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Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Importance of history to practitioners
by Len Shustek 18 Nov '16

18 Nov '16

At 09:59 AM 11/10/2016, McMillan, William W wrote: >I thought you might like to hear the following. In a meeting with a >small software company in Ann Arbor that emphasizes user-centered, >agile development, a colleague and I asked what subjects should be >included in an academic program in interaction design. The firm's >chief designer, who also has a programming background, said that the >most important course would be history of computing! Even better would be to have the history of computing embedded in academic computing programs. Physicists learn about Newton, and chemists learn about Lavoisier, so why shouldn't computer scientists learn about Babbage, Turing, and Von Neumann? My frustration teaching computer architecture at Stanford in the mid-1990s with a required syllabus that avoided history led me to start a museum nearby, because I knew I wouldn't be able change the curriculum. If you are interested in the story of how that happened, see http://s3data.computerhistory.org/atchm/documents/Personal_Reflections_on_t… which is referenced in my blog article on the Computer History Museum's 35th [sic] anniversary. http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/computer-history-museum-celebrating-35… -- Len

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Tony Sale Award
by Dag Spicer 18 Nov '16

18 Nov '16

This year’s winner, How to Program ENIAC: http://www.tnmoc.org/news/news-releases/tony-sale-award-2016 Tony Sale Award blurb from Computer Conservation Society website: The National Museum of Computing warmly welcomes the establishment of the Tony Sale Award by The Computer Conservation Society. Here is the CCS release issued on 8 May 2012: A new international award for computer conservation has been established in memory of Tony Sale, a pioneer of computer conservation and globally acclaimed for rebuilding Colossus, the world's first electronic programmable computer. The Tony Sale Award, managed by the Computer Conservation Society (CCS) and supported by Google UK Ltd, is to recognise an individual or group that has made an outstanding engineering achievement in computer conservation. The closing date for nominations for the first award is 31 July 2012. The award will be for demonstrable computer conservation work, preferably completed in the past three years, which is already on display or could be made publicly accessible. Open to any individual or group anywhere in the world, the award will be judged by an international judging panel appointed by the CCS. The award will be presented at a special event each October. Tony Sale, in whose honour the award has been established, is perhaps best known for leading the team that rebuilt the Colossus computer. He was also a key figure in starting the campaign to save Bletchley Park in the early 1990s, in helping to found of The National Museum of Computing and in jointly establishing the Computer Conservation Society. Dag -- Dag Spicer Senior Curator Computer History Museum Editorial Board, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 1401 North Shoreline Boulevard Mountain View, CA 94043-1311 Tel: +1 650 810 1035 Fax: +1 650 810 1055

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Fwd: CCS News - 2016 Tony Sale Award winner
by Brian Randell 18 Nov '16

18 Nov '16

Hi: Here’s an interesting news release that has just reached me: Computer Conservation Society news release: When programming was physical Interactive 1950’s computer programming reconstruction from Germany wins 2016 Tony Sale Award 18 November 2016 The 2016 Tony Sale Award for computer conservation has been won by the Heinz-Nixdorf MuseumsForum (HNF) for its evocative and educational reconstruction showing how ENIAC, one of the first electronic computers, was programmed. The Tony Sale Award, managed by the Computer Conservation Society and sponsored by Google, recognises achievements in the growing area of computer conservation. ENIAC was programmed by plugging wires and turning knobs, a physical skillset quite different from those deployed today. The reconstruction of part of the huge 1946 American computer has the look and feel of the original, but has been simplified to make it readily understood and even programmable by non-specialists. Photos and video of the reconstruction here: http://www.tnmoc.org/news/news-releases/tony-sale-award-2016 Chers Brian Randell -- 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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Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Importance of history to practitioners
by Murray Turoff 17 Nov '16

