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The latest inventor of the computer
by Len Shustek 25 Mar '17

25 Mar '17

We're fully engaged in the invention of email, but we haven't had any new inventors of the computer in a while. The Atlantic is helping with that: "How Aristotle Created the Computer". https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/03/aristotle-computer/5… The article is rather better than its title.

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BBC Archive - Scotland's Silicon Glen 1982
by Joly MacFie 25 Mar '17

25 Mar '17

#OTD <https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/otd?source=feed_text&story_id=382799695426…> 1982: Nationwide visited Central Scotland's answer to Silicon Valley, Silicon Glen. Technically it isn't a glen... https://www.facebook.com/BBCArchive/videos/382799695426400/ -- --------------------------------------------------------------- Joly MacFie 218 565 9365 Skype:punkcast -------------------------------------------------------------- -

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Funded Ph.D. @ Liverpool for digital archives project with Barclays Bank
by Thomas Haigh 24 Mar '17

24 Mar '17

[Been requested to forward this announcement of a Ph.D. project with Andrew Smith at the University of Liverpool. Tom] AS: Are you interested in doing a PhD that lies at the intersection of history, management, and computer science? Interested in being embedded in a huge bank where you will access to first-class data you can use for your PhD research? Do you think that digital humanities can help banks and other big corporations to achieve their goals? Want to have an academic career in a hot field? Then this opportunity is for you! I cant guarantee that doing a PhD with us will result in a top-flight academic career. Doing a PhD at the University of Liverpool isnt the same as doing a PhD at Stanford or the Harvard Business School. What I can promise you is that if you exert yourself, I will work jolly hard to launch you into a career as a researcher. My colleagues will provide you with first-rate training in the skills you need to do well in this field. We will also help you to get your papers into the top global conferences in this field and will teach you how to give a presentation that will blow the socks off of an international audience of academics. Lastly, we will teach you how to write articles that will get published in good journals via co-authorship and intensive one-on-one mentorship. Anyway, here are the details of the project you will be working on if you accept this funded PhD offer. Accounts with Interest Networking Historical Customer Records Closing date for applications: 21 April 2017 The University of Liverpool and Barclays Group Archives (BGA) invite invitations from suitably qualified candidates for a fully-funded AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award PhD studentship investigating the accessibility of Barclays historical customer records. The successful candidate will enjoy privileged opportunities to work as a member of the professional team responsible for Barclays Group Archives <https://www.archive.barclays.com/> in Wythenshawe, Greater Manchester exploring the possibilities for exploiting customer and other nominal banking data within the information technology environment available to BGA and investigating how such a local development might be exploited in the context of the wider banking archive sector. Accounts with Interest is conceived as a genuinely interdisciplinary project within the digital humanities; we are keen to attract suitably-qualified candidates from any area who can demonstrate their potential to carry out a research project designed to enable digital access to the nominal and related information held in archival records. You can download further details of the AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award Studentship 2017 <https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/media/livacuk/history/news/CDA2017_further_deta ils.pdf> (pdf). Alternatively email Dr Margaret Procter <mailto:mprocter@liv.ac.uk> , senior lecturer, Record and Archive Studies or Dr Andrew Smith <mailto:adasmith@liv.ac.uk> , senior lecturer in International Business. Interviews will be held in Liverpool in May 2017. Tuition fees + £14,553 (RCUK rates) + £1,000 p.a. (towards research costs) from Barclays.

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Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Recent Posts / - vintage e.mail
by Ceruzzi, Paul 23 Mar '17

23 Mar '17

Peggy: I have a copy of a approx. 20-page message from Marvin Minsky to Ben Gurley of the Digital Equipment Corporation, dated 12/29/60. He is proposing a system he called "SNATCH: SNATCH is a high-speed digital computational system based on a number of new ideas about computer organization programming methods and multiuser accommodation..." As far as I know the system was never built, but Minsky's description is very forward-thinking regarding multi-users, memory management, etc. Minsky sent it from Bolt Beranek and Newman in Cambridge (near Fresh Pond, same place where Ray Tomlinson later worked). It looks like it was typed on a Teletype--upper-case only, with mistakes x-ed out (no backspace). BBN was only about 15 miles from DEC in Maynard, Mass., and he could have typed it on an ordinary typewriter, gotten in a cab, and brought it over. Does this count as an early electronic message? If so I can bring it over (on foot!) at your convenience. Paul Ceruzzi ceruzzip(a)si.edu 202-633-2414

