September 2010 - Members - lists.sigcis.org

Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Dissertations (fwd)
by Allan Olley 30 Nov '10

30 Nov '10

I may be telling people what they already know but to continue on James point, the largest repository of US and Canadian dissertations is a commercial database operated by ProQuest (accessible through a library subscription, but not open access). ProQuest also holds contracts for supplying much of the microfilm dissertation service in this region and so even if an electronic copy is not available you can often order a copy from them. When they print a copy from microfilm they also create an electronic copy in at least some cases. For example, I ordered a thesis from Columbia 1965 and after I ordered it an electronic copy was available). There are many dissertations on history of computing and allied fields in Proquest, I'm not going to try and list any here, sorry. A list of on-line sources of theses and dissertations is given by Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations: http://www.ndltd.org/find Several of these are open access including Theses Canada (unfortunately a very limited set of actual electronic theses available). I just noticed, ProQuest is running a service for open access dissertations (a very small set compared to their subscription service) here: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/ I could find two dissertations of probable interest, freely available for download on my own quick search of this service: Communities of innovation: Cyborganic and the birth of networked social media by Cool, Jennifer Catharine, Ph.D. University of Southern California. 2008: 420 pages; AAT 3341717. White House computer adoption and information policy from 1969 -- 1979 by Laprise, John Paul, Ph.D. Northwestern University. 2009: 262 pages; AAT 3386523. -- Yours Truly, Allan Olley http://individual.utoronto.ca/fofound/ On Wed, 30 Jun 2010, James Sumner wrote: > A belated follow-up to Jim's message about access to Masters and PhD > dissertations: > > The British Library's Electronic Theses Online Service (EThOS) is shaping up > to be very effective both as a clearing-house for information about > dissertations available digitally, and as a direct-access repository. I'm > surprised it's not better publicised. See: > > <http://ethos.bl.uk> > > The database attempts to list every research thesis/dissertation completed at > a higher education institution in the UK. If a copy has been deposited with > the British Library (which is usually the case) and has no access > restrictions, it can be scanned and prepared for electronic download. > > The beauty of this provision is that, once any user has ordered a thesis to > be digitised, it becomes available to later users at *no charge*. (Users > requesting theses have to register, but there are no restrictions on > registration. Users outside the UK are welcome.) > > A quick search on obvious keywords showed the following as currently > available for direct free download: > > --- > The growth of the Indian software industry : a social history > Author: Warrier, Meera. > Awarding Institution: University of East Anglia > Awarded: 2003 > > The roots and early history of the British home computer market : origins of > the masculine micro. > Author: Haddon, Leslie G. > Awarding Institution: Imperial College London (University of London) > Awarded: 1988 > > Technology, consumption and the future : the experience of home computing. > Author: Skinner, David Ian. > Awarding Institution: Brunel University > Awarded: 1992 > > A history of the theory of recursive functions and computability with special > reference to the developments initiated by Godels incompleteness theorems. > Author: Adams, R.G. > Awarding Institution: Hatfield Polytechnic > Awarded: 1983 > > Learning languages with computers : a history of computer assisted language > learning from 1960 to 1990 in relation to education, linguistics and applied > linguistics. > Author: Fox, Jeremy. > Awarding Institution: University of East Anglia > Awarded: 1991 > > The impact of e-Government in the UK > Author: Organ, Joseph John > Awarding Institution: University of Leeds > Awarded: 2006 > --- > > Theses which have not been digitised usually attract a one-off fee of £40 for > digitisation. Depending on the awarding institution's access policy, however, > digitisation is sometimes free (though there may be a wait of up to 30 days > before access is available). > > The system will also try to link to full-text versions held in local > repositories such as <etheses.whiterose.ac.uk> where it can. > > Hope you find this useful! > Best > James > > On 12/06/2010 17:01, James Cortada wrote: >> Thanks to those of you who were able to respond to this request for >> information. Some of my favorite sigcis e-mail is of this sort as I then >> go and look at many of the citations mentioned. >> >> I particularly like it when colleagues mention their Masters and Ph.D. >> dissertations and provide a link to where we can obtain a copy. This is >> of extraordinary importance because it is incredibly easy not to be >> aware of important research. Therefore, I would like to suggest that if >> you have not shared with everyone your dissertations, that you do so >> electronically, if you can. I for one have kept a copy of each >> dissertation that has been made available through this sigcis so that >> there is at least one copy that gets preserved outside of the normal >> places, and for European and Asian dissertations, a copy in the USA. I >> hope others do the same, particularly at such institutions as CBI and >> universities. >> >> Regards, >> >> Dr. Jim (James) W. Cortada >> IBM Institute for Business Value >> 2917 Irvington Way >> Madison, WI 53713 USA >> jwcorta(a)us.ibm.com >> 608-270-4462 >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> This email is relayed from members(a)sigcis.org, the email discussion list of >> SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ >> and you can change your subscription options at >> http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members > > _______________________________________________ > This email is relayed from members(a)sigcis.org, the email discussion list of > SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ > and you can change your subscription options at > http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members

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SHOT Meeting: Program highlights for History of Computing
by Thomas Haigh 27 Sep '10

