September 2019 - Members - lists.sigcis.org

Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Konrad Zuse's 1936 patent - German text?
by Brian Randell 24 Sep '20

24 Sep '20

Hi Mark: I have a copy of the original 1936 Zuse patent application that I had translated into English for my Origins book. (It took some finding - some of my Zemanek documents had strayed into the middle of the Zuse documents, and so had obscured them! :-) It is a type-written document, on the letterhead of Zuse’s patent attorney Dr.-Ing. Bruno Wolf, Berlin Charlottenberg 5, Kantstrasse 85, dated 9.4.36 (i.e. 9 April 1936). It is some twenty or so pages in length. However I should warn you that some of the pages are barely legible (though could probably be deciphered by someone who knows German - which I don’t). I could scan this document for you if you wish. (I have about two inches thick of documents about Zuse’s work, including a number of patents and patent applications, some pre-war, immediately some post-war, together with several typescripts from him. My plan is that this material will be added to the archive of my files held in the Special Collections section of Newcastle University Library. This already holds all the extensive correspondence that I was involved in while compiling Origins.) Cheers Brian On 24 Jan 2017, at 10:58, Mark Priestley <m.priestley(a)gmail.com<mailto:m.priestley@gmail.com>> wrote: Dear list, Zuse's 1936 patent "Method for Automatic Execution of Calculations with the Aid of Computers" is reprinted in Brian Randell's "Origins of Digital Computers" collections. Does anyone know if/where I can get hold of the German original? Thanks in advance. Mark _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org<http://sigcis.org>, 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 http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org -- School of Computing Science, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK EMAIL = Brian.Randell(a)ncl.ac.uk<mailto:Brian.Randell@ncl.ac.uk> PHONE = +44 191 208 7923 FAX = +44 191 208 8232 URL = http://www.ncl.ac.uk/computing/people/profile/brianrandell.html

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SIGSALY photos?
by Bernard Geoghegan 07 Oct '19

07 Oct '19

Dear Colleagues, Can anyone recommend sources to get images of the SIGSALY cryptography machine, preferably from the 1940s (as opposed to a re-staging years later)? I’ve tried contacting the Crypto Museum, no answer, and there are images on Wikipedia of imperfectly documented provenance. However, I also think I’ve seen a few figures around over the years that aren’t circulating online—I can’t quite remember where, though. I’d like to find hi-res images that I can get good and solid clearance to republish. Tips? Best, b -- Bernard Dionysius Geoghegan Senior Lecturer in the History and Theory of Digital Media Chair of the UG Assessment Board, Digital Culture www.bernardg.com Department of Digital Humanities King's College London The Strand Building Room S3.08 WC2R 2LS Office: +44 (0)20 7848 4750

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New Inductees to the Internet Hall of Fame
by Brian Berg 27 Sep '19

27 Sep '19

Congratulations to these people! *From: Michiel Leenaars <michiel.ml(a)nlnet.nl <michiel.ml(a)nlnet.nl>>Date: September 27, 2019 23:05:28 JSTTo: farber(a)gmail.com <farber(a)gmail.com>Subject: New inductees in Internet Hall of FameDear Dave,just announced, the 2019 inductees that joined you in the Internet Hall of Fame [1]. Eleven new people: Adiel Akplogan (Africa) advanced the Internet in Africa and served as founding CEO of the Regional Internet Registry for Africa Kimberly Claffy (United States) pioneered the field of Internet data collection, measurement and analysis Douglas Comer (United States) wrote the first series of authoritative textbooks explaining the scientific principles of the Internet’s design and communications protocols Elise Gerich (United States) was instrumental in the transition of the NSFNET to the modern-day Internet and the transition of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority functions from stewardship of the U.S.government to a multistakeholder community Larry Irving (United States) was a driving force behind the identification of the Digital Divide in the U.S, igniting global interest in the issue Dan Lynch (United States) drove adoption of TCP/IP protocols and played a key role in driving the Internet towards a commercial network Jean Armour Polly (United States) pioneered free Internet access in public libraries José Soriano (Peru) was a leader in bringing the Internet to Peru and designed a replicable “public Internet” model Michael Stanton (Brazil) was instrumental in bringing the Internet to Brazil, and continues to participate in the design and deployment of scalable optical networks in South America and around the world Klaas Wierenga (Netherlands) invented eduroam, an international Wi-Fi roaming service for academic and research communities in over 100 countries Suguru Yamaguchi (Japan) was a cybersecurity research pioneer and global leader in its deployment; and founded Asia Pacific broadband Internet research and educational network project via satellite* _________________________ Brian A. Berg / bberg(a)StanfordAlumni.org Berg Software Design 14500 Big Basin Way, Suite F, Saratoga, CA 95070 USA Voice: 408.741.5010 / Cell: 408.568.2505 Consulting: Flash Memory/USB/Storage/Patents visit the Storage Cornucopia: www.bswd.com FMS Technical Chair: www.FlashMemorySummit.com IEEE Milestone <http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Milestones:List_of_IEEE_Milestones> Coordinator and History Chair for Region 6 <http://www.ieee-region6.org/> IEEE SCV Section <http://www.ieee.org/scv/> Past Chair / IEEE-CNSV <http://www.CaliforniaConsultants.org> Board Director IEEE Silicon Valley Tech History Committee <http://www.SiliconValleyHistory.com/> Chair

