- Members - lists.sigcis.org

Charles Babbage Institute --> Norberg travel-grant and Tomash fellowship deadline = 15 January
by Thomas J. Misa 08 Jan '13

08 Jan '13

Hi all, Just a reminder that our annual deadline for both the Norberg travel grant and the Tomash fellowship is coming up next week, 15 January. Please see: <http://www.cbi.umn.edu/research/tfellowship.html> or <http://www.cbi.umn.edu/research/ntravelfund.html> Best, Tom Misa

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Wally Feurzeig, rest in peace (from Dave Walden)
by Thomas Haigh 07 Jan '13

07 Jan '13

[Forwarded from Dave Walden] Subject: Wally Feurzeig, rest in peace According to the exBBN mailing list Wally died Friday night. Wally was an early AI researcher and spent most of his career working in the area of application computers in education and training. The programming language LOGO was one of his projects (along with Dan Bobrow, Dick Grant, Cynthia Solomon, and Seymour Papert). [some more] Bits and pieces about Wally and his activities at BBN are on pages 38, 57, 62-63, and 402 and in his own chapter 13 (pages 281-351) at <http://walden-family.com/bbn/bbn-print2.pdf>http://walden-family.com/bbn/bb n-print2.pdf (Wally is also listed in many biblio entries, cross-references, etc., in that volume, but the above pages are the main places he is mentioned.) A couple of the above pages mention Wally's career before BBN.

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FW: History of Computing conference at the Science Museum 2013
by Petri Paju 07 Jan '13

07 Jan '13

Hello all, I hope this isn't repetitive to too many sigcis members. Best, Petri CFP from Arthur Tatnall [mailto:Arthur.Tatnall@vu.edu.au]<mailto:[mailto:Arthur.Tatnall@vu.edu.au]>, as Chair, IFIP WG9.7 - History of Computing Making the History of Computing Relevant IFIP WG9.7 and Computer Conservation Society History of Computing Conference Science Museum, 17th - 18th June 2013 Displaying and examining the remains of old mainframe and mini computers is of considerable interest to those who were involved in building or using them. For many other people, however, displays or descriptions of this technology are of little relevance and of little interest. For a start they have trouble appreciating where we have come from in electronic digital computing over the last 70 years when they understand (or care) little about details of the configurations of these machines and how they differ from modern computers. So what if a Ferranti Mk 1 stored 20-bit word as a single line of dots on a Williams Tube, with its eight tubes, each storing one a page of 64 words? This information needs to be turned into a form that people today can understand and appreciate. The aim of this conference is to discuss what needs to be done to make the history of computing relevant and interesting to the general public today. Would shifting the emphasis from the technology itself to how it was used make a difference? What about stories about the designers and builders of these computers? Would the use of replicas and simulations make this history more interesting? The conference aims to consider some of these issues. It is hoped that the conference will be of interest to academic historians of computing, museum curators involved in displaying the history of computing, members of IFIP Working Group 9.7 (History of Computing), members of the British Computer Conservation Society, and others with a concern to make this history more relevant to people of today. Possible topics for discussion include (but are not restricted to): * Relating details of the uses of early (or more recent) computers, and what difference they made to business, industry, education, government and people's lives * Sharing stories about the inventors and builders of these computers * Using simulations and replicas to illustrate the history of computing. * How distinct national perspectives embody different histories of computing and communities of practice * Displays of computing history as representing narrative or technical histories of computing * How museums around the world are handling the issue of better presenting the history of computing as well as conserving it * The importance of education in making history of computing relevant It is our intention to publish presentations and papers in the form of a book to be published by Springer, and possibly in a history of computing journal. If, however, you do not feel like writing a paper your contribution will still be very welcome. Pre/post conference activities will include an excursion to Bletchley Park. Papers and expressions of interest in participation are requested by 1st February 2013.

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Wally Feurzieg, rest in peace
by dave.walden.family＠gmail.com 06 Jan '13

06 Jan '13

According to the exBBN mailing list Wally died Friday night. Wally was an early AI researcher and spent most of his career working in the area of application computers in education and training. The programming language LOGO was one of his projects (along with Dan Bobrow, Dick Grant, Cynthia Solomon, and Seymour Papert).

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History at "Computing Conversations"
by William McMillan 06 Jan '13

06 Jan '13

Greetings, SIGCIS members. I'm not sure how many on this list are aware of the historical content presented by the University of Michigan's Charles Severance in his "Computing Conversations" for IEEE's *Computer* magazine and web site: http://www.computer.org/portal/web/computingnow/computing-conversations Severance frequently includes historical content, even for relatively modern technologies. At the above site you'll find a link to a very well done video on Bletchley Park and some other topics that might be of interest. His column in the November *Computer* on the origins of PHP seems not to be linked yet on the site above, but can be read or heard at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olqMW78GVcs http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/tocresult.jsp?isnumber=6353438&punumber=2 Nothing Earth-shaking about these presentations, but I find it interesting to see how history is presented to practicing computing professionals and what they seem to be interested in. - Bill

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Charles Babbage Institute --> announces Cortada appointment
by Thomas J. Misa 02 Jan '13

