and asked about the old software. I believe Warfield had to write a special letter of request, but finally I was able to get the files released. I had expected to get a copy of the complete program. I will always regret that in 1991 I did not know enough about computers or anything else to recognize the need for the executable files, which Tracy Holt, the GMU Computer Operations officer, said he was not permitted to give me. I myself could have insisted more if I had realized their importance, but I was just too ignorant at the time to rescue the executable files and Warfield didn't want to make any kind of fuss about it. This was the first widely used ISM software. Its roots were in a Fortran program done by Ray Fitz’s people, for Warfield’s big Environmental Education contract at University of Virginia. Later it moved to GMU and the VAX mainframe. The VAX software on the mainframe was better than the DOS version used for the PC, it could do more and different things as I recall from hearing them talk about it. Nowadays there are several PC programs for ISM; the VAX files are obsolete. But for historical purposes the mainframe executable files should have been saved and I am sorry about that. To unpack, first MAKE SURE THERE IS ROOM ON THE HARD DISK TO HOLD ALL THE UNPACKED FILES. Then create a new folder on the hard disk with new subfolders. Unpack each ‘packfile’ to a separate one of the newly created subfolders, by typing pkxarc SPACE ‘packfile’s name AND THEN THE PATH TO THE NEW SUBDFOLDER ON THE HARD DISK. I have never UNPACKED AND OPENED AND READ a single one of the CIM OFFICE files archived on the other disk which Tracy Holt gave me. Nevertheless, we should hang on to the ARCHIVE because I can tell from looking at the contents list that Tracy gave me that digitized versions of all of the CIM Interactive Management Reports are there, and given the proper software could be printed out again at any time.

r.w. circa 2009