- Members - lists.sigcis.org

Living Pioneers
by Brian L. Stuart 10 Nov '17

10 Nov '17

I was suprised to learn of the recent passing of Geoff Tootill who worked on the Manchester Baby. I had guessed that at age 101, Harry Husky was the last living alum of the first generation projects when he passed away earlier this year. This raises the question of whether Tootill was the last one. To put a finer point on the question, is anyone who was involved with the original designs of the ENIAC, the Baby, the EDSAC, the Pilot ACE, the Z1, or the Harvard Mark I still with us? BLS

3 2

Leslie Berlin's "Troublemakers"
by Brian Berg 06 Nov '17

06 Nov '17

This story is from today's *San Jose Mercury News*: [image: Leslie Berlin, author of a book about the legendary Bob Noyce, is back with "Troublemakers," which follows some of Silicon Valley's less well-known, but equally important pioneers.] <http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/11/06/troublemakers-helped-build-silicon-va…> ‘Troublemakers’ helped build Silicon Valley’s tech industry — now what? <http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/11/06/troublemakers-helped-build-silicon-va…> By Levi Sumagaysay <http://www.mercurynews.com/author/levi-sumagaysay/> November 06, 2017, 7:00 am Included in Leslie Berlin's book, and in this story, is discussion of Atari, including Al Alcorn and Nolan Bushnell. Leslie was in the front row of an IEEE Silicon Valley Tech History Committee <http://www.siliconvalleyhistory.com> event I organized in Sept 2016 about Atari, and its panelists included these two luminaries. That event is described here <https://californiaconsultants.org/event/ataris-impact-on-silicon-valley-197…>, its slides are here <http://californiaconsultants.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/1609-CNSV-BergB…>, its full video is here <https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3MXnVUbT1wSRIKWCHSuEyvliNkypEWK9> (thanks to Viodi's Ken Pyle <http://viodi.com/>), and an *IEEE Spectrum* story about the event (written by Tekla Perry, who sat next to Leslie at this event) is here <https://spectrum.ieee.org/view-from-the-valley/tech-history/cyberspace/atar…> . The above story mentions Berlin's book about Bob Noyce titled *The Man Behind the Microchip <http://www.oupcanada.com/catalog/9780195311990.html>* which I heartily recommend. I'll be anxious to read the new book! Also, Leslie will be interviewed at the Computer History Museum <http://www.computerhistory.org/events/upcoming/#troublemakers-story-silicon…> in Mtn. View, California, USA on Wed, 13 December, at 7pm PST. That interview should also be streamed on Facebook Live. _________________________ 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 <http://www.flashmemorysummit.com/> IEEE Milestone <http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Milestones:List_of_IEEE_Milestones> Coordinator for Region 6 <http://www.ieee-region6.org/> IEEE SCV Section <http://www.ewh.ieee.org/r6/scv/> Past Chair / IEEE-CNSV <http://www.californiaconsultants.org/> Board Director IEEE Silicon Valley Tech History Committee <http://www.siliconvalleyhistory.com/> Chair

1 0

A Blog of Possible Interest?
by James Cortada 06 Nov '17

06 Nov '17

I just published a blog with Oxford U Press on the need for historians to keep up with developments in physics. I thought you might find it of possible interest: https://blog.oup.com/2017/11/physics-for-humanists-historians/ -- James W. Cortada Senior Research Fellow Charles Babbage Institute University of Minnesota jcortada(a)umn.edu 608-274-6382

1 0

2017 Mahoney Prize: Erica Robles-Anderson and Patrik Svensson, "One Damn Slide After Another"
by Andrew Russell 06 Nov '17