02 Jan '13

Dear Colleagues, Happy New Years! We at CBI are pleased to announce that Jim Cortada will join us for a three-year term as Senior Research Fellow, effective today, January 1st. SIGCIS members will know Jim as the author of numerous notable works in the history of computing, most recently his _Digital Flood: The Diffusion of Information Technology across the United States, Europe, and Asia_ (Oxford UP 2012). Jim is recently retired from a long and productive career at IBM. We are very pleased to facilitate his ongoing research in the history of information technology, and we hope to draw on Jim's wide-ranging professional, scholarly, and publishing experiences in further developing our field. At CBI, we already are the beneficiaries of Jim's extensive collecting of primary and secondary source materials. These can be found in James W. Cortada Papers (CBI 185) at <http://purl.umn.edu/40884>. Detailed keyword searches can be done at <http://discover.lib.umn.edu/findaid/> on all of CBI's archival collections. There are many gems waiting for you. You can find a short biography at <http://www.cbi.umn.edu/about/cortada.html>. And you can contact Jim at <jcortada(a)umn.edu>. Welcome Jim !! Tom Misa

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Publications by Adriano Olivetti again available
by Federico Gobbo 25 Dec '12

25 Dec '12

Dear Colleagues, as a Christmas gift I have good news from Italy. The grandson of Adriano Olivetti, Beniamino de' Liguori Carino, has re-opened the historically important publishing house opened by Adriano, i.e., Edizioni di Comunità, some days ago. You can find them at the following link: http://www.edizionidicomunita.it/ Notably, e-books are available, at least through Amazon. By the moment, I didn't find translations in English, but perhaps Beniamino will do it, if there are signs of interests. My country is in trouble, and such a initiative merits all the support by our community. Merry Christmas to everyone, Federico Gobbo -- Federico Gobbo http://federicogobbo.name skype://federicogobbo

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Erwin Tomash (1921 - 2012)
by Thomas J. Misa 20 Dec '12

20 Dec '12

Dear colleagues, At CBI we wish to recognize the passing of Erwin Tomash, who died last week at his home. A funeral home announcement is at <http://pacificgardenschapel.com/obituary_view/2012-12-erwin-tomash/10040007>. It's not easy to give a short version of Erwin's impact on computer history. First and foremost, he was the founder of the Charles Babbage Institute and for years its guiding spirit. In the 1970s, even before he retired from Dataproducts, he consulted with leaders in the academic, museum, and business worlds about creating an institution to support and foster computer history. Initially located in California, CBI's first task was finding a permanent home. It turned out that the University of Minnesota put in the winning bid in a national competition; see <http://www.cbi.umn.edu/newsletter/article2.html> with a permanent link <http://www.cbi.umn.edu/about/nsl/v34n2.pdf>. CBI moved to Minnesota in 1980, Arthur Norberg arrived the next year as director, and the field of computer history would never be the same. Arthur took up Erwin's plans to have CBI engage in collecting archival materials on computer history, conducting oral histories, and engaging in research projects. In practice, these three activities have been complementary ones. A significant number of CBI's 200+ archival collections have roots in an oral history and/or CBI research project. A special issue of IEEE Annals of the History of Computing (2001) provides additional details and perspectives, as does the CBI Newsletter (Fall 2003) on CBI's 25-year anniversary <http://www.cbi.umn.edu/about/nsl/v26n1graphics.pdf> Since 1978 CBI has awarded the Adelle and Erwin Tomash Fellowship in the History of Information Technology, to a Ph.D. student completing their dissertation. The 32 recipients, beginning with the first awardee Bill Aspray and continuing to the most-recent Ksenia Tatarchenko, now include many leaders in our field <http://www.cbi.umn.edu/research/tfellowship.html>. At the University of Minnesota an additional Tomash fund supports our Ph.D. students. Erwin was also a book person. In the 1980s the CBI-Tomash Reprint Series published notable editions with expert commentaries. Some of these volumes are still available <http://www.cbi.umn.edu/research/reprints.html>. Then, notably, there was Erwin's personal efforts in rare-book collecting. A glimpse of his efforts is The Erwin Tomash Library on the History of Computing: An Annotated and Illustrated Catalog <http://www.cbi.umn.edu/hostedpublications/Tomash/index.htm>, a significant scholarly effort itself done in collaboration with Mike Williams. We are planning our spring CBI Newsletter to deal more fully with Erwin's long life and remarkable career. If you would like to write a personal note to Adelle Tomash, please contact CBI at <cbi(a)umn.edu> for her address. With best wishes, Tom Misa

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from the IEEE Computer Society History Committee
by Dave Walden 17 Dec '12

17 Dec '12

Hello, The History Committee of the IEEE Computer Society has posted some new items to its website at <http://www.computer.org/portal/web/cshc>http://www.computer.org/portal/web/cshc in particular, a monograph by committee member V. Rajaraman on the "History of Computing in India, 1955-2010" Dave Walden (2012 committee chair)

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Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Older computers (1940-1950)
by Evan Koblentz 13 Dec '12

13 Dec '12

>> I am not sure why this discussion thread seems to be going out of its way to degrade the importance of the ABC machine. Speaking only for myself, there are two reasons why the AB machine should not be included on the original poster's list. 1. It's a calculator, not a computer. A calculator requires human intervention various steps of a problem. A computer runs a program runs until it's finished. The AB machine did the former. 2. AB never finished it. I do not view this as degrading the importance of the machine. But I would also point out an earlier example of separating memory from processing (Babbage), an earlier example of using vacuum tubes for digital logic (cosmic ray counters); and a long appeal about why Judge Larsen and Remington's attorneys both may have been tragically wrong.

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