CHM Presents: Revolutionaries
From the UNIVAC to Web 2.0: Politics, Computers and the Making of a 21st Century Presidency
Past Events
May 9,
2012
Speaker Series
This event is part of our 2012 lecture series celebrating Revolutionaries, featuring conversations with and about some of the most distinguished thinkers in the computing field. The Revolutionaries lecture series complements the launch of the Computer History Museum’s permanent exhibition, Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing.
What we are seeing in the world is the balance of power shifting. The old rules just don’t always apply anymore and a lot of the new rules are being written by people that don’t even know they are writing them.
Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer, Facebook
Digital Life Design Conference Keynote
January 24, 2012
Dateline: November 4, 1952: UNIVAC Predicts an Eisenhower Win! Sixty years ago this November, public opinion polls gave the 1952 Presidential election to Adlai Stevenson. UNIVAC, star of CBS’ election coverage (along with a new anchor, Walter Cronkite), predicted an Eisenhower landslide. UNIVAC was right. The computer’s TV debut captivated an audience already enthralled by technology and confronting new tools—and new terminology—almost daily. "UNIVAC" became synonymous with "computer" for a generation of Americans.
Although much has changed since 1952, technology and politics remain closely intertwined. We’ll look at the history of using computing to poll and predict election outcomes, as well as how campaigns have used technology, as the Obama team did in 2008, to win elections. What are the implications of technology-driven campaigns and the electorate’s use of social media on our republic? What are the positives and negatives associated with all of this connectivity?
The panel will also look beyond U.S. borders to discuss the possible ramifications of the Arab Spring and whether other global political shifts may be looming. Easy, global access to social media tools has definitely created a power shift – from institutions to individuals. But what does that shift really mean – what are the larger implications to global stability?
Please join us for compelling discussion led by our moderator, Richard Tedlow, and his distinguished panel. We plan to make use of social media ourselves to capture your questions for the panel in the days leading up to the event.
We are very pleased that KQED Radio will be onsite taping this event for future broadcast. We are also very pleased that C-SPAN will be taping this event and will broadcast as part of their prime time coverage in the coming weeks.
This event is part of our 2012 lecture series celebrating Revolutionaries, featuring conversations with and about some of the most distinguished thinkers in the computing field. The Revolutionaries lecture series complements the launch of the Computer History Museum's permanent exhibition, Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing.
Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer, Facebook
Digital Life Design Conference Keynote
January 24, 2012
Dateline: November 4, 1952: UNIVAC Predicts an Eisenhower Win! Sixty years ago this November, public opinion polls gave the 1952 Presidential election to Adlai Stevenson. UNIVAC, star of CBS’ election coverage (along with a new anchor, Walter Cronkite), predicted an Eisenhower landslide. UNIVAC was right. The computer’s TV debut captivated an audience already enthralled by technology and confronting new tools—and new terminology—almost daily. "UNIVAC" became synonymous with "computer" for a generation of Americans.
Although much has changed since 1952, technology and politics remain closely intertwined. We’ll look at the history of using computing to poll and predict election outcomes, as well as how campaigns have used technology, as the Obama team did in 2008, to win elections. What are the implications of technology-driven campaigns and the electorate’s use of social media on our republic? What are the positives and negatives associated with all of this connectivity?
The panel will also look beyond U.S. borders to discuss the possible ramifications of the Arab Spring and whether other global political shifts may be looming. Easy, global access to social media tools has definitely created a power shift – from institutions to individuals. But what does that shift really mean – what are the larger implications to global stability?
Please join us for compelling discussion led by our moderator, Richard Tedlow, and his distinguished panel. We plan to make use of social media ourselves to capture your questions for the panel in the days leading up to the event.
We are very pleased that KQED Radio will be onsite taping this event for future broadcast. We are also very pleased that C-SPAN will be taping this event and will broadcast as part of their prime time coverage in the coming weeks.
This event is part of our 2012 lecture series celebrating Revolutionaries, featuring conversations with and about some of the most distinguished thinkers in the computing field. The Revolutionaries lecture series complements the launch of the Computer History Museum's permanent exhibition, Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing.
Sponsors
Date
Wednesday May 9, 2012
6:00 PM
Member Reception
7:00 PM
Program
Location
Mar 28,
2012
Speaker Series
CHM Presents: Revolutionaries
The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation. Author Jon Gertner in conversation with KQED's Dave Iverson
This event is part of our 2012 Revolutionaries series, featuring conversations with some of the most distinguished minds in the computing field. Join author Jon Gertner for a fascinating conversation with KQED's Dave Iverson about the people and history of Bell Labs, and the ways it fostered a culture of innovation and ideas.
Bell Laboratories, which thrived from the 1920s to the 1980s, was the most innovative and productive institution of the twentieth century. Long before America's brightest scientific minds began migrating west to Silicon Valley, they flocked to this sylvan campus in the New Jersey suburbs built and funded by AT&T. At its peak, Bell Labs employed nearly fifteen thousand people, twelve hundred of whom had PhDs. Thirteen would go on to win Nobel prizes. It was a citadel of science and scholarship as well as a hotbed of creative thinking. It was, in effect, a factory of ideas whose workings have remained largely hidden until now.
New York Times Magazine writer Jon Gertner unveils the unique magic of Bell Labs through the eyes and actions of its scientists. These ingenious, often eccentric men would become revolutionaries, and sometimes legends, whether for inventing radio astronomy in their spare time (and on the company's dime), riding unicycles through the corridors, or pioneering the principles that propel today's technology. In these pages, we learn how radar came to be, and lasers, transistors, satellites, mobile phones, and much more.
Even more important, Gertner reveals the forces that set off this explosion of creativity. Bell Labs combined the best aspects of the academic and corporate worlds, hiring the brightest and usually the youngest minds, creating a culture and even an architecture that forced employees in different fields to work together, in virtually complete intellectual freedom, with little pressure to create moneymaking innovations. In Gertner's portrait, we come to understand why both researchers and business leaders look to Bell Labs as a model and long to incorporate its magic into their own work.
Join author Jon Gertner for a fascinating conversation with KQED’s Dave Iverson about the people and history of Bell Labs, and the ways it fostered a culture of innovation and ideas.
Our partner Kepler's Books will be on-site selling copies of Idea Factory before and after this event.
We are very pleased that C-SPAN's Book TV will be taping this event for future broadcast.
We are also pleased that KQED Radio will be onsite to tape this event and broadcast it on April 4 at 8pm.
This event is part of our 2012 Revolutionaries series, featuring conversations with some of the most distinguished minds in the computing field. Be sure to visit our exhibition, Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing. It is rich with images, artifacts and stories of the people and innovations of Bell Labs.
New York Times Magazine writer Jon Gertner unveils the unique magic of Bell Labs through the eyes and actions of its scientists. These ingenious, often eccentric men would become revolutionaries, and sometimes legends, whether for inventing radio astronomy in their spare time (and on the company's dime), riding unicycles through the corridors, or pioneering the principles that propel today's technology. In these pages, we learn how radar came to be, and lasers, transistors, satellites, mobile phones, and much more.
Even more important, Gertner reveals the forces that set off this explosion of creativity. Bell Labs combined the best aspects of the academic and corporate worlds, hiring the brightest and usually the youngest minds, creating a culture and even an architecture that forced employees in different fields to work together, in virtually complete intellectual freedom, with little pressure to create moneymaking innovations. In Gertner's portrait, we come to understand why both researchers and business leaders look to Bell Labs as a model and long to incorporate its magic into their own work.
Join author Jon Gertner for a fascinating conversation with KQED’s Dave Iverson about the people and history of Bell Labs, and the ways it fostered a culture of innovation and ideas.
Our partner Kepler's Books will be on-site selling copies of Idea Factory before and after this event.
We are very pleased that C-SPAN's Book TV will be taping this event for future broadcast.
We are also pleased that KQED Radio will be onsite to tape this event and broadcast it on April 4 at 8pm.
This event is part of our 2012 Revolutionaries series, featuring conversations with some of the most distinguished minds in the computing field. Be sure to visit our exhibition, Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing. It is rich with images, artifacts and stories of the people and innovations of Bell Labs.
Sponsors
Date
Wednesday March 28, 2012
6:00 PM
Member Reception
7:00 PM
Program
8:30 PM
Author book signing
Location
Mar 7,
2012
Speaker Series
CHM Presents: Revolutionaries
Turing's Cathedral. Author George Dyson in Conversation with John Hollar
Legendary historian George Dyson vividly re-creates the scenes of focused experimentation, incredible mathematical insight, and pure creative genius that gave us computers, digital television, modern genetics, models of stellar evolution—in other words, computer code.
Join John Hollar for a captivating conversation with Dyson about John von Neumann and the beginnings of the digital universe.
Join John Hollar for a captivating conversation with Dyson about John von Neumann and the beginnings of the digital universe.
I am thinking about something much more important than bombs. I am thinking about computers.
John von Neumann, 1946
The most powerful technology of the last century was not the atomic bomb, but software—and both were invented by the same folks. Even as they were inventing it, the original geniuses imagined almost everything software has become since. At long last, George Dyson delivers the untold story of software’s creation. It is an amazing tale brilliantly deciphered.
Kevin Kelly,
cofounder of WIRED magazine, author of What Technology Wants
Legendary historian George Dyson vividly re-creates the scenes of focused experimentation, incredible mathematical insight, and pure creative genius that gave us computers, digital television, modern genetics, models of stellar evolution—in other words, computer code.
In the 1940s and '50s, a group of eccentric geniuses—led by John von Neumann—gathered at the newly created Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Their joint project was the realization of the theoretical universal machine, an idea that had been put forth by mathematician Alan Turing. This group of brilliant engineers worked in isolation, almost entirely independent from industry and the traditional academic community. But because they relied exclusively on government funding, the government wanted its share of the results: the computer that they built also led directly to the hydrogen bomb. George Dyson has uncovered a wealth of new material about this project, and in bringing the story of these men and women and their ideas to life, he shows how the crucial advancements that dominated twentieth-century technology emerged from one computer in one laboratory, where the digital universe as we know it was born.
Join John Hollar for a captivating conversation with Dyson about John von Neumann and the beginnings of the digital universe.
Send in your questions to George Dyson via Twitter using @computerhistory #TuringsCathedral.
We are pleased to partner with Kepler's on this event - they
will be selling copies of Turing's Cathedral before and after the event.
KQED Radio will be on-site to tape this event for broadcast March 8 at 8pm.
C-SPAN's Book TV will also be on-site to tape this event for future broadcast.
This event is part of our 2012 Revolutionaries series, featuring conversations with some of the most distinguished minds in the computing field.
Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing.
Everyone uses computers. Few know the story of how they came to be. Revolution chronicles the evolution and impact of modern computing from the abacus to the smart phone. This 25,000 sq. ft multimedia experience is a technological wonderland that immerses visitors in the sights, sounds, and stories of the computer revolution. Be sure to visit the Birth of the Computer gallery, where you can learn more about early computers and the people involved in creating them.
