Jim, A possible consideration of the emerging Chai culture in Silicon Valley: Apparently, the large number of Indians working in Silicon Valley like to relive their home style chai: https://www.deccanchronicle.com/lifestyle/travel/300516/indians-stir-chai-in... One either allows racial inequities to persevere, as a racist, or confronts racial inequities, as an anti-racist. There is no in-between safe space of 'not racist.” ― Ibram X. Kendi, How to Be an Antiracist<https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/62549152> --------------------------------------------------------------------- Ramesh Subramanian, Ph.D. Gabriel Ferrucci Professor of Computer Information Systems Quinnipiac University Hamden, CT 06518. Email: ramesh.subramanian@quinnipiac.edu<mailto:ramesh.subramanian@quinnipiac.edu> Web: https://www.qu.edu/student-resources/directory/staff.23345.html & Fellow, Yale Law School - Information Society Project New Haven, CT 06511 Email: ramesh.subramanian@yale.edu<mailto:ramesh.subramanian@yale.edu> Web: https://www.law.yale.edu/ramesh-subramanian ________________________________ From: Members <members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org> on behalf of Kidwell, Peggy <kidwellp@si.edu> Sent: Tuesday, July 21, 2020 7:08 AM To: Staiti, Alana <StaitiA@si.edu>; James Cortada <jcortada@umn.edu>; members@sigcis.org <members@sigcis.org> Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Help on Coffee and Computing I would add to Alana's fine list: https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1867086<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Famericanhistory.si.edu%2Fcollections%2Fsearch%2Fobject%2Fnmah_1867086&data=02%7C01%7Cramesh.subramanian%40quinnipiac.edu%7Cfee6a48629f644c3389908d82d666fa1%7C0940985869fb4de9987990db22b52eaf%7C0%7C0%7C637309265307971610&sdata=dDAgWnPr8zYcQ%2FSxDwPml%2FOWwBy98HmQfMGW47DskQM%3D&reserved=0> (a photograph) https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/NMAH.AC.0324_ref460<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Famericanhistory.si.edu%2Fcollections%2Fsearch%2Fobject%2FNMAH.AC.0324_ref460&data=02%7C01%7Cramesh.subramanian%40quinnipiac.edu%7Cfee6a48629f644c3389908d82d666fa1%7C0940985869fb4de9987990db22b52eaf%7C0%7C0%7C637309265307971610&sdata=Uf3LsmSVxUZJ5XzoYTCMzdyrm7UM5w%2BGfR51NNTDKOc%3D&reserved=0> (a cartoon - though not much coffee shown) Best - Peggy Kidwell ________________________________ From: Members <members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org> on behalf of Staiti, Alana <StaitiA@si.edu> Sent: Monday, July 20, 2020 3:53 PM To: James Cortada <jcortada@umn.edu>; members@sigcis.org <members@sigcis.org> Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Help on Coffee and Computing External Email - Exercise Caution Hi Jim, The National Museum of American History has some mugs in the computing collection featuring company names. Some include fun little sayings. See links below for a few examples. I'm not sure I can elaborate on coffee culture though! We are still working remotely but if you have specific questions about any of these or other objects I'd be happy to do whatever digging I can do from afar, for the time being. https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1281495<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Famericanhistory.si.edu%2Fcollections%2Fsearch%2Fobject%2Fnmah_1281495&data=02%7C01%7Cramesh.subramanian%40quinnipiac.edu%7Cfee6a48629f644c3389908d82d666fa1%7C0940985869fb4de9987990db22b52eaf%7C0%7C0%7C637309265307981603&sdata=g3loPhMIs9FsieNuLNx3E1xXskT6KVpHIyCvSaiAG64%3D&reserved=0> https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1281135<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Famericanhistory.si.edu%2Fcollections%2Fsearch%2Fobject%2Fnmah_1281135&data=02%7C01%7Cramesh.subramanian%40quinnipiac.edu%7Cfee6a48629f644c3389908d82d666fa1%7C0940985869fb4de9987990db22b52eaf%7C0%7C0%7C637309265307981603&sdata=HU1nM%2BlcAjMqicVjqobbhJuXUG6otiSVZBbFDxp4GfY%3D&reserved=0> https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1281136<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Famericanhistory.si.edu%2Fcollections%2Fsearch%2Fobject%2Fnmah_1281136&data=02%7C01%7Cramesh.subramanian%40quinnipiac.edu%7Cfee6a48629f644c3389908d82d666fa1%7C0940985869fb4de9987990db22b52eaf%7C0%7C0%7C637309265307991597&sdata=iFRNPdX5Lode%2BpW%2FG3uHX3jjPiTSJToucsdRQs2xxm0%3D&reserved=0> https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1281137<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Famericanhistory.si.edu%2Fcollections%2Fsearch%2Fobject%2Fnmah_1281137&data=02%7C01%7Cramesh.subramanian%40quinnipiac.edu%7Cfee6a48629f644c3389908d82d666fa1%7C0940985869fb4de9987990db22b52eaf%7C0%7C0%7C637309265308001592&sdata=66SpmgHoPHX%2FfKdlV8gw5MC8ZV4r3MoG2RLzXsNq7p8%3D&reserved=0> Be well, Alana Alana Staiti (she/her/hers) Curator of the History of Computers and Information Sciences National Museum of American History Smithsonian Institution staitia@si.edu<mailto:staitia@si.edu> ________________________________ From: Members <members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org> on behalf of James Cortada <jcortada@umn.edu> Sent: Monday, July 20, 2020 3:41 PM To: members@sigcis.org <members@sigcis.org> Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Help on Coffee and Computing External Email - Exercise Caution The IT community of users, programmers, vendors, etc have for decades had a reputation for being extensive consumers of coffee. In some parts of the IT ecosystem, especially among those who work odd hours, such as programmers, computer operators, and vendor field engineers. I am studying the corporate ephemera of this industry and its cultural attachments, such as coffee cups and what they tell us about computing. Do any of you have any information, ephemera, or sources and citations on this specific issue of coffee and computing? I can get many industry folks, such as IBM retirees, to wax eloquently on the subject in their private FB accounts, but that is not enough. Corporate culture is tough to study. Thanks in advance for your help. Jim -- James W. Cortada Senior Research Fellow Charles Babbage Institute University of Minnesota jcortada@umn.edu<mailto:jcortada@umn.edu> 608-274-6382