27 Sep '10

Hello, Below is a summary of the history of computing material on the program at SHOT next week useful for those of you attending, and hopefully of general interest to those not able to make it this year. The main program doesnt include as many sessions devoted primarily or exclusively to the history of computing as the 2007 or 2008 meetings did, but there are a number of closely related panels and individual papers scattered through the meeting. Plus, of course, our full day meeting on Sunday. Elsewhere on the program I notice a new, more constrained 90 minute format for all the panels and a surge of interest in space and cold war topics. The Official SIGCIS Events are · 8:30-10:00am on Friday, Oct 1: Panel on Networks As Places in the History of Computing: · 12:30-2:00pm on Friday, Oct 1: SIGCIS Lunch Meeting (Book auction, award presentation, etc) · 9:00am to 6pm on Sunday, Oct 3: SIGCIS 2010 Workshop: Materiality & Immateriality in the History of Computing Below is a detailed guide, including details on all sessions with history of computing/IT content. Tom Haigh Friday: 8:30-10:00am 7: Networks as Places in the History of Computing Thomas Haigh University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee, Organizer & Chair Jeffrey Tang, James Madison University, Commentator · Sue Thomas De Montfort University Shaping the Landscapes of Cyberspace: West Coast Metaphors · J Carles Maixé-Altés University of A Coruña, Spain: Diverging Paths to a Networked World: Computerizing Spanish and British Savings Banks, 1965-90 · Ksenia Tatarchenko Princeton University Not Lost in Translation: How English Became the Common Language of Computer Science (1960-74) Friday: 2pm-3:30 18: The Shock of the Old, includes · Matt Thomas, University of Iowa Low-Tech Solutions to High-Tech Problems: The Curious Case of the Moleskin Notebook (Not computing, but IT broadly conceived) Friday: 2pm-3:30 21: Author Meets Critics: Paul Edwards, A Vast Machine: Computer Models, Climate Data, and the Politics of Global Warming Sverker Sörlin, Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden: Organizer Nina Wormbs, Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden: Chair · Sverker Sörlin Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden · James R Fleming Colby College · Paul Edwards University of Michigan Respondent Saturday 8:30-10am 22: T&C: Technology & (Counter) Culture Susan Schmidt Horning, St Johns University Chair & Commentator · Mark Clark, Oregon Institute of Technology, To Hell With the Grid: Home Power Magazine and the Ideology of Alternative Energy · Peter Sachs Collopy (Robinson), University of Pennsylvania, Guerilla Television and the Utopian Promise of Video · Sungook Hong Seoul National University, S Korea,The Artist as Engineer: Nam June Paiks Video Synthesizer and His Video Art Saturday 8:30-10am 23: Users and Standards includes · Emily Goodmann Northwestern University Information?: Telephone Books, Information Operators & The Computational Telephone Saturday 8:30-10am 27: Standards, Technology, and Power Includes · Jonathan C Hall Columbia University From Free Software to Open Source: Standardization of a Technical Term in Pursuit of New Markets Saturday 10:30-12:00 32: A Bankers Utopia: Dreams and Realities of the Cashless/Checkless Society Bernardo Bátiz-Lazo University of Leicester, United Kingdom: Organizer Jeff Yost Charles Babbage Institute: Chair Paul Thomes Aachen, Germany: Commentator · Bernardo Bátiz-Lazo, Tobias Karlsson, and Björn Thodenius, University of Leicester, United Kingdom, Lund University, Sweden, and Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden · Origins of Cashless Payments: Direct to Account Payments, Cash Machines and Online Technology in the UK and Sweden · David Stearns Seattle Pacific University Conflicting Dreams of a Cashless Society: VISAs Entrée and Expectations of Electronic Funds Transfer · Ian Martin Open University, United Kingdom, Too Far Ahead of its Time: Britain, Burroughs and Realtime Banking in the 1960s · Olga Pantelidou National Technical, University of Athens, Greece, Automating Check Processing: How ERMA Altered Bank of Americas Network Typology and Branch Architecture, 1955-66 Saturday, 2:00-3:30pm 37: Geek Worlds Jonathan Coopersmith Texas A&M University: Chair & Commentator · Nick Muntean University of Texas-Austin, The Ideology of Consumer Electronics · Matthew Schandler, Lehigh University, Recycling Innovation: Nintendos Conservative Approach to Research and Development · Elizabeth Lenaghan (Robinson), Northwestern University Kindling Consumption: How Amazons E-reader Marketing Refashions Readers Saturday, 4:00-5:30pm 42: At The Office Jennifer K Alexander, University of Minnesota: Chair & Commentator · Andrew Mamo (Robinson), UC-Berkeley Affect and Automation: Middle-Class Engagements with Mid-Century American Technology · Louise Karlskov Skyggebjerg, Danish Museum of Science & Technology, Denmark, Its Another Landscape of Communication: New Technologies in Use in the Office · Colrain M Zuppo (Robinson), Indiana State University/Bowling Green State University, Organizations as Consumers of Human Capital Via Technology: Evolution of the Boundaryless Workplace ALL DAY SUNDAY: SIGCIS 2010 Workshop: Materiality & Immateriality in the History of Computing Stream A (room TBA) Stream B (Room TBA) 9:00-10:30 