Visit Revolution online
John von Neumann, 1946
The most powerful technology of the last century was not the atomic bomb, but software—and both were invented by the same folks. Even as they were inventing it, the original geniuses imagined almost everything software has become since. At long last, George Dyson delivers the untold story of software’s creation. It is an amazing tale brilliantly deciphered.
Kevin Kelly,
cofounder of WIRED magazine, author of What Technology Wants
Legendary historian George Dyson vividly re-creates the scenes of focused experimentation, incredible mathematical insight, and pure creative genius that gave us computers, digital television, modern genetics, models of stellar evolution—in other words, computer code.
In the 1940s and '50s, a group of eccentric geniuses—led by John von Neumann—gathered at the newly created Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Their joint project was the realization of the theoretical universal machine, an idea that had been put forth by mathematician Alan Turing. This group of brilliant engineers worked in isolation, almost entirely independent from industry and the traditional academic community. But because they relied exclusively on government funding, the government wanted its share of the results: the computer that they built also led directly to the hydrogen bomb. George Dyson has uncovered a wealth of new material about this project, and in bringing the story of these men and women and their ideas to life, he shows how the crucial advancements that dominated twentieth-century technology emerged from one computer in one laboratory, where the digital universe as we know it was born.
Join John Hollar for a captivating conversation with Dyson about John von Neumann and the beginnings of the digital universe.
Send in your questions to George Dyson via Twitter using @computerhistory #TuringsCathedral.
We are pleased to partner with Kepler's on this event - they
will be selling copies of Turing's Cathedral before and after the event.
KQED Radio will be on-site to tape this event for broadcast March 8 at 8pm.
C-SPAN's Book TV will also be on-site to tape this event for future broadcast.
This event is part of our 2012 Revolutionaries series, featuring conversations with some of the most distinguished minds in the computing field.
Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing.
Everyone uses computers. Few know the story of how they came to be. Revolution chronicles the evolution and impact of modern computing from the abacus to the smart phone. This 25,000 sq. ft multimedia experience is a technological wonderland that immerses visitors in the sights, sounds, and stories of the computer revolution. Be sure to visit the Birth of the Computer gallery, where you can learn more about early computers and the people involved in creating them.
Visit Revolution online
Sponsors
Date
Wednesday March 7, 2012
6:00 PM
Member Reception
7:00 PM
Program
8:30 PM
Author book signing
Location
Feb 24,
2012
Speaker Series
CHM Soundbytes
Woven on the Loom of Sorrow: The Co-Evolution of Computing and Conflict, presented by Grady Booch
Did you use the Internet today? Did you find your way using GPS? Have you used a credit card, or made a call on your mobile phone, or flown on an airplane? The very fabric of our lives, – from semiconductors to Silly Putty™, from work to play - has in many ways been shaped by war and woven on the loom of sorrow
The human needs for survival, protection, and dominance are powerful forces that have driven civilization for millenia. What does it say about us that we expend all this energy, concentration, money and emotion on fighting rather than talking?
The human needs for survival, protection, and dominance are powerful forces that have driven civilization for millenia. What does it say about us that we expend all this energy, concentration, money and emotion on fighting rather than talking?
A strange game. The only winning move is not to play.
Joshua from War Games
Did you use the Internet today? Did you find your way using GPS? Have you used a credit card, or made a call on your mobile phone, or flown on an airplane? The very fabric of our lives, – from semiconductors to Silly Putty™, from work to play - has in many ways been shaped by war and woven on the loom of sorrow
The human needs for survival, protection, and dominance are powerful forces that have driven civilization for millenia. What does it say about us that we expend all this energy, concentration, money and emotion on fighting rather than talking?
There is something fascinating – and telling – about the intersection of humanity and computing when it comes to fighting for survival. And, if we follow the consequences at the confluence of computing and conflict, what does it mean to have a war where no humans are present?
Computing: The Human Experience explores these startling stories at the intersection of computing and humanity, stories that are driven by human needs. From the abacus to the iPad, from Gutenberg to Google, from Enigma to GPS, we have created computers to count the uncountable, remember beyond our own experiences, and see the invisible as well as the unforeseeable. In just one or two generations – an imperceptible time in the timeless sweep of the universe – we have created a technology that has the power to extend us, to transform us, to define us, perhaps even to destroy us.
This is the world of computing, a world upon which we have come to depend. It is as if we have created a universe, then as its creators, made the choice to step inside and live within it. As such we are both its masters as well as its servants.
This event is the first in a series of lectures for Computing: The Human Experience, a transmedia project directed to the general public that explores the co-evolution of computing and humanity. Presented by IBM Fellow Grady Booch, Computing teaches the essential science of computing, presents the stories of the people, events, and inventions in the history of computing, examines the connection among computing, science, and society, and contemplates the future. Computing has played a fundamental role in the advancement of the human spirit, encompassing war, commerce, the arts, science, society, and faith and so this series takes us on a journey that examines the complex dance between computing and the human experience.
In this lecture, Grady explores the tangled web that connects both computing and conflict. How would computing have evolved without war as a clear and present force upon it? How will nations adjust to the ways in which computing has radically altered the very nature of warfare?
“Woven on the Loom of Sorrow” investigates this rich yet tragic connection between computing and conflict and considers the implications in the future of war.
Joshua from War Games
Did you use the Internet today? Did you find your way using GPS? Have you used a credit card, or made a call on your mobile phone, or flown on an airplane? The very fabric of our lives, – from semiconductors to Silly Putty™, from work to play - has in many ways been shaped by war and woven on the loom of sorrow
The human needs for survival, protection, and dominance are powerful forces that have driven civilization for millenia. What does it say about us that we expend all this energy, concentration, money and emotion on fighting rather than talking?
There is something fascinating – and telling – about the intersection of humanity and computing when it comes to fighting for survival. And, if we follow the consequences at the confluence of computing and conflict, what does it mean to have a war where no humans are present?
Computing: The Human Experience explores these startling stories at the intersection of computing and humanity, stories that are driven by human needs. From the abacus to the iPad, from Gutenberg to Google, from Enigma to GPS, we have created computers to count the uncountable, remember beyond our own experiences, and see the invisible as well as the unforeseeable. In just one or two generations – an imperceptible time in the timeless sweep of the universe – we have created a technology that has the power to extend us, to transform us, to define us, perhaps even to destroy us.
This is the world of computing, a world upon which we have come to depend. It is as if we have created a universe, then as its creators, made the choice to step inside and live within it. As such we are both its masters as well as its servants.
This event is the first in a series of lectures for Computing: The Human Experience, a transmedia project directed to the general public that explores the co-evolution of computing and humanity. Presented by IBM Fellow Grady Booch, Computing teaches the essential science of computing, presents the stories of the people, events, and inventions in the history of computing, examines the connection among computing, science, and society, and contemplates the future. Computing has played a fundamental role in the advancement of the human spirit, encompassing war, commerce, the arts, science, society, and faith and so this series takes us on a journey that examines the complex dance between computing and the human experience.
In this lecture, Grady explores the tangled web that connects both computing and conflict. How would computing have evolved without war as a clear and present force upon it? How will nations adjust to the ways in which computing has radically altered the very nature of warfare?
“Woven on the Loom of Sorrow” investigates this rich yet tragic connection between computing and conflict and considers the implications in the future of war.
Date
Friday February 24, 2012
Free to Attend
Bring your lunch and enjoy a lecture with CHM friends and family. Box lunches will be available for purchase in the Museum Café prior to the lecture.
The Museum will provide beverages and snacks.
Bring your lunch and enjoy a lecture with CHM friends and family. Box lunches will be available for purchase in the Museum Café prior to the lecture.
The Museum will provide beverages and snacks.
12:00 PM
Program Discussion Begins
Location
Feb 16,
2012
Speaker Series
CHM Soundbytes
Beyond the Obvious: Killer Questions that Spark Game-Changing Innovation. Author Phil McKinney in conversation with CHM's John C. Hollar
Join innovation expert Phil McKinney for a conversation with the Computer History Museum’s John Hollar about killer questions and some of the ways we can all learn to harness the power of innovation.
"Human beings are creatures of habit, so getting ourselves and our teams to think beyond the obvious is a challenge we face all the time. Phil McKinney is an innovation expert, and his killer questions and hit-the-spot anecdotes provide a great way to get out in front of opportunities we otherwise won't see."
--Geoffrey A. Moore,Author of Crossing the Chasm and Escape Velocity
Generating and executing great ideas is the key to staying ahead in a rapidly changing world. It seems so basic. Why is it so hard to actually get right? According to innovation expert Phil McKinney, the real problem is that we’re teaching people to ask the wrong questions about their businesses—or none at all. There has to be a better way.
In Beyond the Obvious, McKinney discusses his proven FIRE (Focus, Ideation, Rank, Execution) Method to dig deeper and get back to asking the right questions—the ones all companies must ask to survive. Full of real-world examples, this book will change the way you operate, innovate, and create, and it all begins with battle-tested questions Phil has gathered on note cards throughout his career. Shared for the first time here, these "Killer Questions" include:
• What are the rules and assumptions my industry operates under? What if the opposite were true?
• What will be the buying criteria used by my customer in 5 years?
• What are my unshakable beliefs about what my customers want?
• Who uses my product in ways I never anticipated?
Join innovation expert Phil McKinney for a conversation with the Computer History Museum's John Hollar about killer questions and some of the ways we can all learn to harness the power of innovation.
Our partner Kepler’s Books will be on-site selling copies of Beyond the Obvious before and after the event.
--Geoffrey A. Moore,Author of Crossing the Chasm and Escape Velocity
Generating and executing great ideas is the key to staying ahead in a rapidly changing world. It seems so basic. Why is it so hard to actually get right? According to innovation expert Phil McKinney, the real problem is that we’re teaching people to ask the wrong questions about their businesses—or none at all. There has to be a better way.
In Beyond the Obvious, McKinney discusses his proven FIRE (Focus, Ideation, Rank, Execution) Method to dig deeper and get back to asking the right questions—the ones all companies must ask to survive. Full of real-world examples, this book will change the way you operate, innovate, and create, and it all begins with battle-tested questions Phil has gathered on note cards throughout his career. Shared for the first time here, these "Killer Questions" include:
• What are the rules and assumptions my industry operates under? What if the opposite were true?
• What will be the buying criteria used by my customer in 5 years?
• What are my unshakable beliefs about what my customers want?
• Who uses my product in ways I never anticipated?
Join innovation expert Phil McKinney for a conversation with the Computer History Museum's John Hollar about killer questions and some of the ways we can all learn to harness the power of innovation.
Our partner Kepler’s Books will be on-site selling copies of Beyond the Obvious before and after the event.
