Bibliography for History of Computing (Thomas Misa's personal webpage)
The bibliography's links are accessed through the following subject headings: 1) Surveys and Historiography, 2) Babbage and the Mechanical Vision (1830s--1900), 3) The Analog Era (1920--50s), 4) The Digital Divide (1935--55), 5) Commerce and Science (1950--70), 6) Computers and Cold War (1950s--80s), 7) Software and AI (1950s--90s), 8) Minicomputers, Chips, and Change (1960s--80s), 9) Personal Computers (1970--90s) and 10) Networked World (1980--present). Links to "Topics and Institutions" for MIT, Silicon Valley, Policy and International Studies, Gender and Computing, History of Engineering, Global and Culture, and Military Microelectronics.
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informational resource only. "Tom Misa's thematic bibliography comprises more than 200 items, including journal articles, books, and links to many key online resources in the field" (excerpted from CBI's website).
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Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota, 211 Andersen Library 222 21st Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55455
United StatesSoftware Industry Special Interest Group ( Software History Center website )
The Software History Center website provides links to 1) a mission statement, 2) a description of projects (such as the Software Corporate Histories Project, the Center's archival collections, the Oral Histories Program and more) and 3) the Center's background, 4) a list of donors, brief biographies of the Center's leaders, 5) annual reports and strategy meeting minutes, 6) instructions ("Support Us") for those who want to make a donation, and 7) a site map. 8) The "History" link provides users with a brief outline/overview of the History of the Software Industry. Users can access more information by clicking on links embedded in the "History" page. 9) The "Other Resources" link gives users a software history bibliography. 10) The "Preservation" link invites users to contribute primary sources to the Software History Center.
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"The Software Industry Special Interest Group is dedicated to preserving the history of the software industry, one of the largest and most influential industries in the world today." Their goals are to: "Identify where materials documenting the industry's early years still exist and encourage their preservation; Identify people who have personal knowledge of events that shaped the industry and support the collection and preservation of their recollections; Disseminate information about the industry's history to historians, researchers, students, industry and government people, and the general public through print and electronic media; [and] Encourage and support research on the history of the software industry... The SI SIG is working to preserve for future generations information about the companies, people, products, and events that shaped the evolution of this vital industry. The SI SIG has a very active program to conduct oral histories, collect historical source materials about companies in the industry, organize meetings and workshops, publish articles on this website, in the Computer History Museum’s Core Magazine and in the IEEE Annals of Computing History and to collect materials from industry pioneers" (excerpted from Software History Center website).
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5 St. John Place
Westport, CT 06880
United StatesHistory of Computing Foundation's The History of Computing Project
The website provides links to a history of hardware, software, videogames, computing companies, biographies, a computing history timeline (300,000 B.C. to the turn of the 21st century), a History of Computing Project store, an icon for a site map, an icon for a search engine for the Computing Project's webpage, and an icon to email site administrators, and links to the History of Computing Foundation's partner organizations. Users can also access a Reference Index for the website, which includes links to at least 100 websites on computing history, and a bibliography of periodicals, newspapers and clippings on the history of computing.
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The History of Computing Project's website is an informational resource only. "The HoCF is not a museum or a virtual museum. Its purpose is to gather information and present it via its web site..... The History of Computing Project [i]s a collaborative effort to record and publish the history of the computer and its roots in the broadest sense of the word. Its founding principle is to work together in as open and cooperative a manner as possible in producing a definitive history and historical archive of computing. Explicit goals are to provide an accurate and balanced history with input from as many sources as possible and maximum access to the results worldwide" (excerpted from The History of Computing Project website).
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Netherlands
National Center for Atmospheric Research - NCAR
This database contains descriptive finding aids for materials held by the UCAR/NCAR Archives. Collections of note include Computing Advisory Panel, 1964-1995 and Computational and Information Systems Library, 1990s.
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Boulder, CO
United StatesMitre Corporation
Corporate history website.
