[SIGCIS-Members] Active institutional or individual oral history efforts in history of computing outside US

Thu Feb 8 05:12:43 PST 2018

Hi David,

I'm afraid this is one of those no/yes answers! The An Oral History of British Science programme in general continues, but we're not collecting "computer people" at present, however I wouldn't rule out more in future as strategy/funding allows. Interestingly, some of the "non-computing people" we're collecting in other fields have episodes of the their careers when they might be considered to be "computer people" even if I wouldn't define them as such. (For example, in the last year or so, a couple of people who spent episodes of their careers working on aspects of silicon chip-making at IBM and Ferranti, but would probably be classified as materials scientists or electronics engineers.) 

I guess the interesting issues that the responses to this thread raise for me, are: 

What are the boundaries of oral history of computing? If any, given that computing is so very cross-disciplinary.

And, what oral history of computing is lurking in other oral history collections on different subjects? For instance, there's quite a bit of material on National Grid's computer systems (used to plan/operate the UK wide transmission grid) in some interviews in our Oral History of Electricity Supply Industry collection, but I'd not automatically think about any of those interviewees as being "computer people." 

best,

Tom

Dr Thomas Lean
--
An Oral History of the Electricity Supply Industry / An Oral History of British Science
National Life Stories
The British Library
http://www.bl.uk/voices-of-science
________________________________________
From: David C. Brock [dbrock at computerhistory.org]
Sent: 07 February 2018 15:28
To: Lean, Tom
Cc: David C. Brock; members
Subject: Re: Active institutional or individual oral history efforts in history of computing *outside* US

Dear Tom,

Thank you very much!

In looking at the material about the program on the Web, it was not clear to me if the oral history work with “computer people” specifically continues at present.

Could you let me and the list a bit more about where the effort stands at the moment, and may be going in the future?

Best wishes,

David

..............
David C. Brock
Director
Center for Software History [http://www.computerhistory.org/softwarehistory/]
Computer History Museum [http://www.computerhistory.org/]

Email: dbrock at computerhistory.org<mailto:dbrock at computerhistory.org>
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Skype: dcbrock

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On Feb 7, 2018, at 5:24 AM, Lean, Tom <Thomas.Lean at bl.uk<mailto:Thomas.Lean at bl.uk>> wrote:

National Life Stories at the British Library has about a dozen life story interviews with "computer people" with careers from the 1940s to the present day, recorded as part of the Oral History of British Science (OHBS) project. We also have interviews with people in other technical fields remarking about computers entering their working lives, along with a few others who developed technologies that computing would come to rely on, such as liquid crystal displays.

Most of the interviews are accessible in their entirety, most 12 hours or longer, many with transcripts, through: https://sounds.bl.uk/Oral-history/Science

There are also edited highlights on our Voices of Science web resource at: https://www.bl.uk/voices-of-science/themes/designing-and-programming-computers  and  https://www.bl.uk/voices-of-science/themes/computers-in-use

Tom

Dr Thomas Lean
--
An Oral History of the Electricity Supply Industry / An Oral History of British Science
National Life Stories
The British Library
http://www.bl.uk/voices-of-science
________________________________________
From: Members [members-bounces at lists.sigcis.org] on behalf of David C. Brock [dbrock at computerhistory.org]
Sent: 06 February 2018 15:58
To: members
Cc: David C. Brock
Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Active institutional or individual oral history efforts in history of computing *outside* US

I would like to get a better sense of which institutions or individuals are actively creating oral histories in the history of computing, broadly conceived, *outside* of the US.

I’m posting the question here because I’d bet others would like to know as well.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Best wishes,

David

..............
David C. Brock
Director
Center for Software History [http://www.computerhistory.org/softwarehistory/]
Computer History Museum [http://www.computerhistory.org/]

Email: dbrock at computerhistory.org
Twitter: @dcbrock
Skype: dcbrock

1401 N. Shoreline Blvd.
Mountain View, CA 94943
(650) 810-1010 main
(650) 810-1886 direct

Follow Us:
@CHM Blog [http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/]
Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/computerhistory]
Twitter [https://twitter.com/ComputerHistory]
Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/computerhistory/]
YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/user/ComputerHistory]

Make Software, Change the World! Now Open.
[http://www.computerhistory.org/exhibits/makesoftware/]

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