<div dir="ltr"><div>For those interested in the standardization of ASCII I would recommend the <b>Computer Standards Collection, 1958-1979</b> at the National Museum of American History. The collection was donated by Robert "Bob" Bemer, who is sometimes referred to as the father of ASCII. I looked through it a number of years ago, and while it wasn't relevant to my own project there was a lot there to work with. It deals not only with the standardization of ASCII but also with the work of the International Standards Organization subcommittee, which dealt with precisely the kinds of questions discussed here. I imagine Eric Hintz from the Lemelson center would be a useful resource for anyone who wants to follow up, and he is also member of this list <<a href="mailto:hintze@si.edu">hintze@si.edu</a>>.<br><br><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Bemer">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Bemer</a><br><a href="http://siris-archives.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?&profile=all&source=~!siarchives&uri=full=3100001~!140356~!0#focus">http://siris-archives.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?&profile=all&source=~!siarchives&uri=full=3100001~!140356~!0#focus</a><br><br></div><div>_Jacob</div><div><br></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br clear="all"><div><div class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr">Jacob Gaboury<br><div dir="ltr" style="font-family:arial;font-size:small">--<br>Assistant Professor of Digital Media and Visual Culture<br>Dept. of Cultural Analysis and Theory, Stony Brook University<br>--<div>Research Fellow, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (Dept II)<br></div><div>Berlin, Germany 2015 - 2016</div><div>--<br>Staff Writer, Rhizome.org<br>New Museum for Contemporary Art<br>--<br><a href="http://www.jacobgaboury.com/" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank">http://www.jacobgaboury.com/</a></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Aug 20, 2015 at 2:02 PM, James Sumner <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:james.sumner@manchester.ac.uk" target="_blank">james.sumner@manchester.ac.uk</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
Hi Paul and everyone<br>
<br>
More a survey of concerns than a historical study, but: <br>
<br>
Daniel Pargman and Jacob Palme, "ASCII imperialism". In Martha
Lampland and Susan Leigh Star (eds.), <i>Standards and their
stories: How quantifying, classifying, and formalizing practices
shape everyday life</i>, pp.177-199. Ithaca: Cornell University
Press, 2009. PDF copy at
<a href="http://danielpargman.blogspot.co.uk/p/texts.html" target="_blank"><http://danielpargman.blogspot.co.uk/p/texts.html></a><br>
<br>
(Searching on the term "ASCII imperialism", incidentally, turns up a
1999 text suggesting it was first coined by the Finnish
library/information activist Mikael Böök -- who is himself
uncommonly difficult to search on precisely because of the ASCII
problem...) <br>
<br>
Best<span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><br>
James</font></span><div><div class="h5"><br>
<br>
<div>On 20/08/2015 16:00, Paul N.Edwards
wrote:<br>
</div>
</div></div><blockquote type="cite"><div><div class="h5">
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>
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