Date
Thursday February 16, 2012
12:00 PM
Program Begins
Author book signing at program's end
Location
Jan 12,
2012
Speaker Series
CHM Presents: Revolutionaries
An Evening with Google's Marissa Mayer
This event kicks off our 2012 Revolutionaries series, featuring conversations with some of the most distinguished minds in the computing field. Join NPR Correspondent Laura Sydell for a wide-ranging conversation about the educational choices Marissa made, her early role models and mentors, and her continuing role as a mentor – to the next generation of computer scientists as well as women entrepreneurs like Tanzania's Susan Mashibe, TanJet Founder and Executive Director.
Marissa Mayer is the Vice President of Local, Maps, and Location Services at Google. She oversees product management, engineering, design and strategy for the company’s suite of local and geographical products, including Google Maps, Google Earth, Zagat, Street View, and local search, for desktop and mobile. She also curates the Google Doodle program, celebrating special events on Google's homepage around the world.
During her 12 years at Google, Marissa has held numerous positions, including engineer, designer, product manager, and executive, and has launched over 100 well-known features and products. Prior to her current role, she played an instrumental role in Google search, leading the product management efforts for more than 10 years, a period during which Google Search grew from a few hundred thousand to well over a billion searches per day. Marissa led the development of some of Google's most successful services including image, book and product search, toolbar, and iGoogle, and defined such pivotal products as Google News and Gmail. She is listed as an inventor on several patents in artificial intelligence and interface design.
Joining as the company's first female engineer in 1999, Marissa has played an important role in developing Google’s culture. Her contributions have included overseeing the look-and-feel of the company's iconic homepage and founding the Associate Product Manager program, which has hired over 300 of the company’s future leaders.
She graduated with honors from Stanford University with a BS in Symbolic Systems and a MS in Computer Science. For both degrees, she specialized in artificial intelligence. While at Stanford, she taught computer programming to more than 3000 students and received the Centennial Teaching and Forsythe Awards for her contributions to undergraduate education. In 2008, the Illinois Institute of Technology awarded her an honorary doctorate of engineering.
It has been quite a journey so far for Marissa, from her beginnings in Wisconsin, to the National Youth Science Camp, on to Stanford University and then landing at Google. Join NPR Correspondent Laura Sydell for a wide-ranging conversation about the educational choices Marissa made, her early role models and mentors, her work at Google, and her continuing role as a mentor – to the next generation of computer scientists as well as women entrepreneurs like Tanzania's Susan Mashibe, TanJet Founder and Executive Director.
We hope you will join us for an interesting and inspiring evening.
KQED Radio will be on-site to tape this event and will broadcast and live stream it on February 23, 2012 at 8pm.
This event kicks off our 2012 Revolutionaries series, featuring conversations with some of the most distinguished minds in the computing field.
During her 12 years at Google, Marissa has held numerous positions, including engineer, designer, product manager, and executive, and has launched over 100 well-known features and products. Prior to her current role, she played an instrumental role in Google search, leading the product management efforts for more than 10 years, a period during which Google Search grew from a few hundred thousand to well over a billion searches per day. Marissa led the development of some of Google's most successful services including image, book and product search, toolbar, and iGoogle, and defined such pivotal products as Google News and Gmail. She is listed as an inventor on several patents in artificial intelligence and interface design.
Joining as the company's first female engineer in 1999, Marissa has played an important role in developing Google’s culture. Her contributions have included overseeing the look-and-feel of the company's iconic homepage and founding the Associate Product Manager program, which has hired over 300 of the company’s future leaders.
She graduated with honors from Stanford University with a BS in Symbolic Systems and a MS in Computer Science. For both degrees, she specialized in artificial intelligence. While at Stanford, she taught computer programming to more than 3000 students and received the Centennial Teaching and Forsythe Awards for her contributions to undergraduate education. In 2008, the Illinois Institute of Technology awarded her an honorary doctorate of engineering.
It has been quite a journey so far for Marissa, from her beginnings in Wisconsin, to the National Youth Science Camp, on to Stanford University and then landing at Google. Join NPR Correspondent Laura Sydell for a wide-ranging conversation about the educational choices Marissa made, her early role models and mentors, her work at Google, and her continuing role as a mentor – to the next generation of computer scientists as well as women entrepreneurs like Tanzania's Susan Mashibe, TanJet Founder and Executive Director.
We hope you will join us for an interesting and inspiring evening.
KQED Radio will be on-site to tape this event and will broadcast and live stream it on February 23, 2012 at 8pm.
This event kicks off our 2012 Revolutionaries series, featuring conversations with some of the most distinguished minds in the computing field.
Sponsors
Date
Thursday January 12, 2012
6:00 PM
Member Reception
7:00 PM
Program
8:30 PM
Adjourn
Location
Dec 13,
2011
Speaker Series
CHM Presents: Revolutionaries
Steve Jobs: The Authorized Biography. An Evening with Walter Isaacson
We are proud to welcome Isaacson for a conversation about Jobs' life, inspiration and legacy with Museum CEO John Hollar.
From the best-selling biographer of Albert Einstein and Benjamin Franklin comes the authorized story of Steve Jobs, one of the most celebrated global business figures in history. Award-winning author and journalist Walter Isaacson enjoyed unprecedented access to Jobs and conducted more than 40 personal interviews with him over two years. In addition, he talked to more than a hundred family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues. The result is a riveting story of the roller-coaster life and intense personality of a creator, entrepreneur and executive whose fierce drive and passion for perfection revolutionized personal computers, animated movies, music, mobile phones, tablet computing digital publishing and "apps."
We are proud to welcome Isaacson for a conversation about Jobs' life, inspiration and legacy with Museum CEO John Hollar.
Our partner Kepler’s Books will be on-site selling copies of the book and will assist with the author book signing immediately following the program’s conclusion. If you would like to purchase a copy of the book before the event, visit Kepler’s website.
KQED Radio will be on-site taping this event and will broadcast and live stream it on December 14 at 8pm. C-SPAN's Book TV will also be on-site taping this event for future broadcast.
We are proud to welcome Isaacson for a conversation about Jobs' life, inspiration and legacy with Museum CEO John Hollar.
Our partner Kepler’s Books will be on-site selling copies of the book and will assist with the author book signing immediately following the program’s conclusion. If you would like to purchase a copy of the book before the event, visit Kepler’s website.
KQED Radio will be on-site taping this event and will broadcast and live stream it on December 14 at 8pm. C-SPAN's Book TV will also be on-site taping this event for future broadcast.
Sponsors
Date
Tuesday December 13, 2011
6:00 PM
Member Reception
7:00 PM
Program
8:30 PM
Author book signing
Location
Nov 15,
2011
Speaker Series
CHM Presents: Revolutionaries
A Computer Called Watson: IBM Research's David Ferrucci in Conversation with the Financial Times' Richard Waters
This event is part of our 2011 lecture series celebrating Revolutionaries, featuring conversations with and about some of the most distinguished thinkers in the computing field. The Revolutionaries lecture series complements the launch of the Computer History Museum’s permanent exhibition, Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing.
In an historic event in February 2011, IBM’s Watson computer competed on Jeopardy! against the TV quiz show’s two biggest all-time champions. Watson is a computer running software called Deep QA, developed by IBM Research. While the grand challenge driving the project was to win on Jeopardy!, the broader goal of Watson was to create a new generation of technology that can find answers in unstructured data more effectively than standard search technology.
Computer systems that can directly and accurately answer peoples' questions over a broad domain of human knowledge have been envisioned by scientists and writers since the advent of computers themselves. Open domain question answering holds tremendous promise for facilitating informed decision making over vast volumes of natural language content. Applications in business intelligence, healthcare, customer support, enterprise knowledge management, social computing, science and government could all benefit from computer systems capable of deeper language understanding. The DeepQA project is aimed at exploring how advancing and integrating Natural Language Processing (NLP), Information Retrieval (IR), Machine Learning (ML), Knowledge Representation and Reasoning (KR&R) and massively parallel computation can greatly advance the science and application of automatic Question Answering.
Dr. Ferrucci is an IBM Fellow and Watson Principal Investigator for IBM Research. Richard Waters is the West Coast Editor for the Financial Times. Join them for a fascinating exploration of how the Watson project began, its ancestry, the epic Jeopardy! win, and the ways Watson technology can improve human decision-making.
And, after the conversation has ended, let the games begin! We will play host to another round of Jeopardy! – featuring another pair of humans brave enough to take on Watson. They are Ms. Stacey Higginbotham and Dr. Robert Walker. IBM Research's Dr. Eric Brown will be the game's host. Please join us!
This event is part of our 2011 lecture series celebrating Revolutionaries, featuring conversations with and about some of the most distinguished thinkers in the computing field. The Revolutionaries lecture series complements the launch of the Computer History Museum’s permanent exhibition, Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing.
Computer systems that can directly and accurately answer peoples' questions over a broad domain of human knowledge have been envisioned by scientists and writers since the advent of computers themselves. Open domain question answering holds tremendous promise for facilitating informed decision making over vast volumes of natural language content. Applications in business intelligence, healthcare, customer support, enterprise knowledge management, social computing, science and government could all benefit from computer systems capable of deeper language understanding. The DeepQA project is aimed at exploring how advancing and integrating Natural Language Processing (NLP), Information Retrieval (IR), Machine Learning (ML), Knowledge Representation and Reasoning (KR&R) and massively parallel computation can greatly advance the science and application of automatic Question Answering.
Dr. Ferrucci is an IBM Fellow and Watson Principal Investigator for IBM Research. Richard Waters is the West Coast Editor for the Financial Times. Join them for a fascinating exploration of how the Watson project began, its ancestry, the epic Jeopardy! win, and the ways Watson technology can improve human decision-making.
And, after the conversation has ended, let the games begin! We will play host to another round of Jeopardy! – featuring another pair of humans brave enough to take on Watson. They are Ms. Stacey Higginbotham and Dr. Robert Walker. IBM Research's Dr. Eric Brown will be the game's host. Please join us!
This event is part of our 2011 lecture series celebrating Revolutionaries, featuring conversations with and about some of the most distinguished thinkers in the computing field. The Revolutionaries lecture series complements the launch of the Computer History Museum’s permanent exhibition, Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing.
Sponsors
Date
Tuesday November 15, 2011
6:00 PM
Member Reception
7:00 PM
Program
Location
Nov 8,
2011
Speaker Series
CHM Presents Revolutionaries
The Technology of Animation
The Computer History Museum is proud to announce that DreamWorks Animation Jeffrey Katzenberg and Ed Leonard will kick off this series, in a conversation moderated by HP's Phil McKinney. Over the course of the evening they will discuss the history, techniques, challenges and future possibilities of digital animation. You will receive a behind-the-scenes look at Silicon Valley's contributions to creativity with today's leading digital moguls.
The first in a series of conversations with leading entertainment companies on the impact of technology on their businesses.