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Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Recent Posts / Messageries - vintage e.mail
by Pierre MOUNIER-KUHN 23 Mar '17

23 Mar '17

I happen to be on the way to a meeting on Software Preservation, at Conservatoire des Arts & Metiers… Hope for an answer tonight! Best, Pierre ----- Mail original ----- De: "Peggy Kidwell" <kidwellp(a)si.edu> À: "Pierre MOUNIER-KUHN" <mounier(a)msh-paris.fr> Envoyé: Jeudi 23 Mars 2017 13:07:46 Objet: RE: [SIGCIS-Members] Recent Posts / Messageries - vintage e.mail How splendid! Do you know what will happen to the original? Best - Peggy Kidwell Curator of Mathematics Address for US Mail: MRC 671, National Museum of American History Smithsonian Institution P.O. Box 37012 Washington, DC 20013-7012 Address for UPS or FedEx: MRC 671, National Museum of American History Smithsonian Institution 12th St. and Constitution Ave. Washington, DC 20560 Email: kidwellp(a)si.edu Telephone: 202-633-3828 -----Original Message----- From: Pierre MOUNIER-KUHN [mailto:mounier@msh-paris.fr] Sent: Thursday, March 23, 2017 8:04 AM To: Kidwell, Peggy <kidwellp(a)si.edu> Cc: members(a)lists.sigcis.org Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Recent Posts / Messageries - vintage e.mail [with attachment…] Hi Peggy, Please find attached a "vintage" electronic mail, exchanged in Dec. 1973 between Len Kleinrock, Vint Cerf and Gerard Le Lann. Hope it adds a few grams of evidence in the therapy against "post-truth"… The words "Message for LeLann" were circled to his attention by his secretary – a division of labor which soon disappeared in R&D network practices, but survived in other professional spheres until the end of the century. The message includes a warning of service interruption (TENEX will go down ...), as Le Lann stresses in his comment (enclosed). Best, Pierre Pierre Mounier-Kuhn CNRS & Université Paris-Sorbonne https://cnrs.academia.edu/PierreMounierKuhn http://koyre.ehess.fr/docannexe/file/2183/mounier_kuhn_cv_anglais_2016.comp… ----- Mail transféré ----- > De: "Gerard Le_Lann" <gerard.le_lann(a)inria.fr> > À: "Pierre MOUNIER-KUHN" <mounier(a)msh-paris.fr> > Cc: "Claude Ducarouge" <claude.ducarouge(a)wanadoo.fr>, "Daniel Poirson" > <danielgpoirson(a)gmail.com> > Envoyé: Lundi 27 Février 2017 10:48:27 > Objet: Re: Messageries > > Bonjour, > > J'ai retrouvé un exemplaire de print de email Arpanet de 1973, encore > lisible (on utilisait des télétypes à papier thermique, qui se voile > petit à petit à la lumière), cf. pj. Les quelques autres sont devenus > quasi-indéchiffrables lorsqu'on les scanne. > J'ai eu le feu vert de V. Cerf et L. Kleinrock pour distribution. > Pour info, l'assistante de Vint a cerclé mon nom quand elle m'a remis > ce print (avec la plaquette que je devais remettre à Len de la part de Vint). > Notez l'existence, à cette époque, de notifications d'interruption de > service (TENEX will go down ...) à l'avance. > Bien cordialement. > > Gérard Le Lann ---------- De: "Kidwell, Peggy" <kidwellp(a)si.edu> À: members(a)lists.sigcis.org Envoyé: Vendredi 17 Février 2017 14:41:13 Objet: [SIGCIS-Members] Recent Posts I’m intrigued by recent messages concerning early electronic messages. Should anyone have examples of such messages and related software, I’d be delighted to consider them for the Smithsonian collections (complementing the materials elsewhere that Janet and others have used). Also, on the book and movie Hidden Figures, two recent blogs might be of interest: https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/hidden-figures-and-human-compu… http://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/hidden-figures. Best - Peggy Kidwell