Hi Jim, great subject for research. It might also be worth looking into the many patents meant to fight coffee (and other beverages) as the bane of the keyboard. All the best Friedrich Quoting Henry E Lowood <lowood@stanford.edu>:

Hi Jim, You might want to browse through the Doug Menuez photography collection at Stanford. About 10,000 of the images are online (out of about 200-250,000). He captures quite a bit of the culture in companies like Apple, NeXT, Adobe, etc., mostly 1980s. I am sure you will find many coffee mugs there! Here is a link to the online exhibit created from the images in this collection: https://exhibits.stanford.edu/menuez Hit "browse" to see a selection of companies represented. Henry

Henry Lowood, PhD Harold C. Hohbach Curator, History of Science & Technology Collections; Curator, Film & Media Collections HASG, Green Library, 557 Escondido Mall Stanford University Libraries Stanford CA 94305-6066 PH: 650-723-4602 EM: lowood@stanford.edu

From: Members <members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org> On Behalf Of Kidwell, Peggy Sent: Tuesday, July 21, 2020 4:09 AM To: Staiti, Alana <StaitiA@si.edu>; James Cortada <jcortada@umn.edu>; members@sigcis.org Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Help on Coffee and Computing

I would add to Alana's fine list:

https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1867086 (a photograph) https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/NMAH.AC.0324_ref460 (a cartoon - though not much coffee shown)

Best -

Peggy Kidwell ________________________________ From: Members <members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org<mailto:members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org>> on behalf of Staiti, Alana <StaitiA@si.edu<mailto:StaitiA@si.edu>> Sent: Monday, July 20, 2020 3:53 PM To: James Cortada <jcortada@umn.edu<mailto:jcortada@umn.edu>>; members@sigcis.org<mailto:members@sigcis.org> <members@sigcis.org<mailto:members@sigcis.org>> Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Help on Coffee and Computing

External Email - Exercise Caution Hi Jim,

The National Museum of American History has some mugs in the computing collection featuring company names. Some include fun little sayings. See links below for a few examples. I'm not sure I can elaborate on coffee culture though! We are still working remotely but if you have specific questions about any of these or other objects I'd be happy to do whatever digging I can do from afar, for the time being.

https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1281495<https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Famericanhistory.si.edu%2Fcollections%2Fsearch%2Fobject%2Fnmah_1281495&data=02%7C01%7Ckidwellp%40si.edu%7Cfa6254d427c84c4a6fad08d82ce6870e%7C989b5e2a14e44efe93b78cdd5fc5d11c%7C0%7C0%7C637308715955058625&sdata=2yjToxvJg097T7YaIu%2F3SkDRq6UBv%2BYIWinjh68PGqQ%3D&reserved=0> https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1281135<https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Famericanhistory.si.edu%2Fcollections%2Fsearch%2Fobject%2Fnmah_1281135&data=02%7C01%7Ckidwellp%40si.edu%7Cfa6254d427c84c4a6fad08d82ce6870e%7C989b5e2a14e44efe93b78cdd5fc5d11c%7C0%7C0%7C637308715955058625&sdata=LsCiXe%2FDc9dbbydoHCscFyN8iDNTLcnhL96cvFJ4QHU%3D&reserved=0> https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1281136<https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Famericanhistory.si.edu%2Fcollections%2Fsearch%2Fobject%2Fnmah_1281136&data=02%7C01%7Ckidwellp%40si.edu%7Cfa6254d427c84c4a6fad08d82ce6870e%7C989b5e2a14e44efe93b78cdd5fc5d11c%7C0%7C0%7C637308715955068616&sdata=rckja4adawNZnJdJu1f10AplLLTq4zBHSuX1lRVuMsY%3D&reserved=0> https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1281137<https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Famericanhistory.si.edu%2Fcollections%2Fsearch%2Fobject%2Fnmah_1281137&data=02%7C01%7Ckidwellp%40si.edu%7Cfa6254d427c84c4a6fad08d82ce6870e%7C989b5e2a14e44efe93b78cdd5fc5d11c%7C0%7C0%7C637308715955068616&sdata=if2AKMU52J9PU8oO22NTlBtJJeIDyz%2FYkgwlWyWOtRg%3D&reserved=0>

Be well, Alana

Alana Staiti (she/her/hers)