"Many of the tools that we use are things that we author ourselves. But we have two of the largest, and clearly two of the finest, high-tech companies in the world as creative and business partners of ours: Hewlett-Packard and Intel. Both of these companies keep us on the cutting edge. And they see us as a great almost test base, you know, a lighthouse, to put their best products through their paces, and to find out where the boundaries are. I consider them kind of our godparents."
Jeffrey Katzenberg
CEO, DreamWorks
Forbes, March 1, 2010
Computers were born and bred for war, hard science and business. Now they are telling stories. Computer technology drives movies and television today. It sweeps us into worlds built from 1s and 0s that seem more true-to-life than real life. We have explored Middle Earth and deep space. We have met animated characters as vivid as vital as any best actor performance.
The arrival of computers, like so many breakthroughs, was met with derision. Three-D was for cheap monster flicks. Digital movies would look like video games. They would never replace 35 mm film or match the subtlety of actors in the flesh.
It all happened so fast that the future of entertainment arrived even before the industry tried to predict it. Jeffery Katzenberg was one of the few who saw the potential: "It seemed like an all or nothing bet. This is our future."
Today, computers are freeing the industry to make movies out of stories that could otherwise never be filmed. And the future will challenge the barrier between fantasy and reality. Will we someday be able to step through the screen and into the story?
The Computer History Museum is proud to announce that DreamWorks Animation’s Jeffrey Katzenberg and Ed Leonard will kick off this series, in a conversation moderated by HP’s Phil McKinney. Over the course of the evening they’ll discuss the history, techniques, challenges and future possibilities of digital animation. You’ll receive a behind-the-scenes look at Silicon Valley’s contributions to creativity with today’s leading digital moguls.
"Many of the tools that we use are things that we author ourselves. But we have two of the largest, and clearly two of the finest, high-tech companies in the world as creative and business partners of ours: Hewlett-Packard and Intel. Both of these companies keep us on the cutting edge. And they see us as a great almost test base, you know, a lighthouse, to put their best products through their paces, and to find out where the boundaries are. I consider them kind of our godparents."
Jeffrey Katzenberg
CEO, DreamWorks
Forbes, March 1, 2010
Computers were born and bred for war, hard science and business. Now they are telling stories. Computer technology drives movies and television today. It sweeps us into worlds built from 1s and 0s that seem more true-to-life than real life. We have explored Middle Earth and deep space. We have met animated characters as vivid as vital as any best actor performance.
The arrival of computers, like so many breakthroughs, was met with derision. Three-D was for cheap monster flicks. Digital movies would look like video games. They would never replace 35 mm film or match the subtlety of actors in the flesh.
It all happened so fast that the future of entertainment arrived even before the industry tried to predict it. Jeffery Katzenberg was one of the few who saw the potential: "It seemed like an all or nothing bet. This is our future."
Today, computers are freeing the industry to make movies out of stories that could otherwise never be filmed. And the future will challenge the barrier between fantasy and reality. Will we someday be able to step through the screen and into the story?
The Computer History Museum is proud to announce that DreamWorks Animation’s Jeffrey Katzenberg and Ed Leonard will kick off this series, in a conversation moderated by HP’s Phil McKinney. Over the course of the evening they’ll discuss the history, techniques, challenges and future possibilities of digital animation. You’ll receive a behind-the-scenes look at Silicon Valley’s contributions to creativity with today’s leading digital moguls.
Sponsors
Date
Tuesday November 8, 2011
6:00 PM
Reception
7:00 PM
Program
Location
Nov 5,
2011
Speaker Series
CHM Presents: Revolutionaries
The Challenge and Promise of Artificial Intelligence, a Bay Area Science Festival Wonder Dialog
Join leading researchers Dr. Eric Horvitz of Microsoft Research and Dr. Peter Norvig of Google for an intriguing discussion about the past, present, and future of artificial intelligence, moderated by KQED's Tim Olson.
Join leading researchers Dr. Eric Horvitz of Microsoft Research and Dr. Peter Norvig of Google for an intriguing discussion about the past, present, and future of artificial intelligence, moderated by KQED's Tim Olson. We are extremely fortunate to have Eric and Peter on our stage – they've known each other for several years, and can discuss everything from machine learning to data-driven science, the world of perception, speech recognition, robotics, self-driving cars, and even a computer called Watson. A Wonder Dialog indeed!
Make sure you leave time before or after this event to visit the Museum's new exhibition, Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing. Among Revolutions 19 galleries, you will find one devoted to the history of Artificial Intelligence & Robotics, with its featured icon, Shakey the Robot.
We are proud to partner with the Bay Area Science Festival on this Wonder Dialog. This event is also part of the Museum’s Revolutionaries 2011 lecture series, featuring conversations with some of the most distinguished thinkers in the technology industry. We are very pleased that KQED Radio will tape this event, and will broadcast and live stream it on Wednesday, November 30 at 8p.m.
Make sure you leave time before or after this event to visit the Museum's new exhibition, Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing. Among Revolutions 19 galleries, you will find one devoted to the history of Artificial Intelligence & Robotics, with its featured icon, Shakey the Robot.
We are proud to partner with the Bay Area Science Festival on this Wonder Dialog. This event is also part of the Museum’s Revolutionaries 2011 lecture series, featuring conversations with some of the most distinguished thinkers in the technology industry. We are very pleased that KQED Radio will tape this event, and will broadcast and live stream it on Wednesday, November 30 at 8p.m.
Sponsors
Date
Saturday November 5, 2011
2:00 PM
Program Begins
Location
Oct 25,
2011
Speaker Series
CHM Presents: Revolutionaries
Worm: The First Digital World War. Author Mark Bowden and Microsoft's T.J. Campana in Conversation with John Markoff of The New York Times
We are very pleased to welcome John Markoff of The New York Times back to our stage to moderate a conversation about the Conficker worm and the wages of this digital war, with author Bowden and T. J. Camapana, Senior Program Manager for Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit. Campana is responsible for investigating cybercrime issues related to malware, botnets, hacking and other criminal and security incidents involving a Microsoft technologies, properties and services.
"A new digital plague has hit the Internet, infecting millions of personal and business computers in what seems to be the first step of a multistage attack. The world's leading computer security experts do not yet know who programmed the infection, or what the next stage will be."
John Markoff, The New York Times January 22, 2009
When the Conficker computer worm was unleashed on the world in November 2008, cybersecurity experts did not know what to make of it. The worm, exploiting the security flaws in Microsoft Windows, grew at an astonishingly rapid rate, infecting millions of computers around the world within weeks. Once the worm infiltrated one system it was able to link that system with others to form a single network under illicit outside control - a situation known as a "botnet." This botnet was soon capable of overpowering any of the vital computer networks that today control banking, telephone service, energy flow, air traffic, health-care information - even the Internet itself. Was it a platform for criminal profit, or a weapon? Security experts do not know for sure what Conficker's purpose is, or even where it came from.
Mark Bowden's "Worm: The First Digital World War," is about the next frontier in terrorism. Bowden, the best-selling author of Black Hawk Down, has delivered a dramatic cybercrime story that explores the Conficker computer worm, a potentially devastating computer virus that has baffled experts and infected as many as twelve million computers to date.
We are very pleased to welcome John Markoff of The New York Times back to our stage to moderate a conversation about the Conficker worm and the wages of this digital war, with author Bowden and T. J. Camapana, Senior Program Manager for Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit. Campana is responsible for investigating cybercrime issues related to malware, botnets, hacking and other criminal and security incidents involving Microsoft technologies, properties and services.
We are very pleased that KQED Radio will tape this event, and will broadcast and live stream it on October 27 at 8pm and on Saturday, November 12 at 1pm.
John Markoff, The New York Times January 22, 2009
When the Conficker computer worm was unleashed on the world in November 2008, cybersecurity experts did not know what to make of it. The worm, exploiting the security flaws in Microsoft Windows, grew at an astonishingly rapid rate, infecting millions of computers around the world within weeks. Once the worm infiltrated one system it was able to link that system with others to form a single network under illicit outside control - a situation known as a "botnet." This botnet was soon capable of overpowering any of the vital computer networks that today control banking, telephone service, energy flow, air traffic, health-care information - even the Internet itself. Was it a platform for criminal profit, or a weapon? Security experts do not know for sure what Conficker's purpose is, or even where it came from.
Mark Bowden's "Worm: The First Digital World War," is about the next frontier in terrorism. Bowden, the best-selling author of Black Hawk Down, has delivered a dramatic cybercrime story that explores the Conficker computer worm, a potentially devastating computer virus that has baffled experts and infected as many as twelve million computers to date.
We are very pleased to welcome John Markoff of The New York Times back to our stage to moderate a conversation about the Conficker worm and the wages of this digital war, with author Bowden and T. J. Camapana, Senior Program Manager for Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit. Campana is responsible for investigating cybercrime issues related to malware, botnets, hacking and other criminal and security incidents involving Microsoft technologies, properties and services.
We are very pleased that KQED Radio will tape this event, and will broadcast and live stream it on October 27 at 8pm and on Saturday, November 12 at 1pm.
Sponsors
Date
Tuesday October 25, 2011
6:00 PM
Member Reception
7:00 PM
Program
8:30 PM
Author book signing.
Books will be available for purchase on-site thanks to Kepler's Books.
Location
Oct 15,
2011
Speaker Series
CHM Presents
An Analog Life: Remembering Jim Williams
Join us for this special night and learn about the importance and impact of analog circuits on current technology and be inspired by the life and work of Jim Williams.
The world around us is a symphony of vibrations. From temperature, light, sound and a host of other physical quantities, we live in a world of continuously varying signals. Capturing these signals and making them do amazing things is the domain of the analog circuit designer.
Join us for a special night on October 15 as we feature a panel discussion on the world of analog systems and one of its biggest stars, Jim Williams.
Williams was a remarkable man: an engineer who was self-taught yet set the bar for the entire technical community. Artist, scientist, mentor and teacher, come celebrate and reflect upon this man’s influence and on the world of analog systems around us with five distinguished guests:
- Co-founder and CTO of Linear Technology , Bob Dobkin,
- Founder and CTO, Bam Labs Inc, Steve Young,
- Vice President, Power Management Products, Linear Technology, Steve Pietkiewicz,
- Professor, Stanford University, Department of Electrical Engineering, Greg Kovacs.
- Museum President & CEO, John Hollar will moderate the conversation.
On the same day, the Museum also opens its new exhibit: “An Analog Life: Remembering Jim Williams,” featuring Jim Williams’s famous analog workbench. We hope you can join us Oct 15 to see the exhibit and attend the panel.
Join us for a special night on October 15 as we feature a panel discussion on the world of analog systems and one of its biggest stars, Jim Williams.
