This organizational history relates the role of the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the development of modern computing. Drawing upon new and existing oral histories, extensive use of NSF documents, and the experience of two of the authors as senior managers, this book describes how NSF's programmatic activities originated and evolved to become the primary source of funding for fundamental research in computing and information technologies. The book traces how NSF's support has provided facilities and education for computing usage by all scientific disciplines, aided in institution and professional community building, supported fundamental research in computer science and allied disciplines, and led the efforts to broaden participation in computing by all segments of society. Today, the research and infrastructure facilitated by NSF computing programs are significant economic drivers of American society and industry. For example, NSF supported work that led to the first widely-used web browser, Netscape; sponsored the creation of algorithms at the core of the Google search engine; facilitated the growth of the public Internet; and funded research on the scientific basis for countless other applications and technologies. NSF has advanced the development of human capital and ideas for future advances in computing and its applications. This account is the first comprehensive coverage of NSF's role in the extraordinary growth and expansion of modern computing and its use. It will appeal to historians of computing, policy makers and leaders in government and academia, and individuals interested in the history and development of computing and the NSF.

This is a volume of chapters on the historical study of information, computing, and society written by seven of the most senior, distinguished members of the History of Computing field. These are edited, expanded versions of papers presented in a distinguished lecture series in 2018 at the University of Colorado Boulder - in the shadow of the Flatirons, the front range of the Rocky Mountains. Topics range widely across the history of computing. They include the digitalization of computer and communication technologies, gender history of computing, the history of data science, incentives for innovation in the computing field, labor history of computing, and the process of standardization. Authors were given wide latitude to write on a topic of their own choice, so long as the result is an exemplary article that represents the highest level of scholarship in the field, producing articles that scholars in the field will still look to read twenty years from now. The intention is to publish articles of general interest, well situated in the research literature, well grounded in source material, and well-polished pieces of writing. The volume is primarily of interest to historians of computing, but individual articles will be of interest to scholars in media studies, communication, computer science, cognitive science, general and technology history, and business.

There are more than 50 million people age 65 or older in the United States, and over the decade 2010-2019 this was the fastest growing age sector in the United States – growing by 34% during that period. (US Census Bureau) As people age, they face a number of new challenges and opportunities, ranging from the shift from salary to Social Security and retirement funds, increasing issues with health, and opportunities for extended relaxation and second careers. While seniors bring a lifetime of experience and honed skills, they face a number of new situations that involved learning new information and new ways of doing things. Information Issues for Older Americans brings together faculty from the leading Information Schools to examine information needs, behavior, and policy related to older Americans. These scholars use a variety of lenses to understand the information issues that older Americans face in their everyday lives. These lenses include information literacy from both the consumer and provider sides; information behavior to understand search strategies, evaluation of information quality and relevance, sources used, questions raised, and how these change over time; the information ecologies in which an individual lives in his or her private and professional worlds; privacy issues that arise in everyday life; information and communication technologies (ICTs), including the skills of users with these technologies, the expected and unexpected uses of these technologies, and the technology’s positive and negative impacts; how ICTs can be used to augment human intelligence and physical skills (human-computer interaction and design); how ICTs, together with traditional information institutions such as libraries and museums and social clubs, have been used to build stronger communities (community informatics). This book is a contribution to the academic literatures on information studies and aging, but it is also intended to be generally readable and be accessible to the educated public and professionals who serve older Americans such as librarians, health care workers, and workers at community centers. While there is a growing literature on health informatics for the elderly, and occasional journal articles on various other topics about information and the elderly, this is the first comprehensive book on the various information aspects of the everyday activities and concerns of older Americans.

This book studies authenticity, which is a kind of truth to self, through the study of heritage tourism. When a heritage site is inauthentic, it leads to misinformation. Tourism scholars have been studying authenticity for about 50 years, and this book draws upon the theories and approaches of tourism studies to understand better misinformation, which has become a major topic of study since the US presidential elections in 2016. The book includes a discussion of common-sense and academic notions of authenticity, surveys a half century of scholarship on authenticity, and provides three case studies of heritage tourism sites: Lindsborg, KS (known as Little Sweden, USA), Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia, and the Gettysburg battlefield in Pennsylvania.