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Histories of Computing in Eastern Europe volume now available
by Chris Leslie 20 Sep '19

20 Sep '19

Dear Colleagues, I am pleased to announce that the proceedings volume from our Histories of Computing in Eastern Europe workshop in Poznan has been published by Springer. Details are available on their website: https://www.springer.com/cn/book/9783030291594 The Proceedings come from an event organized by IFIP Working Group 9.7 at the last IFIP World Congress. WG 9.7 is composed of industry professionals, historians, archivists, and others with an interest in the history of computing broadly defined. The contents of the volume are divided into six parts: 1. EASTERN EUROPE. The papers in this section offer new glimpses into the history of computing in Armenia, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary. For instance, Szabo offers a compelling portrait of a computing class conducted with a chalkboard in Hungary. Armenian Computers: First Generations Sergey B. Oganjanyan, Valery V. Shilov, and Sergey A. Silantiev The Emergence of Computing Disciplines in Communist Czechoslovakia: What’s in a (Sovietized) Name? Michal Doležel and Zdeněk Smutný László Kalmár and the First University-Level Programming and Computer Science Training in Hungary Máté Szabó 2. POLAND. These papers were part of our collaboration with the Polish Information Processing Society and the Enigma Live event in Poznan. Early Computer Development in Poland Marek Hołyński The Long Road toward the Rejewski-Różycki-Zygalski Cipher Center Marek Grajek 3. SOVIET UNION. A highlight of these papers is co-authored by the children of two great names in the USSR: Anatoly Kitov and Victor Glushkov. They challenge the notion that Soviet computer science was a failure because it did not result in an ARPA-style national network. Kitov also details his own work in the first article to discuss Soviet control programs that monitored data transfer between multiple terminals for collaborative work. Anatoly Kitov and Victor Glushkov: Pioneers of Russian Digital Economy and Informatics Olga V. Kitova and Vladimir A. Kitov On the History of Gosplan, the Main Computer Center of the State Planning Committee of the USSR Vladimir A. Kitov Main Teleprocessing Monitors for Third-Generation Computers in the USSR Vladimir A. Kitov 4. COCOM AND COMECOM. Sikora and Schmitt offer extended examinations of the permutations of the cold war blockades based on their archival research. My own paper, an outgrowth of my presentation to TC 9 in 2014 for the Turku Human Choice in Computing workshop, rounds out the group. Socialist Life of a U.S. Army Computer in the GDR’s Financial Sector Martin Schmitt Cooperating with Moscow, Stealing in California: Poland’s Legal and Illicit Acquisition of Microelectronics Knowhow from 1960 to 1990 Mirosław Sikora From CoCom to Dot-Com: Technological Determinisms in Computing Blockades, 1949 to 1994 Christopher Leslie 5. ANALOG COMPUTING. Two papers about computing before digital computing. Leipälä, Shilov, and Silantiev also include a translation of the book they found in their appendix. Israel Abraham Staffel: Lost Book Is Found Timo Leipälä, Valery V. Shilov, Sergey A. Silantiev Mathematicians at the Scottish Café Chris Zielinski 6. PUBLIC HISTORY. Bodrato, Caruso, and Cignoni demonstrate what insights can be gleaned by their project of collecting and reverse-engineering early hardware. Smolevitskaya offers not just an overview of an archive but has also painstakingly tallied Rameev’s inventions, including the iterations of Ural computers. Discovering Eastern Europe PCs by Hacking Them ... Today Stefano Bodrato, Fabrizio Caruso, Giovanni A. Cignoni Twentieth Anniversary of the Russian Virtual Museum of Computing and Information Technology History Vladimir A. Kitov and Edward M. Proydakov ICT History Study as Corporate Philanthropy in Latvia Inara Opmane and Rihards Balodis The Engineering Heritage of Bashir Rameev at the Polytechnic Museum: Honoring the 100th Anniversary of His Birth Marina Smolevitskaya WG 9.7 meets roughly every other year; more information about our past workshops is available on our website (http://ifipwg97.org) Our next meeting will hopefully be in Asia in 2020 … more information on that coming soon. Sincerely, Chris Leslie Chair, IFIP Working Group 9.7 - History of Computing Lecturer, School of Foreign Languages, South China University of Technology