Curator of the History of Computers and Information Sciences

National Museum of American History

Smithsonian Institution

staitia@si.edu<mailto:staitia@si.edu>

________________________________ From: Members <members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org<mailto:members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org>> on behalf of James Cortada <jcortada@umn.edu<mailto:jcortada@umn.edu>> Sent: Monday, July 20, 2020 3:41 PM To: members@sigcis.org<mailto:members@sigcis.org> <members@sigcis.org<mailto:members@sigcis.org>> Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Help on Coffee and Computing

External Email - Exercise Caution

The IT community of users, programmers, vendors, etc have for decades had a reputation for being extensive consumers of coffee. In some parts of the IT ecosystem, especially among those who work odd hours, such as programmers, computer operators, and vendor field engineers. I am studying the corporate ephemera of this industry and its cultural attachments, such as coffee cups and what they tell us about computing. Do any of you have any information, ephemera, or sources and citations on this specific issue of coffee and computing? I can get many industry folks, such as IBM retirees, to wax eloquently on the subject in their private FB accounts, but that is not enough. Corporate culture is tough to study. Thanks in advance for your help. Jim -- James W. Cortada Senior Research Fellow Charles Babbage Institute University of Minnesota jcortada@umn.edu<mailto:jcortada@umn.edu> 608-274-6382

I can relate to some of these comments. Cisco, where I have employed since 1997, used to have coolers with a large variety of free beverages available to all employees. I had one friend that said that when the free drinks went away, so would he, and he did leave not so long after the free drinks disappeared. I also used to fill my cup directly from the outflow from the old style brewing machines. At one point Encore Computer, charged employees a quarter a cup for coffee on the honor system. Eventually the coffee became free to employees, but management didn’t tell us and they used the funds to sponsor a year end holiday party. Here is a story. More than 15 years ago, I fairly frequently travelled back and forth between Boston and San Jose on the “Nerd Bird." Over time, I had established the habit of staying on east coast time, even when out in California. Visiting San Jose, during the intense effort of a new hardware bring up, the team stayed and worked through a weekend. Sunday morning, I woke up, as usual, about 4 or 5 AM local time. Not having anything to do in the hotel room, I decided to go into the office and get a head start on the days efforts. I arrived in the large, dark and apparently empty, office building at something like 5 AM that Sunday morning. With the lights out, no one in sight, I found that the coffee machine was in the middle of brewing a fresh pot of coffee. It was a very eerie thing. Eventually, I ran across a guy from another team that had come into the office early that morning and needed his cup of “Joe.” Eventually I had to give up on all caffeinated beverages, as I often didn’t drink them during weekends and would then end up with a splitting headache on Sunday. -Mike Willegal

On Jul 21, 2020, at 1:08 PM, Marc Weber <marc@webhistory.org> wrote:

Mugs are also well represented in our collection at the Computer History Museum… you’ll get 470 hits when you search on “mug” in our online catalog <https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/search/?s=mug&f=physicalobject>. In fact we have essentially stopped collecting them as a result. We also have a Peet’s Dash Button <https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102777941>. Best, Marc

Marc Weber <http://www.computerhistory.org/staff/Marc,Weber/> | marc@webhistory.org <mailto:marc@webhistory.org> | +1 415 282 6868 Curatorial Director, Internet History Program Computer History Museum, 1401 N Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View CA 94043 computerhistory.org/nethistory <http://computerhistory.org/nethistory> | Co-founder, Web History Center and Project

...

On Jul 21, 2020, at 09:44, Henry E Lowood <lowood@stanford.edu <mailto:lowood@stanford.edu>> wrote:

Hi Jim, You might want to browse through the Doug Menuez photography collection at Stanford. About 10,000 of the images are online (out of about 200-250,000). He captures quite a bit of the culture in companies like Apple, NeXT, Adobe, etc., mostly 1980s. I am sure you will find many coffee mugs there! Here is a link to the online exhibit created from the images in this collection: https://exhibits.stanford.edu/menuez <https://exhibits.stanford.edu/menuez> Hit “browse” to see a selection of companies represented. Henry

Henry Lowood, PhD Harold C. Hohbach Curator, History of Science & Technology Collections; Curator, Film & Media Collections HASG, Green Library, 557 Escondido Mall Stanford University Libraries Stanford CA 94305-6066 PH: 650-723-4602 EM: lowood@stanford.edu <mailto:lowood@stanford.edu>

From: Members <members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org <mailto:members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org>> On Behalf Of Kidwell, Peggy Sent: Tuesday, July 21, 2020 4:09 AM To: Staiti, Alana <StaitiA@si.edu <mailto:StaitiA@si.edu>>; James Cortada <jcortada@umn.edu <mailto:jcortada@umn.edu>>; members@sigcis.org <mailto:members@sigcis.org> Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Help on Coffee and Computing

I would add to Alana's fine list:

https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1867086 <https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1867086> (a photograph) https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/NMAH.AC.0324_ref460 <https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/NMAH.AC.0324_ref460> (a cartoon - though not much coffee shown)

Best -

Peggy Kidwell From: Members <members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org <mailto:members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org>> on behalf of Staiti, Alana <StaitiA@si.edu <mailto:StaitiA@si.edu>> Sent: Monday, July 20, 2020 3:53 PM To: James Cortada <jcortada@umn.edu <mailto:jcortada@umn.edu>>; members@sigcis.org <mailto:members@sigcis.org> <members@sigcis.org <mailto:members@sigcis.org>> Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Help on Coffee and Computing

