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Query: price of information prior to 20th c?
by Paul N. Edwards 10 Nov '12

10 Nov '12

Does anyone know of a credible estimate of the price of information over the last several centuries? For example, cost per book, cost per page, cost per Bible since Gutenberg? Even better would be an estimate that went further back to the manuscript era. thanks - Paul ___________________________ Paul N. Edwards Professeur invité, Sciences Po, Paris, 2012-13) Professor of Information and History, University of Michigan A Vast Machine: Computer Models, Climate Data, and the Politics of Global Warming (MIT Press, 2010) Terse replies are deliberate (and better than nothing) Mailing address (2012-13): 82 rue Mouffetard 75005 Paris, France (206) 337-1523 (fax) pne.people.si.umich.edu

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"online banking"
by Pierre Mounier 09 Nov '12

09 Nov '12

Hello all, Would someone know : 1) When the expression "online banking" appeared ? 2) When did banks start using the Internet to interact with their clients ? I have only a few hints: In October 1995, a "Security First Network Bank" was created in the US (there is a brief Wiki page about it). In 1997, BNP in France launched its "BNPnet" service. What earlier attempts are recorded ? Thanks a lot if you can take the time to provide me with relevant infos. Best, Pierre Mounier-Kuhn CNRS & Université Paris-Sorbonne L'informatique en France, de la seconde guerre mondiale au Plan Calcul. L'Emergence d'une science

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Clasroom adoption of possible Mahoney collection paperback
by Thomas Haigh 09 Nov '12

09 Nov '12

Hello everyone, As you may remember, I edited a book, Histories of Computing, collecting the late Mike Mahoney's papers on the history of computing. I don't get sales statements or royalties - those go to his estate, but it looks from Worldcat as though library sales for the $50 hardcover have been respectable but not outstanding - about 430 libraries showing up. (If you want to persuade your librarian to purchase it, you could show them Nathan Ensmenger's very positive review in Science -- http://www.sciencemag.org/content/333/6048/1383.1.full) Now $50 is obviously a lot to pay for a collection of previously published essays, however brilliant the critical introduction and editing. So it would be nice is Harvard UP could be persuaded to issue a paperback for around $25, at which point it would become more of an impulse buy. The economics of that would depend on a reasonable prospect of adoption for courses. I don't have much personal insight into this - the only time I've attempted teaching history in the last ten years is when I was invited to run a doctoral seminar at in the information and communication school of the University of Western Ontario this summer. It attracted one student, who dropped out half way through. So I don't want to promise Harvard that there is a huge market for the collection if that's not true. So, would you be likely to assign a $25 softcover of Histories of Computing for a class? If so, approximately how many students and how often might you teach it. Send me an email, and if I get a reasonable number of expressions of interest I'll forward them to HUP. Tom

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New book - Coding Places: Software Practice in a South American City
by Paul N. Edwards 26 Oct '12

