[SIGCIS-Members] Silicon City

[McMillan, William W]

Maybe "plucky startup" is condescending and maybe the exhibit is too IBM-heavy, but I'll point out that until around 2000, personal computers of all stripes were as toys compared to IBM mainframes, almost like hobby drones compared to Boeing jetliners.  Even today Unix-, Linux-, and Windows-based computers suffer from their toy-like, "plucky" beginnings, and can't hold a candle to IBM z/OS as far as power and security go.

If I were an IBMer, I'd probably also be condescending to the likes of Apple in the 1970s.

- Bill

________________________________
From: Members [members-bounces at lists.sigcis.org] on behalf of Laine Nooney [laine.nooney at gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, December 18, 2015 12:30 PM
To: John Impagliazzo; members at SIGCIS.org
Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Silicon City

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.

On Fri, Dec 18, 2015 at 11:53 AM John Impagliazzo <John.Impagliazzo at hofstra.edu<mailto:John.Impagliazzo at hofstra.edu>> wrote:
Dear Colleagues,

If you are in New York City and would like to see a slice of computing history, consider visiting the New-York Historical Society exhibit called Silicon City: Computer History Made in New York.  The exhibit ends 2016 April 17.  A link to exhibit information is
http://www.nyhistory.org/exhibitions/silicon-city-computer-history-made-new-york
The exhibit is at 170 Central Park West (77th Street), next to the American Museum of Natural History.

I wish you all a pleasant holiday season.

John

John Impagliazzo, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, Hofstra University
IEEE Life Fellow
ACM Distinguished Educator


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Laine Nooney
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Assistant Professor