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institutaioal access to the journal Informationstechnik
by dave walden 17 Sep '19

17 Sep '19

Hello, Does anyone on this list have institutional access to the 1986 issues of Informationstechnik? I am wondering if the following article Matthias Blumenfeld "Interleaf: die Integration von Text und Grafik" <https://dblp.uni-trier.de/db/journals/it/it28.html#Blumenfeld86>Informationstechnik28(6) <https://dblp.uni-trier.de/db/journals/it/it28.html#Blumenfeld86>:377-385(1986) has anything more about the history of the Interleaf company than is on the first page of the article which is at <https://dblp.uni-trier.de/db/journals/it/it28.html#Blumenfeld86>https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/itit.1986.28.issue-6/itit.1986.28.6.377/it… *... *that is, more about the connection between the Etude editor project and the forming of Interleaf..<https://dblp.uni-trier.de/db/journals/it/it28.html#Blumenfeld86> If it does, I can figure out how to pay $42 to access the article. If the rest of the article is only about the Interleaf technology and why it was good, then I have enough from the first page. I am working on a history of the Interleaf desktop publishing and document management company. Thanks, Dave

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software in univ admin, admissions, budgets, research mgmt 1970-2020
by Sharon Traweek 16 Sep '19

16 Sep '19

Dear SIGCIS colleagues, from whom I have learned so much, Awkwardly, I have some large queries over a large time span (1970-2020). I am seeking information on decision making about the digital resources used in university administration, admissions, budgeting, and research management since the 1970s. Much that I have found (and witnessed) concerns decisions among a very limited set of products and then deployment strategies about the selected products, rather than what I am seeking: reflections and analysis of why only some kinds of existing products were investigated, rather than developing new resources based on the distinctive features of universities. First, I would welcome counter-examples. My preliminary inquiries suggest that much in use by universities is * based upon “customer relationship management” (CRM) platforms developed during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, and * were first designed for industry, then as the management ideas and practices on which they were based became outdated, the older products were then marketed to governments, and finally re-marketed to universities, with limited modifications. I do see national and regional variation in these processes. I would appreciate information about any engagements with or historical research on either of these decision processes * among software design groups to redeploy and market older products to new sectors, or * among universities to adapt older products, rather than develop new products specifically for their administrative processes. When I began asking these questions I assumed there would be much research already done on these processes; perhaps it is indeed there and I have missed it. I would appreciate any suggestions. Sincerely, Sharon Traweek Gender Studies/History, UCLA http://www.genderstudies.ucla.edu/faculty/sharon-traweek<https://exchange2010.ss.ucla.edu/owa/redir.aspx?SURL=zvqfx1SvB9Oi5PmUkMQOHJ…> Access some of my publications at https://ucla.academia.edu/STraweek<https://exchange2010.ss.ucla.edu/owa/redir.aspx?SURL=MyAq2tZ6yYDVtZY7VgdsAh…> https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharon-traweek-a257668<https://exchange2010.ss.ucla.edu/owa/redir.aspx?SURL=uzkN9PkMi8bLatbAzYgZQT…> https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sharon_Traweek<https://exchange2010.ss.ucla.edu/owa/redir.aspx?SURL=jraQLuoJLfTYMn-Z8oqyEO…> Those sites need updating ...

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Percy Ludgate, Irish Computer Pioneer
by Brian Randell 15 Sep '19

15 Sep '19

Hi: In recent years Dr Brian Coghlan, who is in charge of Trinity College’s very impressive and extensive John Gabriel Byrne Computer Science Collection (https://www.scss.tcd.ie/SCSSTreasuresCatalog/) has led a small enthusiastic informal group of people energetically researching the life and work of Percy Ludgate (1883-1922),. Percy Ludgate is the first person known to have followed in Charles Babbage’s footsteps. Many years ago I had stumbled across a reference to his work. I published an account of my attempt to find out about him and had reprinted, in my book The Origins of Digital Computers: Selected Papers (Springer-Verlag 1973), the one detailed published account of his Analytical Machine that I had found he had written. I had done little further investigation thereafter, until I was contacted by Brian, almost three years ago. Since then I have been a minor contributor to the work of Brian and his team, and am greatly impressed by the amount of further information they have found about Ludgate and his family. Brian gave a fascinating summary account of the team's research at the recent West Cork History Festival. An mp4 video of his presentation as well as other relevant documentation, is at: https://www.scss.tcd.ie/SCSSTreasuresCatalog/miscellany/TCD-SCSS-X.20121208… A PDF of his Powerpoint presentation can be found at: https://www.scss.tcd.ie/SCSSTreasuresCatalog/miscellany/TCD-SCSS-X.20121208…. This details all the information that has been found about Ludgate and his family, and lists numerous outstanding queries. Needless to say, help in answering any of these queries will be very welcome. Cheers Brian Randell — School of Computing, Newcastle University, 1 Science Square, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE4 5TG EMAIL = Brian.Randell(a)ncl.ac.uk PHONE = +44 191 208 7923 URL = http://www.ncl.ac.uk/computing/people/profile/brianrandell.html

