Noticing computer history - new Walden essay
Dear SIGCIS - Many of you will already be familiar with Dave Walden’s many contributions to computing history, not only as a member of the Arpanet and Internet communities from his perch at BBN but also as a contributor (and ed board member) to IEEE Annals of the History of Computing and this SIGCIS list and meetings. Dave’s recent essay, “Noticing history - a personal view” is published in the most recent edition of TUGboat - https://tug.org/TUGboat/tb41-2/tb128walden-noticing.pdf <https://tug.org/TUGboat/tb41-2/tb128walden-noticing.pdf> (issue ToC is here: https://www.tug.org/TUGboat/tb41-2/ <https://www.tug.org/TUGboat/tb41-2/>). I found the essay to be a characteristically succinct and insightful, sitting at the crossroads of practitioners and professional historians, and attentive to the urgent need to document computer history from the vantage point of individual experience. From the abstract: "We have access to memories, papers, and flexibility in what we study, and how we present what we learn, that won’t all be available to professional historians. I believe it is our job to help the computing history world capture more computing history while it still exists to be captured." I hope you enjoy & share - Andy — — — — — — — — — — — Andrew L. Russell, Ph.D. Dean, College of Arts & Sciences SUNY Polytechnic Institute Donovan Hall - 2123B 100 Seymour Road Utica, NY 13502 t. 315-792-7317 w. https://sunypoly.edu/ e. arussell@arussell.org
Thank you, Andy. On 10/12/2020 11:05 AM, Andrew Russell wrote:
Dave’s recent essay, “Noticing history - a personal view” is published in the most recent edition of TUGboat - https://tug.org/TUGboat/tb41-2/tb128walden-noticing.pdf (issue ToC is here: https://www.tug.org/TUGboat/tb41-2/).
The first url above has been arranged to take you to the essay. The link to the essay from the TOC doesn't get you there because much of the content of issues of the journal is for members-only until the next issue (three times a year) is published; after that issues are completely open access. On the other hand, the presentations from the conference, whether in the proceedings issue or not, are publicly available at https://www.youtube.com/c/TeXUsersGroup/playlists?view=50&shelf_id=2 Naturally are lot of the presentations are about TeX or LaTeX or another TeX-derived system. However, others are of more general interest; see the entire list at: http://tug.org/tug2020/program.html For instance, see the presentation of the person who invented Pandoc which I can imagine might be of use in some computing history publishing situations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9uZJFO54iM&list=PLLt9mKFAx-FaG0NA6akvvujgIdCus-Ct The following was a favorite for me: youtube.com/watch?v=7Cm2AcQiUuk (it's history even if not computing history). If you have comments on the essay (either supporting my argument or arguing against it), I would love to see them -- either sent to this list or to me at my email address. I am thinking about how to improve the essay in a revised version -- to make it more compelling for practitioners. Dave
Kudos Dave on a great article and its call to action to preserve computing history. It had so many good examples and more places to explore. Capture the history as it is being made--and when people retire--have a knowledge transfer and collection system to capture experiences and insights. eCheers, Eileen On Mon, Oct 12, 2020 at 11:05 AM Andrew Russell <arussell@arussell.org> wrote:
Dear SIGCIS -
Many of you will already be familiar with Dave Walden’s many contributions to computing history, not only as a member of the Arpanet and Internet communities from his perch at BBN but also as a contributor (and ed board member) to IEEE Annals of the History of Computing and this SIGCIS list and meetings.
Dave’s recent essay, “Noticing history - a personal view” is published in the most recent edition of TUGboat - https://tug.org/TUGboat/tb41-2/tb128walden-noticing.pdf (issue ToC is here: https://www.tug.org/TUGboat/tb41-2/).
I found the essay to be a characteristically succinct and insightful, sitting at the crossroads of practitioners and professional historians, and attentive to the urgent need to document computer history from the vantage point of individual experience. From the abstract: "We have access to memories, papers, and flexibility in what we study, and how we present what we learn, that won’t all be available to professional historians. I believe it is our job to help the computing history world capture more computing history while it still exists to be captured."
I hope you enjoy & share - Andy
— — — — — — — — — — —
Andrew L. Russell, Ph.D. Dean, College of Arts & Sciences SUNY Polytechnic Institute Donovan Hall - 2123B 100 Seymour Road Utica, NY 13502
t. 315-792-7317 w. https://sunypoly.edu/ e. arussell@arussell.org
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participants (3)
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Andrew Russell -
dave walden -
Eileen Buckholtz