There are more than 50 million people age 65 or older in the United States, and over the decade 2010-2019 this was the fastest growing age sector in the United States - growing by 34% during that period. (US Census Bureau) As people age, they face a number of new challenges and opportunities, ranging from the shift from salary to Social Security and retirement funds, increasing issues with health, and opportunities for extended relaxation and second careers. While seniors bring a lifetime of experience and honed skills, they face a number of new situations that involved learning new information and new ways of doing things. Information Issues for Older Americans brings together faculty from the leading Information Schools to examine information needs, behavior, and policy related to older Americans. These scholars use a variety of lenses to understand the information issues that older Americans face in their everyday lives. These lenses include information literacy from both the consumer and provider sides; information behavior to understand search strategies, evaluation of information quality and relevance, sources used, questions raised, and how these change over time; the information ecologies in which an individual lives in his or her private and professional worlds; privacy issues that arise in everyday life; information and communication technologies (ICTs), including the skills of users with these technologies, the expected and unexpected uses of these technologies, and the technology's positive and negative impacts; how ICTs can be used to augment human intelligence and physical skills (human-computer interaction and design); how ICTs, together with traditional information institutions such as libraries and museums and social clubs, have been used to build stronger communities (community informatics). This book is a contribution to the academic literatures on information studies and aging, but it is also intended to be generally readable and be accessible to the educated public and professionals who serve older Americans such as librarians, health care workers, and workers at community centers. While there is a growing literature on health informatics for the elderly, and occasional journal articles on various other topics about information and the elderly, this is the first comprehensive book on the various information aspects of the everyday activities and concerns of older Americans.

Deciding Where to Live: Information Studies on Where to Live in America explores major themes related to where to live in America, not only about the acquisition of a home but also the ways in which where one lives relates to one's cultural identity. It shows how changes in media and information technology are shaping both our housing choices and our understanding of the meaning of personal place. The work is written using widely accessible language but supported by a strong academic foundation from information studies and other humanities and social science disciplines. Chapters analyze everyday information behavior related to questions about where to live. The eleven major chapters are: Chapter 1: Where to live as an information problem: three contemporary examples Chapter 2: Turning in place: Real estate agents and the move from information custodians to information brokers Chapter 3: The Evolving Residential Real Estate Information Ecosystem: The Rise of Zillow Chapter 4: Privacy, Surveillance, and the "Smart Home" Chapter 5: This Old House, Fixer Upper, and Better Homes & Gardens: The Housing Crisis and Media Sources Chapter 6: A Community Responds to Growth: An Information Story About What Makes for a Good Place to Live." Chapter 7: The Valley Between Us: The meta-hodology of racial segregation in Milwaukee, Wisconsin Chapter 8: Modeling Hope: Boundary Objects and Design Patterns in a Heartland Heterotopia Chapter 9: Home buying in Everyday Life: How Emotion and Time Pressure Shape High Stakes Deciders' Information Behavior Chapter 10: In Search of Home: Examining Information Seeking and Sources That Help African Americans Determine Where to Live Chapter 11: Where to Live in Retirement: A Complex Information Problem While the book is partly about the goal-directed activity of individuals who want to buy a house, and the infrastructure that supports that activity, it is also about personal activities that are either not goal directed or are directed at other goals such as deciding in which geographic location to live, personal entertainment, cultural understanding, or identity formation.

Digital media has exploded over the past quarter century, and in particular the past decade. As varieties of digital media multiply, scholars are beginning to examine its origins, organization, and preservation, which present new challenges compared to traditional media. To examine issues from multiple perspectives, experts were invited to an invitation-only workshop on digital media. The participants were carefully chosen to represent a variety of backgrounds and perspectives, ranging from humanities and fine arts to communication theory. The papers collected here are the results of that workshop. Digital Media: Technological and Social Challenges of the Interactive World is organized in four parts, each representing a different perspective on digital media: preservation, humanities, organizational, and historical. The section on preservation considers the problems of archiving digital media for long-term preservation; the humanities section offers a human-centered view of digital media, focusing on the interaction between technological changes and cultural practices; the section dealing with organization goes beyond the study of digital artifacts in isolation to consider the context, collection, and arrangement of objects; and the historical section examines how our perspectives on digital media have changed over time, looking at how issues such as the digital divide and digital production have changed as technology has changed. The wealth of varied perspectives in Digital Media provides new light on this topic, beyond the media studies viewpoint that is the most common way of engaging these topics. This collection will be a valuable addition for students and faculty in information studies, communication studies, rhetoric, new media, and more.