In July of 1958, MITRE was founded as a private, not-for-profit corporation to provide engineering and technical services to the federal government. In doing so, it fulfilled a request by Secretary of the Air Force James Douglas for a specialized services group to provide the system engineering and ongoing support for the massive, multi-billion dollar, continental air defense system called SAGE. SAGE, or Semi-Automatic Ground Environment, was developed for the United States Air Force from 1950 to 1957 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Digital Computer Laboratory, the Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratory, and MIT's Lincoln Laboratory. MITRE was incorporated one month following the installation of the first of 23 national SAGE centers at McGuire Air Force Base, New Jersey. MITRE first settled in the Boston area.
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United States
European Museum on Computer Science and Technology
The website's homepage provides access to an index of the site's computing history texts. Users may access primary source images and information on: 1) Early History (computing), the '"Thinking' Computer," 2) the "First Stored Program Computer in Continental Europe," 3) the life and achievments of pioneer/founder of information technologies Victor Glushkov, which gives a history "From the Cybernetics to Information Technology," (the website's other biographical histories are also information technoloy histories) 4) a biography of "Sergei Lebedev - creator of the first stored program computer in continental Europe," 5) the history of the Severodonetsk Center of Industrial Systems Engineering, 6) the history of "Pioneers of on-Board Radio-Electronic System Computerization," 7) the history of "Computers for Testing Rockets," 8) a biography of "Katerina Yushchenko...the founder of theoretical programming in the Ukraine.... 9) The first steps in Microelectronics Discovery of p-n transiton in Semiconductors by Academician Vadim Lashkarev.... 10) "Microelectronics technology. Past and Future," 11) a biographical history of "Nikolay Amosov, Founder of Biocybernetical Information Technologies.... 12) Izrael Akushsky - the Founder of non-traditional Computer Arithmetics.... 13) Nikolay Brusentsov - the Creator of the Trinary Computer .... 14) Mikhail Kartsev - Developer of Super-Computers for Space Observation....[the] 15) The Leaderof computer indusry in Ukraine, 16) a gallery of images beginning in 1849 with "The Forgotten 'Thinking' Machine...," 16) a list of "books about history of computer science and technology in the former USSR," 17) a list of "Computer Pioneer Award Recipients" (1981 to 2008), 18) a discussion of the virtual European Museum itself and its creators, 19) information about "Malinovskiy B.N. The series of [the] author's television broadcasts: 'Golden milestones in the history of computer science and technology' September 2000 - August 2001," 20) a discussion of "Computer history abroad," and 21) a "Chronology of Computer Science and Technology Development in [the] Ukraine" (quotes excerpted from the European Museum's website).
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European Museum on Computer Science and Technology 's website is an informational resource only. Although the website is referred to as a "European Museum," the website focuses on the Ukraine's Computer, Science, and Technological History. Users can view the website in Ukrainian, Russian, or English and alternative websites with a faster internet connection. "The European virtual computer museum represents a network of interconnected virtual computer museums. Its Ukrainian part - 'History of development of information technologies in Ukraine' (http://www.icfcst.kiev.ua/museum) is developed and maintained on a voluntary basis by employees of the Institute of Cybernetics of the National Academy of Sciencies of Ukraine named after Viktor M.Glushkov."
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Ukraine
Stanford University's SiliconBase Webpage
SiliconBase's homepage provides: 1) a description of the project, links to articles written in 2000 on Silicone Valley history -- technological, business, and techno-business cultural histories, and techno-policy history, 2) a list of readings on Silicone Valley's local culture, 3) a link to Silicone Valley/Silicone Valley history related news sources on current events, history, computing and law, computers and STS courses, and archival research, 4) The San Jose Mercury News' "list of the 'Millenium 100', people who shaped Silicon Valley.... [ 5) ] a list of research centers, groups, and other organizations in the Bay Area working at least in part on Silicon Valley... [ 6) ] [a] short list of link[s] to other Web sites with material on Silicon Valley and the history of computing... [ 7) ] [an] [o]verview of recent/ongoing work, ideas for new projects, and concept pieces..," 8) a link to a description of "Silicon Valley-related research and primary material housed at Stanford," 9) a link for contacting SiliconBase and giving feedback aboutits website, and 10) links to sites dedicated to the history of computing and Silicone Valley -- specifically, MouseSite ( http://sloan.stanford.edu/MouseSite/MouseSitePg1.html )and Weiser Memorial ( http://www-sul.stanford.edu/weiser/ ) , which commemorates the life of Mark Weiser, "Xerox Parc chief technologist Mark Weiser, whose ideas on ubiquitous computing and calm computing have influenced research and commercial efforts in computer design and use," 8) a list of local events, archived "Online Events and Resources," books on computing history/computing issues, and links to websites on international institutions modeled on/inspired by Silicone Valley. (excerpted from SiliconBase's and Weiser Memorial's website).