Opening Plenary: * Introduction to the Workshop and its Theme by Thomas Haigh, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee * Keynote Address: "Friction: Rethinking Speed, Power, and Possibility in the History of Information Infrastructures" by Paul Edwards, University of Michigan 10:30-10:45 Coffee break 10:45-12:00 Roundtable: Computers, Information and Society in the Classroom * Andrew Russell, Stevens Institute of Technology (chair & organizer) * Nathan Ensmenger, University of Pennsylvania * Rebecca Slayton, Stanford University (Short presentations to introduce pre circulated documents, followed by general discussion). Consolidated file of syllabi <http://www.sigcis.org/files/WS2010Syllabi.pdf> now available for download. Examining the Interaction of Speculative Literature and Computing: Toward a Research Agenda * David L. Ferro, Weber State University (chair & organizer) <http://www.sigcis.org/files/Ferro.pdf> full text * Janet Abbate, Virgina Tech <http://www.sigcis.org/files/Abbate.pdf> full text * Eric G. Swedin, Weber State University <http://www.sigcis.org/files/Swedin%20and%20Ferro.pdf> full text * Thomas Haigh, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee <http://www.sigcis.org/files/Haigh.pdf> full text (Short presentations to introduce pre circulated documents, followed by general discussion) 12:00-1:30 Lunch break (group lunch option TBA) 1:30-3:30 Dissertations In Progress Chair/Commentator: Paul Edwards, University of Michigan * <http://www.sigcis.org/dp1> The Akademgorodok Computing Center (1958-1990) Ksenia Tatachenko, Princeton University. <http://www.sigcis.org/files/Tatachenko.pdf> full text * <http://www.sigcis.org/dp2> Digital Equipment's Rise and Fall, Could it Have Been Avoided? Dave Goodwin, Birkbeck College London. <http://www.sigcis.org/files/Goodwin.pdf> full text * <http://www.sigcis.org/dp3> A History and Ethnography of the Cocoa Software Community. Hansen Hsu, Cornell University. <http://www.sigcis.org/files/Hsu2.pdf> full text * <http://www.sigcis.org/dp4> Connecting Minds in a Multimedia Episteme: The Academic Supercomputer Centers and the Construction an Advanced Cognitive Infrastructure for the U.S. Research Community: 1983-1993 Kevin Walsh, University of California, San Diego. (Short presentations to introduce pre circulated dissertation proposals, to be discussed in turn by workshop participants) Traditional Papers: Teaching & Showing Chair: Olga Pantelidou, National Technical University of Athens Commentator: Rebecca Slayton, Stanford University * <http://www.sigcis.org/t4> The PLATO Computer-Based Education System: Teacher's Tool or Teacher? Christopher McDonald, Princeton University. * <http://www.sigcis.org/t6> Car Navigation Systems A History of Associative Clusters. Tristan Thielmann, University of Siegen. * <http://www.sigcis.org/t7> A Material History of Bits. Jean-François Blanchette, UCLA. * <http://www.sigcis.org/t9> Museums and the Material Culture of Video Games. Petrina Foti, Smithsonian NMAH. (4x20 minute presentations followed by a 10-15 minute comment and general discussion) 3:30-4:00 Coffee break (Demonstration of the "IT History Society Archival Database," Jeffery Stein, IT History Society). 4:00-6:00 Works in Progress Chair/Commentator: TBA * <http://www.sigcis.org/wp1> Multi-sided markets and on-line distribution of working papers: A brief history of NEP, 1993-2005. Bernardo Batiz-Lazo, University of Leicester and Thomas Krichel (Long Island University & Novosibirsk State University, Russia). * <http://www.sigcis.org/wp2> Making Computers Logical: Edmund Berkeleys promotion of logical machines. Mai Sugimoto, Kyoto University. <http://www.sigcis.org/files/Sugimoto.pdf> full text * <http://www.sigcis.org/wp4> Technological system or military-industrial-complex the diffusion of numerically controlled machine tools in Sweden, 19501970. Gustav Sjöblom, Chalmers University of Technology. <http://www.sigcis.org/files/Sjöblom.pdf> full text * <http://www.sigcis.org/wp5> Meta Filter: Coming to Agreement with Interactive Computer Technology. Sharon Irish, UIUC. <http://www.sigcis.org/files/Irish.pdf> full text (Short presentations to introduce pre circulated papers, to be discussed in turn by workshop participants) Traditional Papers: Place & Space Chair: Ann Johnson, University of South Carolina. Commentator: Peter Meyer, Bureau of Labor Statistics. * <http://www.sigcis.org/t2> The Material History of Digital Electronics: The Development of Silicon Manufacturing Technology at Fairchild Semiconductor. David C. Brock, Chemical Heritage Foundation & Christophe Lecuyer, University of California. * <http://www.sigcis.org/t5> The World Looks to Britain: Technology Transfer, Heterogeneous Engineering, and British Computing Companies Attempt to Capture the Indian Market, 1955-1965. Marie Hicks, Duke University. * <http://www.sigcis.org/t8> Wat' Forever: Computing Education at the University of Waterloo. Scott M. Campbell, University of Waterloo. * <http://www.sigcis.org/t10> Materiality, modernity and space: The British banks and their computer centres, 19611963. Ian Martin, Open University & University of Manchester. (4x20 minute presentations followed by a 10-15 minute comment and general discussion) Dinner: An optional group dinner will be held following the workshop for those eager to continue conversation over food.

