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ACM History Committee

ACM History Committee. Mary Hall Computer Science and ISI Univ. of Southern California. Michael S. Mahoney History of Science Princeton University. ACM History Committee Charter. The ACM History Committee fosters preservation and interpretation of the

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ACM History Committee

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  1. ACM History Committee Mary Hall Computer Science and ISI Univ. of Southern California Michael S. Mahoney History of Science Princeton University

  2. ACM History Committee Charter The ACM History Committee fosters preservation and interpretation of the history of the ACM and its role in the development of computing. To this end,the Committee provides guidance within the Association and carries out activities independently and in collaboration with other groups. August, 2005, SGB Meeting

  3. ACM History Committee Members Co-Chairs: Richard Snodgrass, Computer Science, University of Arizona, rts@cs.arizona.edu David S. Wise, Computer Science, Indiana University, dswise@cs.indiana.edu Historians: William Aspray, Informatics, Indiana University, waspray@indiana.edu Michael S. Mahoney, History, Princeton University, mike@princeton.edu SIG Governing Board Liaison: Mary Hall, USC Information Sciences Institute, mhall@isi.edu Publications Board Liaison: Carol Hutchins, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences Library, hutchins@nyu.edu ACM HQ Representative: Patricia Ryan, Deputy Executive Director, ACM, ryan_p@acm.org Len Shustek, Chair, Board of Trustees, Computer History Museum, len@shustek.com Webmaster Joseph A. November, History, Princeton University, november@princeton.edu ACM Staff contact for logistics: Monique Chang, Human Resources Director, ACM, chang@hq.acm.org August, 2005, SGB Meeting

  4. OUTLINE • Motivation • Activities of the History Committee • Archiving SIG History • History of Computing • Possible SIG Contributions August, 2005, SGB Meeting

  5. Why a History Committee? • Created in July 2004 • Why now? • ACM will celebrate its 60th anniversary in 2007. • Few of those present at the founding of ACM are still with us. • In the past two years, four Turing Award winners have died. • There are ACM conferences for which no printed proceedings can be located. August, 2005, SGB Meeting

  6. Because we don’t know our history. • What was the impetus for the 18 transactions and 8 journals? • What was the genesis of the 24 SIGs? What was the arc of those that no longer exist? • Where did early and middle leaders see the field going? How did their vision shape it? In what ways were they prescient and what did they not foresee? August, 2005, SGB Meeting

  7. The History of ACM is Important! • ACM, as the first society of computing, should not only contribute to the future of information technology, but should document its past. • What does the last fifty+ years of ACM tell us about the next ten years, the next fifty years, both of ACM and of computing in general? August, 2005, SGB Meeting

  8. History Committee Activities:Oral Histories • Collecting, and (co-)sponsoring oral histories • Turing award winners • Richard Karp, Robert Tarjan • Also, SIGMOD sponsored Charles Bachman oral history • Former ACM presidents • Franz Alt, Bernie Galler, Walter Carlson and Anthony Ralston (co-sponsored by SIAM) • Identifying potential interviewees • 46 Turing award winners • 20 former ACM presidents • 6 former ACM executive directors • 10 early staff members and influential ACM leaders August, 2005, SGB Meeting

  9. History Committee Activities:Turing Award web site • Initiated by ACM Publications • Now edited by Thomas J. Bergin, Jr., co-editor of History of Programming Languages II, and former editor of Annals of History of Computing http://www.acm.org/awards/recipients.html August, 2005, SGB Meeting

  10. Other History Committee Activities • ACM History website • This will allow us to link to historical information and SIG activities • ACM Archive Project • Archiving files as ACM moves its headquarters • National Museum of American History Digitization • Transcripts of ACM Presidents Franz Alt, Herb Grosch, Alton Householder, Harry Huskey, and John Mauchly, and ACM influential leader Paul Armer, along with a round-table discussion at an ACM conference in 1967. August, 2005, SGB Meeting