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SiliconBase is an informational resource, -- "a Stanford University-based.... digital archive.... for scholars, students, and writers interested in Silicon Valley's past and present.... Few regions in the world are as famous today-- as an economic engine, as a cultural space, as a piece of immensely valuable real estate, or as a center of innovation-- as Silicon Valley... Nor are there many places whose histories are so much in danger from the very forces that make it famous-- nonstop corporate change, personal mobility, and technological obsolescence. SiliconBase seeks to assist in understanding the history, sociology, politics, economics, and culture of the region, by working with researchers and area companies, identifying important materials, and working to preserve records for future researchers. In addition to offering information about research activities, talks, and new publications, this site will provide an introduction to and sample material from Stanford University's Department of Special Collections. The Department contains extensive archival holdings related to the history of Silicon Valley companies, figures, and research. SiliconBase is also engaged in working with journalists, scholars, and Valley figures to develop new research and archival projects" (excerpted from SiliconBase's website).
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221B Green Library, Stanford University
Stanford, AR 94305
United StatesKonrad Zuse
Various papers and simulation programs for the Z chip.
Konrad Zuse (1910-1995) built the first program-controlled computing machine in the world. He has brought his inventions, patent outlines, talks and lectures to paper between 1936 and 1995. This archive offers chronological and subject-based access to these documents spanning the work of Zuse. Software simulations of his computing machines help to understand the technical documents.
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Germany
Stanford and Silicon Valley Archives Project
The homepage describes the Project's mission, and provides links to 1) a database of the Project's archives, 2) a donation's page, 3) a description of the archiving process, 4) a link to "News and Events" page, which includes a link to the Silicon Genesis project's oral histories, and the Robert Noyce Papers, 5) a "Frequently Asked Questions" page and 6) a "Contact" page.
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The website is an informational resource. Users may access archival holdings using the website or through Stanfords Library's Manuscripts Division. "The centrality of Silicon Valley in the recent history of science and technology has made this region a major focus of scholarly and journalistic inquiry.... Few areas in the world compare with the region known as Silicon Valley as a center of scientific and technological innovation. The rapid growth of high-technology industries has transformed society, and Silicon Valley scientists and engineers have left as their legacy such developments as the laser and the microprocessor, the personal computer, video and sound recording, the integrated circuit, video game technology, aerospace and office automation, high-energy physics, and recombinant-DNA.... Even in a place where so much attention is focused on the future, it is important to value the past. This is the mission of the Silicon Valley Archives, housed in the Special Collections of Stanford University Libraries. To study the origins and development of Silicon Valley in detail, researchers require access to primary source materials –unpublished professional correspondence, research notes, diaries, journals, project files, technical reports, organization charts and other corporate records, patent applications, blueprints, company brochures, product documentation, photographs, and transcripts or recordings of speeches and interviews. These records are the building blocks of history. Stanford’s Silicon Valley Archives identify, preserve, and make this documentary record of science and technology –and related business and cultural activities in Silicon Valley available to students, scholars, and the general public."
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Stanford, CA 94305
United StatesStanford and Silicon Valley Archives Project's Silicone Genesis Project: An
Silicone Genesis' homepage provides links to a description of their semi-conductor histories: the Fairchild Chronicles -- a"3+ hour documentary...covering the history of the original Fairchild Semiconductor" -- the Microprocessor Chronicles -
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The region now known as Silicon Valley is widely considered the international center of technological innovation and technology-based industries of the Information Age.
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Stanford, CA 94305
United States