External Email - Exercise Caution Hi Jim,

The National Museum of American History has some mugs in the computing collection featuring company names. Some include fun little sayings. See links below for a few examples. I'm not sure I can elaborate on coffee culture though! We are still working remotely but if you have specific questions about any of these or other objects I'd be happy to do whatever digging I can do from afar, for the time being.

https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1281495 <https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Famericanhistory.si.edu%2Fcollections%2Fsearch%2Fobject%2Fnmah_1281495&data=02%7C01%7Ckidwellp%40si.edu%7Cfa6254d427c84c4a6fad08d82ce6870e%7C989b5e2a14e44efe93b78cdd5fc5d11c%7C0%7C0%7C637308715955058625&sdata=2yjToxvJg097T7YaIu%2F3SkDRq6UBv%2BYIWinjh68PGqQ%3D&reserved=0> https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1281135 <https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Famericanhistory.si.edu%2Fcollections%2Fsearch%2Fobject%2Fnmah_1281135&data=02%7C01%7Ckidwellp%40si.edu%7Cfa6254d427c84c4a6fad08d82ce6870e%7C989b5e2a14e44efe93b78cdd5fc5d11c%7C0%7C0%7C637308715955058625&sdata=LsCiXe%2FDc9dbbydoHCscFyN8iDNTLcnhL96cvFJ4QHU%3D&reserved=0> https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1281136 <https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Famericanhistory.si.edu%2Fcollections%2Fsearch%2Fobject%2Fnmah_1281136&data=02%7C01%7Ckidwellp%40si.edu%7Cfa6254d427c84c4a6fad08d82ce6870e%7C989b5e2a14e44efe93b78cdd5fc5d11c%7C0%7C0%7C637308715955068616&sdata=rckja4adawNZnJdJu1f10AplLLTq4zBHSuX1lRVuMsY%3D&reserved=0> https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1281137 <https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Famericanhistory.si.edu%2Fcollections%2Fsearch%2Fobject%2Fnmah_1281137&data=02%7C01%7Ckidwellp%40si.edu%7Cfa6254d427c84c4a6fad08d82ce6870e%7C989b5e2a14e44efe93b78cdd5fc5d11c%7C0%7C0%7C637308715955068616&sdata=if2AKMU52J9PU8oO22NTlBtJJeIDyz%2FYkgwlWyWOtRg%3D&reserved=0>

Be well, Alana

Alana Staiti (she/her/hers) Curator of the History of Computers and Information Sciences National Museum of American History Smithsonian Institution staitia@si.edu <mailto:staitia@si.edu>

From: Members <members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org <mailto:members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org>> on behalf of James Cortada <jcortada@umn.edu <mailto:jcortada@umn.edu>> Sent: Monday, July 20, 2020 3:41 PM To: members@sigcis.org <mailto:members@sigcis.org> <members@sigcis.org <mailto:members@sigcis.org>> Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Help on Coffee and Computing

External Email - Exercise Caution

The IT community of users, programmers, vendors, etc have for decades had a reputation for being extensive consumers of coffee. In some parts of the IT ecosystem, especially among those who work odd hours, such as programmers, computer operators, and vendor field engineers. I am studying the corporate ephemera of this industry and its cultural attachments, such as coffee cups and what they tell us about computing. Do any of you have any information, ephemera, or sources and citations on this specific issue of coffee and computing? I can get many industry folks, such as IBM retirees, to wax eloquently on the subject in their private FB accounts, but that is not enough. Corporate culture is tough to study. Thanks in advance for your help. Jim -- James W. Cortada Senior Research Fellow Charles Babbage Institute University of Minnesota jcortada@umn.edu <mailto:jcortada@umn.edu> 608-274-6382 _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org <http://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/ <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 <http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org>

Marc Weber <http://www.computerhistory.org/staff/Marc,Weber/> | marc@webhistory.org <mailto:marc@webhistory.org> | +1 415 282 6868 Internet History Program Curatorial Director, Computer History Museum 1401 N Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View CA 94043 computerhistory.org/nethistory <http://computerhistory.org/nethistory> Co-founder, Web History Center and Project, webhistory.org <http://webhistory.org/>

_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org <http://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/ <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 <http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org>

There might be a parallel line of inquiry within folklore. I know there has been some work on the folklore of the office and the folklore of the internet. I can't imagine either one lacking references to coffee. Best, Michael Scroggins On Thu, Jul 23, 2020 at 6:47 AM James Cortada <jcortada@umn.edu> wrote:

Everyone has been wonderful and generous with your thoughts and leads. It seems you are as excited about coffee as everyone else in the computer world. It is becoming clearer to me that there are certain "material culture" issues that can guide us to understanding the world of computing. Besides coffee mugs, lapel pins, postcards and all that stuff we would get at COMDEX, for example, just opens up all kinds of avenues for the study of computing culture. And yes, it seems every industry loved its coffee and other trinkets. Thank you for your thoughts, I have a lot to ponder. Jim

On Tue, Jul 21, 2020 at 1:43 PM mike@willegal.net <mike@willegal.net> wrote:

...

I can relate to some of these comments.

Cisco, where I have employed since 1997, used to have coolers with a large variety of free beverages available to all employees. I had one friend that said that when the free drinks went away, so would he, and he did leave not so long after the free drinks disappeared.

I also used to fill my cup directly from the outflow from the old style brewing machines.

At one point Encore Computer, charged employees a quarter a cup for coffee on the honor system. Eventually the coffee became free to employees, but management didn’t tell us and they used the funds to sponsor a year end holiday party.

