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Who We Are

"ACM is the world's largest educational and scientific computing society, uniting computing educators, researchers and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources and address the field's challenges. ACM strengthens the computing profession's collective voice through strong leadership, promotion of the highest standards, and recognition of technical excellence. ACM supports the professional growth of its members by providing opportunities for life-long learning, career development, and professional networking." (Quoting ACM.org)

The History Committee's purpose, as stated in our charter, is to foster preservation and interpretation of the history of the ACM and its role in the development of computing.

Announcements

Call for Proposals: 2015 Fellowships in ACM History
Posted Wed, December 3rd, 2014
  • The Association for Computing Machinery, founded in 1947, is the oldest and largest educational and scientific society dedicated to the computing profession, and today has 100,000 members around the world. To encourage historical research, the ACM History Committee plans to support up to four projects with awards of up to $4,000 each. Successful candidates may be of any rank, from graduate students through senior researchers. All awardees must be willing to present a paper to the ACM history workshop held in conjunction with the SHOT and SIGCIS annual meeting in Albuquerque, New Mexico during 8-11 October 2015. A supplement for workshop travel, lodging, and meals will be provided—in addition to this research project award. The current and past winners of the fellowship can be found here.

    An announcement of 2015 call for proposals can be found here (also as a pdf-format document here). Proposals are due by 1 February 2015.

    Call for proposals

Welcome Two New ACM History Committee Members
Posted Monday, October 13th, 2014
  • Welcome two new ACM History Committee members: Jon Bashor (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) and Kim W Tracy (Northeastern Illinois University)! The current members of the ACM History Committee can be found here.

2014 ACM History Fellowship Winner Announced
Posted Monday, July 28th, 2014
  • Congratulations to 2014 ACM History Fellowship Winner: Rebecca Slayton (Stanford University)! The current and past winners of the fellowship along with their project information can be found here.

ACM History Blog Post: Oral Histories with Pioneers of European Computer Networking (by Andrew Russell)
Posted Monday, July 28th, 2014
  • The Charles Babbage Institute oral history database now has transcripts available of oral histories with pioneers of European computer networking. These transcripts include several interviews conducted by Andrew Russell, as well as additional interviews conducted by ValĂ©rie Schafer and Tom Misa. As a collection, these interviews complement existing interviews with American pioneers of computer networks such as the Arpanet and Internet. See an ACM History Blog Post for the details.

2014 ACM History Committee Archiving Workshop
Posted Monday, June 23rd, 2014
  • The ACM History Committee's archiving workshop met for two days at the University of Minnesota's Andersen Library, with Charles Babbage Institute archivist-curator R. Arvid Nelsen leading the sessions. The workshop brought together a diverse group of people from computer science, libraries, archives, national laboratories, and museums. Hands-on exercises, lectures, discussions, tours, and social time contributed to the workshop's success in disseminating professional knowledge about archival policies and procedures to the ACM members and other attendees. Focused discussion of attendees' own archiving projects highlighted the importance of archival "users" in forming archival collections. Examination of digital archiving practices (at the University of Minnesota and elsewhere) led workshop members to consider similarities and differences between traditional paper and born-digital archiving. Software tools for archiving (including Greenstone, Omeka, Collective Access, and others) were discussed. Among the workshop's outcomes, in addition to re-doubled emphasis on the centrality of ACM SIG activities, were three specific recommendations for the ACM History Committee [see here]. See here for a list of workshop participants and the workshop schedule. (Arvid Nelsen's post on the Libraries' blog Primary Sourcery is posted here.) The PDF version of the workshop report can be found here.

Call for Proposals: 2014 Program for Research in ACM History
Posted Friday, November 8th, 2013
  • The Association for Computing Machinery, founded in 1947, is the oldest and largest educational and scientific society dedicated to the computing profession, and today has 100,000 members around the world. To encourage historical research, the ACM History Committee plans to support up to four projects with awards of up to $4,000 each. Successful candidates may be of any rank, from graduate students through senior researchers. All awardees must be willing to present their work to a two-day ACM History Committee-sponsored workshop, tentatively scheduled for the late spring or early summer of 2015. Workshop travel, lodging, and meals for that event will be paid by ACM History Committee, in addition to this project award. The current and past winners of the fellowship can be found here.

    An announcement of 2014 call for proposals can be found here (also as a pdf-format document here). Proposals are due by 15 January 2014.