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SIGCIS meeting - workshop on teaching
by Andrew Russell 24 Sep '10

24 Sep '10

Hi folks - As you may have seen at the SIGCIS workshop schedule <http://www.sigcis.org/workshop10>, there will be a roundtable from 10.45 to noon on Computers, Information, and Society in the Classroom. I'm writing to ask for your participation in one (or more) of the following ways: 1. Join the roundtable as a participant. Nathan Ensmenger and I will begin the session by taking 5 or so minutes to describe the courses we teach, the students in the class, and some materials and assignments we use for teaching. But we'd like more one or two more people formally to join us on the panel. If you're interested, please send me an email ASAP and we'll add you to the program. 2. Join the roundtable in the audience. The reason we are allotting only 5 minutes for participant presentations is so that most of session will be dedicated to discussion among the audience. I guess I see it as more of a brainstorming session than anything else. I won't blame you if you want to go to what sounds like a fascinating session on "speculative literature" that is running at the same - I might even sneak out for a few minutes myself :-) 3. Sign up to receive pre-circulated materials. We think that the workshop will be more successful if we pre-circulate some materials and syllabi to discuss. If you'd like to receive these materials ahead of time, please send me an email. Also, if you have materials that you want to pre-circulate, send them to me with a brief note that it's ok to distribute more broadly (we'll either email them to people who express an interest or simply upload them to the SIGCIS site). 4. Contribute your syllabus to the SIGCIS repository. We are lucky to have an impressive repository of related syllabi at http://www.sigcis.org/syllabi. If you haven't done so already, please consider sending a .pdf version of your syllabus to Ed Benoit at eabenoit(a)gmail.com if you are willing to have it included in the repository. One goal of this session is to feed off and further develop this fantastic feature of the SIGCIS site. So, even if you aren't going to be in Tacoma or at our session, take a look at the syllabus repository and think about making a contribution. Thanks and please let me know if you have questions or suggestions, Andy ----------------------------------------------------------- Andrew L. Russell, Ph.D Assistant Professor, College of Arts & Letters Stevens Institute of Technology Castle Point on Hudson Hoboken, NJ 07030 Phone: 201-216-5400 Fax: 201-216-8245 Office: Morton 329 arussell(a)stevens.edu http://www.arussell.org http://www.stevens.edu/cal/

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SIGCIS Workshop & Member Directory
by Thomas Haigh 21 Sep '10

21 Sep '10

Hello everyone, Here are a few topical announcements and reminders regarding SIGCIS, our email list, our member directory, and our 2010 workshop. 1) We had a recent flurry of emails regarding early computer use in the petroleum industry. I was very pleased with the responses we were able to provide. However some people may prefer to get a maximum of one email a day from the list. This can be achieved by logging into the email list at http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members and then selecting "Yes" for the "Daily Digest" option. That ensures your inbox will never get crowded even when heated discussion breaks out on the list. You should receive a monthly reminder of your email list (listman) password, and can also request it to be sent to you again. Note that it will usually be different from your main sigcis.org password. 2) For our 2010 workshop http://www.sigcis.org/workshop10, which is now less than two weeks away, we have now received most of the precirculated papers and have them up on the website for your reading pleasure. If you haven't yet sent dissertation or work in progress for preciculation, or if you are in regular session and did not yet send anything for the commentator, then please get the materials to tangjd(a)jmu.edu in the next few days. 3) We should soon be receiving a list from SHOT of the registrants for the workshop. When we get the registrants list from SHOT we'll send some further information regarding dinner options, mechanics, etc. just to the workshop attendees rather than spamming everyone. However, if you plan to attend the workshop but have not yet registered with SHOT (for example if you will do a one day registration at the door) then please let me know so that we can also include you in the messages. 4) Please review your entry in the member directory: http://www.sigcis.org/members This is particularly important for those attending the workshop, as we will be including the directory entry for all SHOT attendees in the workshop booklet. This includes the description of current research, and is a high speed alternative to having everyone stand up and introduce themselves. Some entries are clearly out of date and speak of 2006 or 2007 in the future tense! Others are very skimpy and have no description of research interests and activity in the field. You will need to update by Sunday for inclusion in the booklet. To update your directory entry and other information either login at http://www.sigcis.org/user and do it yourself (preferred option) or email the new text to eabenoit(a)gmail.com. That's Ed Benoit, who has recently been doing a great job cleaning up the email subscription list and working on the member directory. Best wishes, Tom Haigh www.tomandmaria.com/tom

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Petroleum frenzy - message from Simone Turchetti
by Thomas Haigh 17 Sep '10

17 Sep '10

(Here's a message forwarded from someone else with email trouble posting to the list at present. Welcome to our new member Simone Turchetti -- Tom). I think that the claim is too vague to be considered either true or false. However, the mailing list members can check the existing literature in the history of geophysics that definitely documents important ties between the development of oil prospecting and the early days of computing. One important reference is the book by Charles Bates, Thomas Gaskell and Robert Rice "Geophysics in the Affairs of Man" (Pergamon, 1982) which shows some of these connections. A general point that needs to be made is that many geophysicists went into the field of oil prospecting with skills and experience in electronic engineering and sought to apply methods of signal detection to geological analysis. Therefore they were open to experiment with the commercial viability of their electronic instrumentation beyond the remit of oil prospecting and contributed to the advancement of electronic systems in general. And indeed -as Bates, Gaskell and Rice show- this is one of the reasons why Texas Instruments was established. The company was intended as an off-shoot of the Geophysical Services Inc. (one of the oldest firms in the field) for the provision of more refined electronic instrumentation (check Bates et al., pp. 309-317). Moreover from the 1960s, the needs of remote sensing in fields like oil prospecting (but also seismology and oceanography) propelled the search for methods of digital recording and processing of information which -again- strengthened the connection between geophysical research and the IT sector (check Bates at al., 164-169). So in my opinion there is no doubt that geophysical firms played a big role in the advancement of computing and invested heavily in the field. However it would be difficult to quantify this contribution, especially by comparing it with the investments by the US federal government or that in other equally important areas (such as aeronautics/aerospace). Bates et al. provides a lot of useful information, but those who want to read more should be aware that it is a book written a while ago to provide raw historical data on the advancement of geophysics, which by then had received poor historical coverage. Hope this helps, s.

