This book reviews the present understanding of the history of software and establishes an agenda for further research. By exploring this current understanding, the authors identify the fundamental elements of software. The problems and questions addressed in the book range from purely technical to societal issues. Thus, the articles presented offer a fresh view of this history with new categories and interrelated themes, comparing and contrasting software with artefacts in other disciplines, so as to ascertain in what ways software is similar to and different from other technologies.This volume is based on the international conference "Mapping the History of Computing: Software Issues", held in April 2000 at the Heinz Nixdorf Museums Forum in Paderborn, Germany.

The present book is based on the conference Software Development and Reality Construction held at SchloB Eringerfeld in Germany, September 25 - 30, 1988. This was organized by the Technical University of Berlin (TUB) in cooperation with the German National Research Center for Computer Science (GMD), Sankt Augustin, and sponsored by the Volkswagen Foundation whose financial support we gratefully acknowledge. The conference was an interdisciplinary scientific and cultural event aimed at promoting discussion on the nature of computer science as a scientific discipline and on the theoretical foundations and systemic practice required for human-oriented system design. In keeping with the conversational style of the conference, the book comprises a series of individual contributions, arranged so as to form a coherent whole. Some authors reflect on their practice in computer science and system design. Others start from approaches developed in the humanities and the social sciences for understanding human learning and creativity, individual and cooperative work, and the interrelation between technology and organizations. Thus, each contribution makes its specific point and can be read on its own merit. But, at the same time, it takes its place as a chapter in the book, along with all the other contributions, to give what seemed to us a meaningful overall line of argumentation. This required careful editorial coordination, and we are grateful to all the authors for bearing with us throughout the slow genesis of the book and for complying with our requests for extensive revision of some of the manuscripts.

The papers in this volume were presented at a conference that was designed to map out historical study needs in one area of the history of computing, namely, software. The Paderbom conference was sponsored by the Heinz Nixdorf Muse- umsForum and co-sponsored by the Charles Babbage Institute and the Heinz Nixdorf Institute of the University of Paderbom. The idea for the conference emerged from the consideration of a larger concept that was to prepare a new handbook on the history of computing. Believing that preparation of the handbook would encounter obstacles in some areas of computing that have not received adequate attention from historians, the originators of the idea of the handbook decided on aseries of mapping conferences to try to overcome the obstacles, of which the Paderbom conference is the first. The organizers of the conference invited a group of historians, sociologists, and computer scientists to present pa- pers and comments about a selected set of issues in the history of software. The organizing committee consisted of William Aspray (Computing Research Asso- ciation, Washington, D. C. ), Martin Campbell-Kelly (University of Warwick, U. K. ), Ulf Hashagen (Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum, Paderbom), Reinhard Keil- Slawik (Heinz Nixdorf Institute, University of Paderbom), Michael S. Mahoney (Princeton University) and Arthur L. Norberg (Charies Babbage Institute, Uni ver- sity of Minnesota).