Williams was a remarkable man: an engineer who was self-taught yet set the bar for the entire technical community. Artist, scientist, mentor and teacher, come celebrate and reflect upon this man’s influence and on the world of analog systems around us with five distinguished guests:
- Co-founder and CTO of Linear Technology , Bob Dobkin,
- Founder and CTO, Bam Labs Inc, Steve Young,
- Vice President, Power Management Products, Linear Technology, Steve Pietkiewicz,
- Professor, Stanford University, Department of Electrical Engineering, Greg Kovacs.
- Museum President & CEO, John Hollar will moderate the conversation.
On the same day, the Museum also opens its new exhibit: “An Analog Life: Remembering Jim Williams,” featuring Jim Williams’s famous analog workbench. We hope you can join us Oct 15 to see the exhibit and attend the panel.
Sponsors
Date
Saturday October 15, 2011
6:00 PM
Private Reception
(CHM Members and Sponsor Guests)
- 8:30 PM
7:00 PM
Program
Location
Sep 21,
2011
Speaker Series
CHM Presents: Revolutionaries
Venture Capital in the Valley: Past, Present & Future
This event is part of our 2011 lecture series celebrating Revolutionaries, featuring conversations with and about some of the most distinguished thinkers in the computing field. The Revolutionaries lecture series complements the launch of the Computer History Museum's permanent exhibition, Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing.
After our July screening of SOMETHING VENTURED, which chronicles the founding of the venture capital industry in Silicon Valley, we are convening a panel to discuss the VC model of today and tomorrow. Does venture investing need to evolve to keep fueling innovation in the Valley and around the world? What are the implications of the latest round of huge U.S. IPOs of social media and internet companies? Is history repeating itself with another bubble forming, or is this the new reality of a connected globe with multiple billions of potential users?
Our panel will feature two generations of venture investors giving their views on these and other questions: Chairman and Co-founder of New Enterprise Associates (NEA), VC legend Dick Kramlich, and Accel Partners next generation VC leader, Theresia Gouw Ranzetta. Richard Waters, San Francisco Bureau Chief for the Financial Times, will moderate the conversation.
We are proud to be co-hosting this event with the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA). The NVCA empowers its members and the entrepreneurs they fund by advocating for policies that encourage innovation and reward long-term investment. As the venture community's preeminent trade association, NVCA serves as the definitive resource for venture capital data and unites its 400 plus members through a full range of professional services. You can learn more about the NVCA at www.nvca.org.
Our panel will feature two generations of venture investors giving their views on these and other questions: Chairman and Co-founder of New Enterprise Associates (NEA), VC legend Dick Kramlich, and Accel Partners next generation VC leader, Theresia Gouw Ranzetta. Richard Waters, San Francisco Bureau Chief for the Financial Times, will moderate the conversation.
We are proud to be co-hosting this event with the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA). The NVCA empowers its members and the entrepreneurs they fund by advocating for policies that encourage innovation and reward long-term investment. As the venture community's preeminent trade association, NVCA serves as the definitive resource for venture capital data and unites its 400 plus members through a full range of professional services. You can learn more about the NVCA at www.nvca.org.
Sponsors
Date
Wednesday September 21, 2011
6:00 PM
Reception
7:00 PM
Program
Location
Aug 24,
2011
Speaker Series
CHM Soundbytes
Software Patent Debate
Proponents of software patents argue that software deserves the protection of patents just as any other invention does. Critics of software patents argue that they stifle innovation rather than promote it by cutting off the free flow of ideas needed to advance technology.
Proponents of software patents argue that software deserves the protection of patents just as any other invention does. Critics of software patents argue that they stifle innovation rather than promote it by cutting off the free flow of ideas needed to advance technology.
THE MOTION: SOFTWARE PATENTS ENCOURAGE INNOVATION
Proponents of software patents argue that software deserves the protection of patents just as any other invention does. Software is simply a description of computer instructions that allow a processor to perform complex tasks. Particularly in today's knowledge economy, the value of software is growing and patents protect the investment of time, effort, and money made by companies and individual programmers.
Critics of software patents argue that they stifle innovation rather than promote it by cutting off the free flow of ideas needed to advance technology. Software consists of mathematical equations, which cannot and should not be patentable. Most software patents describe algorithms that are simple or obvious to a programmer of ordinary skill and thus do not deserve patent protection.
FOR THE MOTION
Bob Zeidman is the president and founder of Zeidman Consulting, a premiere contract research and development firm in Silicon Valley that focuses on engineering consulting to law firms about intellectual property disputes. Clients have included Apple Computer, Cisco Systems, Cadence Design Systems, Facebook, Intel, Symantec, Texas Instruments, and Zynga. Bob is also the president and founder of Software Analysis and Forensic Engineering Corporation, the leading provider of software intellectual property analysis tools. Bob has worked on and testified in nearly 100 cases involving billions of dollars in disputed intellectual property.
Bob is a prolific writer and instructor, giving seminars at conferences around the world. Among his publications are numerous articles on engineering and business as well as four textbooks, two novels, and three screenplays. Bob holds numerous patents and earned two bachelor's degrees, in physics and electrical engineering, from Cornell University and a master's degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University.
AGAINST THE MOTION
Edward A. Lee has been on the faculty in the Electrical Engineering
and Computer Sciences (EECS) department at U.C. Berkeley for more than 25 years. He has served as chair of the department and currently holds the Robert S. Pepper Distinguished Professorship. He has been a proponent of open source software and has headed the design and development of an open source design environment known as Ptolemy. He is a co-founder of BDTI, Inc., a technical analysis and advising company, where he is currently a Senior Technical Ad visor, has consulted for a number of other companies, and has served as an expert witness and/or advisor in software patent litigation cases. His research interests center on design, modeling, and analysis of embedded, real-time computational systems. He is a director of Chess, the Berkeley Center for Hybrid and Embedded Software Systems. He has published extensively, including six books and hundreds of research papers. Prior to Berkeley, Prof. Lee was a member of technical staff at Bell Telephone Laboratories in Holmdel, New Jersey, in the Advanced Data Communications Laboratory. His bachelors degree (B.S.) is from Yale University (1979), his masters (S.M.) from MIT (1981), and his Ph.D. from U. C. Berkeley (1986). He is a Fellow of the IEEE, was an NSF Presidential Young Investigator, and won the 1997 Frederick Emmons Terman Award for Engineering Education.
MODERATOR
John C. Hollar, President and Chief Executive Officer, Computer History Museum. He has served as CEO since 2008, and holds bachelor's degrees in political science and journalism (BFA), and in law (JD) from Harvard Law School.
AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION
The audience will serve as jurors. NOTE
Bob Zeidman will be signing copies of his most recent book, The Software IP Detective Handbook, after today's debate. The book will be made available for purchase in the Museum store.
THE MOTION: SOFTWARE PATENTS ENCOURAGE INNOVATION
Proponents of software patents argue that software deserves the protection of patents just as any other invention does. Software is simply a description of computer instructions that allow a processor to perform complex tasks. Particularly in today's knowledge economy, the value of software is growing and patents protect the investment of time, effort, and money made by companies and individual programmers.
Critics of software patents argue that they stifle innovation rather than promote it by cutting off the free flow of ideas needed to advance technology. Software consists of mathematical equations, which cannot and should not be patentable. Most software patents describe algorithms that are simple or obvious to a programmer of ordinary skill and thus do not deserve patent protection.
FOR THE MOTION
Bob Zeidman is the president and founder of Zeidman Consulting, a premiere contract research and development firm in Silicon Valley that focuses on engineering consulting to law firms about intellectual property disputes. Clients have included Apple Computer, Cisco Systems, Cadence Design Systems, Facebook, Intel, Symantec, Texas Instruments, and Zynga. Bob is also the president and founder of Software Analysis and Forensic Engineering Corporation, the leading provider of software intellectual property analysis tools. Bob has worked on and testified in nearly 100 cases involving billions of dollars in disputed intellectual property.
Bob is a prolific writer and instructor, giving seminars at conferences around the world. Among his publications are numerous articles on engineering and business as well as four textbooks, two novels, and three screenplays. Bob holds numerous patents and earned two bachelor's degrees, in physics and electrical engineering, from Cornell University and a master's degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University.
AGAINST THE MOTION
Edward A. Lee has been on the faculty in the Electrical Engineering
and Computer Sciences (EECS) department at U.C. Berkeley for more than 25 years. He has served as chair of the department and currently holds the Robert S. Pepper Distinguished Professorship. He has been a proponent of open source software and has headed the design and development of an open source design environment known as Ptolemy. He is a co-founder of BDTI, Inc., a technical analysis and advising company, where he is currently a Senior Technical Ad visor, has consulted for a number of other companies, and has served as an expert witness and/or advisor in software patent litigation cases. His research interests center on design, modeling, and analysis of embedded, real-time computational systems. He is a director of Chess, the Berkeley Center for Hybrid and Embedded Software Systems. He has published extensively, including six books and hundreds of research papers. Prior to Berkeley, Prof. Lee was a member of technical staff at Bell Telephone Laboratories in Holmdel, New Jersey, in the Advanced Data Communications Laboratory. His bachelors degree (B.S.) is from Yale University (1979), his masters (S.M.) from MIT (1981), and his Ph.D. from U. C. Berkeley (1986). He is a Fellow of the IEEE, was an NSF Presidential Young Investigator, and won the 1997 Frederick Emmons Terman Award for Engineering Education.
MODERATOR
John C. Hollar, President and Chief Executive Officer, Computer History Museum. He has served as CEO since 2008, and holds bachelor's degrees in political science and journalism (BFA), and in law (JD) from Harvard Law School.
AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION
The audience will serve as jurors. NOTE
Bob Zeidman will be signing copies of his most recent book, The Software IP Detective Handbook, after today's debate. The book will be made available for purchase in the Museum store.
Sponsors
Video
Software Patent Debate
Length: 0:57:57 | Rating: 4.891892 | Views: 2740
[Recorded: August 24, 2011]
THE MOTION: SOFTWARE PATENTS ENCOURAGE INNOVATION
Proponents of software patents argue that software deserves the protection of patents j...
Date
Wednesday August 24, 2011
12:00 PM
Program
Location
Jul 27,
2011
Speaker Series
CHM Soundbytes
MIPS: Risking It All on RISC
Stanford University President John Hennessy and MIPS colleagues Bob Miller, Skip Stritter and Joe DiNucci will discuss the story of MIPS, a groundbreaking company in the computer industry.
In 1981, Hennessy led the Stanford research team that developed a Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC) microprocessor that had the potential to dramatically increase performance and reduce costs.
Then in 1984, Hennessy joined Skip Stritter and John Mousourris to...
In 1981, Hennessy led the Stanford research team that developed a Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC) microprocessor that had the potential to dramatically increase performance and reduce costs.
Then in 1984, Hennessy joined Skip Stritter and John Mousourris to...
Stanford University President John Hennessy and MIPS colleagues Bob Miller, Skip Stritter and Joe DiNucci will discuss the story of MIPS, a groundbreaking company in the computer industry.
In 1981, Hennessy led the Stanford research team that developed a Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC) microprocessor that had the potential to dramatically increase performance and reduce costs.
