IT History Society
Encyclopedia
The IT History Society (ITHS) is an organization that supports the history and scholarship of information technology
by encouraging, fostering, and facilitating archival and historical research. Formerly known as the Charles Babbage Foundation, it advises historians, promotes collaboration among academic organizations and museums, and assists IT corporations in preparing and archiving their histories for future studies.
, including papers that provide advice on how to perform historical work and how historical activities can benefit private sector organizations. It tracks historical projects seeking funding as well as projects underway and completed. It maintains online, publicly available, lists of events pertaining to IT history, IT history resources, an IT Honor Roll acknowledging more than 600 individuals who have made a noteworthy contribution to the information technology industry, and a database of notable technology quotes.
A continuing project is one of aggregating the locations and content of IT history archival information around the world to facilitate and encourage IT history research and scholarship. This International Database of Historical and Archival Sites currently consists of 313 international information technology historical and archival collections encompassing over 14.9 million documents. ITHS holds an annual meeting and conference. The most recent, with the theme of "Leveraging Yesterday: Using History to Create Value Today and Tomorrow in the High-Tech Company," was held on October 22, 2008 at Applied Materials
in Santa Clara, California
, USA.
, James Cortada, Peter Cunningham
, Gideon Gartner
, Brewster Kahle
, William Hugh Murray and Frederic G. Withington.
, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Museum, Smithsonian Institution
, Computer History Museum
, Deutsches Museum
, IEEE History Center, Hewlett-Packard Company, IBM Corporation, UK National Archive for the History of Computing, Intel, Microsoft Corporation, Stanford Silicon Valley Archives, Applied Materials
, Symantec
, Agilent Technologies Foundation, Internet Archive
, and History San Jose.
. The following year the American Federation of Information Processing Societies
(AFIPS) became a principal sponsor of the Society, which was renamed the Charles Babbage Institute
.
In 1980, the Institute moved to the University of Minnesota
, which contracted with the principals of the Charles Babbage Institute
to sponsor and house the Institute. A new entity, the Charles Babbage Foundation, was created to help support and govern the Institute, in partnership with the University. In 1989, CBI became an organized research unit of the University.
Around 2000, CBF broadened its mission to support the history of information technology through other organizations, collaborating, for example, with the Sloan Foundation, Software History Center, and the Computer History Museum
in experimenting with Internet-based archival and historical research. In 2002, the Charles Babbage Foundation broadened its mission to support the entire IT history community. In 2007, CBF changed its name to the IT History Society and reworked its programs to better support the IT history community.
Information technology
Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
by encouraging, fostering, and facilitating archival and historical research. Formerly known as the Charles Babbage Foundation, it advises historians, promotes collaboration among academic organizations and museums, and assists IT corporations in preparing and archiving their histories for future studies.
Activities
The IT History Society provides background information to those with an interest in the history of Information TechnologyInformation technology
Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
, including papers that provide advice on how to perform historical work and how historical activities can benefit private sector organizations. It tracks historical projects seeking funding as well as projects underway and completed. It maintains online, publicly available, lists of events pertaining to IT history, IT history resources, an IT Honor Roll acknowledging more than 600 individuals who have made a noteworthy contribution to the information technology industry, and a database of notable technology quotes.
A continuing project is one of aggregating the locations and content of IT history archival information around the world to facilitate and encourage IT history research and scholarship. This International Database of Historical and Archival Sites currently consists of 313 international information technology historical and archival collections encompassing over 14.9 million documents. ITHS holds an annual meeting and conference. The most recent, with the theme of "Leveraging Yesterday: Using History to Create Value Today and Tomorrow in the High-Tech Company," was held on October 22, 2008 at Applied Materials
Applied Materials
Applied Materials, Inc. is a capital equipment producer serving the semiconductor, TFT LCD display, Glass, WEB and solar manufacturing industries....
in Santa Clara, California
Santa Clara, California
Santa Clara , founded in 1777 and incorporated in 1852, is a city in Santa Clara County, in the U.S. state of California. The city is the site of the eighth of 21 California missions, Mission Santa Clara de Asís, and was named after the mission. The Mission and Mission Gardens are located on the...
, USA.
Leadership
The current chairman is Jeffery Stein of Peyton Investments. The Trustees, Historical Advisory Committee, and Archival Advisory Committee are made up of distinguished individuals who have created technology, built companies, and recorded IT events as archivists or historians. The Board of Directors also includes David G. Arscott, Leslie BerlinLeslie Berlin
Leslie Berlin is Project Historian for the Silicon Valley Archives at Stanford University. She is the author of The Man Behind the Microchip: Robert Noyce and the Invention of Silicon Valley, a biography of Intel co-founder and microchip co-inventor Robert Noyce...
