[SIGCIS-Members] A hello from Ian King

Ian King IanK at vulcan.com
Wed Aug 31 21:15:42 PDT 2011


Thanks for the warm welcome, Tom.  I look forward to getting to know folks in this community.  -- Ian 
________________________________________
From: Thomas Haigh [thomas.haigh at gmail.com] On Behalf Of Thomas Haigh [thaigh at computer.org]
Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2011 8:46 PM
To: members at sigcis.org
Cc: Ian King
Subject: A hello from Ian King

Continuing the previous thread... below is a message we received from Ian
King himself (the kilt-clad globe trekker with the "Grizzly Adams-like
coiffure" as the WSJ introduced him). He describes the museum a little bit,
and reveals that he's just now starting his Ph.D. and is beginning to
immerse himself in the scholarly literature. Ian has also told me that it is
OK to share this message with the list and also asked to join SIGCIS! So
let's welcome him to our community.

A few SIGCIS resources he, and others getting involved with the scholarly
side of IT history, might find useful:

Our resource guide at http://www.sigcis.org/resources, and my review essay
at
http://www.tomandmaria.com/tom/Writing/HistoryOfInformationTechnologyARIST_D
raft.pdf.

The syllabus repository at http://www.sigcis.org/syllabi, if he's curious
about what's being taught or needs to plan his own course soon.

The member directory at http://www.sigcis.org/member, where he can learn
about others working in the field.

And of course, we'd love to welcome him to our workshop this year
http://www.sigcis.org/workshop11 or a future event. In particular, our
"dissertations in progress" special session offers the chance to present a
draft dissertation proposal for friendly critique, or for students a little
further along the chance to get comments on a precirculated dissertation
chapter.  We also offer graduate student travel funds, which it sounds from
the article like he won't need. (Hint to Ian: get serious about air miles
and hotel reward programs).

Tom

-----Original Message-----
From: Ian King [mailto:IanK at vulcan.com]
Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2011 3:35 PM
To: thaigh at computer.org; j-coopersmith at neo.tamu.edu
Subject: RE: [SIGCIS-Members] Paul Allen and the communities of IT History

Gentlemen,

I am that grizzly kilt-wearer to whom you refer in the original message.
:-)  First, let me clarify my position a bit: I am a member of the Living
Computer Museum team, and as such I do acquisition, restoration, operation
and maintenance, and I am responsible for our educational outreach which has
included guest lecturing at the University of Washington.  Our scope is the
era of timeshared systems and the emergence of interactive computing, and as
such embraces roughly the late 50s (CTSS, PDP-1, TX-0) through the mid-80s
or so (the rise of the microcomputer and PC/workstation).  As I'm sure you
recall, Mr. Allen was one of the co-founders of Microsoft with the
introduction of Altair BASIC, but you may not know that said product was
actually developed on a PDP-10 mainframe.  Needless to say, a running
DECSYSTEM-20 is one of the centerpieces of the LCM.

I wasn't a grad student when I started at LCM three years ago, but I'm
starting my Ph.D. in Information Science this fall (with Mr. Allen's
approval).  My 'hidden agenda' is to contribute to the preservation of the
history of the minicomputer era, and I will likely have some sort of impact
on the world view to which you refer.  My stated research interest is
understanding the interrelationship between the evolutionary paths of
information science and information technology, highlighting the arcs of
innovation and inflection points that led us to the IST-dependent world in
which we live today.  If that sounds fuzzy, it's because I'm a first-year
student.  :-)  There's so much surface area, so little time.....

I hope this exchange will begin a conversation.   Since I started down this
academic pathway, I've seen more and more interest in this subject matter,
which I don't think is merely because I'm paying more attention to it as a
scholarly topic: much of what I've been reading and hearing are fairly
recent, suggesting that interest is in fact on an upswing.  I guess my
timing was good this time.

I must excuse myself, as I am being interviewed by the Australian
Broadcasting Company in just a bit and I want to prep.  But I look forward
to talking further.  -- Ian

Ian S. King, Curator of Education
Living Computer Museum
A presentation of Vulcan, Inc.
http://www.livingcomputermuseum.org





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