Then in 1984, Hennessy joined Skip Stritter and John Mousourris to co-found MIPS Computer Systems to take on the daunting task of bringing a RISC microprocessor to market. Today called MIPS Technologies, it was the world's first commercial RISC chip company and one of the first semiconductor companies who rely on partners to fabricate their chips. The final radical touch: MIPS was a UNIX-based microprocessor, deeply influenced by the needs of the operating system and compilers. Hennessy and team were not just taking on huge hardware and software challenges; they were also taking on Intel, which by then had the dominant market position with its flagship processor family.
MIPS became one of the primary enablers of the explosive growth of the workstation market in the late 1980s. Silicon Graphics used powerful MIPS processors in its graphic servers and workstations. Moviegoers saw the results in a new generation of visually stunning blockbusters, including Star Wars, Jurassic Park and Toy Story. Today, MIPS processors are found in networking, telecommunications, video arcade games, video game consoles, computer printers, DSL and cable modems and digital TV and PDA applications.
Join us for a panel discussion on the rise of one of the great business and technology stories of computer history. The minds behind MIPS gather to discuss the creation and marketing of MIPS and its impact on the semiconductor and computing industries.
The program moderator, Dave House, spent 22 years at Intel, 13 of them as general manager of the microprocessor division against which the MIPS team competed. It should be a lively discussion.
In 1981, Hennessy led the Stanford research team that developed a Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC) microprocessor that had the potential to dramatically increase performance and reduce costs.
Then in 1984, Hennessy joined Skip Stritter and John Mousourris to co-found MIPS Computer Systems to take on the daunting task of bringing a RISC microprocessor to market. Today called MIPS Technologies, it was the world's first commercial RISC chip company and one of the first semiconductor companies who rely on partners to fabricate their chips. The final radical touch: MIPS was a UNIX-based microprocessor, deeply influenced by the needs of the operating system and compilers. Hennessy and team were not just taking on huge hardware and software challenges; they were also taking on Intel, which by then had the dominant market position with its flagship processor family.
MIPS became one of the primary enablers of the explosive growth of the workstation market in the late 1980s. Silicon Graphics used powerful MIPS processors in its graphic servers and workstations. Moviegoers saw the results in a new generation of visually stunning blockbusters, including Star Wars, Jurassic Park and Toy Story. Today, MIPS processors are found in networking, telecommunications, video arcade games, video game consoles, computer printers, DSL and cable modems and digital TV and PDA applications.
Join us for a panel discussion on the rise of one of the great business and technology stories of computer history. The minds behind MIPS gather to discuss the creation and marketing of MIPS and its impact on the semiconductor and computing industries.
The program moderator, Dave House, spent 22 years at Intel, 13 of them as general manager of the microprocessor division against which the MIPS team competed. It should be a lively discussion.
Sponsors
Video
MIPS: Risking It All on RISC
Length: 1:02:13 | Rating: 4.904762 | Views: 3055
[Recorded: July 27, 2011]
Stanford University President John Hennessy and MIPS colleagues Bob Miller, Skip Stritter and Joe DiNucci will discuss the story of MIPS, a...
Date
Wednesday July 27, 2011
12:00 PM
Program Begins
Free to Attend.
Bring your lunch and enjoy a lecture with CHM friends and family. Box lunches will be available in the Museum Cafe prior to the lecture.
The Museum will provide beverages and snacks.
Bring your lunch and enjoy a lecture with CHM friends and family. Box lunches will be available in the Museum Cafe prior to the lecture.
The Museum will provide beverages and snacks.
Location
Jul 14,
2011
Speaker Series
CHM Presents: Revolutionaries
SOMETHING VENTURED
About the Film. SOMETHING VENTURED tells the story of the creation of an industry that went on to become the single greatest engine of innovation and economic growth in the 20th century. It is told by the visionary risk-takers who dared to make it happen...Tom Perkins, Don Valentine, Arthur Rock, Dick Kramlich and others. The film also includes some of our finest entrepreneurs sharing how they worked with these venture capitalists to grow world-class...
About the Film. SOMETHING VENTURED tells the story of the creation of an industry that went on to become the single greatest engine of innovation and economic growth in the 20th century. It is told by the visionary risk-takers who dared to make it happen...Tom Perkins, Don Valentine, Arthur Rock, Dick Kramlich and others. The film also includes some of our finest entrepreneurs sharing how they worked with these venture capitalists to grow world-class companies like Intel, Apple, Cisco, Atari, Genentech, Tandem and others.
Beginning in the late 1950's, this small group of high rollers fostered a one-of-a-kind business culture that encouraged extraordinary risk and made possible unprecedented rewards. They laid the groundwork for America's start-up economy, providing not just the working capital but the guidance to allow seedling companies to reach their full potential. Our lives would be dramatically different without the contributions that these venture capitalists made to the creation of PCs, the Internet and life-saving drugs.
Directed by Emmy-Award-winning filmmakers Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine, SOMETHING VENTURED is executive produced by Paul Holland, a general partner with Foundation Capital, and Molly Davis, a founding partner of Rainmaker Communications.
SOMETHING VENTURED will also screen during the Palo Alto Film Festival, September 29 through October 2, 2011. PAIFF: Redefining Film in a Digital Age. PAIFF is a four-day festival celebrating the new forms of storytelling in film and media that have developed as a result of technological innovation. The inaugural festival showcases 20 features, 25 shorts and 30 talks, panels and workshops.
This screening is part of our 2011 lecture series celebrating Revolutionaries, featuring conversations with and about some of the most distinguished thinkers in the computing field. The Revolutionaries lecture series complements the launch of the Computer History Museum's permanent exhibition, Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing.
Beginning in the late 1950's, this small group of high rollers fostered a one-of-a-kind business culture that encouraged extraordinary risk and made possible unprecedented rewards. They laid the groundwork for America's start-up economy, providing not just the working capital but the guidance to allow seedling companies to reach their full potential. Our lives would be dramatically different without the contributions that these venture capitalists made to the creation of PCs, the Internet and life-saving drugs.
Directed by Emmy-Award-winning filmmakers Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine, SOMETHING VENTURED is executive produced by Paul Holland, a general partner with Foundation Capital, and Molly Davis, a founding partner of Rainmaker Communications.
SOMETHING VENTURED will also screen during the Palo Alto Film Festival, September 29 through October 2, 2011. PAIFF: Redefining Film in a Digital Age. PAIFF is a four-day festival celebrating the new forms of storytelling in film and media that have developed as a result of technological innovation. The inaugural festival showcases 20 features, 25 shorts and 30 talks, panels and workshops.
This screening is part of our 2011 lecture series celebrating Revolutionaries, featuring conversations with and about some of the most distinguished thinkers in the computing field. The Revolutionaries lecture series complements the launch of the Computer History Museum's permanent exhibition, Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing.
Sponsors
Date
Thursday July 14, 2011
6:00 PM
Reception
7:00 PM
Program
Film Showing A thirty-minute conversation with the film makers and producer, moderated by CHM's John Hollar, will immediately follow the film's screening.
Film Showing A thirty-minute conversation with the film makers and producer, moderated by CHM's John Hollar, will immediately follow the film's screening.
Location
Jun 29,
2011
Speaker Series
CHM Soundbytes
The History of Magnetic Striped Media Technology - A Lecture by Jerome Svigals
Magnetic striped media are used by more than 80% of the world's population. They are swiped through slot readers more than 50 billion times a year. They are used for financial transactions, automatic teller machines, mass transit access, identification and access control devices. Their information content is specified by national and international standards.
Magnetic striped media are used by more than 80% of the world’s population. They are swiped through slot readers more than 50 billion times a year. They are used for financial transactions, in automatic teller machines, mass transit access, identification and access control devices and their information content is specified by national and international standards.
Magnetic striped media design is surviving through subsequent technologies. Smart Cards with embedded chips in their media are still striped for transition and backup and the mobile phone when used as a payment device emits the same data stream as recorded on standard striped media.
The “simple” magnetic striped media was the combination of solutions to four different technical challenges. The first was mastering the how to apply magnetics to the surfaces of plastic cards or paper tickets. The second challenge was the specification of recordings which allow multiple industry use; the third challenge was the design of the accepting units to allow successful use of the media by the world’s population. The fourth challenge was design of the security system to control the use of an easily-read and recorded media.
Originally, the IBM development group for magnetic striped media faced rejection by engineering and marketing staffs. Engineering opposed the apparent lack of security. Marketing opposed a solution which was competitive with an alternative technology proposed by a major IBM customer.
This lecture will recount these events, the key players/organizations, and the answer to how magnetic media has become a technology used worldwide in such a wide variety of applications. Mr. Svigals is a former IBM executive and was the IBM development manager for magnetic media during the formative period of 1968 to 1973. He has since written 26 books on cards and payments. Svigals will conclude his talk with a brief projection of the media based industry through 2020.
Magnetic striped media design is surviving through subsequent technologies. Smart Cards with embedded chips in their media are still striped for transition and backup and the mobile phone when used as a payment device emits the same data stream as recorded on standard striped media.
The “simple” magnetic striped media was the combination of solutions to four different technical challenges. The first was mastering the how to apply magnetics to the surfaces of plastic cards or paper tickets. The second challenge was the specification of recordings which allow multiple industry use; the third challenge was the design of the accepting units to allow successful use of the media by the world’s population. The fourth challenge was design of the security system to control the use of an easily-read and recorded media.
Originally, the IBM development group for magnetic striped media faced rejection by engineering and marketing staffs. Engineering opposed the apparent lack of security. Marketing opposed a solution which was competitive with an alternative technology proposed by a major IBM customer.
This lecture will recount these events, the key players/organizations, and the answer to how magnetic media has become a technology used worldwide in such a wide variety of applications. Mr. Svigals is a former IBM executive and was the IBM development manager for magnetic media during the formative period of 1968 to 1973. He has since written 26 books on cards and payments. Svigals will conclude his talk with a brief projection of the media based industry through 2020.
Video
The History of Magnetic Striped Media Technology
Length: 0:50:58 | Rating: 5.0 | Views: 1122
[Recorded: June 29, 2011]
Magnetic striped media are used by more than 80% of the world's population. They are swiped through slot readers more than 50 billion times...
Date
Wednesday June 29, 2011
12:00 PM
Program Begins
Free
Bring your lunch and enjoy a lecture with CHM friends and family. Lunch will be available for purchase in the Museum's Cafe prior to the lecture.
The Museum will provide beverages and snacks.
Bring your lunch and enjoy a lecture with CHM friends and family. Lunch will be available for purchase in the Museum's Cafe prior to the lecture.
The Museum will provide beverages and snacks.
Location
May 11,
2011
Speaker Series
CHM Presents Revolutionaries
Sir Maurice Wilkes: The Man and His Machine
This event is part of our 2011 lecture series celebrating Revolutionaries, featuring conversations with and about some of the most distinguished thinkers in the computing field. The Revolutionaries lecture series complements the launch of the Computer History Museum’s permanent exhibition, Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing.