17 Nov '16

Liza I appreciate your comments but i would like to add what i think is an important observation. I got my PhD in physics in 1965 but i was fortunate in my last two years of my bachelors summer I spent in a naval lab that had a vacuum tube burrows computer that filled a gym and you could walk through the middle of it. I than got an IBM fellowship from my graduate physics department in mass where i was told to go to MIT and learn how to program on their "large" IBM machine so i could do any programming for any of the physics professors that needed it. One things that was definitely exciting about that was a lot of computer people came from many different fields and it was highly interdisciplinary around 1960 through about the early 1970's. But it was the mathematicians and the management scientists that were taking over the field with some engineers. there was very little social science presence and that is a long story. The social scientists did not come back till Ben Schniderman's book (software psychology) in 1981 and after they also got into using personal computers. The big problem was the attitude of computer scientists was that they could replace people with programs and every problem had a logical solution. Experience did not count in making decisions and that upper management could run their company from their office. This was the standard MIT evening program for managers in the late sixties. While finishing my phd in the last three years I was a part time systems engineer in the Boston branch office of IBM advising. This leads to many interesting stories in those early dates. The IBMer was some sort of priest with a new truth or religion!! I was almost fired by showing in one company that the problem was due to a lack of human communication between different units of the company instead of designing a massive linear program for them to implement. We are dealing with the history of computer science we should take up the many problems and mistakes that were also made in its history. Abby Mowshowitz wrote some good stuff on what could go wrong or right in those early days. -- *please send messages to murray.turoff(a)gmail.com <murray.turoff(a)gmail.com> do not use @njit.edu <http://njit.edu> addressDistinguished Professor EmeritusInformation Systems, NJIThomepage: http://is.njit.edu/turoff <http://is.njit.edu/turoff>*

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Chinese Characters Are Futuristic and the Alphabet Is Old News - The Atlantic
by Sarah T. Roberts 17 Nov '16

17 Nov '16

Of potential interest to many. I always appreciate work that decenters the myth of Western (American, typically) primacy in tech. http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/11/chinese-computers/504… --- S a r a h T. R o b e r t s, P h. D. Assistant Professor University of California, Los Angeles Department of Information Studies Graduate School of Education & Information Studies https://is.gseis.ucla.edu/ Blogging periodically at http://illusionofvolition.com

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Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Importance of history to practitioners
by Brian L. Stuart 17 Nov '16

17 Nov '16

I guess at this point, I should mention a couple of upcoming courses that I'm offering here at Drexel. This winter quarter, we're doing a graduate level special topics on the history of computing. In the spring quarter, we're going to do an undergraduate version. They're definitely going to be technical courses. In fact, to distinguish them from the sort of course that the History department might question CS teaching, we're calling them Evolution of Computing. I'm still in the planning stage, but just to give you an idea of what I've got in mind, here are some of the things I'm planning to do: - Have them write a simulation of the Babbage difference engine the first week as a warm-up. - Have them do a simple program on my ENIAC simulator in the pre-instruction set processing mode of operation. - Demonstrate an analog computer in class. - Have them write a simulator for an early machine. - Have them write a paper analyzing the architectural influence of one early machine on another. - Have them write some code for a PDP-8. Then I'll bring in an 8/M and let them toggle in and run their code. - The graduate version of the class will also read some of the foundational papers on theory, especially Turing's "On Computable Numbers." Between now and the end of the year, I'll be firming up the details, but hopefully you get a sense of what the class will be like. BLS -------------------------------------------- On Thu, 11/17/16, Dave Walden <dave.walden.family(a)gmail.com> wrote: I don't remember if the following has been mentioned on this list or not. If it is unlikely that a university course of study for computer science will be changed to include history, I wonder if some computing history could be done in informal intersession courses (e.g., http://web.mit.edu/IAP/) or through a lunch-hour seminar series. Also, in these days of on-line video courses, maybe one initial computing history course could be developed that is then available to students everywhere; no doubt such videos already exist. If there were a list of the good ones by topic, perhaps the professor for a particular technical course could refer the students to the relevant video in case the students want to watch it.

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Tom Haigh talk
by Dag Spicer 11 Nov '16

11 Nov '16

Sorry, one last detail: to sign up, please visit here: https://connect.computerhistory.org/pages/events/2016-11-thomas-haigh Event: ENIAC In Action Thomas Haigh Friday, Nov 18, 2016 11:00 a.m. Pacific time Computer History Museum 1401 N Shoreline Blvd Mountain View, CA 94043 Dag -- Dag Spicer Senior Curator Computer History Museum Editorial Board, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 1401 North Shoreline Boulevard Mountain View, CA 94043-1311 Tel: +1 650 810 1035 Fax: +1 650 810 1055

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Tom Haigh to speak at CHM!
by Dag Spicer 11 Nov '16