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Recent Posts / Messageries - vintage e.mail
by Pierre MOUNIER-KUHN 23 Mar '17

23 Mar '17

Hi Peggy, Please find attached a "vintage" electronic mail, exchanged in Dec. 1973 between Len Kleinrock, Vint Cerf and Gerard Le Lann. Hope it adds a few grams of evidence in the therapy against "post-truth"… The words "Message for LeLann" were circled to his attention by his secretary – a division of labor which soon disappeared in R&D network practices, but survived in other professional spheres until the end of the century. The message includes a warning of service interruption (TENEX will go down ...), as Le Lann stresses in his comment (enclosed). Best, Pierre Pierre Mounier-Kuhn CNRS & Université Paris-Sorbonne https://cnrs.academia.edu/PierreMounierKuhn http://koyre.ehess.fr/docannexe/file/2183/mounier_kuhn_cv_anglais_2016.comp… ----- Mail transféré ----- > De: "Gerard Le_Lann" <gerard.le_lann(a)inria.fr> > À: "Pierre MOUNIER-KUHN" <mounier(a)msh-paris.fr> > Cc: "Claude Ducarouge" <claude.ducarouge(a)wanadoo.fr>, "Daniel Poirson" <danielgpoirson(a)gmail.com> > Envoyé: Lundi 27 Février 2017 10:48:27 > Objet: Re: Messageries > > Bonjour, > > J'ai retrouvé un exemplaire de print de email Arpanet de 1973, encore lisible > (on utilisait des télétypes à papier thermique, qui se voile petit à petit à > la lumière), cf. pj. Les quelques autres sont devenus quasi-indéchiffrables > lorsqu'on les scanne. > J'ai eu le feu vert de V. Cerf et L. Kleinrock pour distribution. > Pour info, l'assistante de Vint a cerclé mon nom quand elle m'a remis ce > print (avec la plaquette que je devais remettre à Len de la part de Vint). > Notez l'existence, à cette époque, de notifications d'interruption de service > (TENEX will go down ...) à l'avance. > Bien cordialement. > > Gérard Le Lann ---------- De: "Kidwell, Peggy" <kidwellp(a)si.edu> À: members(a)lists.sigcis.org Envoyé: Vendredi 17 Février 2017 14:41:13 Objet: [SIGCIS-Members] Recent Posts I’m intrigued by recent messages concerning early electronic messages. Should anyone have examples of such messages and related software, I’d be delighted to consider them for the Smithsonian collections (complementing the materials elsewhere that Janet and others have used). Also, on the book and movie Hidden Figures, two recent blogs might be of interest: https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/hidden-figures-and-human-compu… http://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/hidden-figures. Best - Peggy Kidwell

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Ayyadurai & Wozniak both surprised me today...
by Thomas Haigh 21 Mar '17