    Call for proposals

Workshop on ACM History (21-22 May 2014): Call for Participation
Posted Friday, October 11th, 2013
  • The ACM History Committee is sponsoring a two-day archiving workshop to help diffuse knowledge of professional archival practices into ACM's membership and others with an active interest in preserving our computer heritage. Applications are invited to a two-day archiving workshop, to be held 21-22 May 2014 at the Charles Babbage Institute (CBI) in Minneapolis, Minnesota. For each successful application, one person's expenses for workshop travel, lodging, and meals will be paid by the ACM History Committee. Project proposals are due by 15 January 2014. The details can be found here.

2013 ACM History Fellowship Winners Announced
Posted Monday, May 13th, 2013
  • Congratulations to 2013 ACM History Fellowship Winners: Sarah A. Bell (University of Utah), Amy Bix (Iowa State University), Irina Nikivincze (the Higher School of Economics in Saint Petersburg), Joseph November (University of South Carolina), and Andrew Russell (Stevens Institute of Technology). The current and past winners of the fellowship along with their project information can be found here.

ACM History Community Mailing List
Posted Friday, March 8th, 2013
  • The ACM History Committee has created a community mailing list as a Google Group open for the public to join. Lightload announcements from the ACM History Committee will be distributed in this mailing list. Members of this mailing list can also discuss topics related to ACM History.

ACM History Committee New Members
Posted Saturday, December 1st, 2012
  • The ACM History Committee welcomes two new members (effective November 2012): Roy Levin from Microsoft Research, Silicon Valley and Peri Tarr from IBM T. J. Watson Research Center! A fomer member of the committee, Brent Hailpern from IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center recently finished his role of the SGB Liaison in the committee, and now serves as an ACM SGB Council Representative. Brent's valuable contributions to the committee have been greatly appreciated. An existing member of the committee, Tao Xie from North Carolina State University has taken the role of the SGB Liaison in the committee.

Call for ACM History Fellowship Proposals
Posted Tuesday, December 4th, 2013
  • The Association for Computing Machinery, founded in 1947, is the oldest and largest educational and scientific society dedicated to the computing profession, and today has more than 100,000 members around the world. The ACM History Committee is preparing groundwork for a special history workshop in 2014. Aiming at the workshop, we will support research projects related to ACM's professional and educational activities and/or to ACM's rich institutional history including its organization, publications, SIG activities, and conferences. We may also consider support for wider synthetic projects, analyzing existing research on ACM and outlining themes to illuminate ACM's nearly seven-decade history. We will support up to four projects with awards of up to $4,000 each. Successful candidates may be of any rank, from graduate students through senior researchers. All awardees must be willing to present their work to a two-day ACM History Committee-sponsored workshop, to be held during the spring or early summer of 2014. Workshop travel, lodging, and meals will be paid by ACM History Committee, in addition to this project award. The current and past winners of the fellowship can be found here.
  • An announcement of 2013 call for fellowship proposals can be found here (also as a pdf-format document here). Proposals are due by 15 February 2013.

    Call for proposals

CACM Article by Mary Hall: Understanding ACM's Past
Posted Saturday, December 1st, 2012
  • The issue of Communications of the ACM (CACM), Vol. 55 No. 12 published an article on "Understanding ACM's Past" by Mary Hall, the chair of ACM's History Committee. See the CACM article for the details.

ACM History Blog Post: ACM SIG Events on Learning from History
Posted Sunday, November 11th, 2012
  • In this upcoming Friday, November 16, 2012 in Cary, NC, USA, there will be a SIGSOFT event co-located with SIGSOFT 2012 / FSE-20: Symposium on Learning from Experiences in Software Engineering (SLESE 2012). Earlier back in 2010 in Toronto, Canada, there was a SIGPLAN event co-located with PLDI 2010: the International Workshop on Learning From eXperience (LFX 2010). See an ACM History Blog Post for the details.

ACM History Blog Post: Presentations by Past ACM History Fellowship Winners at SHOT 2012
Posted Sunday, November 11th, 2012
  • At the Society for the History of Technology's annual meeting (SHOT 2012) during 4-7 October 2012, Copenhagen Denmark, there were four presentations by past winners of ACM History Fellowships, reporting on their work. See an ACM History Blog Post for the details. The current and past winners of the fellowship along with their project results can be found here.

2012 ACM History Fellowship Winners Announced
Posted Wednesday, April 11th, 2012
  • Congratulations to 2012 ACM History Fellowship Winners: Janet Abbate (Virginia Tech), Bernadette Longo (University of Minnesota), and Jacob Gaboury (New York University). The current and past winners of the fellowship along with their project information can be found here.