06 Nov '17

Dear colleagues - Last weekend at the SHOT and SIGCIS meeting in Philadelphia, the winner of the 2017 Mahoney Prize was announced. I’m delighted to share that news and the prize citation with this list. Congratulations Erica Robles-Anderson and Patrik Svensson! Winner: Erica Robles-Anderson and Patrik Svensson. “’One Damn Slide After Another’: PowerPoint at Every Occasion for Speech.” <http://computationalculture.net/2016/01/11/one-damn-slide-after-another-pow…> Computational Culture (January 15, 2016). Prize Citation: In “’One Damn Slide After Another’: PowerPoint at Every Occasion for Speech,” Erica Robles-Anderson and Patrik Svensson provide a highly original and insightful history of PowerPoint’s design, development, and use. They convincingly argue how PowerPoint has become a dominant and indispensable medium for communication, yet like many other forms of ubiquitous software programs and packages it has undergone minimal critical analysis. As such, the conditioning of knowledge production with PowerPoint is overlooked, and once distinct situations and settings such as classrooms, press conferences, and church sermons become more alike. Overall, their article stands out for astutely engaging with communication theory, as well as making significant IT history and historiographical contributions by analyzing PowerPoint within the context of precursor technologies such as the DuPont Chart Room, white boards, and overhead projectors. About the Mahoney Prize: The Mahoney Prize recognizes an outstanding article in the history of computing and information technology, broadly conceived. The Mahoney Prize commemorates the late Princeton scholar Michael S. Mahoney, whose profound contributions to the history of computing came from his many articles and book chapters. The prize consists of a $500 award and a certificate. For the 2017 prize, articles published in the preceding three years (2014, 2015, and 2016) are eligible for nomination. The Mahoney Prize is awarded by the Special Interest Group in Computers, Information, and Society (SIGCIS) and is presented during the annual meeting of our parent group, the Society for the History of Technology. For more information and list of previous winners, please visit: http://www.sigcis.org/node/405 <http://www.sigcis.org/node/405>

1 0

2017 Computer History Museum Prize: Elizabeth Patrick, Making Computers Accessible
by Andrew Russell 06 Nov '17

06 Nov '17

Dear colleagues - Last weekend at the SHOT and SIGCIS meeting in Philadelphia, the winner of the 2017 Computer History Museum Prize was announced. I’m delighted to share that news and the prize citation with this list. Congratulations Elizabeth Petrick! Winner: Elizabeth Petrick, Making Computers Accessible: Disability Rights and Digital Technology <https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/content/making-computers-accessible>(Johns Hopkins University Press, 2015). Prize Citation: This is a groundbreaking book on an understudied topic in the history of computing. Petrick integrates histories of technology and civil rights and demonstrates the interaction of technological, social, and legal supports for accessibility. She uses disability studies frameworks to highlight how the shifting paradigms of “normality” and “universality” have shaped computer technology. She argues convincingly that principles of “universal design” that were aimed at making computers usable for the disabled significantly shaped the evolution of personal computer technology in general—thereby making the larger historiographic point that we can’t tell complete or accurate histories of computing without including (dis)ability as a factor. The book is clearly written and well-researched, with a helpful appendix on her sources and methods. About the Computer History Museum Prize: The Computer History Museum Prize is awarded to the author of an outstanding book in the history of computing broadly conceived, published during the prior three years. The prize of $1,000 is awarded by SIGCIS, the Special Interest Group for Computers, Information and Society. SIGCIS is part of the Society for the History of Technology. In 2012 the prize was endowed in perpetuity through a generous bequest from the estate of Paul Baran, a legendary computer innovator and entrepreneur best known for his work to develop and promote the packet switching approach on which modern networks are built. Baran was a longtime supporter of work on the history of information technology and named the prize to celebrate the contributions of the Computer History Museum to that field. For more information and list of previous winners, please visit: http://www.sigcis.org/node/406 <http://www.sigcis.org/node/406>

1 0

New project to help scholars assess digital components of today’s bookmaking
by Matthew Kirschenbaum 02 Nov '17

