New public TV History of Computing documentary (on MN)--a CBI Collaboration available for streaming
Dear Colleagues, Wanted to make people aware of an hour-long history of computing documentary on Minnesota IT history. It was a collaborative project of the Minnesota High Tech Association (MHTA-an industry association with 300 member companies), Twin Cities Public Television (TPT), the Charles Babbage Institute (CBI), the Minnesota Historical Society, the Dakota Country Historical Society, and The VIP Club (ERA/Univac retirees group). The documentary is titled: Solid State: Minnesota's High-Tech History. I participated in a pre-screening event last week and had the opportunity to serve on the panel following the screening at TPT with the film-maker Kevin Dragseth, MC MHTA CEO Jeff Tollefson, and a few IT pioneers, and we had several hundred guests in the audience (Oct. 8th). It aired on public television on TPT on Oct.13th, and it will likely be shown on some public television affiliates throughout the nation, especially in high tech regions (such as in San Francisco/San Jose/Palo Alto/S. Valley, Boston, Seattle, Los Angeles, Austin, etc.) in the near future. The easier way to see it if interested (or to use in a class), it is now, and will remain, available to stream in full--see URL below. Despite not having Control Data (for a time 2nd to only IBM) since its early 1990's liquidity crisis, receivership, and breakup, there is still much IT here in the Twin Cities, but some it more behind the scenes. The HQs of Target and Best Buy and their advanced logistics systems, 3M as a leading force in the Internet of Things (IoT) in manufacturing (Accenture estimates IoT in manufacturing, factory sensors/transmission to the Cloud/associated analytics, will save $15 Trillion globally in efficiencies by 2030), and Optum (an absolute giant health information services platform/provider used in 150 countries) that represents half the income of its parent the nation's 6th largest public company Minnetonka, MN's United Health, as well as the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, Medtronic, and other constituents of our Medical Alley to name just a few. Documentary is available at: https://www.tpt.org/solid-state/ Former CBI Director, HSTM and ECE Prof. Emeritus, and current SHOT President Tom Misa is the on-air historian throughout (author of Digital State on MN's IT history and an inspiration for the documentary). In addition to extensive footage and insights from Tom, about 20 video interviews with IT pioneers were used (including with early ERA engineers, as well as with leading women and African Americans advancing IT here and beyond). CBI Archivist Amanda Wick was the lead archivist advisor, I was the lead historian advisor, and UMN History of Science Tech and Med (HSTM) ABD student Liz Semler was the chief researcher/project manager and did absolutely incredible work on the effort (on both the documentary and the website www.mncomputinghistory.com). HSTM Postdoc and former CBI GSRA Dr. Jonathan Clemens (a senior consultant) also provided very important work and input throughout. Most of the footage and many of the photographs are from the Charles Babbage Institute Archives. Best, Jeff Jeffrey R. Yost, Ph.D. Director, Charles Babbage Institute Research Professor, Program in the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine 222 21st Avenue South University of Minnesota Minneapolis, MN 55455 612 624 5050 Phone 612 625 8054 Fax
Bravo!!! This must have taken a lot of work. Jim On Tue, Oct 15, 2019 at 3:31 PM Jeffrey Yost <yostx003@umn.edu> wrote:
Dear Colleagues,
Wanted to make people aware of an hour-long history of computing documentary on Minnesota IT history. It was a collaborative project of the Minnesota High Tech Association (MHTA-an industry association with 300 member companies), Twin Cities Public Television (TPT), the Charles Babbage Institute (CBI), the Minnesota Historical Society, the Dakota Country Historical Society, and The VIP Club (ERA/Univac retirees group).
The documentary is titled: Solid State: Minnesota's High-Tech History. I participated in a pre-screening event last week and had the opportunity to serve on the panel following the screening at TPT with the film-maker Kevin Dragseth, MC MHTA CEO Jeff Tollefson, and a few IT pioneers, and we had several hundred guests in the audience (Oct. 8th). It aired on public television on TPT on Oct.13th, and it will likely be shown on some public television affiliates throughout the nation, especially in high tech regions (such as in San Francisco/San Jose/Palo Alto/S. Valley, Boston, Seattle, Los Angeles, Austin, etc.) in the near future. The easier way to see it if interested (or to use in a class), it is now, and will remain, available to stream in full--see URL below.
Despite not having Control Data (for a time 2nd to only IBM) since its early 1990's liquidity crisis, receivership, and breakup, there is still much IT here in the Twin Cities, but some it more behind the scenes. The HQs of Target and Best Buy and their advanced logistics systems, 3M as a leading force in the Internet of Things (IoT) in manufacturing (Accenture estimates IoT in manufacturing, factory sensors/transmission to the Cloud/associated analytics, will save $15 Trillion globally in efficiencies by 2030), and Optum (an absolute giant health information services platform/provider used in 150 countries) that represents half the income of its parent the nation's 6th largest public company Minnetonka, MN's United Health, as well as the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, Medtronic, and other constituents of our Medical Alley to name just a few.
Documentary is available at:
https://www.tpt.org/solid-state/
Former CBI Director, HSTM and ECE Prof. Emeritus, and current SHOT President Tom Misa is the on-air historian throughout (author of Digital State on MN's IT history and an inspiration for the documentary). In addition to extensive footage and insights from Tom, about 20 video interviews with IT pioneers were used (including with early ERA engineers, as well as with leading women and African Americans advancing IT here and beyond). CBI Archivist Amanda Wick was the lead archivist advisor, I was the lead historian advisor, and UMN History of Science Tech and Med (HSTM) ABD student Liz Semler was the chief researcher/project manager and did absolutely incredible work on the effort (on both the documentary and the website www.mncomputinghistory.com). HSTM Postdoc and former CBI GSRA Dr. Jonathan Clemens (a senior consultant) also provided very important work and input throughout. Most of the footage and many of the photographs are from the Charles Babbage Institute Archives.
Best, Jeff
Jeffrey R. Yost, Ph.D. Director, Charles Babbage Institute Research Professor, Program in the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
222 21st Avenue South University of Minnesota Minneapolis, MN 55455
612 624 5050 Phone 612 625 8054 Fax _______________________________________________ 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
participants (2)
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James Cortada -
Jeffrey Yost