Sir Maurice Wilkes, without doubt one of the foremost pioneers of computing, died in November last year aged 97. In a remarkably long and distinguished career, he built the EDSAC the world's first electronic stored-program computer to go into regular service, and went on to pioneer concepts such a microprogramming, bit-sliced architectures, local area networks and many many other things. He served the international computing community with distinction and gained many honours.
David Hartley has spent almost the whole of his career in Cambridge University much of it in close association with Sir Maurice. In conversation with CHM’s John Hollar, David will describe Sir Maurice's more important achievements, including the EDSAC computer, as well as giving a personal view of a man that he knew and with whom he worked over such a long period of time.
This event is part of our 2011 lecture series celebrating Revolutionaries, featuring conversations with and about some of the most distinguished thinkers in the computing field. The Revolutionaries lecture series complements the launch of the Computer History Museum’s permanent exhibition, Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing.
David Hartley has spent almost the whole of his career in Cambridge University much of it in close association with Sir Maurice. In conversation with CHM’s John Hollar, David will describe Sir Maurice's more important achievements, including the EDSAC computer, as well as giving a personal view of a man that he knew and with whom he worked over such a long period of time.
This event is part of our 2011 lecture series celebrating Revolutionaries, featuring conversations with and about some of the most distinguished thinkers in the computing field. The Revolutionaries lecture series complements the launch of the Computer History Museum’s permanent exhibition, Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing.
Video
Maurice Wilkes -- The Man and His Machine
Length: 1:14:18 | Rating: 4.8095236 | Views: 1336
[Recorded: May 11, 2011]
Sir Maurice Wilkes, without doubt one of the foremost pioneers of computing, died in November last year aged 97. In a remarkably long and di...
Date
Wednesday May 11, 2011
6:00 PM
Member Reception
Museum Members Only
7:00 PM
Program
Free
Location
May 11,
2011
Speaker Series
CHM Soundbytes
Computer Conservation in the United Kingdom: The EDSAC Replica Project
The Computer History Museum is very pleased to welcome Kevin Murrell to our stage for a lecture about computer conservation in the United Kingdom. Mr. Murrell will provide an overview of the British Computer Society’s Computer Conservation Society (CCS) and its restoration projects, including the EDSAC replica project, and the restoration of the Harwell Dekatron computer. The CCS has a twenty year track record in successfully recreating pioneering computers.
Recreating a fully functioning EDSAC computer is quite a challenge, but our experience in rebuilding the Colossus computer gives us confidence and insight. - Kevin Murrell, Director and Trustee The National Museum of Computing
The Computer History Museum is very pleased to welcome Kevin Murrell to our stage for a lecture about computer conservation in the United Kingdom. Mr. Murrell will provide an overview of the British Computer Society’s Computer Conservation Society (CCS) and its restoration projects, including the EDSAC replica project, and the restoration of the Harwell Dekatron computer. The CCS has a twenty year track record in successfully recreating pioneering computers.
Mr. Murrell’s visit coincides with that of Dr. David Hartley, who will visit our stage later in the evening to pay tribute to Sir Maurice Wilkes and his many achievements, among them the design and creation of the EDSAC.
The Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator (EDSAC) was a general purpose research tool at Cambridge University and also led directly to the first business computer. It is planned to recreate EDSAC in full public view at The National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park. The project, which is expected to take three to
four years, is being funded by a consortium led by computing entrepreneur, Hermann Hauser.
EDSAC Facts
• EDSAC was based on the ideas of John von Neumann and others who in 1945 suggested that the future of computing lay in computers which could store sets of instructions (programs) as well as data.
• EDSAC was over two metres high and occupied a ground area of four metres by five metres.
• Its 3000+ vacuum tubes used as logic were arranged on 12 racks.
• Mercury-filled tubes acted as memory
• It performed 650 instructions per second.
• EDSAC ran its first program on 6 May 1949 and soon began nine years of regular service ending in July 1958 when it was dismantled to enable the re-use of precious space. By then it had been superseded by the faster,
more reliable and much larger EDSAC 2.
Professor Andrew Hopper, Head of the Computer Laboratory at Cambridge University, said: EDSAC set computing standards for academia and commerce. It was so successful that in the nine years following 1949 it was used by Cambridge University researchers in studies such as genetics, meteorology and X-ray crystallography and even helped two researchers win Nobel prizes. EDSAC also led directly to the first
commercially applied computer, the LEO, that broke new ground by enabling the catering company J Lyons & Co Ltd to perform payroll calculations in 1953.
The recreation will be as authentic as possible and true to the spirit and technology of the time. Occupying a floor area of 20 square metres, the replica EDSAC is planned to be a highly visible display. The original had over 3000 electronic tubes (or valves) used for logic, mercury-filled tubes for memory, data input via paper tape and output on a teleprinter. Only the mercury-filled tubes are expected not to be recreated – in compliance with modern safety requirements – and will be substituted with a similar delay line storage technology. Len Shustek, the Chairman of CHM’s Board of Trustees, will join Kevin on stage for the Q&A portion of this event.
The Computer History Museum is very pleased to welcome Kevin Murrell to our stage for a lecture about computer conservation in the United Kingdom. Mr. Murrell will provide an overview of the British Computer Society’s Computer Conservation Society (CCS) and its restoration projects, including the EDSAC replica project, and the restoration of the Harwell Dekatron computer. The CCS has a twenty year track record in successfully recreating pioneering computers.
Mr. Murrell’s visit coincides with that of Dr. David Hartley, who will visit our stage later in the evening to pay tribute to Sir Maurice Wilkes and his many achievements, among them the design and creation of the EDSAC.
The Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator (EDSAC) was a general purpose research tool at Cambridge University and also led directly to the first business computer. It is planned to recreate EDSAC in full public view at The National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park. The project, which is expected to take three to
four years, is being funded by a consortium led by computing entrepreneur, Hermann Hauser.
EDSAC Facts
• EDSAC was based on the ideas of John von Neumann and others who in 1945 suggested that the future of computing lay in computers which could store sets of instructions (programs) as well as data.
• EDSAC was over two metres high and occupied a ground area of four metres by five metres.
• Its 3000+ vacuum tubes used as logic were arranged on 12 racks.
• Mercury-filled tubes acted as memory
• It performed 650 instructions per second.
• EDSAC ran its first program on 6 May 1949 and soon began nine years of regular service ending in July 1958 when it was dismantled to enable the re-use of precious space. By then it had been superseded by the faster,
more reliable and much larger EDSAC 2.
Professor Andrew Hopper, Head of the Computer Laboratory at Cambridge University, said: EDSAC set computing standards for academia and commerce. It was so successful that in the nine years following 1949 it was used by Cambridge University researchers in studies such as genetics, meteorology and X-ray crystallography and even helped two researchers win Nobel prizes. EDSAC also led directly to the first
commercially applied computer, the LEO, that broke new ground by enabling the catering company J Lyons & Co Ltd to perform payroll calculations in 1953.
The recreation will be as authentic as possible and true to the spirit and technology of the time. Occupying a floor area of 20 square metres, the replica EDSAC is planned to be a highly visible display. The original had over 3000 electronic tubes (or valves) used for logic, mercury-filled tubes for memory, data input via paper tape and output on a teleprinter. Only the mercury-filled tubes are expected not to be recreated – in compliance with modern safety requirements – and will be substituted with a similar delay line storage technology. Len Shustek, the Chairman of CHM’s Board of Trustees, will join Kevin on stage for the Q&A portion of this event.
Video
The EDSAC Replica Project -- Computer Conservation in the UK
Length: 0:55:34 | Rating: 5.0 | Views: 1246
[Recorded: May 11, 2011]
"Recreating a fully functioning EDSAC computer is quite a challenge, but our experience in rebuilding the Colossus computer gives us confide...
Date
Wednesday May 11, 2011
12:00 PM
Program Begins
Free.
Bring your lunch and enjoy a lecture with CHM friends and family. Lunch will be available for purchase in the Museum's Cafe prior to the lecture.
The Museum will provided beverages and snacks.
Bring your lunch and enjoy a lecture with CHM friends and family. Lunch will be available for purchase in the Museum's Cafe prior to the lecture.
The Museum will provided beverages and snacks.
Location
Apr 25,
2011
Speaker Series
CHM Presents Revolutionaries
Idea Man: Author Paul Allen in Conversation with Jose Antonio Vargas
This event is part of our 2011 lecture series celebrating Revolutionaries, featuring conversations with and about some of the most distinguished thinkers in the computing field. The Revolutionaries lecture series complements the launch of the Computer History Museum’s permanent exhibition, Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing.
In 2007 and 2008, Time named Paul Allen one of the hundred most influential people in the world. His impact has been felt in science, technology, business, medicine, sports, music, and philanthropy. His passion, curiosity, and intellectual rigor - combined with the resources to launch and support new initiatives - have literally changed the world.
In 2009 Allen discovered that he had lymphoma, lending urgency to his desire to share his story for the first time. In this long-awaited memoir, Allen explains how he has solved problems, what he's learned from his many endeavors--both the triumphs and the failures--and his compelling vision for the future. He reflects candidly on an extraordinary life. The book also features previously untold stories about everything from the true origins of Microsoft to Allen's role in the dawn of private space travel (with SpaceShipOne) and in discoveries at the frontiers of brain science.
Paul Allen co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates. He is the chairman of Vulcan Inc. and founder of the Allen Institute for Brain Science. He also owns the Seattle Seahawks and the Portland Trail Blazers and is co-owner of the Seattle Sounders pro soccer team.
Join us for a fascinating glimpse into Paul Allen’s life and work, with the award-winning multimedia journalist, Jose Antonio Vargas.
This event is part of our 2011 lecture series celebrating Revolutionaries, featuring conversations with and about some of the most distinguished thinkers in the computing field. The Revolutionaries lecture series complements the launch of the Computer History Museum’s permanent exhibition, Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing. This event is brought to you by Kepler’s and the Computer History Museum.
In 2009 Allen discovered that he had lymphoma, lending urgency to his desire to share his story for the first time. In this long-awaited memoir, Allen explains how he has solved problems, what he's learned from his many endeavors--both the triumphs and the failures--and his compelling vision for the future. He reflects candidly on an extraordinary life. The book also features previously untold stories about everything from the true origins of Microsoft to Allen's role in the dawn of private space travel (with SpaceShipOne) and in discoveries at the frontiers of brain science.
Paul Allen co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates. He is the chairman of Vulcan Inc. and founder of the Allen Institute for Brain Science. He also owns the Seattle Seahawks and the Portland Trail Blazers and is co-owner of the Seattle Sounders pro soccer team.
Join us for a fascinating glimpse into Paul Allen’s life and work, with the award-winning multimedia journalist, Jose Antonio Vargas.