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Join the Revolution!
by Dag Spicer 17 Sep '10

17 Sep '10

Dear SIGCIS members, In case you haven¹t heard, I wanted to let you all know about our upcoming major new exhibit on the history of computing, opening January 11, 2001 (the 40th anniversary of the term ³Silicon Valley.²) Called R|Evolution, the exhibit is over 25,000 sq ft and covers computer history ³from the abacus to the iPod,² drawing on the Museum¹s immense collection of historical objects and photo and document archives. The exhibit is part of a $17 million renovation which will transform the Computer History Museum into a world-class destination. The exhibit features hundreds of videos with original commentary by computer pioneers (from our oral history collection), compelling graphics, and multimedia. And, of course, the exhibit, supplemented with even more, searchable, historical content, will be online as well. Learn more here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAzxuPmqmNQ I hope you will all have a chance to visit us! Best regards, Dag -- Dag Spicer | Senior Curator | Computer History Museum Editorial Board | Annals of the History of Computing 1401 N. Shoreline Blvd. | Mountain View CA 94043 Tel: +1 650 810 1035 | Fax: +1 650 810 1055 Computer History Museum: Where Computer History Lives!

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2011, not 2001!
by Dag Spicer 16 Sep '10

16 Sep '10

Dear friends, I of course meant 2011, not 2001! Thanks to Burt and Jay for pointing that out. Dag -- Dag Spicer | Senior Curator | Computer History Museum Editorial Board | Annals of the History of Computing 1401 N. Shoreline Blvd. | Mountain View CA 94043 Tel: +1 650 810 1035 | Fax: +1 650 810 1055 Museum Twitter: http://twitter.com/ComputerHistory

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Re: [SIGCIS-Members] petroleum and computers
by Allan Olley 16 Sep '10

16 Sep '10

I know of one incident from the fuzzy origin period of computers circa 1948-1952, two different oil companies, Carter oil and Gulf Research and Development Co., submitted similar problems in oil exploitation (if I remember right optimization problems on how best to get oil out of wells) to IBM's Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator (SSEC, a sort of proto-computers). In particular Carter Oil (which apparently was a subsiduary of Exxon) hired von Neumann as a consultant. As far as I've been able to find the SSEC was actually used for about 23 projects (another dozen were considered with some preliminary work done). Of these about half were done gratis for various research scientists, the other half were done on a cost basis for various paying clients, mostly scientists and engineers at US federal government (military) agencies. Of the 5 payed for by private companies, one was GE's turbine design, one was Fairchild Aircraft's atomic airplane division, one was by Reeves Instrument company to calibrate a missile guidance system, and then the two oil problems. This is not really a statistical significant sample and the SSEC was biased sampling because it was a philanthropic show piece ostensively meant for the benefit of scientists. Still oil companies were clearly early adopters and had problems that needed computing power but I've always been led to believe that in the earliest days of the electronic computer government was the biggest user of computing resources (electronic or otherwise), in the United States. And even many of the private interests were firms working on defense projects or other government contracts (military aircraft etc.). This oral interview ( http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Oral-History:Enders_Robinson ) with Enders Robinson suggests that the use of computers in the geophysics of oil exploration did not occur until the 1960s, but that they were widely used at refineries earlier. On von Neumann and Carter Oil see: Aspray, _John von Neumann and the Origins of Modern Computing_ (1990), pp. 105-108 Here is a paper on oil extraction that credits with von Neumann with some help (talks about moving some stuff from desktop calculators to a card programmed calculator): http://www.aimehq.org/search/docs/Volume%20207/207-31.pdf My estimate of SSEC usage is based mostly on an unpublished manuscript (substantiated from the published record and elsewhere where possible), "Appendix B: SSEC Operation" (no date) in "SSEC, the first electronic computer" by A. W. Brooke, pp. B1-B12. A. Wayne Brooke Collection, University North Carolina at Raleigh, special collections, MC#268, Box 1, Folder #9: Series 2.3 writings. A. W. Brooke was the supervising engineer of the SSEC during its operation 1948-1952 and apparently found the summary of SSEC operation in IBM archives. -- Yours Truly, Allan Olley http://individual.utoronto.ca/fofound/ On Mon, 13 Sep 2010, Deborah Douglas wrote: > Colleagues, > > Recently, I received a question about a claim that the petroleum-seeking > geophysics industry was once the greatest consumer of computers, only > surpassed at some later point by the federal government. No citation was > given and there is quite a bit of skepticism but where would you advise us to > look to refute this claim (or perhaps my own aerospace bias is too strong and > the claim is true!). > > Thanks, > > Debbie Douglas > > > Deborah G. Douglas, Ph.D. > Curator of Science and Technology > MIT Museum, N51-209 > 265 Massachusetts Avenue > Cambridge, MA 02139-4307 > ddouglas(a)mit.edu • 617-253-1766 phone • 617-253-8994 fax > http://web.mit.edu/museum • http://webmuseum.mit.edu • > http://museum.mit.edu/150 > > > > > _______________________________________________ > This email is relayed from members(a)sigcis.org, the email discussion list of > SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ > and you can change your subscription options at > http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members

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Petroleum and computers (from Burt Grad)
by Thomas Haigh 15 Sep '10