ACM History Blog Post: Oral History Interviews with Pouzin and Other European Pioneers of Computer Networking
Posted Wednesday, April 11th, 2012
  • Andy Russell from Stevens Institute of Technology contributed an ACM History Blog Post on "Oral History Interviews with Pouzin and Other European Pioneers of Computer Networking", as part of the outcomes of his 2011 ACM History Fellowship.

ACM Archiving Guide
Posted Monday, March 12th, 2012
  • An ACM Archiving Guide can be found here. More public documents can be found here.

Call for ACM History Fellowship Proposals
Posted Thursday, November 14th, 2012
  • The Association for Computing Machinery, founded in 1947, is the oldest and largest educational and scientific society dedicated to the computing profession, and today has 100,000 members around the world. To encourage historical research, the ACM History Committee plans to make two types of awards. Travel grants of $2,500 support smaller projects, while a fellowship grant of $5,000 may support a larger or more demanding project. Projects should focus on ACM activities, including those of members, officers, and prize winners, or ACM's rich institutional history, including consideration of its organization, publications, SIG activities, and conferences. Successful candidates may be of any rank, from graduate students through senior researchers. The current and past winners of the fellowship can be found here.
  • An announcement of 2012 call for fellowship proposals can be found here (also as a pdf-format document here). Proposals are due by 3 February 2012.

    Call for proposals

ACM History Blog Launched
Posted Wednesday, September 7, 2011
  • The ACM History Committee has just started this ACM History Blog site to allow the committee as well as the broad community to contribute blog posts related to ACM History. Please send an email to [email protected] if you would like to contribute blog posts to this blog site.

Franz Alt
Posted Thursday, July 21st, 2011
  • It is with great sadness that we note the passing of Franz Alt, who was President of ACM from 1950-1952. Here is Oral History Transcript of Franz C. Alt. Here is interview with Franz Alt on January 23 and February 2, 2006.

2011 ACM History Fellowship Winners Announced
Posted Thursday, June 30th, 2011
  • Congratulations to 2011 ACM History Fellowship Winners: Inna Kouper (Indiana University Bloomington), Andrew L. Russell (Stevens Institute of Technology), and Ksenia Tatarchenko (Princeton University). The current and past winners of the fellowship along with their project information can be found here.

Forthcoming Book on Histories of Computing
Posted Sunday, March 13th, 2011
  • A forthcoming book on Mike Mahoney's work on histories of computing, edited by Thomas Haigh, to be published this spring by Harvard University Press. Mike was a founding member of the ACM History Committee.

Call for ACM History Fellowship Proposals
Posted Thursday, January 27th, 2011
  • To encourage historical research, the ACM History Committee plans to make two awards in 2011. One, a travel grant of $2,500 to support historical research on the wide variety of ACM-related activities, including ACM members, officers, and prize winners. Second, a fellowship grant of $5,000 focusing on ACM's rich institutional history, including consideration of its organization, publications, SIG activities, and sponsored conferences. Successful candidates for either award may be of any rank, from graduate students through senior researchers. The current and past winners of the fellowship can be found here.
  • An announcement of 2011 call for fellowship proposals can be found here (also as a pdf-format document here). Proposals are due by 15 April 2011.

    Call for proposals

IEEE 125th Anniversary
Posted Tuesday, November 25th, 2008
  • In 2009 the IEEE will be celebrating its 125th anniversary. One event will be a conference on the history of technical societies. Such societies, through publications, meetings, standards, and other activities, have been vital in facilitating technical progress. The purpose of the 2009 conference is to explore the history of such societies worldwide, and we would very much value the participation of the Association of Computing Machinery.
  • The conference will be held from Wednesday 5 August through Friday 7 August 2009 in Philadelphia, which was the location of the founding of IEEE in 1884. We hope to have contributions from dozens of professional societies from around the world, so that the conference would help create a picture of the global history of the engineering profession. The call for papers is attached, and additional information is available on the conference website

    www.ieee.org/go/historyconference

    Call for papers

New ACM Project Archivist
Posted Saturday, October 14th, 2008
  • The Charles Babbage Institute is extremely pleased to announce that the new Project Archivist for the records of the Association for Computing Machinery started work on Monday, Sept. 29.

    Full story

William Aspray
Posted Saturday, September 13th, 2008
  • William Aspray has changed his affiliation. He is now located at the University of Texas, Austin.

    http://www.ischool.utexas.edu/about/news/view_news_item.php?ID=202

Michael S. Mahoney
Posted Thursday, July 24th, 2008
  • It is with great sadness that we note the passing of Michael S. Mahoney, Professor of History at Princeton, a long-time member of this committee and a passionate and insightful supporter of, and contributor to, the history of computing.

    http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S21/70/15G51/index.xml?section=topstories