November 2012 - Members - lists.sigcis.org

Query: price of information prior to 20th c?
by Paul N. Edwards 10 Nov '12

10 Nov '12

Does anyone know of a credible estimate of the price of information over the last several centuries? For example, cost per book, cost per page, cost per Bible since Gutenberg? Even better would be an estimate that went further back to the manuscript era. thanks - Paul ___________________________ Paul N. Edwards Professeur invité, Sciences Po, Paris, 2012-13) Professor of Information and History, University of Michigan A Vast Machine: Computer Models, Climate Data, and the Politics of Global Warming (MIT Press, 2010) Terse replies are deliberate (and better than nothing) Mailing address (2012-13): 82 rue Mouffetard 75005 Paris, France (206) 337-1523 (fax) pne.people.si.umich.edu

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"online banking"
by Pierre Mounier 09 Nov '12

09 Nov '12

Hello all, Would someone know : 1) When the expression "online banking" appeared ? 2) When did banks start using the Internet to interact with their clients ? I have only a few hints: In October 1995, a "Security First Network Bank" was created in the US (there is a brief Wiki page about it). In 1997, BNP in France launched its "BNPnet" service. What earlier attempts are recorded ? Thanks a lot if you can take the time to provide me with relevant infos. Best, Pierre Mounier-Kuhn CNRS & Université Paris-Sorbonne L'informatique en France, de la seconde guerre mondiale au Plan Calcul. L'Emergence d'une science

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Clasroom adoption of possible Mahoney collection paperback
by Thomas Haigh 09 Nov '12

09 Nov '12

Hello everyone, As you may remember, I edited a book, Histories of Computing, collecting the late Mike Mahoney's papers on the history of computing. I don't get sales statements or royalties - those go to his estate, but it looks from Worldcat as though library sales for the $50 hardcover have been respectable but not outstanding - about 430 libraries showing up. (If you want to persuade your librarian to purchase it, you could show them Nathan Ensmenger's very positive review in Science -- http://www.sciencemag.org/content/333/6048/1383.1.full) Now $50 is obviously a lot to pay for a collection of previously published essays, however brilliant the critical introduction and editing. So it would be nice is Harvard UP could be persuaded to issue a paperback for around $25, at which point it would become more of an impulse buy. The economics of that would depend on a reasonable prospect of adoption for courses. I don't have much personal insight into this - the only time I've attempted teaching history in the last ten years is when I was invited to run a doctoral seminar at in the information and communication school of the University of Western Ontario this summer. It attracted one student, who dropped out half way through. So I don't want to promise Harvard that there is a huge market for the collection if that's not true. So, would you be likely to assign a $25 softcover of Histories of Computing for a class? If so, approximately how many students and how often might you teach it. Send me an email, and if I get a reasonable number of expressions of interest I'll forward them to HUP. Tom

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