In this collection of essays that represent original and interdisciplinary work, respected scholars address a number of privacy issues. These include how governmental and private sectors develop and deploy technologies that can pose serious compromises to the privacy of individuals and groups; how information and communication system designs pose threats to privacy; how we manage private concerns (child care, job leave, and identity) as public issues amenable to political action and shared awareness; and the fundamental asymmetry of power that exists between individuals and small groups on the one hand and large governmental and corporate entities on the other. Arranged in three sections law and policy; information technology; and information studies, history, and sociology Privacy in America: Interdisciplinary Perspectives will be useful to scholars, practitioners, and students in a variety of fields, including information science, library science, and information systems.

This book examines food in the United States in the age of the Internet. One major theme running through the book isbusiness opportunities and failures, as well as the harms to consumers and traditional brick-and-mortar companies that occurred as entrepreneurs tried to take advantage of the Internet to create online companies related to food. The other major theme is the concept of trust online and different models used by different companies to make their web presence seem trustworthy. The book describes a number of major food companies, including AllRecipes, Betty Crocker, Cook's Illustrated, Epicurious, Groupon, OpenTable, and Yelp. The book draws on business history, food studies, and information studies for its approach. "

How rumors, lies, and misrepresentations shaped American history After the election of Donald Trump as president, people in the United States and across large swaths of Europe, Latin America, and Asia engaged in the most intensive discussion in modern times about falsehoods pronounced by public officials. Fake facts in their various forms have long been present in American life, particularly in its politics, public discourse, and business activities – going back to the time when the country was formed. This book begins explores the long tradition of fake facts, in their various guises, in American history. It is one of the first historical studies to place the long history of lies and misrepresentation squarely in the middle of American political, business, and science policy rhetoric. In Fake News Nation, James Cortada and William Aspray present a series of case studies that describe how lies and fake facts were used over the past two centuries in important instances in American history. Cortada and Aspray give readers a perspective on fake facts as they appear today and as they are likely to appear in the future.

This is a volume of chapters on the historical study of information, computing, and society written by seven of the most senior, distinguished members of the History of Computing field. These are edited, expanded versions of papers presented in a distinguished lecture series in 2018 at the University of Colorado Boulder - in the shadow of the Flatirons, the front range of the Rocky Mountains. Topics range widely across the history of computing. They include the digitalization of computer and communication technologies, gender history of computing, the history of data science, incentives for innovation in the computing field, labor history of computing, and the process of standardization. Authors were given wide latitude to write on a topic of their own choice, so long as the result is an exemplary article that represents the highest level of scholarship in the field, producing articles that scholars in the field will still look to read twenty years from now. The intention is to publish articles of general interest, well situated in the research literature, well grounded in source material, and well-polished pieces of writing. The volume is primarily of interest to historians of computing, but individual articles will be of interest to scholars in media studies, communication, computer science, cognitive science, general and technology history, and business.

Formal approaches are those taken by government bodies through laws, court decisions and actions of government regulatory bodies. Informal approaches are those taken by individuals, non profit organizations, industries working at self-regulation, etc. Because the formal means are tied to a particular legal system, this kind of approach is nation-specific and the book focuses on the United States. But many of the things the authors have to say about US food policy and the interactions between formal and informal approaches would also be of interest to policymakers and food industry professionals in other countries. Coverage includes the regulation of food advertising on children's television and the internet, regulation of school lunch programsand the influence of Eleanor Roosevelt and Michelle Obama."