26 Oct '12

All - I have seen Yuri talk about this research a couple of times and it's fascinating. This should be a great book, just out. Best, Paul Edwards > De : Yuri Takhteyev <yuri(a)ischool.berkeley.edu> > Objet : my book > Date : October 25, 2012 10:43:38 PM GMT+02:00 > À : Paul Edwards <pne(a)umich.edu> > > Dear Paul, > > My book on software developers in Brazil finally came out! I am > attaching the announcement below. If you know anyone who might find it > a worthwhile reading, please forward! > > - yuri > > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > > Coding Places: Software Practice in a South American City > Yuri Takhteyev > > The MIT Press, 2012 > > http://codingplaces.net/ > > Software development would seem to be a quintessential example of > today’s Internet-enabled “knowledge work”—a global profession not > bound by the constraints of geography. In “Coding Places,” Yuri > Takhteyev looks at the work of software developers who inhabit two > contexts: a geographical area—in this case, greater Rio de > Janeiro—and a “world of practice,” a global system of activities > linked by shared meanings and joint practice. The work of the > Brazilian developers, Takhteyev discovers, reveals a paradox of the > world of software: it is both diffuse and sharply centralized. The > world of software revolves around a handful of places—in particular, > the San Francisco Bay area—that exercise substantial control over > both the material and cultural elements of software > production. Takhteyev shows how in this context Brazilian software > developers work to find their place in the world of software and to > bring its benefits to their city. > > Takhteyev’s study closely examines Lua, an open source programming > language developed in Rio but used in such internationally popular > products as World of Warcraft and Angry Birds. He shows that Lua had > to be separated from its local origins on the periphery in order to > achieve success abroad. The developers, Portuguese speakers, used > English in much of their work on Lua. By bringing to light the work > that peripheral practitioners must do to give software its seeming > universality, Takhteyev offers a revealing perspective on the > not-so-flat world of globalization. > > Endorsements: > > “By examining software development in the ‘wrong place’ of Rio de > Janeiro, Yuri Takhteyev shows us with vivid accounts and clear > narrative how individuals who work far from the geographic hubs of > their field create local connections and shape local environments > even as they embrace global culture and pursue global dreams for > themselves and their locations. The concept of a ‘wrong place’ > proves an immediately beguiling and completely original approach for > understanding work in the global setting; Takhteyev’s choice of Rio, > in particular, is nothing short of brilliant.” > > - Diane Bailey, School of Information, University of Texas at Austin > > “Coding Places opens the black box of ‘globalization’ to show us the > pieces involved in that process—people, technical objects, > government agencies, universities, businesses—in intimate detail: > how they work, what they need to survive, what they furnish to > others, the network of their connections, conflicts, and > accommodations. We see the whole machine in operation: how the many > possible inputs generate a variety of outputs, technically and > organizationally. And we learn a way of thinking that we can apply > to the arts, science, or business, to any kind of activity with > worldwide extension and ramifications. It does all this with a depth > of vision and a clarity in telling the story seldom found in the > social sciences.” > > - Howard S. Becker, author of “Outsiders” and “Art Worlds” > > “Software development is no longer limited geographically but is > expanding to different regions of the world. Yuri Takhteyev has > produced an insightful work that provides a critical account of > software developers and their role in the global knowledge > economy. This is a fascinating story of knowledge workers in a > region that has the potential to become the next Silicon Valley.” > > - Alladi Venkatesh, Professor and Associate Director, Center for > Research on Information Technology, University of California, Irvine ___________________________ Paul N. Edwards Professeur invité, Sciences Po, Paris, 2012-13) Professor of Information and History, University of Michigan A Vast Machine: Computer Models, Climate Data, and the Politics of Global Warming (MIT Press, 2010) Terse replies are deliberate (and better than nothing) Mailing address (2012-13): 82 rue Mouffetard 75005 Paris, France (206) 337-1523 (fax) pne.people.si.umich.edu

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Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Computer Science in Higher Education
by Pierre Mounier 25 Oct '12

