1.4 cubic feet in 2 boxes
Creator: Winters, Joan M.
By: Kevin D. Corbitt, April 1991
ACQUISITION: The records were given to the Charles Babbage Institute by Joan M. Winters in 1991.
ACCESS: The collection is unrestricted.
COPYRIGHT: The Charles Babbage Institute holds the copyright to all materials in the collection, except for items covered by a prior copyright (such as published materials). Researchers may quote from the collection under the fair use provisions of the copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code).
Please cite the collections as follows: Joan M. Winters Papers (CBI 22), Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
Joan Margaret Winters began working in Computer Services at Cornell University in 1970. She later became Coordinator for User Support, a position that included managing the office's consulting and educational functions. While at Cornell Winters also designed and implemented SPINDEX II applications for the Department of Manuscripts and University Archives. In 1980 Winters took a position as a scientific programmer in SLAC Computing Services at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center.
In the mid-1970s Winters became active in SHARE, an International Business Machines (IBM) computer user group. In 1976 she joined SHARE's Human Factors Project, a group dedicated to educating members of SHARE and employees of IBM about the importance of human factors in the design of hardware and, especially, software and conducting research into human factors and software appraisal tools. Winters became deputy manager of the project in 1978 and served as project manager from 1983 to 1987. She also served on the Interactive Systems (INTERSYS) Task Force from 1979-1982 and was a primary author of the task force's report. She became vice chair of the ASCII/EPCDIC Committee (later, a task force) in 1987 and manager of the Integrated Technology Group in 1988. Winters also belonged to the Human Factors Society and the Association for Computing Machinery.
Contains electronic mail printings, subject files, notes, conference information, session reports, and conference evaluations that document Winters' involvement in SHARE (an International Business Machines computer user group). The collection is arranged in two series: Conference material (1974-1990) and Subject files (1966-1990). Several SHARE projects (such as the FORTRAN Project and especially the Human Factors Project which emphasized computer usability and improved human-machine interfaces), study groups, committees, and a task force are documented in the subject files.
Includes conference information for presenters and session chairs, session reports, and conference evaluations
The electronic mail files contain a large volume of printouts of topically oriented electronic mail on subjects of interest to SHARE members.
The subject files consist of manuscript notes on miscellaneous sessions attended by Winters, material on a batch monitoring program, SHARE questionnaires, and a VMSHARE user's guide.
These files contain information on several SHARE groups in which Winters was involved. These include the Cooperative Processing Study Group, the FORTRAN Project, the Human Factors Project, the Language Futures Task Force, the Local Area Network Project, and the VM Group. The Human Factors Project has the most complete documentation of these various groups and contains numerous background papers by various authors, a series of papers by Herb Weiner, newsletters, and miscellaneous records related to the project.