William Aspray provides the first broad and detailed account of von Neumann's many different contributions to computing. John von Neumann (1903-1957) was unquestionably one of the most brilliant scientists of the twentieth century. He made major contributions to quantum mechanics and mathematical physics and in 1943 began a new and all-too-short career in computer science. William Aspray provides the first broad and detailed account of von Neumann's many different contributions to computing. These, Aspray reveals, extended far beyond his well-known work in the design and construction of computer systems to include important scientific applications, the revival of numerical analysis, and the creation of a theory of computing.Aspray points out that from the beginning von Neumann took a wider and more theoretical view than other computer pioneers. In the now famous EDVAC report of 1945, von Neumann clearly stated the idea of a stored program that resides in the computer's memory along with the data it was to operate on. This stored program computer was described in terms of idealized neurons, highlighting the analogy between the digital computer and the human brain. Aspray describes von Neumann's development during the next decade, and almost entirely alone, of a theory of complicated information processing systems, or automata, and the introduction of themes such as learning, reliability of systems with unreliable components, self-replication, and the importance of memory and storage capacity in biological nervous systems; many of these themes remain at the heart of current investigations in parallel or neurocomputing.Aspray allows the record to speak for itself. He unravels an intricate sequence of stories generated by von Neumann's work and brings into focus the interplay of personalities centered about von Neumann. He documents the complex interactions of science, the military, and business and shows how progress in applied mathematics was intertwined with that in computers. William Aspray is Director of the Center for the History of Electrical Engineering at The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

This text examines in detail the issue of the underrepresentation of women, African Americans, American Indians, and Hispanics in the computing disciplines in the U.S. The work reviews the underlying causes, as well as the efforts of various nonprofit organizations to correct the situation, in order to both improve social equity and address the shortage of skilled workers in this area. Topics and features: presents a digest and historical overview of the relevant literature from a range of disciplines, including leading historical and social science sources; discusses the social and political factors that have affected the demographics of the workforce from the end of WWII to the present day; provides historical case studies on organizations that have sought to broaden participation in computing and the STEM disciplines; reviews the different approaches that have been applied to address underrepresentation, at the individual, system-wide, and pathway-focused level; profiles the colleges and universities that have been successful in opening up computer science or engineering to female students; describes the impact of individual change-agents as well as whole organizations.

This organizational history relates the role of the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the development of modern computing. Drawing upon new and existing oral histories, extensive use of NSF documents, and the experience of two of the authors as senior managers, this book describes how NSF's programmatic activities originated and evolved to become the primary source of funding for fundamental research in computing and information technologies. The book traces how NSF's support has provided facilities and education for computing usage by all scientific disciplines, aided in institution and professional community building, supported fundamental research in computer science and allied disciplines, and led the efforts to broaden participation in computing by all segments of society. Today, the research and infrastructure facilitated by NSF computing programs are significant economic drivers of American society and industry. For example, NSF supported work that led to the first widely-used web browser, Netscape; sponsored the creation of algorithms at the core of the Google search engine; facilitated the growth of the public Internet; and funded research on the scientific basis for countless other applications and technologies. NSF has advanced the development of human capital and ideas for future advances in computing and its applications. This account is the first comprehensive coverage of NSF's role in the extraordinary growth and expansion of modern computing and its use. It will appeal to historians of computing, policy makers and leaders in government and academia, and individuals interested in the history and development of computing and the NSF.