25 Oct '12

Hello Janet, In turn, I am very interested to know about your project. The ACM Curriculum '68, discussed in IFIP committees, contributed to shape computer science curricula in France and certainly in other countries. Regarding a session at next year's SHOT/ SIGCIS, in addition to Ulf Hashagen and Irina Nikiforova, you might contact these German authors: - Reuse, B. & Vollmar, R. (ed.) : Informatikforschung in Deutschland. Springer, 2008 - Pieper, C.: Hochschulinformatik in der Bundesrepublik und der DDR bis 1989/1990. Steiner, 2009 - Wolfgang Coy: “Was ist Informatik? Zur Entstehung des Faches an den deutschen Universitäten”. In: Hellige, H.-D. (ed.): Geschichten der Informatik, Springer, 2004, 473-497. [a title which predated "Histories of Computing"!] There is also a growing scholarship in Italy, yet they are still much concerned with hardware development or business history. All the best, Pierre Le 5 oct. 12 à 15:52, Janet Abbate a écrit : > Hello Pierre, > I will be very interested to read your article. I am myself > beginning a project on computer science in higher education, > focusing initially on the ACM computer science Curriculum '68 and > Curriculum '78 as efforts to define and standardize computer science > in universities. > > Unfortunately I will not be at SHOT this year, but I would like to > organize a session at next year's SHOT (either SIGCIS or the SHOT > conference itself) on academic computer science. I will contact you > in the spring after the call for papers comes out to ask if you > might be interested in such a session. I believe there are several > us working in this area (for example, Ulf Hashagen and Irina > Nikiforova) and it would be useful to have a discussion of common > themes--as well as culturally specific variants--in the development > of university computer science. > > best regards, > Janet > > > Dr. Janet Abbate > Associate Professor > Science & Technology in Society > Virginia Tech > > > On Oct 5, 2012, at 7:07 AM, Pierre Mounier wrote: > >> Dear Friends & Colleagues, >> >> This is just to inform SIGCIS members, particularly those working >> on Computer Science in Higher Education, of a paper about to appear : >> >> "Computer Science in French Universities: Early Entrants and >> Latecomers" >> http://www.infoculturejournal.org/current_issue/47.4 >> >> This paper stems from my book *, but goes further to define models >> of development in an international comparaison perspective. >> >> With cordial salutations, looking forward to meet some of you in >> Copenhagen, >> Pierre Mounier-Kuhn >> >> CNRS & Université Paris-Sorbonne >> * http://pups.paris-sorbonne.fr/pages/aff_livre.php?Id=838 >> http://www.koyre.cnrs.fr/IMG/pdf/CV-Mounier-Kuhn_1_.pdf >> >> Abstract - MOUNIER-KUHN Pierre, 2012, "Computer Science in French >> Universities: Early Entrants and Latecomers", Information & >> Culture: A Journal of History, vol. 47, n° 4. >> >> How do new disciplines develop in certain universities, not in >> others ? What factors shape the geography of science ? The history >> of computer science in French higher education suggests a model to >> describe this development and differenciation process. >> >> Computer science stemmed from local configurations associating a >> school of electrical engineering and a professor of numerical >> analysis. In the early 1950s, a few professors, who may be >> characterized as “science entrepreneurs”, created three-fold >> structures, associating courses in applied mathematics and >> programming, a computing facility and a research laboratory. This >> initiated a cumulative development process, attracting students, >> researchers, contracts, funding and powerful machines, and opening >> the field to novel applications or theoretical investigations. In >> other universities, these configurations were not completed – >> typically, they were limited to an assistant and a small computer, >> so that computing remained confined to technical training. >> >> In the 1960s, the pioneers became the leaders of the new >> informatics field, hold power positions in learned societies and in >> science policy committees, and controlled the definition of >> computer science curricula. As the computing institutes they had >> created reached considerable size, they began to spin off their >> junior professors toward other universities, thus still increasing >> their « radiance ». These centers, like Grenoble, Nancy or >> Toulouse, remain major academic centers in the discipline today. >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> This email is relayed from members(a)sigcis.org, the email discussion >> list of SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ >> and you can change your subscription options at http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members > > > > > >

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IT History Society Appoints New Board Member
by Info ＠ IT History Society 20 Oct '12