Here is a story. More than 15 years ago, I fairly frequently travelled back and forth between Boston and San Jose on the “Nerd Bird." Over time, I had established the habit of staying on east coast time, even when out in California. Visiting San Jose, during the intense effort of a new hardware bring up, the team stayed and worked through a weekend. Sunday morning, I woke up, as usual, about 4 or 5 AM local time. Not having anything to do in the hotel room, I decided to go into the office and get a head start on the days efforts. I arrived in the large, dark and apparently empty, office building at something like 5 AM that Sunday morning. With the lights out, no one in sight, I found that the coffee machine was in the middle of brewing a fresh pot of coffee. It was a very eerie thing. Eventually, I ran across a guy from another team that had come into the office early that morning and needed his cup of “Joe.”

Eventually I had to give up on all caffeinated beverages, as I often didn’t drink them during weekends and would then end up with a splitting headache on Sunday.

-Mike Willegal

On Jul 21, 2020, at 1:08 PM, Marc Weber <marc@webhistory.org> wrote:

Mugs are also well represented in our collection at the Computer History Museum… you’ll get 470 hits when you search on “mug” in our online catalog <https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/search/?s=mug&f=physicalobject>. In fact we have essentially stopped collecting them as a result. We also have a Peet’s Dash Button <https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102777941>. Best, Marc

Marc Weber <http://www.computerhistory.org/staff/Marc,Weber/> | marc@webhistory.org | +1 415 282 6868 Curatorial Director, Internet History Program Computer History Museum, 1401 N Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View CA 94043 computerhistory.org/nethistory | Co-founder, Web History Center and Project

On Jul 21, 2020, at 09:44, Henry E Lowood <lowood@stanford.edu> wrote:

Hi Jim, You might want to browse through the Doug Menuez photography collection at Stanford. About 10,000 of the images are online (out of about 200-250,000). He captures quite a bit of the culture in companies like Apple, NeXT, Adobe, etc., mostly 1980s. I am sure you will find many coffee mugs there! Here is a link to the online exhibit created from the images in this collection: https://exhibits.stanford.edu/menuez Hit “browse” to see a selection of companies represented. Henry

Henry Lowood, PhD Harold C. Hohbach Curator, History of Science & Technology Collections; Curator, Film & Media Collections HASG, Green Library, 557 Escondido Mall Stanford University Libraries Stanford CA 94305-6066 PH: 650-723-4602 EM: lowood@stanford.edu

*From:* Members <members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org> *On Behalf Of *Kidwell, Peggy *Sent:* Tuesday, July 21, 2020 4:09 AM *To:* Staiti, Alana <StaitiA@si.edu>; James Cortada <jcortada@umn.edu>; members@sigcis.org *Subject:* Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Help on Coffee and Computing

I would add to Alana's fine list:

https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1867086 (a photograph)

https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/NMAH.AC.0324_ref460 (a cartoon - though not much coffee shown)

Best -

Peggy Kidwell ------------------------------ *From:* Members <members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org> on behalf of Staiti, Alana <StaitiA@si.edu> *Sent:* Monday, July 20, 2020 3:53 PM *To:* James Cortada <jcortada@umn.edu>; members@sigcis.org < members@sigcis.org> *Subject:* Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Help on Coffee and Computing

*External Email - Exercise Caution* Hi Jim,

The National Museum of American History has some mugs in the computing collection featuring company names. Some include fun little sayings. See links below for a few examples. I'm not sure I can elaborate on coffee culture though! We are still working remotely but if you have specific questions about any of these or other objects I'd be happy to do whatever digging I can do from afar, for the time being.

https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1281495 <https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Famericanhistory.si.edu%2Fcollections%2Fsearch%2Fobject%2Fnmah_1281495&data=02%7C01%7Ckidwellp%40si.edu%7Cfa6254d427c84c4a6fad08d82ce6870e%7C989b5e2a14e44efe93b78cdd5fc5d11c%7C0%7C0%7C637308715955058625&sdata=2yjToxvJg097T7YaIu%2F3SkDRq6UBv%2BYIWinjh68PGqQ%3D&reserved=0> https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1281135 <https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Famericanhistory.si.edu%2Fcollections%2Fsearch%2Fobject%2Fnmah_1281135&data=02%7C01%7Ckidwellp%40si.edu%7Cfa6254d427c84c4a6fad08d82ce6870e%7C989b5e2a14e44efe93b78cdd5fc5d11c%7C0%7C0%7C637308715955058625&sdata=LsCiXe%2FDc9dbbydoHCscFyN8iDNTLcnhL96cvFJ4QHU%3D&reserved=0> https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1281136 <https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Famericanhistory.si.edu%2Fcollections%2Fsearch%2Fobject%2Fnmah_1281136&data=02%7C01%7Ckidwellp%40si.edu%7Cfa6254d427c84c4a6fad08d82ce6870e%7C989b5e2a14e44efe93b78cdd5fc5d11c%7C0%7C0%7C637308715955068616&sdata=rckja4adawNZnJdJu1f10AplLLTq4zBHSuX1lRVuMsY%3D&reserved=0> https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1281137 <https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Famericanhistory.si.edu%2Fcollections%2Fsearch%2Fobject%2Fnmah_1281137&data=02%7C01%7Ckidwellp%40si.edu%7Cfa6254d427c84c4a6fad08d82ce6870e%7C989b5e2a14e44efe93b78cdd5fc5d11c%7C0%7C0%7C637308715955068616&sdata=if2AKMU52J9PU8oO22NTlBtJJeIDyz%2FYkgwlWyWOtRg%3D&reserved=0>

