Role
Founder & Curator
2026 /
Founder & Curator
JJAbout the founder
John Jerney.
Publisher and editor of the original Pen-Based Computing newsletter and of mobilis magazine, and founder and curator of this museum.
Pen-Based
Computing.
The newsletter
Jerney published and edited Pen-Based Computing: The Journal of Stylus Systems from its first issue in 1991 through its final issue in 1998.
The newsletter covered the people, products, and advances of pen-based computing across its full commercial arc — from GO Corporation's PenPoint and the Apple Newton through Microsoft's Pen for Windows, the EO Personal Communicator, the Momenta, and the recognition engines that made any of it possible. The complete run is now digitized and freely accessible in the museum's journal archive.
Read the full run in the journal archive. The newsletter is part of the permanent collection of the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California.
At a glance
Title:
Pen-Based Computing: The Journal of Stylus Systems
Run:
1991–1998
Role:
Publisher and Editor
mobilis
magazine.
The magazine
Jerney went on to publish and edit mobilis: the mobile computing lifestyle magazine, extending the editorial mission as the industry moved beyond the stylus.
[Body copy to be filled in: scope, run dates, audience, and the editorial throughline that connects mobilis to the original Pen-Based Computing newsletter. Mention notable coverage areas — PDAs, smartphones, ultraportables — and any standout reporting or features.]
At a glance
Title:
mobilis: the mobile computing lifestyle magazine
Run:
[dates]
Role:
Publisher and Editor
This
museum.
The archive
Jerney founded the Pen-Based Computing History Museum to preserve the era he covered as a journalist while its participants are still reachable.
The museum is an independent online archive of hardware, software, manuals, press materials, and oral histories from the stylus era. It is operated and curated by Jerney directly, with no advertising, no analytics, and no paywall. The editorial standards established at the newsletter — primary sources, full reproductions, cited dates — carry through to every artifact published here.
See the About page for the museum's scope and method.
Get in touch
Reach the curator directly at john@jerney.com, or via the contact page.
Professional profile: LinkedIn.