20 Oct '12

Lars Heide, internationally known educator and historian, joins the IT History Society Board San Francisco, CA (PrBuzz) October 3, 2012 - Lars Heide, associate professor at the Centre for Business History at the Copenhagen Business School and editor of the IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, joins the <http://www.ithistory.org/> IT History Society's (www.IThistory.org) board of directors. "Lars Heide is our first director that has been elected to the Board of the IT History Society that resides outside North America", said Jeffery Stein, Chairman; "one half of the Society's membership resides outside the North America, Lars is in unique position to guide the Society in becoming an even more of an international organization". "I am pleased and honored to join as a director of the Society and I look forward to assisting in the Society's international interests", said Lars Heide, "for I was the first international member to join the Society at its beginning in 2007". The IT History Society with its many new databases is becoming the 'table of contents' of where the history of information technology is located. In addition, the Society wants to encourage information technology companies to preserve their histories and the accompanying return on investment. The Society's membership includes over 700 members of which there are 150 historians, archivists, plus IT companies, and people interested in information technology including IBM, Hewlett-Packard, INTEL, The Internet Archive, Technology Innovation, Charles Babbage Institute, Computer History Museum, IEEE History Center, Mid-Atlantic Retro Computing Hobbyists, McKesson, U.K. National Archive for the History of Computing, ACM History Committee, FedEx, Agilent, British Library, Applied Materials, Caltech, Computer Conservation Society, Deutsches Museum, Deltek, Microsoft, MIT, the Smithsonian Institution, and Symantec. Membership in the Society is complimentary due to the generous donations from the computer industry. The IT History Society supports the collaboration of like-minded institutions and individuals in expanding the reach of historical and archival activities while at the same time communicating to the private sector the value of preserving their history and heritage for future generations. The IT History Society continually promotes the value of preservation of information technology corporate history with its many databases and acting as a gateway for the location of historical information as a teaching and research aid for colleges, universities and researchers in both the public and private sectors. Another key resource is the IT Honor Roll Database <http://ithistory.org/honor_roll/honor-roll-random.php> http://ithistory.org/honor_roll/honor-roll-random.php The Honor Roll includes individuals who have made a noteworthy contribution to the information technology industry. The IT History Society Historical Resource Sites comprises over 1,600 historical information technology sites that are indexed by the Society for use by educators, students, and researchers. <http://www.ithistory.org/resource_sites/resource-sites.php> http://www.ithistory.org/resource_sites/resource-sites.php An added database is the hardware database of all information technology hardware ever manufactured. The library consists of over 11,000 entries growing by over 100 per day. The database is located on the web at <http://ithistory.org/hardware/hardware-name.php> http://ithistory.org/hardware/hardware-name.php About ITHS The IT History Society exists to enhance and expand works concerning the history of Information Technology and to demonstrate the value of IT history for the understanding and improvement of our present and future world. IT History Society One Blackfield Drive - Suite 331 Tiburon, CA 94920 (415) 435-2263 info(a)ITHistory.org www.ITHistory.org <http://www.ithistory.org/> Sm logo dropEnsuring the Future by Preserving the Past <http://www.twitter.com/ithistoryorg> twitter <http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/It-History-Society/143799552346273> find-us-on-facebook

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"Stored Program" -- origins in IBM circa 1949?
by Thomas Haigh 19 Oct '12

