<div>Dear all,<br><br>I hope this is not too off topic, but I have been meaning to ask for a while now (after dabbling through some literature in vain) if anyone can point me to work on the invention, development, or emergence of the concept of the string. For an article I am developing I need to know why and how this linear structure arose. Is this simply a result of how the Turing machine was conceived? I bet there's more to it?<br><br>Thanks, and all the best<br>--Joris<br><br></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr">On vr 21 aug. 2015 at 02:29 Murray Turoff <<a href="mailto:murray.turoff@gmail.com">murray.turoff@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small">If you want to understand standards you to look at how the committees established in many different ways were formed to try and get companies needing a common standard to agree on what a new standard should be for things like codes, pins on plugs, etc<br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small">every member of the committee is trying to get a standard that is useful for what they want for the company without letting the other members know what new development they were going release that needed the standard.<br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small">there was also a lot of conflicts and downright angers in the process.<br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small">For example Herb Grosch) who was with the national bureau of standards turned down IBM's proposal for a new punch card standard and even three years later when i joined Herb and some others for dinner at a restaurant during and ACM yearly meeting, when we walked into the restaurant a table of IBM professionals let out a loud BOO. Herb actually worked for a time at IBM in his early professional days in the US and was allowed to wear a beard because they wanted him to stay. Herb later on was also a president of ACM. <br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small">One of the experimental groups we had on the NSF sponsored EIES system was a standards group that wanted to try to arrive at standards where everything in the discussion was anonymous so you could not identify the participants company. If you don't know eies you should look at the book "the network nation: human communication via computer" hiltz and turoff, 1978 and reprinted by mit press in 1993 and still available. <br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small">The great thing about eies (Electronic Information Exchange System) is we designed so we could give any user group a tailored communication structure to meet their need. all inside a system that had much more in group communications than todays social networks. A lot of the early research reports of the EIES efforts are available free from the NJIT library. The link to this set of reports and associated user manuals even for the earlier system EMISARI in the US government in 1971 is on there. it had chat among other things.<br><a href="http://library.njit.edu/archives/cccc-materials/index.php" target="_blank">http://library.njit.edu/archives/cccc-materials/index.php</a><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small">we did a lot of the early experiments on online group communications which seem to be largely forgotten today.<br></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Aug 20, 2015 at 7:23 PM, Jacob Gaboury <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:jacob.gaboury@stonybrook.edu" target="_blank">jacob.gaboury@stonybrook.edu</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><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" target="_blank">hintze@si.edu</a>>.<br><br><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Bemer" target="_blank">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" target="_blank">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><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><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><font color="#888888"><br>
James</font></span><div><div><br>
<br>
<div>On 20/08/2015 16:00, Paul N.Edwards
wrote:<br>
</div>
</div></div><blockquote type="cite"><div><div>
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: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>
<br>
<fieldset></fieldset>
<br>
</div></div><span><pre>_______________________________________________
This email is relayed from members at <a href="http://sigcis.org" 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/" 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" target="_blank">http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org</a></pre>
</span></blockquote>
<br>
</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></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><br clear="all"><br></div><div class="gmail_extra">-- <br><div><b>please send messages to <a href="mailto:murray.turoff@gmail.com" target="_blank">murray.turoff@gmail.com</a> do not use @<a href="http://njit.edu" target="_blank">njit.edu</a> address<br><br>Distinguished Professor Emeritus<br>Information Systems, NJIT<br>homepage: <a href="http://is.njit.edu/turoff" target="_blank">http://is.njit.edu/turoff</a><br></b><br></div>
</div>
_______________________________________________<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></blockquote></div>