02 Nov '17

In keeping with my remarks in my paper at the Philadelphia meeting, I'd certainly like to *think* this is computer history, or at least adjacent. Best, Matt *Books.Files: New project to help scholars assess digital components of today’s bookmaking* COLLEGE PARK, MD—The *Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities *at the University of Maryland and the *Book Industry Study Group* are pleased to announce *Books.Files*, a new project funded by *The* *Andrew W. Mellon Foundation* to assess the potential for the archival collection and scholarly study of digital assets associated with today’s trade publishing and bookmaking. The fact is that nearly all printed books now begin—and for many practical purposes end—their lifecycles as digital files that are produced and managed by designers, editors, publishers, packagers, and printers. The printed book that we hold in our hands is just one of the outputs that can be derived from these digital assets, which are also used to produce ebooks and Web-ready texts. In particular, the role of Adobe InDesign and other software tools is not well understood outside of the industry. And yet, this is where the book stops being a manuscript and starts *becoming* a book, by way of its transformation into a prescribed set of digital assets which in addition to the text may include stylesheets, fonts, metadata, images, and other design elements. Led by principal investigator *Matthew Kirschenbaum*, this project represents the first organized attempt to put ambassadors from the scholarly communities traditionally invested in safeguarding and studying the material history of bookmaking into contact and conversation with thought leaders and influencers from the contemporary publishing world. The centerpiece of the project will be a *convening* to bring those figures together in New York City in early 2018; Kirschenbaum’s efforts will also be supported by *site visits* to observe the bookmaking process as it unfolds across different settings, and *interviews* with industry experts. Findings for scholars, archivists, and publishers will be presented in a *white paper* made publicly available in late 2018. “Digital technologies have forever altered publishing workflows,” commented BISG executive director *Brian O’Leary*. “We’re looking forward to working with Professor Kirschenbaum to explore current practice and its impact on our ability to preserve content for future generations.” “This project represents an exciting extension of MITH’s long-standing interest in preserving born-digital culture,” said *Trevor Muñoz*, MITH interim director. “We’re delighted to partner in this effort.” *Karla Nielsen*, curator at Columbia University’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library, added, “For a long time publishers' archives weren't collected systematically, but now scholars are very grateful for the more complete records of earlier firms that we have, such as those of Cambridge University Press. Research libraries are just beginning to collect born-digital materials produced by publishers and this initiative will help us to understand how to do that so that there is a record of this moment of profound media change.” The *Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities* is a leading digital humanities center that pursues disciplinary innovation and institutional transformation through applied research, public programming, and educational opportunities. The *Book Industry Study Group* is the leading book trade association for standardized <http://bisg.org/store/>best <http://bisg.org/store/>practices, research <http://bisg.org/page/research> and <http://bisg.org/page/research>information, and events. *Matthew Kirschenbaum* is Professor of English at the University of Maryland, a past Guggenheim Fellow, and author most recently *of Track Changes: A Literary History of Word Processing* (Harvard UP, 2016). Inquiries about *Books.Files* may be sent to Kirschenbaum, *mgk(a)umd.edu <mgk(a)umd.edu>*. -- Matthew Kirschenbaum Professor of English Director, Graduate Certificate in Digital Studies University of Maryland mkirschenbaum.net

1 0

HP Archives Destroyed in Recent California Fires
by Brian Berg 01 Nov '17

01 Nov '17

A very sad story here: http://www.pressdemocrat.com/business/7559762-181/hewlett- packard-archives-at-keysight-destroyed Chuck House responded to me re: this sad news with: *Sad on many fronts* *1. Ironic, since HP was almost alone in Silicon Valley for hiring a curator thirty years ago to preserve its history* *2. Ironic, that the curator (and subsequent ones) would not let historians or others have access to this tremendous history* *3. Ironic, that HP is one of the digital electronics pioneers which offered a way to digitize this collection at any point in the last twenty years* *4. Ironic, that a company so big, with such history, would have no sense of the value of what had been accumulated* *5. Ironic, that the Computer History Museum here in town, never tried to get this archive* *Great lessons here* I knew that Chuck had been involved with helping to scan and archive Cisco's history. When I pinged him about that, he wrote me re: his small treatise on this topic: *Preserving our Digital Revolution Heritage: If not you, who? If not now, when? <http://www.lulu.com/us/en/shop/charles-house/digital-revolution-heritage/pa…>* _________________________ 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 for Region 6 <http://www.ieee-region6.org/> IEEE SCV Section <http://www.ewh.ieee.org/r6/scv/> Past Chair / IEEE-CNSV <http://www.CaliforniaConsultants.org> Board Director IEEE Silicon Valley Tech History Committee <http://www.SiliconValleyHistory.com/> Chair

3 2

Re: [SIGCIS-Members] HP Archives Destroyed in Recent California Fires
by Chuck House 01 Nov '17

