[SIGCIS-Members] Silicon City

Evan Koblentz evan at snarc.net
Fri Dec 18 10:57:45 PST 2015


> Would also like to encourage others to go, perhaps most especially to
> start a conversation about how we can imagine computer histories. I
> attended yesterday with a colleague and left feeling dismayed--the
> sticky fingers of IBM (a major donor for the exhibit) appeared to be all
> over it (at one point I openly laughed at some wall text that described
> Apple as a "plucky startup" but insisting IBM /really/ drove the tech
> revolution). There are a few special, very sincere parts--the 1964
> Worlds Fair dome, the focus on NYC's role in electronic art and music
> (Cage, Bell Labs, etc) but otherwise reads like the history of computing
> told through the history of IBM--which feels strange given that there's
> no special effort to frame IBM as a /regionalist /company.
>
> Would love to stoke a conversation, even off list, about other's
> impressions...feel free to drop me an email.


I'm planning to go soon.

NYHS asked for my assistance several months ago. I provided a lot of 
feedback about NY computer history beyond Big Blue. They said I'd be 
credited as a consultant, so I am disappointed to hear that the 
exhibition is basically just an IBM gig.

I hope that didn't claim Bell Labs as a NY entity. Statue of Liberty is 
in * New Jersey * waters, the "New York" Giants and Jets both play in 
New Jersey, now Bell Labs? Note to myself .... go see the exhibit 
firsthand before getting judgmental. :)

In 1966 -- a decade * before * IBM started telling customers that real 
computers are made out of metal by east coast corporations, not plastic 
by west coast hippies -- Steven Grey began publishing the "Amateur 
Computer Society" newsletter from his home in Manhattan. This was before 
the Mother of All Demos, Xerox PARC, and the People's Computer Company.

Upon starting his newsletter, Gray contacted IBM to see about funding. 
IBM replied with a very nice letter saying no. The letter is signed by 
Thomas Watson Jr. -- there are copies online, but the original is at the 
(Wall, N.J.) InfoAge Science Center where I run the computer wing.

Tens years later, when Creative Computing, Byte, DDJ, etc. all emerged, 
and the photocopied ACS newsletter closed, IBM invited Gray to lecture 
about this "new" idea of microcomputing -- in the Thomas Watson Research 
Center.

I'm just saying. :)





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