<div dir="ltr"><div><div><div><div>Hello Paul and SIGCIS,<br><br></div>I'm excited to 
see interest in the topic of character encoding. I explored some related
 trailheads in my dissertation work on dial-up BBSs. Specifically, I 
wanted to better understand the expressive use of semigraphical 
characters in the construction of online interfaces. This lead me to 
examine various vendor-specific character sets such as Commodore's 
PETSCII, Atari's ATASCII, and Microsoft's Code Page 437 (stored in 
ANSI.SYS). Unicode wasn't quite on the scene yet.<br><br></div><div>As 
with so many interesting side-quests, only bits of this research made it
 into the final document (see: "Text, terminal, and the visual culture 
of BBSing", pg 176-196, in the PDF linked below) but I am looking forward to learning more about this area--especially given the recent diffusion of 
"emoji" and other pictographic Unicode characters.<br><br><a href="http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15799coll3/id/444362/rec/2">http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15799coll3/id/444362/rec/2</a><br><br></div>📳 📩  📫<br>Kevin Driscoll<br></div>Postdoctoral researcher<br></div>Microsoft Research New England<br><br><br><div><div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Aug 20, 2015 at 11:00 AM, Paul N. Edwards <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:pne@umich.edu" target="_blank">pne@umich.edu</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div style="word-wrap:break-word">All, vaguely related to the interesting discussion of race - on which I tend to agree with Tom H - here’s something that’s been niggling away at my historical consciousness. <div><br></div><div>In 1993 Jeffrey Shapard published an intriguing article about the problems created by early standardization on ASCII 7- and 8-bit character codes for Asian and other non-alphabetic languages, which can have many thousands of characters (vs. the 256 representable in 8-bit ASCII). Shapard, “Islands in the (Data) Stream: Language, Character Codes, and Electronic Isolation in Japan,” in Linda Harasim, ed., <i>Global networks: Computers and international communication</i> (MIT Press Cambridge, MA., 1993).<div><br></div><div>This problem carried over into the Web era. It was technically resolved by Unicode, but that standard has still not been universally adopted.<br><br><div>I’m wondering whether any historians have written about the history of character encoding, especially Unicode. What I’m curious about is not the technical history itself, but how the character-code problem affected/was affected by culture (“electronic isolation," as per Shapard? indigenous efforts, vs. IBM’s world-market goals? alternative pathways?). Do any of you know archive- or interview-based accounts that go into some of the cultural and social background and implications?</div><div><br></div><div>NB, there was a 3-part history of IBM's efforts in Asia, especially kanji representations, in the IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, Jan.-March 2005, by: Hensch, K.; Iqi, T.; Iwao, M.; Oda, A.; Takeshita. </div><div><div><br></div><div>There are also number of rather thorough and interesting histories by developer-protagonists and users, such as these:</div><div><br></div><div>S. Searle, <a href="http://tronweb.super-nova.co.jp/characcodehist.html" target="_blank">A Brief History of Character Codes in North America, Europe, and Asia</a></div><div><br></div><div>S. Searle, <a href="http://tronweb.super-nova.co.jp/unicoderevisited.html" target="_blank">Unicode Revisited</a></div><div><br></div><div>J. Becker, <a href="http://www.unicode.org/history/unicode88.pdf" target="_blank">Unicode 88</a> (1988 proposal from Xerox PARC)</div><div><br></div><div>Curious for any thoughts or references. </div><div><br></div><div>Best,</div><div><br></div><div>Paul</div><div><br></div><div><div>
<div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;word-wrap:break-word"><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;word-wrap:break-word"><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:normal;text-align:-webkit-auto;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;word-wrap:break-word"><span style="border-collapse:separate;font-family:'Helvetica Neue';border-spacing:0px"><div style="font-family:Arial;margin:0px"><br>—————————————————</div><div style="font-family:Arial;margin:0px">Paul N. Edwards, Professor of <a href="http://www.si.umich.edu" target="_blank">Information</a> and <a href="http://www.lsa.umich.edu/history/" target="_blank">History</a></div><div style="font-family:Arial;margin:0px">On sabbatical July-December 2015 — replies will be slow or nonexistent</div><div style="font-family:Arial;margin:0px"></div><div style="font-family:Geneva;margin:0px;min-height:16px"><br></div><div style="font-family:Helvetica;margin:0px;min-height:16px"><font face="Geneva">Terse replies are </font><a href="http://five.sentenc.es/" target="_blank">deliberate</a><font face="Geneva">. </font><a href="http://emailcharter.org" target="_blank">Here's why! </a><br></div><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><span style="border-collapse:separate;border-spacing:0px"><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><span style="border-collapse:separate;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:normal;text-align:-webkit-auto;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;border-spacing:0px"><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><span style="font-family:Helvetica;border-collapse:separate;border-spacing:0px"><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><span style="border-collapse:separate;border-spacing:0px"><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><span style="border-collapse:separate;font-size:12px;border-spacing:0px"><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><span style="border-collapse:separate;font-family:Arial;border-spacing:0px"><div style="margin:0px;font-family:Geneva;min-height:16px"><br></div><div style="margin:0px">University of Michigan <a href="http://www.si.umich.edu/" target="_blank">School of Information</a></div><div style="margin:0px">4437 North Quad</div><div style="margin:0px">105 S. State Street<br>Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1285</div><div style="margin:0px">Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/avastmachine" style="text-align:-webkit-auto" target="_blank">@AVastMachine</a></div><div style="margin:0px">Web: <a href="http://pne.people.si.umich.edu" target="_blank">pne.people.si.umich.edu</a></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><br></span><br></div></span><br></div></span><br></div></span><br style="font-family:Helvetica"></div></span></div></span></div><span style="border-collapse:separate;border-spacing:0px"><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica Neue';border-collapse:separate;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:normal;text-align:-webkit-auto;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;border-spacing:0px"><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><span style="border-collapse:separate;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:normal;text-align:-webkit-auto;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;border-spacing:0px"><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><span style="border-collapse:separate;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:'Helvetica Neue';font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:normal;text-align:-webkit-auto;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;border-spacing:0px"><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><span style="border-collapse:separate;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;border-spacing:0px"><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><span style="border-collapse:separate;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;border-spacing:0px"><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><span style="border-collapse:separate;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;border-spacing:0px"><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><span style="border-collapse:separate;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;border-spacing:0px"><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><span style="border-collapse:separate;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;border-spacing:0px"><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><span style="border-collapse:separate;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;border-spacing:0px"><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><span style="border-collapse:separate;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;border-spacing:0px"><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><span style="border-collapse:separate;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;border-spacing:0px"><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><span style="border-collapse:separate;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;border-spacing:0px"><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><span style="border-collapse:separate;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;border-spacing:0px"><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><span style="border-collapse:separate;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial;font-size:12px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;border-spacing:0px"><div style="margin:0px"><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br></span><br></div></span><br></div></span><br></div></span><br></div></span><br></div></span><br></div></span><br></div></span><br></div></span><br></div></span><br></div></span><br></div></span><br></div></span><br></div></span><br></div></span><br><br></span><br></div><br></div><br></div><br style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px"><br>
</div>
<br></div></div></div></div></div><br>_______________________________________________<br>
This email is relayed from members at <a href="http://sigcis.org" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">sigcis.org</a>, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at <a href="http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/</a> and you can change your subscription options at <a href="http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org</a><br></blockquote></div><br></div>