21 Mar '17

Dear SIGCIS, Two things which I cannot but share with you. First, Ayyadurai's lawyers have filed their documents disputing Techdirt's various motions to have the case dismissed, moved to California, and subjected to anti-SLAPP provisions. Find them here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/3lxh568s9sg3kvp/AACd4nwyODhepiRsibS9n4kla?dl=0 Interesting detail there re SIGCIS. So, you may remember that way back in January, when Ayyadurai issued a media kit to go with his lawsuit, http://inventorofemail.com/thefacts/. Among other things, that said that Part of this cabal is a group called Special Interest Group for Computers, Information and Society (SIGCIS). Under the aegis of its "scholarly" blog, its chief spokesperson attacked Dr. Ayyadurai as well as any other experts and journalists who dared to share the historical facts about email's origin from Newark, New Jersey. At the same time, this "scholar" thanked "special interests" from Raytheon/BBN and the ARPANET community for supporting and contributing to his verbal lynching of Dr. Ayyadurai... All of this took place, while these "scholars" and "historians" deliberately ignored the plagiaristic and truly self-promotional history of Raytheon, and praised the "aw shucks" humility of Ray Tomlinson, the non-inventor of email. So that sounds ominous, right? Cabal, fake scholar, verbal lynching, and defamatory comments. And don't get him started on the "Editorial Board of the journal IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, which publishes false histories of email." Or on Wikipedia. Well there's a bit of a 180 degree turn in his latest legal filing. The article cited by Defendants and included with their motion highlights the difference between attacking Dr. Ayyadurai's email invention claim compared to attacking Dr. Ayyadurai's personal and professional reputation. As Exhibit B to their motion (Doc. 13-2), Defendants attach the article entitled "Did V.A. Shiva Ayyadurai Invent Email?" written by Thomas Haigh (SIGCIS) (Aug. 4, 2015), available at http://www.sigcis.org/ayyadurai.... Mr. Haigh's article analyzes Dr. Ayyadurai's email invention claim and reaches a contrary conclusion. But, while disagreeing with Dr. Ayyadurai, Mr. Haigh's article does not attack Dr. Ayyadurai's personal and professional reputation or ethics. Mr. Haigh does not call Dr. Ayyadurai a liar or a fraud, does not proclaim that Dr. Ayyadurai built his entire reputation on the claim of email invention, and does not claim that Dr. Ayyadurai lied to, defrauded, or improperly misled anyone. In this respect, Defendants' statements and campaign to destroy Dr. Ayyadurai's reputation are from the antithesis of Mr. Haigh's article. So, I guess the article is not defamatory after all. Though, to misquote Austin Powers, I didn't spend six years in Evil historian school to be called "mister," thank you very much. But that's not the only unexpected news. I'm in California at the end of the recent string of meetings at the Computer History Museum, culminating in a strikingly lively and diverse SIGCIS. Who should show up for my talk "The Other Women of ENIAC: Rethinking the Myths of Innovation" with the local IEEE CS history group tonight? Why, only Steve Wozniak. Who tweeted the event, chatted a bit before the talk, sat through the whole thing, and asked a question at the end. Giving my usual critique of Walter Isaacson's books and the myth of innovation as the sole province of geniuses, geeks, and hackers felt a little different in the presence of someone who is rather prominent in that very narrative and arguably fits all three categories pretty well (given a domain-specific view of genius). But maybe he also felt some resonance with my conclusions that the ENIAC team were less superheroes than smart (to very smart), hardworking (to obsessive) people, lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time & supported by the right institutions. After last night's appearance of Ted Nelson inside a telepresence robot at the CHM party to celebrate the IEEE Milestone plaque for Engelbart's "Mother of All Demos," and my chance earlier to give the ENIAC talk to a wonderfully well informed club of computer scientists and engineers up in Woodside, I'm feeling that I've had the most quintessentially Silicon Valley visit I could have had (short of making a failed pitch to a venture capitalist and then being run over by a Tesla). Best wishes, Tom

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ISO panel members
by Jonathan Coopersmith 20 Mar '17

20 Mar '17

I am looking for panelists (and a commentator) for a panel on *“The Changing Realities of Democracy, Politics, and Communication Technologies”* While media attention in recent years has focused on large-scale computer-based data analysis and targeted outreach, communication technologies have long played important roles in domestic and international politics. This session takes a “big tent” approach, ranging from the innovative applications of the hand printing press by Martin Luther in the 16th century and the mechanized printing presses of the 19th century to the 21st century chatbots of Brexit. Areas of interest include (but are not limited to) campaigning, governing, lobbying, data management, and fundraising. Of especial interest are the political use of computer-mediated communications such as bulletin boards, listservs, and other seemingly non-political tools. At the microlevel, an underlying theme is innovative ideas often find initial application by outsiders (e.g., Pat Robinson’s use of videocassettes in the 1988 Iowa primary) and are quickly absorbed by political parties and governments (e.g., radio broadcasts of speeches, sending daily emails to supporters) as pragmatic exploitation replaces near-utopian predictions. At the macrolevel are broader questions about how democracies have appropriated and shaped these technologies – and vice-versa. Significant literature exists on how totalitarian regimes have used communication technologies, particularly radio and television for broadcasting. This panel is an opportunity to explore some of those themes in a democratic setting. Jonathan Coopersmith Professor Department of History Texas A&M University College Station, TX 77843-4236 979.845.7151 979.862.4314 (fax) Latest article: https://theconversation.com/what-fax-machines-can-teach-us-about-electric-c… *FAXED. The Rise and Fall of the Fax Machine* (Johns Hopkins University Press) is the co-recipient of the 2016 Business History Conference Hagley Prize for best book in business history.