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SIGCIS members/Historians of Computing in/near Bangalore
by David C. Brock 12 Sep '19

12 Sep '19

I was curious to know of SIGCIS members or historians of computing in or near Bangalore? +++++++++++++++ David C. Brock dcb(a)dcbrock.net 40 Russell Street, Greenfield, MA 01301 Mobile: 413-522-3578 Skype: dcbrock Twitter: @dcbrock

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Documentation of AOL in mid-1990s
by Avery Dame-Griff 12 Sep '19

12 Sep '19

All, I've had limited locating these on my own, so I wonder if anyone has any suggestions: Are there archives (official or community-based) of documents related to America Online, especially during its mid-1990s boom? I'm especially interested in two things: A) Guides/Community Leaders' day-to-day practices around policing offensive content and B) AOL's relationship to independent community-oriented content providers (including compensation rates, contracts, etc.). Some documentation of Guide practices and policies exists, but there's almost nothing about the latter - it's my suspicion most users didn't even know some forums were run by independent contractors. Thanks in advance, Avery Dame-Griff -- Avery Dame-Griff Lecturer, Communication Studies/Women and Gender Studies (Spring 2020) Gonzaga University Curator, Queer Digital History Project <http://queerdigital.com/> averydame.net <http://www.averydame.net/> avery.dame(a)gmail.com

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Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Members Digest, Vol 55, Issue 6
by Ceruzzi, Paul 11 Sep '19

11 Sep '19

SIGSALY: I did a blog post a while ago about SIGSALY, using an image I got from the NSA. Not sure if you can use it, but you can pull the image off the blog: Unfortunately we were unable to get rights for the image I found of Grandmaster Flash using the twin turntables. https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/gps-%E2%80%93-hollywood-actres… Paul Ceruzzi ________________________________ From: Members <members-bounces(a)lists.sigcis.org> on behalf of members-request(a)lists.sigcis.org <members-request(a)lists.sigcis.org> Sent: Wednesday, September 11, 2019 4:35 PM To: members(a)lists.sigcis.org <members(a)lists.sigcis.org> Subject: Members Digest, Vol 55, Issue 6 Send Members mailing list submissions to members(a)lists.sigcis.org To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Flists.sigc… or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to members-request(a)lists.sigcis.org You can reach the person managing the list at members-owner(a)lists.sigcis.org When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Members digest..." Today's Topics: 1. SIGSALY photos? (Bernard Geoghegan) 2. Re: SIGSALY photos? (Roberts, Sarah) 3. Documentation of AOL in mid-1990s (Avery Dame-Griff) 4. Re: Documentation of AOL in mid-1990s (Roberts, Sarah) 5. Re: Documentation of AOL in mid-1990s (Avery Dame-Griff) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Wed, 11 Sep 2019 14:11:13 +0200 From: Bernard Geoghegan <bernardgeoghegan2010(a)u.northwestern.edu> To: <members(a)SIGCIS.org> Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] SIGSALY photos? Message-ID: <1EF07B64-8360-4D00-A990-98E8E7F991EE(a)u.northwestern.edu> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Dear Colleagues, Can anyone recommend sources to get images of the SIGSALY cryptography machine, preferably from the 1940s (as opposed to a re-staging years later)? I?ve tried contacting the Crypto Museum, no answer, and there are images on Wikipedia of imperfectly documented provenance. However, I also think I?ve seen a few figures around over the years that aren?t circulating online?I can?t quite remember where, though. I?d like to find hi-res images that I can get good and solid clearance to republish. Tips? Best, b -- Bernard Dionysius Geoghegan Senior Lecturer in the History and Theory of Digital Media Chair of the UG Assessment Board, Digital Culture https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=www.bernardg.com&da… Department of Digital Humanities King's College London The Strand Building Room S3.08 WC2R 2LS Office: +44 (0)20 7848 4750

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