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
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
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
OUTLINE
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Motivation
Activities of the History Committee
Archiving SIG History
History of Computing
Possible SIG Contributions
August, 2005, SGB Meeting
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
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
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
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
History Committee Activities:
Turing Award web site
http://www.acm.org/awards/recipients.html
August, 2005, SGB Meeting
• 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
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
SIG Activities to Preserve History:
Technical Conferences
• Consistent record-keeping of conferences
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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
Example: from SIGPLAN PLDI 2005 Conference
Coverage, According to Area (1 of 2)
Dynamic
Model and theorem
Domain-specific
Areas
Mem. Mgmt.
Accepted
Submitted
Debugging
Object-oriented
Compiler/arch.
Language
Prog. Repr.
Novel
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10
20
30
40
% of papers
Categories from submission, most papers provided multiple categories. Average = 3
August, 2005, SGB Meeting
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
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
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/
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History of Computing on the Web
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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, …
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,
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Business, Industry
& Government
files and accounts
tabulation
Technology & Science
organization of
production
Design & maintenance
of large systems
electricity
telecommunications
mathematical
calculation
mechanical
logic
management
ENIAC
Convergent History
scientific computation
EDVAC, EDSAC and others
EDP
computational science
mainframes
minis
micro
OR/MS
automation
robotics
Computer Science
Internet/WWW
ESS
August, 2005, SGB Meeting
systems
theory
AI &
human augmentation
©2004 msm
Business, Industry
& Government
Technology & Science
mathematical
calculation
organization of
production
data processing
mechanical
logic
design & maintenance
of large systems
electricity
telecommunications
management
ENIAC
military C&C
EDVAC
computers
EDP
OR/MS
automation
robotics
ESS
SAGE
WWCCS
C3I
Computer Science
systems
scientific computation
theory
human augmentation
Communities of Computing
August, 2005, SGB Meeting
artificial intelligence
artificial life
computational science
©2004 msm
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
SIG-sponsored HOx?
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Operating Systems
Databases
Graphics
Communications
Computer Science
Software Engineering
Computer-Human Interface
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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
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