Be well, Alana

*Alana Staiti* (she/her/hers) Curator of the History of Computers and Information Sciences National Museum of American History Smithsonian Institution staitia@si.edu

------------------------------ *From:* Members <members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org> on behalf of James Cortada <jcortada@umn.edu> *Sent:* Monday, July 20, 2020 3:41 PM *To:* members@sigcis.org <members@sigcis.org> *Subject:* [SIGCIS-Members] Help on Coffee and Computing

*External Email - Exercise Caution*

The IT community of users, programmers, vendors, etc have for decades had a reputation for being extensive consumers of coffee. In some parts of the IT ecosystem, especially among those who work odd hours, such as programmers, computer operators, and vendor field engineers. I am studying the corporate ephemera of this industry and its cultural attachments, such as coffee cups and what they tell us about computing. Do any of you have any information, ephemera, or sources and citations on this specific issue of coffee and computing? I can get many industry folks, such as IBM retirees, to wax eloquently on the subject in their private FB accounts, but that is not enough. Corporate culture is tough to study. Thanks in advance for your help. Jim -- James W. Cortada Senior Research Fellow Charles Babbage Institute University of Minnesota jcortada@umn.edu 608-274-6382 _______________________________________________ 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

Marc Weber <http://www.computerhistory.org/staff/Marc,Weber/> | marc@webhistory.org | +1 415 282 6868 Internet History Program Curatorial Director, Computer History Museum

1401 N Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View CA 94043 computerhistory.org/nethistory Co-founder, Web History Center and Project, webhistory.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 _______________________________________________ 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

Kevin and James, At Microsoft/Redmond in the late 80s and early 90s, there was a lot of lore around the distribution of "free" sodas in refrigerators in most of the break rooms. This was before bottled water became a thing, for the most part. On tours for new employees and guests, there was a lot of admiration for the relatively narrow selection of Code, Diet Code, Milk, and Chocolate Milk, which people could freely consume if they wished. Coffee was less popular, but people did venture off "campus" for burgers, ribs, etc. The most popular stimulant beverage by far at Microsoft was Mountain Dew, among developers and the documentation teams. In other circles, Jolt Cola was popular, and mentioned in publications like *The Cyberpunk Handbook* (Random House, 1995), edited by R. U. Sirius [Ken Goffman], St. Jude [Jude Milhon], and Bart Nagel. See p. 66. --Michael On Mon, Jul 20, 2020 at 2:52 PM Kevin Driscoll <kdriscoll@alum.mit.edu> wrote:

Hello Jim and SIGCIS,

Two references come to mind:

1. The "Trojan Room coffee pot" at the U of Cambridge is often cited as the first live camera on the web: - Quentin Stafford-Fraser, “On Site: The Life and Times of the First Web Cam,” Communications of the ACM 44, no. 7 (July 1, 2001): 25–26. https://doi.org/10.1145/379300.379327. - Full text of above without paywall: https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/coffee/qsf/cacm200107.html - Captured by the Wayback Machine on 10 December 1997: http://web.archive.org/web/19971210230542/http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/coffee/cof...

2. Roy Levin of Microsoft Research published a paper about running an industry lab in which he recommends that managers "INSTALL A WORLD-CLASS COFFEE MACHINE" and notes that "the first capital purchase" at MSR-Silicon Valley was an espresso machine. - Roy Levin, “A Perspective on Computing Research Management,” ACM SIGOPS Operating Systems Review 41, no. 2 (April 1, 2007): 3–9, https://doi.org/10.1145/1243418.1243420.

I've heard other lore about coffee culture at Microsoft that involves the proximity of Starbucks in the 1990s. Allegedly, management lobbied for coffee carts in every building to keep programmers from driving to off-campus coffeehouses. No cite for that one but it would be fun to track down the origin of the story.

Looking forward to a caffeinated special issue of the Annals on the transnational history of stimulants and computing.

Best of luck,

Kevin Driscoll U of Virginia

On Mon, Jul 20, 2020 at 3:41 PM James Cortada <jcortada@umn.edu> wrote:

...

The IT community of users, programmers, vendors, etc have for decades had a reputation for being extensive consumers of coffee. In some parts of the IT ecosystem, especially among those who work odd hours, such as programmers, computer operators, and vendor field engineers. I am studying the corporate ephemera of this industry and its cultural attachments, such as coffee cups and what they tell us about computing. Do any of you have any information, ephemera, or sources and citations on this specific issue of coffee and computing? I can get many industry folks, such as IBM retirees, to wax eloquently on the subject in their private FB accounts, but that is not enough. Corporate culture is tough to study. Thanks in advance for your help. Jim -- James W. Cortada Senior Research Fellow Charles Babbage Institute University of Minnesota jcortada@umn.edu 608-274-6382 _______________________________________________ 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

-- Michael J. Halvorson Benson Family Chair in Business and Economic History Author of: *Code Nation: Personal Computing and the Learn to Program Movement in America (2020) <http://www.thiscodenation.com>*