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Bill Tutte commemorated
by Mark Priestley 20 Mar '17

20 Mar '17

Rather charmingly, this song describes him as an unsung hero ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTbvQRfxT7E&feature=youtu.be Mark

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Talk, Santa Clara, Mon, 3/20: "The Other Women of ENIAC"
by Thomas Haigh 18 Mar '17

18 Mar '17

Hello SIGCIS, Those of you in the Bay Area might be interested in my event on Monday night, “The Other Women of ENIAC: Rethinking IT Innovation” with the history group of the local IEEE Computer Society chapter. It’s a fun talk, and this time there’ll be a short conversation before as well as a QA afterwards. Details below and at http://sites.ieee.org/sv-techhist/?p=621. More about the project (and previously recorded talks) at www.eniacinaction.com <http://www.eniacinaction.com> . Best wishes, Tom From: sv-history(a)ieee.org [mailto:sv-history@ieee.org] On Behalf Of Brian Berg Sent: Saturday, March 18, 2017 2:13 AM To: Silicon Valley History Listserver <sv-history(a)LISTSERV.IEEE.ORG> Subject: Mon, 3/20: "The Other Women of ENIAC" I hope to see you on Monday evening at this event. Brian Berg The Other Women of <http://www.siliconvalleyhistory.com> ENIAC: Rethinking IT Innovation (Mon, March 20) The second event was organized by Alan J. Weissberger from our committee, in the wake of a talk given by Thomas Haigh at the Computer History Museum. We have invited the local IEEE Women in Engineering (WIE) chapter <http://sites.ieee.org/scv-wie/> to co-sponsor this event. What makes a computing historian tick? What motivates their research into arcane topics and to lead a group of information technology historians (SIGCIS)? We’ll learn that and more in an enlightening conversation with Thomas Haigh which will precede his presentation on the very popular book <http://www.eniacinaction.com/> ENIAC in Action, published in 2016 by MIT Press. Haigh explains that the six women now celebrated as the “first computer programmers” were actually hired as computer operators and worked hands-on with the machine around the clock. Other women, who actually built ENIAC, the first general purpose electronic computer, have been forgotten entirely. So has most of the work that made the project so successful, from procuring the right kind of wire to saving ENIAC from flood water. Popular stories about the history of information technology have usually focused on great inventors and technical breakthroughs, from Charles Babbage and Alan Turing to Steve Jobs and the World Wide Web. Operations work and the labor of non-geniuses has been mostly written out of the history of innovation, but without it no computer would be useful. Information historian Thomas Haigh has written it back in! The conversation will be moderated by Alan J. Weissberger, past chair and founder of the IEEE SV Tech History committee. Thomas Haigh, PhD, is an Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Comenius Visiting Professor of the History of Computing at Siegen University. He has published on many aspects of the history of computing including the evolution of data base management systems, word processing, the software package, corporate computer departments, Internet software, computing in science fiction, the “software crisis” of the 1960s, IBM in Europe, and the Colossus code breaking machines. Besides being the author of ENIAC in Action (MIT, 2016) Haigh is the editor of Histories of Computing (Harvard, 2011), a collection of the work of Michael Mahoney, and the lead editor of a 2015 special issue of Information and Culture on the theme “Histories of the Internet.” From 2005 to 2015 he was chair of SIGCIS, the group for historians of information technology. Learn more at www.tomandmaria.com/tom <http://www.tomandmaria.com/tom>

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