19 Oct '12

Thanks to Peggy Kidwell (below) we have a confirmed sighting of "stored program" in the wild in 1949. In fact two, in internal IBM documents. This is very suggestive when taken in conjunction with something I noticed in searching the ACM DL yesterday, which is that 6 of the 11 uses it located through the end of 1960 were in papers written by IBM staff. So, an attractive hypothesis is that the term was coined within IBM Poughkeepsie in 1949 during early work on IBM's first experimental stored program computer, the Test Assembly. As the 604 calculator being cannibalized for its electronic arithmetic unit already had a plugboard programming mechanism it makes sense that the team would want a clear name for the separate capability they were building to execute a program stored in Williams Tubes backed by a drum. Tom From: Kidwell, Peggy [mailto:kidwellp@si.edu] Sent: Tuesday, April 03, 2012 11:43 AM To: 'David Alan Grier'; Thomas Haigh Subject: RE: [SIGCIS-Members] "Stored program" -- anyone know origins of the PHRASE The term "stored program" was used in internal IBM documents discussing the development of special circuits for the IBM 604 electronic calculating punch by 1949. See, for example, Nathaniel Rochester, "Plans for the Data Processing Test Assembly," Document 05.14.24. See also H. A. Mussell & C. E. Frizzell, "Stored Program," December 27, 1949, which refers to Rochester's paper. This had internal code 05.015.37. The reference is to programs stored on the drum of the machine or electrostatically, as opposed to on a plugboard. Peggy From: members-bounces(a)sigcis.org [mailto:members-bounces@sigcis.org] On Behalf Of David Alan Grier Sent: Monday, April 02, 2012 5:25 PM To: Thomas Haigh Cc: members(a)sigcis.org Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] "Stored program" -- anyone know origins of the PHRASE Tom Two bounds for your search. "Stored Program" is not in the 1950 IRE Standard on Computer Terms: <http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.proxygw.wrlc.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?tp=&arnu mber=1701474&contentType=Journals+%26+Magazines&ranges%3D1951_1956_p_Publica tion_Year%26matchBoolean%3Dtrue%26searchField%3DSearch_All%26queryText%3D%28 p_Title%3Acomputer+terms%29> Standards on Electronic Computers: Definitions ofTerms, 1950 <http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.proxygw.wrlc.org/xpl/RecentIssue.jsp?punumber=10 933> Proceedings of the IRE Volume: 39 , <http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.proxygw.wrlc.org/xpl/tocresult.jsp?isnumber=3584 4> Issue: 3 Digital Object Identifier: <http://dx.doi.org.proxygw.wrlc.org/10.1109/JRPROC.1951.231840> 10.1109/JRPROC.1951.231840 Publication Year: 1951 , Page(s): 271 - 277 But it is used in the 1953 IRE article on programming. <http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.proxygw.wrlc.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?tp=&arnu mber=4051188&contentType=Journals+%26+Magazines&sortType%3Dasc_p_Publication _Year%26ranges%3D1953_1958_p_Publication_Year%26matchBoolean%3Dtrue%26search Field%3DSearch_All%26queryText%3D%28.QT.stored+program.QT.%29> Fundamentals of Digital Computer Programming Thomas, W.H. <http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.proxygw.wrlc.org/xpl/RecentIssue.jsp?punumber=10 933> Proceedings of the IRE Volume: 41 , <http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.proxygw.wrlc.org/xpl/tocresult.jsp?isnumber=4051 180> Issue: 10 Digital Object Identifier: <http://dx.doi.org.proxygw.wrlc.org/10.1109/JRPROC.1953.274275> 10.1109/JRPROC.1953.274275 Publication Year: 1953 , Page(s): 1245 - 1249 I SHOULD NOTE THAT IT IS NOT USED IN THE COMPANION 1953 article on the IBM 701. David -------------------------------- David Alan Grier Fellow, IEEE President Elect, IEEE Computer Society Assoc. Prof., International Science & Technology Policy Center for International Science and Technology Policy grier(a)gwu.edu On Apr 2, 2012, at 4:34 PM, Thomas Haigh wrote: Hello everyone, I have a query related to a project I am working on concerning the conversion of ENIAC to stored program control in 1948, initially to run the first computerized Monte Carlo calculations. All this took place prior to the first operation of the Manchester Baby. That makes the question of what one means by "stored program" a very interesting one. This question was much discussed in the early days of the history of computing (1970s, early 1980s). I am starting to dig back into primary sources for early use of the phrases "stored program" and "stored program concept" to get a better idea of how these terms were used in the 1940s/early 1950s and what people thought they meant at the time. To clarify, almost everyone who has written about this cites the 1945 "First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC" as the initial dissemination of the stored program concept although there has been considerable debate as to the source of the ideas contained therein. However that document does not contain the phase "stored program." Or indeed use the word "program" in the body of the text. Or, remarkably, "EDVAC." "Stored" shows up a few times, though less frequently than "remembered." So, ignoring for the moment the relationship of the report to later definitions of the concept, we can agree that it was not the source of the phrase. The most obvious summary of the idea using the report's own terminology would be "remembered instruction device" rather than "stored program computer." I had thought about the 1946 Moore School lectures as a possible vector for the phase "stored program" as well as the concept. The phrase shows up many times in the Moore School lectures book but so far I have spotted it only in the 1980s editorial material rather than in the original lecture summaries. By 1954 "stored program computer" is showing up without explanation or citation required in the description of the IBM 650 published in the inaugural issue of Journal of the ACM. It is not particularly common in the ACM DL material for the rest of the decade ("automatic computer" and "digital computer" are more prevalent) but continues to pop up occasionally. The best the OED can do is 1957, which is even later. So, any thoughts on who came up with this phrase and when? I'm planning to dig deeper in search of early usage, for example into the 1950 "High-Speed Computing Devices" ERA book and some of the other CBI reprints from the 1940s, but it occurred to me that someone on the list might already know the answer to the question. Tom _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members(a)sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ and you can change your subscription options at http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members