15 Sep '10

Forwarded from Burt Grad, who for some reason is having trouble sending from his own account and having the list accept it. Tom From: Burtgrad(a)aol.com [mailto:Burtgrad@aol.com] Sent: Wednesday, September 15, 2010 6:59 AM To: members(a)sigcis.org Cc: thaigh(a)acm.org Subject: Petroleum and computers As a developer at IBM's Data Processing Division during the 1960's, I was involved in applications work with many of the major users of mainframes. So far, all of the comments I have read seem substantially correct. However, there was a large gap in the types of companies which were doing scientific/technical computations and those doing business applications. The heaviest business users were banks, insurance companies and manufacturing companies (including aerospace and petroleum/gas). The largest scientific users were the aerospace and petroleum companies. Before the S/360 was announced, I believe that the sales of commercial machines exceeded the sale of scientific machines (certainly in the US); and I believe that the ratio of business to scientific usage was around 4 to 1. Share and Guide may have some data on this and there must have been data submitted to the government in the anti-trust suit which stipulated the sales of various sizes and types of IBM computers during the 1960s. I know that IBM would have been unable to sell S/360s to the Petroleum companies unless we had high functioning LP codes. And IBM couldn't have sold to the Aerospace companies without PERT programs. The only other evidence that I can recall was that by the end of the 1960s a number of the aerospace companies were selling excess capacity on a timesharing and remote processing services basis; some of the petroleum companies also did this but I believe to a lesser degree. Still, in terms of total value of computers sold, I believe that the commercial usage was much greater and therefore the sales to businesses other than Aerospace and Petroleum was probably much greater. Without statistics available to me, I would guess that dicrete manufacturing (not process), banking and insurance were the largest markets (other than government) in the 1960s and probably through the 1970s at least. Burt Grad [co-chair, Software Industry Special Interest Group at the Computer History Museum]

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Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Members Digest, Vol 3, Issue 7
by Dag Spicer 14 Sep '10

