Looking for earliest mainframe contracts and computer contracts archive
Dear SIGCIS members I was wondering if someone has any mainframe and/or supercomputer contracts? or if there is an archive of computer contracts? jurisdictions and time periods, no bar although the older the better. The query is fairly broad so time share, leases, procurement contracts across contexts are very welcome :) I wish to look at the evolution of vendor restrictions (if any, although i think there would be ?) Happy to e-meet you all! Regards Anushka PhD Candidate, Institute for Information Law University of Amsterdam Sent with [Proton Mail](https://proton.me/mail/home) secure email.
Dear Anushka, You will find thick piles of such contracts in the historical archives of - Bull, conserved in the ANMT at Lille-Roubaix - ICL in Britain - Control Data, conserved at the CBI in Minneapolis (great place to work !) - closer from your location, Philips and Electrologica - clients – banks, atomic energy authorities, electricity or oil companies, CERN in Geneva, etc. “ The archives of the French computer industry ” , Entreprises et Histoire , juin 2014, n° 75, p. 120-123. https://shs.cairn.info/article/EH_075_0120?lang=fr In what sort of vendor restrictions are you interested ? Regards Pierre Mounier-Kuhn De: "anushka via Members" <members@lists.sigcis.org> À: "members" <members@lists.sigcis.org> Envoyé: Vendredi 8 Août 2025 19:47:58 Objet: [SIGCIS-Members] Looking for earliest mainframe contracts and computer contracts archive Dear SIGCIS members I was wondering if someone has any mainframe and/or supercomputer contracts? or if there is an archive of computer contracts? jurisdictions and time periods, no bar although the older the better. The query is fairly broad so time share, leases, procurement contracts across contexts are very welcome :) I wish to look at the evolution of vendor restrictions (if any, although i think there would be ?) Happy to e-meet you all! Regards Anushka PhD Candidate, Institute for Information Law University of Amsterdam Sent with [ https://proton.me/mail/home | Proton Mail ] secure email. _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
Burroughs Papers at CBI too. Evry existing computer, software, and services company has such files not for the historians but for their lawyers. Jim Cortada On Tue, Aug 12, 2025 at 4:08 AM Pierre Mounier-Kuhn via Members < members@lists.sigcis.org> wrote:
Dear Anushka,
You will find thick piles of such contracts in the historical archives of - Bull, conserved in the ANMT at Lille-Roubaix - ICL in Britain - Control Data, conserved at the CBI in Minneapolis (great place to work !) - closer from your location, Philips and Electrologica - clients – banks, atomic energy authorities, electricity or oil companies, CERN in Geneva, etc.
“The archives of the French computer industry”, *Entreprises et Histoire*, juin 2014, n° 75, p. 120-123.
https://shs.cairn.info/article/EH_075_0120?lang=fr
In what sort of vendor restrictions are you interested ?
Regards Pierre Mounier-Kuhn
------------------------------ *De: *"anushka via Members" <members@lists.sigcis.org> *À: *"members" <members@lists.sigcis.org> *Envoyé: *Vendredi 8 Août 2025 19:47:58 *Objet: *[SIGCIS-Members] Looking for earliest mainframe contracts and computer contracts archive
Dear SIGCIS members
I was wondering if someone has any mainframe and/or supercomputer contracts? or if there is an archive of computer contracts? jurisdictions and time periods, no bar although the older the better. The query is fairly broad so time share, leases, procurement contracts across contexts are very welcome :) I wish to look at the evolution of vendor restrictions (if any, although i think there would be ?)
Happy to e-meet you all!
Regards Anushka PhD Candidate, Institute for Information Law University of Amsterdam
Sent with Proton Mail <https://proton.me/mail/home> secure email.
_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
-- James W. Cortada Senior Research Fellow Charles Babbage Institute University of Minnesota jcortada@umn.edu 608-274-6382
You would also find a lot of discussion of contracts for software and services in the ADPASO archives at CBI. https://archives.lib.umn.edu/repositories/3/resources/286 ADAPSO was a trade organization which began with service bureaus and diversified into software. Helping its member companies produce contracts was a significant focus of its operations, and it produced model contracts of various kinds for their use, eventually leading to a Contracts Reference Directory. Many years ago I worked with these papers to produce a short series on its history in IEEE Annals. "ADAPSO and the Service Bureau Industry, 1961-1968," IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 26:1 (January-March 2004): 78-85. https://www.tomandmaria.com/Tom/Writing/ADAPSOprt1Article.pdf "ADAPSO, Timesharing Firms and Software Companies, 1968-1975," IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 27:1 (January-March 2005): 67-73. https://www.tomandmaria.com/Tom/Writing/ADAPSOprt2.pdf "ADAPSO, Regulated Competition, and Professional Services: 1976-1986" IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 27:2 (April-June 2005): 89-93. https://www.tomandmaria.com/Tom/Writing/ADAPSOprt3Article.pdf Best wishes, Tom Thomas Haigh Professor & Chair, UWM History Department Chair, IEEE Computer Society History Committee Director, ACM History Committee Turing Awards Project See more at <http://www.tomandmaria.com/Tom> www.tomandmaria.com/Tom From: Members <members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org> On Behalf Of anushka via Members Sent: Friday, August 8, 2025 12:48 PM To: members@lists.sigcis.org Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Looking for earliest mainframe contracts and computer contracts archive Dear SIGCIS members I was wondering if someone has any mainframe and/or supercomputer contracts? or if there is an archive of computer contracts? jurisdictions and time periods, no bar although the older the better. The query is fairly broad so time share, leases, procurement contracts across contexts are very welcome :) I wish to look at the evolution of vendor restrictions (if any, although i think there would be ?) Happy to e-meet you all! Regards Anushka PhD Candidate, Institute for Information Law University of Amsterdam Sent with Proton Mail <https://proton.me/mail/home> secure email.