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Big Data
by Bernardo Batiz-Lazo 16 Oct '12

16 Oct '12

This might be of interest Best wishes Bernardo Bangor University (Wales) On the Origin(s) and Development of the Term “Big Data" Date: 2012-09-21 By: Francis X. Diebold (Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania) URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pen:papers:12-037&r=his I investigate the origins of the now-ubiquitous term ”Big Data," in industry and academics, in computer science and statistics/econometrics. Credit for coining the term must be shared. In particular, John Mashey and others at Silicon Graphics produced highly relevant (unpublished, non-academic) work in the mid-1990s. The first significant academic references (independent of each other and of Silicon Graphics) appear to be Weiss and Indurkhya (1998) in computer science and Diebold (2000) in statistics /econometrics. Douglas Laney of Gartner also produced insightful work (again unpublished and non-academic) slightly later. Big Data the term is now firmly entrenched, Big Data the phenomenon continues unabated, and Big Data the discipline is emerging. Keywords: Massive data, computing, statistics, econometrics

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FYI: EXTRA space with Dropbox
by Bernardo Batiz-Lazo 16 Oct '12

16 Oct '12

> > > > There's free EXTRA space with Dropbox for anyone affiliated with an academic institution. (ranging from 3GB to 24GB - depending on how many students from your university join) > > Earn free space on Dropbox by joining the Great Space Race! > www.dropbox.com > Dropbox is giving away free space to university students! Represent your school and earn a ton of free space for everyone by joining the Grea > > > -- > > > Bernardo Batiz-Lazo, FRHistS > Athro Hanes Busnes ac Rheolaeth Bancio / > Professor of Business History and Bank Management > Ysgol Busnes Bangor Business School > Prifysgol Bangor University > Gwynedd LL57 2DG (Cymru / Wales) > > b.batiz-lazo [at] bangor.ac.uk Twitter @BatizLazo > > ffon / phone : +44 (0) 1248 388349 > > Home page: > http://www.bangor.ac.uk/business/staff/bernardo_batiz-lazo.en.php > > Working papers: > http://ideas.repec.org/e/pba14.html > > Blog: > http://www.nephis.org > > >

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Fwd from David Greelish
by M. Hicks 16 Oct '12

16 Oct '12

Begin forwarded message: > From: David Greelish <david(a)classiccomputing.com> > Date: October 15, 2012 18:04:53 CDT > To: bjesiek(a)purdue.edu, mhicks1(a)iit.edu > Subject: A petition to Apple's Leadership Team - Create a public venue / visitor’s center > > Hi, > > My email submissions keep failing. > > Would you mind sending this out to everyone or posting it? > > http://www.change.org/petitions/apple-inc-create-a-public-venue-visitor-s-c… > > Best, > > David Greelish > - Computer Historian, Author, Speaker, Blogger & Podcaster > - Founder of the Atlanta Historical Computing Society > > Producer of the Vintage Computer Festival Southeast 1.0 - 2/9/13 > > http://about.me/davidgreelish >

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