Petri, thank you for sharing this information. What you did is really quite important because we do not always know what is being written or published in various countries and so if we can all share this kind of information from our own countries it helps everyone. I especially appreciate the fact that you made it possible for us to download a copy of the history. Well done! Jim (James) W. Cortada IBM Institute for Business Value 3001 West Beltline Highway Madison, WI 53713 USA jwcorta@us.ibm.com 608-270-4462 From: Petri Paju <petpaju@utu.fi> To: members@sigcis.org Date: 11/14/08 03:15 AM Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] A new PhD on nationalism and information technology in the 1950s Finland Hi all, For your information, here's a new book that deals with history of information technology and nationalism in the 1950s Finland, with a title: "Building 'Ilmarinen's Finland': The Committee for Mathematical Machines and computer construction as a national project in the 1950s" (540 pages, in Finnish). - Ilmarinen is a character, a blacksmith, in the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala, and later used as a symbol of technical skills. I also deal and continue with the scientist's international interactions that were a major part of making this 'national project' in the forthcoming article in IEEE Annals of the history of computing (4/2008). The thesis can be found electronically (a PDF file) in: https://oa.doria.fi/handle/10024/37737 And here's the abstract for it (there's an almost ten page Summary in the end of the PDF file): The dissertation “Building ‘Ilmarinen’s Finland’: The Committee for Mathematical Machines and computer construction as a national project in the 1950s” examines the history of information technology and nationalism in the 1950’s Finland. The study focuses on the Committee for Mathematical Machines (1954-1960), which was designated to acquire the country’s first computer, and its associates and asks, how was the Committee justified, especially from the perspective of the national good, and what kind of motives did the actions of the Committee manifest. The motives studied are the Committee’s goals in the field of computing, in developing science and technology in society, and in imagining Finland anew. The materials for the study consist of a multifaceted collection of sources from Finland, Sweden and Germany. The Committee chose to duplicate a G1a computer from Göttingen, Western Germany. In Finland the computer was named ESKO. However, the copying was delayed several times and eventually produced an old-fashioned computer. In addition to building the ESKO, the Committee early on intended to create a national computing center in Helsinki. This master plan can be regarded as a scientific and technological policy prior to state involvement in such matters in Finland. The projects of the Committee greatly benefitted the field, particularly the companies of IBM Finland and the Finnish Cable Works, which started a computing center similar to that planned by the Committee. This business unit later evolved into a part of the Nokia Corporation. The term ‘Ilmarinen’s Finland’ is used to argue that technology did not just become a ‘national project’ in postwar Finland, but was explicitly made so. -- Petri Paju, FT, tutkija, Turun yliopisto -- Ph.D. Researcher, Univ. of Turku http://users.utu.fi/petpaju/ _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members@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