14 Sep '10

The elephant in the room is the federal government (NSA, CIA, &c) -- I don't have numbers (as the intelligence community's budgets are 'black') but it's been a truism in the supercomputing community for decades that the USG is the world's largest consumer of computer cycles. We'll never prove it but the cycles consumed on crypto alone vastly outnumber any commercial application. BTW, the TI ASC was not a competitive machine but a technical and financial disaster for TI. The Cray-1 (1976) ate it for breakfast. Dag On 9/14/10 8:11 AM, "members-request(a)sigcis.org" <members-request(a)sigcis.org> wrote: > Send Members mailing list submissions to > members(a)sigcis.org > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > members-request(a)sigcis.org > > You can reach the person managing the list at > members-owner(a)sigcis.org > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of Members digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Re: petroleum and computers (Ceruzzi, Paul) > 2. Re: petroleum and computers (Ceruzzi, Paul) > 3. Re: petroleum and computers (Bernardo Batiz-Lazo) > 4. Re: petroleum and computers (Geoffrey C. Bowker) > 5. Re: petroleum and computers (JoAnne Yates) > 6. Re: petroleum and computers (Scott Campbell) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Tue, 14 Sep 2010 09:43:27 -0400 > From: "Ceruzzi, Paul" <CeruzziP(a)si.edu> > To: "members(a)sigcis.org" <members(a)sigcis.org> > Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] petroleum and computers > Message-ID: > <F34BA0D383FCA643AD8802F02D0128B10B9CF9A4F9(a)SI-MSEV04.US.SINET.SI.EDU> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > > Debbie: > > I passed your query on to Eric Weiss, who worked for one of the major oil > companies in those days. Eric has been somewhat hard to get hold of, but last > I heard he is OK and living comfortably in Hawaii. If anyone on the list has > more recent news, perhaps you could let me know (off-list). > > Paul E. Ceruzzi, MRC 311, National Air and Space Museum, PO Box 37012, > Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013-7012. phone: 202-633-2414. > > -----Original Message----- > From: members-bounces(a)sigcis.org [mailto:members-bounces@sigcis.org] On Behalf > Of Deborah Douglas > Sent: Monday, September 13, 2010 6:47 PM > To: members(a)sigcis.org > Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] petroleum and computers > > Colleagues, > > Recently, I received a question about a claim that the petroleum- > seeking geophysics industry was once the greatest consumer of > computers, only surpassed at some later point by the federal > government. No citation was given and there is quite a bit of > skepticism but where would you advise us to look to refute this claim > (or perhaps my own aerospace bias is too strong and the claim is true!). > > Thanks, > > Debbie Douglas > > > Deborah G. Douglas, Ph.D. > Curator of Science and Technology > MIT Museum, N51-209 > 265 Massachusetts Avenue > Cambridge, MA 02139-4307 > ddouglas(a)mit.edu * 617-253-1766 phone * 617-253-8994 fax > http://web.mit.edu/museum * http://webmuseum.mit.edu * > http://museum.mit.edu/150 > > > > > _______________________________________________ > This email is relayed from members(a)sigcis.org, the email discussion list of > SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ and > you can change your subscription options at > http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: Tue, 14 Sep 2010 09:52:22 -0400 > From: "Ceruzzi, Paul" <CeruzziP(a)si.edu> > To: "Ceruzzi, Paul" <CeruzziP(a)si.edu>, "members(a)sigcis.org" > <members(a)sigcis.org> > Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] petroleum and computers > Message-ID: > <F34BA0D383FCA643AD8802F02D0128B10B9CF9A4FA(a)SI-MSEV04.US.SINET.SI.EDU> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > > Oh, one other thing: > > Texas Instruments, where Jack Kilby worked and where a lot of advanced R&D on > solid-state computing was done, started out as a geophysical exploration > company, looking for oil deposits based on seismic data. In addition to their > well-known pioneering work on silicon transistors, pocket calculators, > integrated circuits, and mobile communications devices, they also built a > competitive supercomputer, the "ASC," in the mid-1960s. > > Paul E. Ceruzzi, MRC 311, National Air and Space Museum, PO Box 37012, > Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013-7012. phone: 202-633-2414. > > -----Original Message----- > From: members-bounces(a)sigcis.org [mailto:members-bounces@sigcis.org] On Behalf > Of Deborah Douglas > Sent: Monday, September 13, 2010 6:47 PM > To: members(a)sigcis.org > Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] petroleum and computers > > Colleagues, > > Recently, I received a question about a claim that the petroleum- > seeking geophysics industry was once the greatest consumer of > computers, only surpassed at some later point by the federal > government. No citation was given and there is quite a bit of > skepticism but where would you advise us to look to refute this claim > (or perhaps my own aerospace bias is too strong and the claim is true!). > > Thanks, > > Debbie Douglas > > > Deborah G. Douglas, Ph.D. > Curator of Science and Technology > MIT Museum, N51-209 > 265 Massachusetts Avenue > Cambridge, MA 02139-4307 > ddouglas(a)mit.edu * 617-253-1766 phone * 617-253-8994 fax > http://web.mit.edu/museum * http://webmuseum.mit.edu * > http://museum.mit.edu/150 > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 3 > Date: Tue, 14 Sep 2010 14:47:58 +0100 > From: Bernardo Batiz-Lazo <bbatiz64(a)gmail.com> > To: David Alan Grier <grier(a)gwu.edu> > Cc: members(a)sigcis.org > Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] petroleum and computers > Message-ID: > <AANLkTi=KN7vfbBDrO2sATqT9w11vF0DkfVVFQRqqRjhs(a)mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 > > I would disagree in the sense that it depends which geography you are > looking at. I have some evidence to suggest that banking and financial > services in general, were large purchasers. > > > Saludos / Kind regards, > > Bernardo > University of Leicester (UK) > > > ================== > > Technological Innovation in Retail Finance: > International Historical Perspectives > > Edited by Bernado Batiz-Lazo, J. Carles Maix?-Alt?s, Paul Thomes > > http://www.taylorandfrancis.com/books/details/9780415880671/ > > > > On 14 September 2010 13:18, David Alan Grier <grier(a)gwu.edu> wrote: >> I tend to agree that it was a big consumer of computer cycles but I also >> have my doubts. ?After I wrote a Column in Computer in December 2006 on the >> Univac Service Center for the Petroleum Industry in Dallas, which famously >> lost money and closed in the early 60s, I received a a small torrent of >> emails from retired petroleum engineers who felt that they were finally >> receiving their due. ?As Jonathon noted, they were doing high dimensional >> fourier transforms and lots of linear programming, which consumes lots of >> cycles. ?I received emails from an??Esso engineer, who noted that they took >> delivery of the first Univac 1103 in '56 and had von Neumann as a >> consultant. ?I also got a note from a Chevron engineer who told me about the >> work he did in the early 60s. ?At the same time, if you look at the >> companies buying large machines in the 50s, 60s, and early 70s you find that >> aerospace firms out number petroleum firms. >> Unless other evidence is out there, I tend to accept the thesis that the >> aerospace industry was the lead consumer of computers with petroleum behind >> it. >> David >> ---------------------------------------- >> David Alan Grier >> Vice President of Publications, IEEE Computer Society >> Associate Professor of International Science and Technology Policy >> Center for International Science and Technology Policy >> Elliott School Of International Affairs >> George Washington University >> grier(a)computer.org >> On Sep 13, 2010, at 6:47 PM, Deborah Douglas wrote: >> >> Colleagues, >> >> Recently, I received a question about a claim that the petroleum-seeking >> geophysics industry was once the greatest consumer of computers, only >> surpassed at some later point by the federal government. ?No citation was >> given and there is quite a bit of skepticism but where would you advise us >> to look to refute this claim (or perhaps my own aerospace bias is too strong >> and the claim is true!). >> >> Thanks, >> >> Debbie Douglas >> >> >> Deborah G. Douglas, Ph.D. >> Curator of