, James Cortada, Peter Cunningham
Peter Cunningham
Peter Cunningham FSA was a Scottish writer, son of Allan Cunningham and his wife Jean . Cunningham published several topographical and biographical studies, of which the most important are his Handbook of London and The Life of Drummond of Hawthornden .In 1851 Peter Cunningham appeared in an...
, Gideon Gartner
Gideon Gartner
Gideon I. Gartner is an entrepreneur and philanthropist, best known as the founder of Gartner, an information technology research and advisory company.- Early life :Gartner was born in Israel and grew up in New York City...
, Brewster Kahle
Brewster Kahle
Brewster Kahle is a computer engineer, internet entrepreneur, activist, and digital librarian.- Biography :Kahle graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1982 with a Bachelor of Science in computer science and engineering, where he was a member of the Chi Phi Fraternity. The...
, William Hugh Murray and Frederic G. Withington.
Membership
Current membership totals over 600, with fifty percent of the members residing in countries outside the United States. Memberships are divided into three categories: individual, corporation, and institution. Membership is free. Corporate and institutional members include California Institute of TechnologyCalifornia Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering...
, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Museum, Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
, Computer History Museum
Computer History Museum
The Computer History Museum is a museum established in 1996 in Mountain View, California, USA. The Museum is dedicated to preserving and presenting the stories and artifacts of the information age, and exploring the computing revolution and its impact on our lives.-History:The museum's origins...
, Deutsches Museum
Deutsches Museum
The Deutsches Museum in Munich, Germany, is the world's largest museum of technology and science, with approximately 1.5 million visitors per year and about 28,000 exhibited objects from 50 fields of science and technology. The museum was founded on June 28, 1903, at a meeting of the Association...
, IEEE History Center, Hewlett-Packard Company, IBM Corporation, UK National Archive for the History of Computing, Intel, Microsoft Corporation, Stanford Silicon Valley Archives, Applied Materials
Applied Materials
Applied Materials, Inc. is a capital equipment producer serving the semiconductor, TFT LCD display, Glass, WEB and solar manufacturing industries....
, Symantec
Symantec
Symantec Corporation is the largest maker of security software for computers. The company is headquartered in Mountain View, California, and is a Fortune 500 company and a member of the S&P 500 stock market index.-History:...
, Agilent Technologies Foundation, Internet Archive
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
, and History San Jose.
History
The International Charles Babbage Society was founded in 1978 and operated out of Palo Alto, CaliforniaPalo Alto, California
Palo Alto is a California charter city located in the northwest corner of Santa Clara County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, United States. The city shares its borders with East Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Stanford, Portola Valley, and Menlo Park. It is...
. The following year the American Federation of Information Processing Societies
American Federation of Information Processing Societies
The American Federation of Information Processing Societies was an umbrella organization of professional societies established on May 10, 1961 and dissolved in 1990...
(AFIPS) became a principal sponsor of the Society, which was renamed the Charles Babbage Institute
Charles Babbage Institute
The Charles Babbage Institute is a research center at the University of Minnesota specializing in the history of information technology, particularly the history since 1935 of digital computing, programming/software, and computer networking....
.
In 1980, the Institute moved to the University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...
, which contracted with the principals of the Charles Babbage Institute
Charles Babbage Institute
The Charles Babbage Institute is a research center at the University of Minnesota specializing in the history of information technology, particularly the history since 1935 of digital computing, programming/software, and computer networking....
to sponsor and house the Institute. A new entity, the Charles Babbage Foundation, was created to help support and govern the Institute, in partnership with the University. In 1989, CBI became an organized research unit of the University.
Around 2000, CBF broadened its mission to support the history of information technology through other organizations, collaborating, for example, with the Sloan Foundation, Software History Center, and the Computer History Museum
Computer History Museum
The Computer History Museum is a museum established in 1996 in Mountain View, California, USA. The Museum is dedicated to preserving and presenting the stories and artifacts of the information age, and exploring the computing revolution and its impact on our lives.-History:The museum's origins...
in experimenting with Internet-based archival and historical research. In 2002, the Charles Babbage Foundation broadened its mission to support the entire IT history community. In 2007, CBF changed its name to the IT History Society and reworked its programs to better support the IT history community.
See also
- History of computing hardwareHistory of computing hardwareThe history of computing hardware is the record of the ongoing effort to make computer hardware faster, cheaper, and capable of storing more data....
- History of operating systemsHistory of operating systemsThe history of computer operating systems recapitulates to a degree the recent history of computer hardware.Operating systems provide a set of functions needed and used by most application programs on a computer, and the linkages needed to control and synchronize computer hardware...
- History of the internetHistory of the InternetThe history of the Internet starts in the 1950s and 1960s with the development of computers. This began with point-to-point communication between mainframe computers and terminals, expanded to point-to-point connections between computers and then early research into packet switching...