Jim, Coffee was always, at least since it turned into a conference proper, essential at TED. I dare mention this conference since "the people that built the Internet" used to be there. At the last Monterey TED, or possibly the first Long Beach one, The Barista Guild got a couple of stands with excellent proto-hipster espresso. Guild members were not only ace coffee makers but also followed all the talks on monitors, so you could discuss coffee AND less serious stuff with them. With an 18-hour daily programme, their coffee sure helped. Making espresso is also a near-perfect percolation process, so it would appeal to all of us that simulate forest fires, epidemics, etc., also at the surface/syntactic level. It all just makes sense, really. M. On Tue, 21 Jul 2020 at 00:15, Michael Halvorson <halvormj@plu.edu> wrote:

Kevin and James,

At Microsoft/Redmond in the late 80s and early 90s, there was a lot of lore around the distribution of "free" sodas in refrigerators in most of the break rooms. This was before bottled water became a thing, for the most part. On tours for new employees and guests, there was a lot of admiration for the relatively narrow selection of Code, Diet Code, Milk, and Chocolate Milk, which people could freely consume if they wished. Coffee was less popular, but people did venture off "campus" for burgers, ribs, etc.

The most popular stimulant beverage by far at Microsoft was Mountain Dew, among developers and the documentation teams. In other circles, Jolt Cola was popular, and mentioned in publications like *The Cyberpunk Handbook* (Random House, 1995), edited by R. U. Sirius [Ken Goffman], St. Jude [Jude Milhon], and Bart Nagel. See p. 66.

--Michael

On Mon, Jul 20, 2020 at 2:52 PM Kevin Driscoll <kdriscoll@alum.mit.edu> wrote:

...

Hello Jim and SIGCIS,

Two references come to mind:

1. The "Trojan Room coffee pot" at the U of Cambridge is often cited as the first live camera on the web: - Quentin Stafford-Fraser, “On Site: The Life and Times of the First Web Cam,” Communications of the ACM 44, no. 7 (July 1, 2001): 25–26. https://doi.org/10.1145/379300.379327. - Full text of above without paywall: https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/coffee/qsf/cacm200107.html - Captured by the Wayback Machine on 10 December 1997: http://web.archive.org/web/19971210230542/http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/coffee/cof...

2. Roy Levin of Microsoft Research published a paper about running an industry lab in which he recommends that managers "INSTALL A WORLD-CLASS COFFEE MACHINE" and notes that "the first capital purchase" at MSR-Silicon Valley was an espresso machine. - Roy Levin, “A Perspective on Computing Research Management,” ACM SIGOPS Operating Systems Review 41, no. 2 (April 1, 2007): 3–9, https://doi.org/10.1145/1243418.1243420.

I've heard other lore about coffee culture at Microsoft that involves the proximity of Starbucks in the 1990s. Allegedly, management lobbied for coffee carts in every building to keep programmers from driving to off-campus coffeehouses. No cite for that one but it would be fun to track down the origin of the story.

Looking forward to a caffeinated special issue of the Annals on the transnational history of stimulants and computing.

Best of luck,

Kevin Driscoll U of Virginia

On Mon, Jul 20, 2020 at 3:41 PM James Cortada <jcortada@umn.edu> wrote:

...

The IT community of users, programmers, vendors, etc have for decades had a reputation for being extensive consumers of coffee. In some parts of the IT ecosystem, especially among those who work odd hours, such as programmers, computer operators, and vendor field engineers. I am studying the corporate ephemera of this industry and its cultural attachments, such as coffee cups and what they tell us about computing. Do any of you have any information, ephemera, or sources and citations on this specific issue of coffee and computing? I can get many industry folks, such as IBM retirees, to wax eloquently on the subject in their private FB accounts, but that is not enough. Corporate culture is tough to study. Thanks in advance for your help. Jim -- James W. Cortada Senior Research Fellow Charles Babbage Institute University of Minnesota jcortada@umn.edu 608-274-6382 _______________________________________________ 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

-- Michael J. Halvorson Benson Family Chair in Business and Economic History

Author of: *Code Nation: Personal Computing and the Learn to Program Movement in America (2020) <http://www.thiscodenation.com>*

_______________________________________________ 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

Also maybe not exactly what you’re after, but there are “coffee clubs” scattered all around the Bell Labs campus, where researchers pool money to buy coffee machines (of differing levels of fanciness) and supplies. The one right near the Unix group is particularly nice! Jeff - - - Jeff Thompson Assistant Professor, Program Director Visual Art & Technology, Stevens Institute of Technology www.jeffreythompson.org @jeffkthompson

On Jul 21, 2020, at 10:27 AM, Roger Johnson <rgj@dcs.bbk.ac.uk> wrote:

Dear Jim

I am not sure if this is exactly what you want to hear but I clearly remember the morning ritual when I joined CAP in London (then one of the UK’s major software houses) in 1972. The first person in started up the filter coffee machine which had the large glass flasks filled by passing hot water through the coffee held in a filter paper. However it took a long time to fill the flask and we rapidly worked out with a little manual dexterity it was possible to whip the flask aside and hold one’s mug under the coffee flowing out of the funnel holding the filter paper. When your mug was filled the flask could be switched back to catch the flow.

Only years later did I realise that the first coffee through the machine must have been packed with caffeine. No wonder we were a very excitable bunch of programmers! We also consumed a tin box of assorted sweet biscuits during the day so our diet was probably not the best - still we built good systems in COBOL and PL/1! Happy days …

Good wishes

Roger

From: Members <members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org> On Behalf Of Gerard Alberts Sent: 21 July 2020 15:10 To: James Cortada <jcortada@umn.edu>; members@sigcis.org Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Help on Coffee and Computing

Dear Jim,

Allow me to chip in my tiny story of ephemera and turn it into a challenge to you.

