Current And Recent Research
CBI historians and archivists conduct and facilitate research in computing, software, and networking, as well as archival theory and history.
History of Moore's Law
Thomas Misa and Jeffrey Yost are developing a project to study the history of Moore’s Law. Moore’s Law has been a potent agent of change, but its history has yet to be studied in any depth. CBI’s project will examine Moore’s Law within its technical, political, economic, social, and cultural contexts from the mid-1960s to the present. It will study the core semiconductor companies (Intel, Fairchild Semiconductor, IBM, etc.), technical and trade organizations (Semiconductor Industry Association and SEMATECH), and venture capital that helped make and sustain Moore’s Law.
History of NSF FastLane
Thomas Misa, Jeffrey Yost, and Joline Zepcevski are conducting a research project on the history of NSF FastLane that will also develop and test new methods for conducting research in the history of contemporary computing. The project will use a new Web-based interview platform, in addition to traditional oral histories and documentation, to investigate the design and development of FastLane and the use of the system by different higher education institutions (especially PI’s at HBCU and EPSCoR-state universities).
History of the US Computer Services Industry
Jeffrey Yost is engaged in research on a book project on the history of the US computer services industry from the mid-1950s to the present. The study will analyze the growth and rapid change in the computer services industry during the 1950s and 1960s, the subsequent success of focused providers, the role played by industry trade organizations, the broadening of services in both scale and scope, and the growing globalization of the trade in recent years.
International History of Computing
CBI Adelle and Erwin Tomash Fellow for 2007-2008, Corinna Schlombs (University of Pennsylvania), is conducting research investigating the transfer of computing technology between the US and Western Europe (focusing on Great Britain and Germany) from the end of World War II to the late 1960s. Her research concentrates on technology transfer by two of the major US computer manufacturers, IBM and Remington Rand/Sperry Rand, and how computer technology was appropriated to new local contexts.
History of IBM Rochester
Arthur Norberg and Jeffrey Yost recently completed research on the history of IBM's Rochester, Minnesota facility and wrote the text for a publication that was published by IBM Rochester in December 2006 IBM Rochester: A Half Century of Innovation. The publication places IBM Rochester's developments and contributions within the broader context of the corporation and the computer industry. It documents the facility’s early history as a manufacturing unit for record equipment, its formation of a development laboratory, the interaction of the lab and manufacturing, the development and production of IBM's mid-range systems (from System/3 to the AS/400 and beyond), and the origin and growth of its Engineering and Technology Services Division.
Engineering Research Associates/Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation/Remington Rand
In 2005 Arthur L. Norberg’s Computers and Commerce: A Study of Technology and Management at Eckert-Mauchly Computer Company, Engineering Research Associates, and Remington Rand, 1946-1957 was published by MIT Press. This book provides analysis of the origins, development and contributions of ERA and Eckert-Mauchly in the early computer industry, with a focus on their R&D efforts as independent companies as well as after they were absorbed by Remington Rand in 1952. The study details the activities of the Norwalk Laboratory of Remington Rand from the early to late 1950s.
Historical Overviews of Computing and the Computer Industry
In 2005 Jeffrey Yost’s synthetic historical overview, The Computer Industry, was published by Greenwood. This book concentrates on the trajectories of different sectors of the industry as well as strategy and implementation within firms in the computer hardware, software, and networking trades. Also in 2005, Yost published an overview chapter on the cultural history of computing, “Computers and the Internet: Braiding Irony, Paradox, and Possibility”, in Carroll Pursell's edited volume, Companion to American Technology (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers).
“Documenting Internet2: A Collaborative Model for Developing Electronic Records Capacities in the Small Archival Repository”
In 2005 the Charles Babbage Institute (CBI) completed an 18-month National Historical Publications and Records Commission project entitled, “Documenting Internet2: A Collaborative Model for Developing Electronic Records Capacities in the Small Archival Repository.” The project evaluated methods for selection, description, and long-term preservation of historically significant born-digital records in the subject area of history of information technology. CBI was fortunate to have for its partners in this project the University of Minnesota Libraries Information Technology division, the University of Michigan School of Information, and Internet2. More details about the project are available on the project web site, at:
“Building a Future for Software History”
In 2004 the Charles Babbage Institute completed its multi-year NSF project to develop, organize, and disseminate resources and knowledge on the history of software.
The project consisted of the following components:
- Iterations: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Software History
- Software History Dictionary
- Oral Histories (transcripts within CBI's oral history database)
- Software History Bibliography