Dear All Thank you very much for your kind and generous responses. I have now narrowed my query to seeking MIT-IBM contracts from 1955 to 1973 i.e. during the time of time share development. I have written to MIT, CBI and CHM for it. CBI has informed me that these contracts are not available there but may be available at MIT. I hope to hear back from them. I am trying to understand the evolution of vendor restrictions in terms of the role they played in accessing hardware. So the contract with IBM at the MIT Computation Center can be useful to see how the engineers got to tinker around in the first place. I understand that IBM was closely involved in supplying many components from secondary literature but I want to spend some time understanding what the contracts stated. I hope to see the differences in the cloud environments now and how they constrain or permit (maybe through personnel relationships) such possibilities. In case someone has access to those MIT-IBM contracts, I would be very grateful to be put in touch. Hope you have a good week ahead! Regards Anushka Sent with [Proton Mail](https://proton.me/mail/home) secure email. On Wednesday, August 13th, 2025 at 6:18 AM, thomas.haigh@gmail.com <thomas.haigh@gmail.com> wrote:
You would also find a lot of discussion of contracts for software and services in the ADPASO archives at CBI. https://archives.lib.umn.edu/repositories/3/resources/286
ADAPSO was a trade organization which began with service bureaus and diversified into software. Helping its member companies produce contracts was a significant focus of its operations, and it produced model contracts of various kinds for their use, eventually leading to a Contracts Reference Directory.
Many years ago I worked with these papers to produce a short series on its history in IEEE Annals.
"ADAPSO and the Service Bureau Industry, 1961-1968," IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 26:1 (January-March 2004): 78-85. https://www.tomandmaria.com/Tom/Writing/ADAPSOprt1Article.pdf
"ADAPSO, Timesharing Firms and Software Companies, 1968-1975," IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 27:1 (January-March 2005): 67-73. https://www.tomandmaria.com/Tom/Writing/ADAPSOprt2.pdf
"ADAPSO, Regulated Competition, and Professional Services: 1976-1986" IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 27:2 (April-June 2005): 89-93. https://www.tomandmaria.com/Tom/Writing/ADAPSOprt3Article.pdf
Best wishes,
Tom
Thomas Haigh
Professor & Chair, UWM History Department
Chair, IEEE Computer Society History Committee
Director, ACM History Committee Turing Awards Project
See more at www.tomandmaria.com/Tom
From: Members <members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org> On Behalf Of anushka via Members Sent: Friday, August 8, 2025 12:48 PM To: members@lists.sigcis.org Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Looking for earliest mainframe contracts and computer contracts archive
Dear SIGCIS members
I was wondering if someone has any mainframe and/or supercomputer contracts? or if there is an archive of computer contracts? jurisdictions and time periods, no bar although the older the better. The query is fairly broad so time share, leases, procurement contracts across contexts are very welcome :) I wish to look at the evolution of vendor restrictions (if any, although i think there would be ?)
Happy to e-meet you all!
Regards
Anushka
PhD Candidate, Institute for Information Law
University of Amsterdam
Sent with [Proton Mail](https://proton.me/mail/home) secure email.
Hagley’s Sperry Univac records <https://findingaids.hagley.org/repositories/3/resources/908> have some contracts in them. I had thought that there may be contracts in our RCA and MCI records, but apparently there’s not much in these collections. Erik -- Erik P. Rau 302.343.7010 erau@me.com
On Aug 8, 2025, at 13:47, anushka via Members <members@lists.sigcis.org> wrote:
CAUTION: This email originated from outside the Hagley Network. Do not click on any links or attachments if you do not trust the sender of this message. Dear SIGCIS members
I was wondering if someone has any mainframe and/or supercomputer contracts? or if there is an archive of computer contracts? jurisdictions and time periods, no bar although the older the better. The query is fairly broad so time share, leases, procurement contracts across contexts are very welcome :) I wish to look at the evolution of vendor restrictions (if any, although i think there would be ?)
Happy to e-meet you all!
Regards Anushka PhD Candidate, Institute for Information Law University of Amsterdam
Sent with Proton Mail <https://proton.me/mail/home> secure email. _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
participants (5)
-
anushka -
Erik Rau -
James Cortada -
Pierre Mounier-Kuhn -
thomas.haigh＠gmail.com