[SIGCIS-Members] Paul Allen and the communities of IT History

[B. Degnan]

Evan,
I too support your suggestions. Academic professionals might consider the 
value of an "adopt a hobbyist" program.   I find myself in the middle of 
both worlds.  Although recently I taught a computer history class at the 
University of Delaware for three semesters, the bulk of my day-to-day 
research is hands-on restoration work.
Bill Degnan
vintagecomputer.net
billdeg at udel.edu

-------- Original Message --------
> From: "Ceruzzi, Paul" <CeruzziP at si.edu>
> Sent: Friday, September 02, 2011 8:55 AM
> To: "Evan Koblentz" <evan at snarc.net>, "members at sigcis.org" 
<members at sigcis.org>
> Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Paul Allen and the communities of IT 
History
> 
> Evan:
> 
> I support your suggestions. I remember attending the VCF in Santa Clara, 
CA in 1999 and it was one of the most memorable high points of my entire 
career. I gave an interview to an on-line-only journal (radical at that 
time--this was 1999) about the ASR-33; I saw someone building a replica of 
the Whirlwind using modern miniaturized vacuum tubes [!]( I think it was 
Whirlwind, could be wrong but it was definitely vacuum tubes); I got to 
hang out & shoot the breeze with Lee Felsenstein. The only downside, sort 
of, is that I got a t-shirt that is so cool that I only wear it once every 
five years, since I am afraid of wearing it out.
> 
> On the other hand, my general impression of Silicon Valley, from the 
perspective of the East Coast, is that the people out there have no 
rear-view mirror or brake pedal. They just go forward as fast as possible. 
Some exceptions. Not good for historians, but that is who they are. 
> 
> Paul E. Ceruzzi
> Chair, Division of Space History
> National Air & Space Museum
> MRC 311; PO Box 37012
> Washington, DC 20013-7012
> 202-633-2414 
> <http://www.nasm.si.edu/staffDetail.cfm?staffID=24> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: members-bounces at sigcis.org [mailto:members-bounces at sigcis.org] On 
Behalf Of Evan Koblentz
> Sent: Friday, September 02, 2011 2:18 AM
> To: members at sigcis.org
> Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Paul Allen and the communities of IT 
History
> 
> Tom et al,
> 
>  >> there's a broader question of how to bridge the interests of 
> scholars, donors, and enthusiasts which is a challenge not just for 
> SIGCIS but for the history of computing community as a whole. Any 
> thoughts on contributions SIGCIS could make in this area are welcome.
> 
> I made an observation at the DC meeting: collectors / hobbyists in 
> general are as far removed from UNIVAC and Burroughs as history 
> professors are from Apple and Sinclair, however, as scholars of the 
> histories of computing begin to cover the minicomputer / homebrew / 
> microcomputer generations, that will naturally appeal more to hobbyists' 

> first-person experiences.
> 
> So I have three suggestions for SIGCIS members:
> 
> - Change gears! Rather than clawing for fresh angles about Babbage, 
> mainframes, and business software, consider "the many histories" of the 
> PDP-11, CP/M, the S-100 bus, single-board computing, small-scale storage 

> media, user groups beyond just SHARE, the BBS, x86 chips (and rivals), 
> and the early days of graphical interfaces, to name a few.
> 
> - Embrace grassroots history. Make consumer end users a priority, not a 
> curiosity. Learn about computer museums that aren't professional 
> institutions. CHM isn't the only computer museum doing good work. Attend 

> the Vintage Computer Festival (as Peter Meyer said in a May 27 SIGCIS 
> post, "The whole thing was quite electric, memorable, and worthwhile.") 
> Unfortunately, for each of the past three Vintage Computer Festival East 

> shows, I posted on this list asking for guest lecturers to creatively 
> show hobbyists a scholarly perspective -- and received no responses.
> 
> - Touch something! Obtain a piece of vintage computer gear and play with 

> it. Whether it's an ASR-33 teletype, IMSAI, an ordinary TRS-80, or a 
> BASIC emulator for Windows 7 -- it doesn't matter what.
> 
>  From the opposite perspective, several of us on the hobbyists side are 
> ourselves easing into scholarly topics, and convincing others to do so. 
> We've had VCF lectures about ENIAC, UNIVAC, RCA, Monrobot, and the 
> ARPAnet -- all from people in the industry. My user group's mailing list 

> is how Ian King learned about the Allen job. CHM's Al Kossow is an 
> esteemed member of the discussion list at classiccmp.org and also runs 
> the precious hobby resource at Bitsavers.org.
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