Science and Technology >> MIT Museum, N51-209 >> 265 Massachusetts Avenue >> Cambridge, MA 02139-4307 >> ddouglas(a)mit.edu ? ?617-253-1766 phone ?? ?617-253-8994 fax >> http://web.mit.edu/museum ?? ?http://webmuseum.mit.edu ? >> http://museum.mit.edu/150 >> >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> This email is relayed from members(a)sigcis.org, the email discussion list of >> SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ >> and you can change your subscription options at >> http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> This email is relayed from members(a)sigcis.org, the email discussion list of >> SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ >> and you can change your subscription options at >> http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members >> > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 4 > Date: Tue, 14 Sep 2010 08:53:35 -0400 > From: "Geoffrey C. Bowker" <gbowker(a)pitt.edu> > To: "Coopersmith, Jonathan" <j-coopersmith(a)neo.tamu.edu> > Cc: members(a)sigcis.org > Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] petroleum and computers > Message-ID: <4C8F704F.1030007(a)pitt.edu> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed > > Hi folks, > > I don't know about the largest, but certainly at the forefront. I'd > look to Schlumberger and their and my nemesis Halliburton. Schlumberger > produced the first real intelligent system (Prospector) and were big on > analogue computers when the latter were in their prime. There is a huge > amount of number crunching in seismic and electric subsurface > computing. I doubt that they'd exceed the insurance industry (which > everyone forgets coz it's so prosaic). I wrote a book lo these many > years called Science on the Run which was about the first 20 years of > Schlumberger; there is also a more generic history (mine is quirky) > which goes longer, but have forgotten the title. > > take care, > > geof > > > On 9/13/2010 11:27 PM, Coopersmith, Jonathan wrote: >> Debbie, >> The oil industry has been instrumental in advancing 4-d imaging which is >> real heavy data crunching. I can't give you specifics, but I would not be >> surprised that it was the largest user in the pre-Google era. I know (and >> can give a secondary cite) that in the 1970s the oil industry used encryption >> to fax logging data from ships and rigs to research labs and their computers. >> >> Jonathan >> >> >> >> ----- Original Message ----- >> From: Deborah Douglas<ddouglas(a)MIT.EDU> >> To: members(a)sigcis.org >> Sent: Mon, 13 Sep 2010 17:47:25 -0500 (CDT) >> Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] petroleum and computers >> >> Colleagues, >> >> Recently, I received a question about a claim that the petroleum- >> seeking geophysics industry was once the greatest consumer of >> computers, only surpassed at some later point by the federal >> government. No citation was given and there is quite a bit of >> skepticism but where would you advise us to look to refute this claim >> (or perhaps my own aerospace bias is too strong and the claim is true!). >> >> Thanks, >> >> Debbie Douglas >> >> >> Deborah G. Douglas, Ph.D. >> Curator of Science and Technology >> MIT Museum, N51-209 >> 265 Massachusetts Avenue >> Cambridge, MA 02139-4307 >> ddouglas(a)mit.edu ? 617-253-1766 phone ? 617-253-8994 fax >> http://web.mit.edu/museum ? http://webmuseum.mit.edu ? >> http://museum.mit.edu/150 >> >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> This email is relayed from members(a)sigcis.org, the email discussion list of >> SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ >> and you can change your subscription options at >> http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members >> > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 5 > Date: Tue, 14 Sep 2010 10:59:26 -0400 > From: JoAnne Yates <jyates(a)MIT.EDU> > To: members(a)sigcis.org > Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] petroleum and computers > Message-ID: <4C8F8DCE.90309(a)mit.edu> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed > > I also have data that reinforces Bernardo's > point that financial services (including > insurance firms) are major computer > purchasers in the 1950s and 1960s. > > JoAnne Yates > MIT Sloan School of Management > > On 9/14/2010 9:47 AM, Bernardo Batiz-Lazo wrote: >> I would disagree in the sense that it depends which geography you are >> looking at. I have some evidence to suggest that banking and financial >> services in general, were large purchasers. >> >> >> Saludos / Kind regards, >> >> Bernardo >> University of Leicester (UK) >> >> >> ================== >> >> Technological Innovation in Retail Finance: >> International Historical Perspectives >> >> Edited by Bernado Batiz-Lazo, J. Carles Maix?-Alt?s, Paul Thomes >> >> http://www.taylorandfrancis.com/books/details/9780415880671/ >> >> >> >> On 14 September 2010 13:18, David Alan Grier<grier(a)gwu.edu> wrote: >>> I tend to agree that it was a big consumer of computer cycles but I also >>> have my doubts. After I wrote a Column in Computer in December 2006 on the >>> Univac Service Center for the Petroleum Industry in Dallas, which famously >>> lost money and closed in the early 60s, I received a a small torrent of >>> emails from retired petroleum engineers who felt that they were finally >>> receiving their due. As Jonathon noted, they were doing high dimensional >>> fourier transforms and lots of linear programming, which consumes lots of >>> cycles. I received emails from an Esso engineer, who noted that they took >>> delivery of the first Univac 1103 in '56 and had von Neumann as a >>> consultant. I also got a note from a Chevron engineer who told me about the >>> work he did in the early 60s. At the same time, if you look at the >>> companies buying large machines in the 50s, 60s, and early 70s you find that >>> aerospace firms out number petroleum firms. >>> Unless other evidence is out there, I tend to accept the thesis that the >>> aerospace industry was the lead consumer of computers with petroleum behind >>> it. >>> David >>> ---------------------------------------- >>> David Alan Grier >>> Vice President of Publications, IEEE Computer Society >>> Associate Professor of International Science and Technology Policy >>> Center for International Science and Technology Policy >>> Elliott School Of International Affairs >>> George Washington University >>> grier(a)computer.org >>> On Sep 13, 2010, at 6:47 PM, Deborah Douglas wrote: >>> >>> Colleagues, >>> >>> Recently, I received a question about a claim that the petroleum-seeking >>> geophysics industry was once the greatest consumer of computers, only >>> surpassed at some later point by the federal government. No citation was >>> given and there is quite a bit of skepticism but where would you advise us >>> to look to refute this claim (or perhaps my own aerospace bias is too strong >>> and the claim is true!). >>> >>> Thanks, >>> >>> Debbie Douglas >>> >>> >>> Deborah G. Douglas, Ph.D. >>> Curator of Science and Technology >>> MIT Museum, N51-209 >>> 265 Massachusetts Avenue >>> Cambridge, MA 02139-4307 >>> ddouglas(a)mit.edu ? 617-253-1766 phone ? 617-253-8994 fax >>> http://web.mit.edu/museum ? http://webmuseum.mit.edu ? >>> http://museum.mit.edu/150 >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> This email is relayed from members(a)sigcis.org, the email discussion list of >>> SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ >>> and you can change your subscription options at >>> http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members >>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> This email is relayed from members(a)sigcis.org, the email discussion list of >>> SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ >>> and you can change your subscription options at >>> http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members >>> >> _______________________________________________ >> This email is relayed from members(a)sigcis.org, the email discussion list of >> SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ >> and you can change your subscription options at >> http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members -- Dag Spicer | Senior Curator | Computer History Museum Editorial Board | Annals of the History of Computing 1401 N. Shoreline Blvd. | Mountain View CA 94043 Tel: +1 650 810 1035 | Fax: +1 650 810 1055 Museum Twitter: http://twitter.com/ComputerHistory

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