01 Nov '17

I stand corrected, thanks From: Members <members-bounces(a)lists.sigcis.org> on behalf of Len Shustek <len(a)shustek.com> Date: Monday, October 30, 2017 at 3:33 PM To: SIGCIS Listserver <members(a)sigcis.org> Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] HP Archives Destroyed in Recent California Fires At 02:32 PM 10/30/2017, Brian Berg wrote: Chuck House responded to me re: this sad news with: ... 5. Ironic, that the Computer History Museum here in town, never tried to get this archive That's not true. We had a good relationship over the years with the two main HP archivists, and offered many times to get more involved with their archive -- ranging from getting a copy of the catalog, to getting copies of documents, to taking it over. They declined our participation. We weren't as aggressive as perhaps we could have been because HP was one of the few companies (unlike many others I could name) who seemed to be taking the preservation of their history seriously, and they were putting resources into the effort. Clearly that wasn't enough. Len _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at 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

4 5

Historians of software
by Alexandra M Chassanoff 31 Oct '17

31 Oct '17

It strikes me as a good time to introduce myself and ask for conversations/feedback on the active research I'm doing at MIT Libraries to understand more about potential uses of historical and contemporary software. This work aims at informing strategies for curation activities at academic libraries/archives to ensure that what we are saving is indeed what scholars of technology such as yourself may find useful. Of course, we can't anticipate all future needs and uses. But characterizing aspects of the current space (both in recounting work on legacy software or thinking about examples of contemporary use) can help us to make the case for the importance of active care-taking of materials at our institutions. As of late, the conversation in academic research libraries has focused on software as part of research data management. I'd like to make sure the archival perspective makes its way into this conversation. Please let me know if you'd be willing to chat "offline" about some of my research and answer some questions. I'm working on a couple of tools to assist curators in information-gathering from software creators/owners. It would be great to have input from this community. Many thanks, Alex --------------- Alexandra Chassanoff DLF/CLIR Software Curation Fellow MIT Libraries http://softarchitectures.wordpress.com

1 0

Computers and Business History: Mira Wilkins Prize Winner
by Bernardo Batiz-Lazo 31 Oct '17

31 Oct '17

This week the NEP-HIS blog’s guest contributor is James W. Cortada (Charles Babbage Institute and formally IBM) who comments on IBM Rebuilds Europe: The Curious Case of the Transnational Typewriter By Petri Paju (Turku) and Thomas Haigh (Wisconsin, Milwaukee). The editors of Enterprise & Society have provided free access to the above for a limited time. Find the review and link here http://www.nephis.org Kind regards Bernardo Bangor University (Wales) ** Apologies for multiple postings ** Rhif Elusen Gofrestredig 1141565 - Registered Charity No. 1141565 Gall y neges e-bost hon, ac unrhyw atodiadau a anfonwyd gyda hi, gynnwys deunydd cyfrinachol ac wedi eu bwriadu i'w defnyddio'n unig gan y sawl y cawsant eu cyfeirio ato (atynt). Os ydych wedi derbyn y neges e-bost hon trwy gamgymeriad, rhowch wybod i'r anfonwr ar unwaith a dilewch y neges. Os na fwriadwyd anfon y neges atoch chi, rhaid i chi beidio a defnyddio, cadw neu ddatgelu unrhyw wybodaeth a gynhwysir ynddi. Mae unrhyw farn neu safbwynt yn eiddo i'r sawl a'i hanfonodd yn unig ac nid yw o anghenraid yn cynrychioli barn Prifysgol Bangor. Nid yw Prifysgol Bangor yn gwarantu bod y neges e-bost hon neu unrhyw atodiadau yn rhydd rhag firysau neu 100% yn ddiogel. Oni bai fod hyn wedi ei ddatgan yn uniongyrchol yn nhestun yr e-bost, nid bwriad y neges e-bost hon yw ffurfio contract rhwymol - mae rhestr o lofnodwyr awdurdodedig ar gael o Swyddfa Cyllid Prifysgol Bangor. This email and any attachments may contain confidential material and is solely for the use of the intended recipient(s). If you have received this email in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete this email. If you are not the intended recipient(s), you must not use, retain or disclose any information contained in this email. Any views or opinions are solely those of the sender and do not necessarily represent those of Bangor University. Bangor University does not guarantee that this email or any attachments are free from viruses or 100% secure. Unless expressly stated in the body of the text of the email, this email is not intended to form a binding contract - a list of authorised signatories is available from the Bangor University Finance Office.

1 0