When we think of the Internet, we generally think of Amazon, Google, Hotmail, Napster, MySpace, and other sites for buying products, searching for information, downloading entertainment, chatting with friends, or posting photographs. In the academic literature about the Internet, however, these uses are rarely covered. The Internet and American Business fills this gap, picking up where most scholarly histories of the Internet leave off--with the commercialization of the Internet established and its effect on traditional business a fact of life. These essays, describing challenges successfully met by some companies and failures to adapt by others, are a first attempt to understand a dynamic and exciting period of American business history. Tracing the impact of the commercialized Internet since 1995 on American business and society, the book describes new business models, new companies and adjustments by established companies, the rise of e-commerce, and community building; it considers dot-com busts and difficulties encountered by traditional industries; and it discusses such newly created problems as copyright violations associated with music file-sharing and the proliferation of Internet pornography. ContributorsAtsushi Akera, William Aspray, Randal A. Beam, Martin Campbell-Kelly, Paul E. Ceruzzi, James W. Cortada, Wolfgang Coy, Blaise Cronin, Nathan Ensmenger, Daniel D. Garcia-Swartz, Brent Goldfarb, Shane Greenstein, Thomas Haigh, Ward Hanson, David Kirsch, Christine Ogan, Jeffrey R. Yost William Aspray is Rudy Professor of Informatics at Indiana University in Bloomington. He is the editor (with J. McGrath Cohoon) of Women and Information Technology: Research on Underrepresentation (MIT Press, 2006 Paul E. Ceruzzi is Curator of the National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC. He is the author of A History of Modern Computing (second edition, MIT Press, 2003) and Internet Alley: High Technology in Tysons Corner, 1945-2005 (MIT Press, 2008)

This history of computing focuses not on chronology (what came first and who deserves credit for it) but on the actual architectures of the first machines that made electronic computing a practical reality. The book covers computers built in the United States, Germany, England, and Japan. It makes clear that similar concepts were often pursued simultaneously and that the early researchers explored many architectures beyond the von Neumann architecture that eventually became canonical. The contributors include not only historians but also engineers and computer pioneers.An introductory chapter describes the elements of computer architecture and explains why "being first" is even less interesting for computers than for other areas of technology. The essays contain a remarkable amount of new material, even on well-known machines, and several describe reconstructions of the historic machines. These investigations are of more than simply historical interest, for architectures designed to solve specific problems in the past may suggest new approaches to similar problems in today's machines.Contributors: Titiimaea F. Ala'ilima, Lin Ping Ang, William Aspray, Friedrich L. Bauer, Andreas Brennecke, Chris P. Burton, Martin Campbell-Kelly, Paul Ceruzzi, I. Bernard Cohen, John Gustafson, Wilhelm Hopmann, Harry D. Huskey, Friedrich W. Kistermann, Thomas Lange, Michael S. Mahoney, R. B. E. Napper, Seiichi Okoma, Hartmut Petzold, Raul Rojas, Anthony E. Sale, Robert W. Seidel, Ambros P. Speiser, Frank H. Sumner, James F. Tau, Jan Van der Spiegel, Eiiti Wada, Michael R. Williams."

"History and Philosophy of Modern Mathematics " was first published in 1988. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions.

The fourteen essays in this volume build on the pioneering effort of Garrett Birkhoff, professor of mathematics at Harvard University, who in 1974 organized a conference of mathematicians and historians of modern mathematics to examine how the two disciplines approach the history of mathematics. In "History and Philosophy of Modern Mathematics," William Aspray and Philip Kitcher bring together distinguished scholars from mathematics, history, and philosophy to assess the current state of the field. Their essays, which grow out of a 1985 conference at the University of Minnesota, develop the basic premise that mathematical thought needs to be studied from an interdisciplinary perspective.

The opening essays study issues arising within logic and the foundations of mathematics, a traditional area of interest to historians and philosophers. The second section examines issues in the history of mathematics within the framework of established historical periods and questions. Next come case studies that illustrate the power of an interdisciplinary approach to the study of mathematics. The collection closes with a look at mathematics from a sociohistorical perspective, including the way institutions affect what constitutes mathematical knowledge.

This text examines in detail the issue of the underrepresentation of women, African Americans, American Indians, and Hispanics in the computing disciplines in the U.S. The work reviews the underlying causes, as well as the efforts of various nonprofit organizations to correct the situation, in order to both improve social equity and address the shortage of skilled workers in this area. Topics and features: presents a digest and historical overview of the relevant literature from a range of disciplines, including leading historical and social science sources; discusses the social and political factors that have affected the demographics of the workforce from the end of WWII to the present day; provides historical case studies on organizations that have sought to broaden participation in computing and the STEM disciplines; reviews the different approaches that have been applied to address underrepresentation, at the individual, system-wide, and pathway-focused level; profiles the colleges and universities that have been successful in opening up computer science or engineering to female students; describes the impact of individual change-agents as well as whole organizations.