On the edge of my bookshelf was for years a champaign glass, until it fell off into a dozen pieces --as do things in precarious positions. The glass had been engraved with the IBM logo and reminded the date of the opening of some new data center or computing center. I collected it from the flea market.

I picked it up, because to me it represented the lore of emblems, decorations, fountain pens. It is a culture not uncommon in the world of computing, but IBM was particularly good at it, mixing --often macho tainted-- company pride with celebration of technical progress. There was a high culture of walking well suited, of not riding a motercycle when visiting clients, of not spoiling coffee but finishing a job on ephedrine.

Jim, the lore of the coffee mug is all around and, judging from the response, we all have access to this low hanging fruit --I reckon the same would be true of printed T-shirts as ephemera of hacker culture. But few would have access like you have to the high culture of computing, of human struggling with computing --still tacit knowledge but visible to your exquisite ethnographical perception. Help us by collecting the ephemera and anecdotes on the further branches of the tree.

Surprise me with things I would not even have recognized as ephemera of computing culture.

Cheers,

Gerard

Van: Members <members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org> namens James Cortada <jcortada@umn.edu> Verzonden: maandag 20 juli 2020 21:41 Aan: members@sigcis.org Onderwerp: [SIGCIS-Members] Help on Coffee and Computing

The IT community of users, programmers, vendors, etc have for decades had a reputation for being extensive consumers of coffee. In some parts of the IT ecosystem, especially among those who work odd hours, such as programmers, computer operators, and vendor field engineers. I am studying the corporate ephemera of this industry and its cultural attachments, such as coffee cups and what they tell us about computing. Do any of you have any information, ephemera, or sources and citations on this specific issue of coffee and computing? I can get many industry folks, such as IBM retirees, to wax eloquently on the subject in their private FB accounts, but that is not enough. Corporate culture is tough to study. Thanks in advance for your help. Jim -- James W. Cortada Senior Research Fellow Charles Babbage Institute University of Minnesota jcortada@umn.edu <mailto:jcortada@umn.edu> 608-274-6382 _______________________________________________ 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

Hi Gerard: Your comment about collecting emphemera reminds me of the time I was involved with the (Boston) Computer Museum. Gordon Bell, in Out of a Closet: The Early Years of The Computer [x]* Museum https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267569839_Bell_Gordon_Out_of_a_Clos... very kindly recalled: "As its first Chairman of the Collections and Exhibits Committee, Brian first argued to preserve and display advertisements and ephemera as a significant source for historical understanding and audience recollection”. This was probably one of the, no doubt several, causes of two of the Museum's exhibits being in fact very well-done recreations of an office and a teenager’s bedroom featuring, respectively, a single PC and a single Mac! :-) Cheers Brian Randell

On 21 Jul 2020, at 15:09, Gerard Alberts <G.Alberts@uva.nl> wrote:

Dear Jim, Allow me to chip in my tiny story of ephemera and turn it into a challenge to you. On the edge of my bookshelf was for years a champaign glass, until it fell off into a dozen pieces --as do things in precarious positions. The glass had been engraved with the IBM logo and reminded the date of the opening of some new data center or computing center. I collected it from the flea market. I picked it up, because to me it represented the lore of emblems, decorations, fountain pens. It is a culture not uncommon in the world of computing, but IBM was particularly good at it, mixing --often macho tainted-- company pride with celebration of technical progress. There was a high culture of walking well suited, of not riding a motercycle when visiting clients, of not spoiling coffee but finishing a job on ephedrine. Jim, the lore of the coffee mug is all around and, judging from the response, we all have access to this low hanging fruit --I reckon the same would be true of printed T-shirts as ephemera of hacker culture. But few would have access like you have to the high culture of computing, of human struggling with computing --still tacit knowledge but visible to your exquisite ethnographical perception. Help us by collecting the ephemera and anecdotes on the further branches of the tree. Surprise me with things I would not even have recognized as ephemera of computing culture. Cheers, Gerard Van: Members <members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org> namens James Cortada <jcortada@umn.edu> Verzonden: maandag 20 juli 2020 21:41 Aan: members@sigcis.org Onderwerp: [SIGCIS-Members] Help on Coffee and Computing

The IT community of users, programmers, vendors, etc have for decades had a reputation for being extensive consumers of coffee. In some parts of the IT ecosystem, especially among those who work odd hours, such as programmers, computer operators, and vendor field engineers. I am studying the corporate ephemera of this industry and its cultural attachments, such as coffee cups and what they tell us about computing. Do any of you have any information, ephemera, or sources and citations on this specific issue of coffee and computing? I can get many industry folks, such as IBM retirees, to wax eloquently on the subject in their private FB accounts, but that is not enough. Corporate culture is tough to study. Thanks in advance for your help. Jim -- James W. Cortada Senior Research Fellow Charles Babbage Institute University of Minnesota jcortada@umn.edu 608-274-6382 _______________________________________________ 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

— School of Computing, Newcastle University, 1 Science Square, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE4 5TG EMAIL = Brian.Randell@ncl.ac.uk PHONE = +44 191 208 7923 URL = http://www.ncl.ac.uk/computing/people/profile/brianrandell.html