  11. SIG Activities to Preserve History:Technical Conferences • Consistent record-keeping of conferences • Program committee • Keynotes • Schedule and session chairs • Submission breakdown by country • Acceptance/rejection rates by sub-topic • Most of this information is known by the program chair, some is not preserved August, 2005, SGB Meeting

  12. Example: from SIGPLAN PLDI 2005 ConferenceCoverage, According to Area (1 of 2) Categories from submission, most papers provided multiple categories. Average = 3 August, 2005, SGB Meeting

  13. SIG Activities to Preserve History:Archives and Web sites • Track program committee members, authors, SIG organization, awards • Some portions strictly for organizational purposes, others visible to ACM community • Examples? August, 2005, SGB Meeting

  14. SIG Activities to Preserve History:Retrospectives • Retrospective Conferences • SIGPLAN History of Programming Languages • SIGGRAPH Pioneer Day • Published Retrospectives • 20 Years of PLDI (SIGPLAN) • SIG History Committee (SIGMOD) • Awards • Awards for service and technical achievement • PLDI Most Influential Paper (10 year retrospective) • ICSE Most Influential Paper (10 year retrospective) Disclaimer: Apologies for over-emphasis on SIGPLAN activities, which I know more about. Tell us what other SIGs are doing! August, 2005, SGB Meeting

  15. History of Computing: Institutions • IEEE Annals of the History of Computing • http://www.computer.org/annals/ • Charles Babbage Institute • http://www.cbi.umn.edu/ • Software History Center • http://www.softwarehistory.org/ • Computer History Museum • http://www.net.org/index.html • National Archive for the History of Computing (UK) • http://www.chstm.man.ac.uk/nahc/ • ...

  16. History of Computing on the Web • Tom Haigh’s Computer File • JAN Lee’s site at Virginia Tech • Tim Bergin’s Computing History Museum • Computer History Museum • Charles Babbage Institute • ACM Portal • Multics, …

  17. History of Computing: Issues • Until recently, focus on hardware • Now shifting to software • Systems software • Applications software • Last done from perspective of domains of application • Histories of computing(s) • e.g. Cortada, Agar, Haigh, August, 2005, SGB Meeting

  18. Business, Industry & Government Technology & Science Design & maintenance of large systems electricity telecommunications files and accounts tabulation mathematical calculation mechanical logic organization of production management Convergent History ENIAC scientific computation EDVAC, EDSAC and others EDP computational science mainframes minis micro OR/MS automation robotics Computer Science systems theory Internet/WWW AI & human augmentation ESS August, 2005, SGB Meeting ©2004 msm

  19. Business, Industry & Government Technology & Science mathematical calculation mechanical logic organization of production data processing design & maintenance of large systems electricity telecommunications management ENIAC military C&C EDVAC c o m p u t e r s Computer Science scientific computation automation robotics SAGE WWCCS C3I OR/MS EDP ESS theory systems Communities of Computing human augmentation computational science artificial intelligence artificial life August, 2005, SGB Meeting ©2004 msm

  20. SIG-sponsored History • PLAN • HOPLs I (1978), II (1993), III (2006) • GRAPH • Milestones in Computer Graphics (1989) • SOFT • Impact Project http://www.sigsoft.org/impact/index.htm

  21. SIG-sponsored HOx? • Operating Systems • Databases • Graphics • Communications • Computer Science • Software Engineering • Computer-Human Interface • ...

  22. UPCOMING ACTIVITY! • 2007 CACM Special Issue on ACM History to coincide with 60th anniversary • Open to suggestions from SIGs • How do you want your SIG represented? • Do you have specific historical activities we should highlight? • Volunteers? August, 2005, SGB Meeting

  23. Summary • We are a resource for the SIGs • Let us know of your historical activities and we will help publicize them! • If you would like to start new activities, let us know how we can help! • The SIGs can help us • Tell us how you are preserving your history so perhaps other SIGs can follow your lead. • Help ACM collect and preserve information in your area. • Co-sponsor oral histories for luminaries in your area. August, 2005, SGB Meeting

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