11 Nov '16

Hello everyone! The Computer History Museum is delighted to welcome Professor Thomas Haigh to the museum next week for a special lecture based on the amazing book “ENIAC in Action.” Here is the official lecture announcement: "Rethinking the Myths of Innovation with ENIAC in Action” Books and shows 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. Work by non-geniuses, particularly operations work, has been written out of the popular history of innovation, but without it no computer would be useful. Information historian Thomas Haigh is writing it back in. This talk will focus on ENIAC, the first general purpose electronic computer, based on research for his book ENIAC in Action: Making and Remaking the Modern Computer, recently published by MIT Press. Haigh’s book 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, have been forgotten entirely, as have the contributions of other people working on vital aspects of the project, from procuring the right kind of wire to saving ENIAC from flood water. Haigh’s concluding comments relate this historical material to the human labor and physical infrastructure today vanishing from public view into the “cloud.” Join us as Thomas Haigh discusses his new book and the men and, in particular, women involved in the creation of design of the ENIAC. We are very pleased that Books, Inc. will be selling copies of ENIAC in Action before and after the program. There is no charge for the lecture and we especially encourage all SIGCIS members who can to attend. It would be great to see you there and connect! All the best, Dag -- Dag Spicer Senior Curator Computer History Museum Editorial Board, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 1401 North Shoreline Boulevard Mountain View, CA 94043-1311 Tel: +1 650 810 1035 Fax: +1 650 810 1055

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Importance of history to practitioners
by McMillan, William W 10 Nov '16

10 Nov '16

Greetings, all. I thought you might like to hear the following. In a meeting with a small software company in Ann Arbor that emphasizes user-centered, agile development, a colleague and I asked what subjects should be included in an academic program in interaction design. The firm's chief designer, who also has a programming background, said that the most important course would be history of computing! His justification was that a designer needed to know where all the tools and techniques came from before designing current systems. His point might be obvious to many on this list, but when professionals in the practical world say things like this, it makes it a lot easier to get approval in a university to offer -- or even require -- classes like history of computing. Regards, Bill

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Planning for SHOT meeting in Singapore, June 26-29, 2016
by Andrew Russell 10 Nov '16

10 Nov '16

Colleagues - It was nice to see so many of you for the SHOT and SIGCIS meetings this past weekend in Albuquerque. From my point of view things went extraordinarily well, and I don’t have words to express how happy I am about the quality of scholarship and spirit of camaraderie that I felt throughout the weekend. I think we all owe Nathan Ensmenger a special thanks for such a fantastic keynote presentation on computing’s environmental history - throughout the day people were calling it powerful, moving, transformative, etc. Also on Sunday, we celebrated the achievements of our colleagues, including: - the ten young scholars who were awarded travel grants from MIT Press, the Computer History Museum, and the Mahoney Fund. - Rebecca Slayton, winner of the 2015 CHM Prize for her book Arguments that Count - David Nofre, Mark Priestley, and Gerard Alberts, winners of the inaugural Mahoney Prize for their article “When Technology Became Language” - Sarah McLennan, winner of SHOT’s 2015 Robinson Prize for her paper “Computing and the Color Line,” presented in a session organized jointly by SIGCIS and EDITH, thanks to Marie Hicks and Ruth Cowan. The main purpose of this message is to reinforce and amplify my call on Sunday morning for proposals for SHOT in Singapore in June 2016. SHOT will issuing its call for papers very soon, with a deadline in late 2015. In anticipation, please be thinking about participating in one of the following ways: 1. Put forth an Open Panel Proposal for the main SHOT meeting. SHOT will place a special emphasis on “open panel” topics that SHOT will circulate widely as it publicizes the CFP. 2. Organize a Complete Panel Submission of 3 or 4 papers for the main SHOT meeting. Please feel free to use the list or to contact me (or anyone on the SIGCIS Exec) if you want to float ideas and/or find extra panelists. 3. Submit a paper or panel for the SIGCIS 2016 Workshop that will be held, as usual, at the end of the SHOT conference in Singapore on Sunday, June 26. We expect to issue the CFP for the SIGCIS Workshop well after the SHOT CFP is issued; watch this space in mid-November or early December for details. As you contemplate your participation in the Singapore meeting, please keep 2 additional things in mind: 1. This is a terrific opportunity to forge new bonds with colleagues working on computing and information-related history and STS topics in Asia and the Pacific. To that end, if you have contacts there who have not been active in SIGCIS or SHOT, please do encourage them to join the SIGCIS list and to reach out to me if they want to join or help organize a session. 2. If you are in North America or Europe, try not to be too put off by the expense of the trip - particularly if you are in the early stages of your career. SHOT and SIGCIS have been raising funds for this conference for some time, and the generosity of our communities has been nothing short of inspiring. Travel support will be available! In summary: SHOT and SIGCIS 2015 were fantastic; it’s now up to us to make SHOT and SIGCIS 2016 even better. Please get in touch with me (or the list) if you have questions, suggestions, etc. about making the most of our opportunities at the Singapore meeting! Cheers, Andy Russell SIGCIS Chair

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