This event is part of our 2011 lecture series celebrating Revolutionaries, featuring conversations with and about some of the most distinguished thinkers in the computing field. The Revolutionaries lecture series complements the launch of the Computer History Museum’s permanent exhibition, Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing. This event is brought to you by Kepler’s and the Computer History Museum.
Video
Paul Allen - Revolutionary Idea Man
Length: 1:04:59 | Rating: 5.0 | Views: 6778
[Recorded: April 25, 2011]
In 2007 and 2008, Time Magazine named Paul Allen one of the hundred most influential people in the world. His impact has been felt in scie...
Date
Monday April 25, 2011
6:00 PM
Reception
CHM Members Only
7:00 PM
Program Begins
8:30 PM
Author Book Signing
30 Minutes Only
Location
Apr 6,
2011
Speaker Series
CHM Presents Revolutionaires
In The Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives. Author Steven Levy in Conversation with NPR’s Laura Sydell
This event is part of our 2011 lecture series celebrating Revolutionaries, featuring conversations with and about some of the most distinguished thinkers in the computing field. The Revolutionaries lecture series complements the launch of the Computer History Museum’s permanent exhibition, Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing.
Few companies in history have ever been as successful and admired as Google, the startup that has transformed the Internet and become an indispensable part of our lives. How has Google done it? Veteran technology reporter Steven Levy was granted unprecedented access to the company, and in this revelatory book he takes readers inside Google headquarters – the Googleplex – to show how Google works.
The Computer History Museum is pleased to be the first stop on Levy’s book tour, and to have Levy and Sydell – who have both been reporting on Google for over a decade – on our stage to examine Google from the inside out. Their conversation will be wide ranging -- including a look at Google’s many successful businesses -- due in large part according to Levy to its engineering mindset, and adoption of Internet values like speed, openness, experimentation and risk-taking. They will also discuss whether Google has lost its innovative edge, its stumble in China, its newest initiative in social networking where it’s chasing a successful competitor for the first time…and much more.
This event is part of our 2011 lecture series celebrating Revolutionaries, featuring conversations with and about some of the most distinguished thinkers in the computing field. The Revolutionaries lecture series complements the launch of the Computer History Museum’s permanent exhibition, Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing. Keplers Books will be on location to sell copies of In The Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives.
The Computer History Museum is pleased to be the first stop on Levy’s book tour, and to have Levy and Sydell – who have both been reporting on Google for over a decade – on our stage to examine Google from the inside out. Their conversation will be wide ranging -- including a look at Google’s many successful businesses -- due in large part according to Levy to its engineering mindset, and adoption of Internet values like speed, openness, experimentation and risk-taking. They will also discuss whether Google has lost its innovative edge, its stumble in China, its newest initiative in social networking where it’s chasing a successful competitor for the first time…and much more.
This event is part of our 2011 lecture series celebrating Revolutionaries, featuring conversations with and about some of the most distinguished thinkers in the computing field. The Revolutionaries lecture series complements the launch of the Computer History Museum’s permanent exhibition, Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing. Keplers Books will be on location to sell copies of In The Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives.
Video
Stephen Levy -- Author of In the Plex, How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives
Length: 1:24:21 | Rating: 4.75 | Views: 3038
[Recorded: April 6, 2011]
Few companies in history have ever been as successful and admired as Google, the startup that has transformed the Internet and become an i...
Date
Wednesday April 6, 2011
6:00 PM
Member Reception
Museum Members Only
7:00 PM
Program
Free
Location
Mar 9,
2011
Speaker Series
CHM Presents Revolutionaires
Author Jane McGonigal in Conversation with NPR’s Laura Sydell. Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World
We’re going to see games tackling women’s rights. We’re going to see games around climate change. We’re going to see games around medical innovation that doctors are going to play.- Jane McGonigal
We’re going to see games tackling women’s rights. We’re going to see games around climate change. We’re going to see games around medical innovation that doctors are going to play.- Jane McGonigal
In 1988, when Jane McGonigal was 10, she started gaming for fun on a Commodore 64 computer. Twenty-two years and one Berkeley Ph.D later, she still thinks games are fun. But as director of game research and development at the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto, she also thinks they can save the world. In fact, her first book, Reality is Broken, predicts a game designer will win the Nobel Peace Prize. (From O Magazine’s 2010 Power List)
Why, McGonigal asks, should we use the power of games for escapist entertainment alone? Her research suggests that gamers are expert problem solvers and collaborators, because they cooperate with other players to overcome daunting virtual challenges, and she helped pioneer a fast-growing genre of games that aim to turn gameplay to socially positive ends.
In Reality is Broken, she reveals how these new Alternate Reality Games are already improving the quality of our daily lives, fighting social problems like depression and obesity and addressing vital twenty-first century challenges – and she forecasts the thrilling possibilities that lie ahead. She introduces us to games like World Without Oil, a simulation designed to brainstorm – and therefore avert – the challenges of a worldwide oil shortage, and Evoke, a game commissioned by the World Bank Institute that sends players on missions to address issues from poverty to climate change.
Join NPR’s Laura Sydell for what is certain to be a fascinating and provocative conversation with visionary Jane McGonigal. They’ll discuss the ways in which we might harness the power of games to solve real world problems and boost global happiness. Revolutionary thinking for certain!
This event is part of our 2011 lecture series celebrating Revolutionaries, featuring conversations with and about some of the most distinguished thinkers in the computing field. The Revolutionaries lecture series complements the launch of the Computer History Museum’s permanent exhibition: Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing. Keplers Books will be on location to sell copies of Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World.
In 1988, when Jane McGonigal was 10, she started gaming for fun on a Commodore 64 computer. Twenty-two years and one Berkeley Ph.D later, she still thinks games are fun. But as director of game research and development at the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto, she also thinks they can save the world. In fact, her first book, Reality is Broken, predicts a game designer will win the Nobel Peace Prize. (From O Magazine’s 2010 Power List)
Why, McGonigal asks, should we use the power of games for escapist entertainment alone? Her research suggests that gamers are expert problem solvers and collaborators, because they cooperate with other players to overcome daunting virtual challenges, and she helped pioneer a fast-growing genre of games that aim to turn gameplay to socially positive ends.
In Reality is Broken, she reveals how these new Alternate Reality Games are already improving the quality of our daily lives, fighting social problems like depression and obesity and addressing vital twenty-first century challenges – and she forecasts the thrilling possibilities that lie ahead. She introduces us to games like World Without Oil, a simulation designed to brainstorm – and therefore avert – the challenges of a worldwide oil shortage, and Evoke, a game commissioned by the World Bank Institute that sends players on missions to address issues from poverty to climate change.
Join NPR’s Laura Sydell for what is certain to be a fascinating and provocative conversation with visionary Jane McGonigal. They’ll discuss the ways in which we might harness the power of games to solve real world problems and boost global happiness. Revolutionary thinking for certain!
This event is part of our 2011 lecture series celebrating Revolutionaries, featuring conversations with and about some of the most distinguished thinkers in the computing field. The Revolutionaries lecture series complements the launch of the Computer History Museum’s permanent exhibition: Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing. Keplers Books will be on location to sell copies of Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World.
Video
Jane McGonigal -- Computer Gaming Revolutionary, Author of Reality is Broken
Length: 1:19:23 | Rating: 4.6734695 | Views: 3517
[Recorded: March 9, 2011]
"We're going to see games tackling women's rights. We're going to see games around climate change. We're going to see games around medical...
Date
Wednesday March 9, 2011
6:00 PM
Member Reception
Museum Members Only
7:00 PM
Program
Location
Mar 6,
2011
Cinema Series
CHM Film Showing
Top Secret Rosies: The Female Computers of World War II
In 1942, when computers were human and women were underestimated, a group of female mathematicians helped win a war and usher in the modern computer age. Sixty-five years later their story has finally been told.
In 1942, when computers were human and women were underestimated, a group of female mathematicians helped win a war and usher in the modern computer age. Sixty-five years later their story has finally been told.
The Computer History Museum welcomes filmmaker LeAnn Erickson during her year long screening tour of the documentary Top Secret Rosies: The Female Computers of WWII. Ms. Erickson will screen the film and conduct a Question/Answer session to follow.
This one hour documentary shares the little known story of a group of female mathematicians who did secret ballistics research for the US Army during WWII, a handful of whom went on to serve as the programmers of ENIAC, the first electronic computer. Jean Jennings Bartik, a Computer History Museum Fellow, appears in the film, along with other female 'human computers' and two veterans who used their ballistics work. Free to Attend
The Computer History Museum welcomes filmmaker LeAnn Erickson during her year long screening tour of the documentary Top Secret Rosies: The Female Computers of WWII. Ms. Erickson will screen the film and conduct a Question/Answer session to follow.
This one hour documentary shares the little known story of a group of female mathematicians who did secret ballistics research for the US Army during WWII, a handful of whom went on to serve as the programmers of ENIAC, the first electronic computer. Jean Jennings Bartik, a Computer History Museum Fellow, appears in the film, along with other female 'human computers' and two veterans who used their ballistics work. Free to Attend
Date
Sunday March 6, 2011
4:00 PM
Film Begins
5:30 PM
Revolution Tour
Location
Feb 23,
2011
Speaker Series
CHM Presents
40th Anniversary of SPICE
Please Join us for the 40th Anniversary Celebration of the SPICE (Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis), circuit simulator. You will get to witness a roundtable discussion of those responsible for the creation and world-wide propagation of this invaluable and universally used software program. Topics will include the origins, evolution, and future of SPICE, and its seminal role as early open-source software.
Please Join us for the 40th Anniversary Celebration of the SPICE (Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis), circuit simulator. SPICE was born as a class project at UC Berkeley and first released in 1971. You will get to witness a roundtable discussion of those responsible for the creation and world-wide propagation of this invaluable and universally used software program. Topics will include the origins, evolution, and future of SPICE, and its seminal role as early open-source software.
For ISSCC Attendees 4:30 p.m. Coach Service will depart from San Francisco Marriott (Optional)*- Fee $20
Deadline to sign up for the Coach Service is February 16th.
Deadline to sign up for the Coach Service is February 16th.
Video
SPICE Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis
Length: 1:02:03 | Rating: 5.0 | Views: 2586
[Recorded: February 23, 2011]
The SPICE (Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis) circuit simulator program celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. SP...
Date
Wednesday February 23, 2011
6:00 PM
Reception
Free
7:00 PM
Program
Free
Location
Feb 10,
2011
Speaker Series
CHM Soundbytes Revolutionaries
William H. Draper III, Author of The Startup Game: Inside the Partnership Between Venture Capitalists and Entrepreneurs, in Conversation with KQED’s Dave Iverson
This event is part of our 2011 lecture series celebrating Revolutionaries, featuring conversations with and about some of the most distinguished thinkers in the computing field. The Revolutionaries lecture series complements the launch of the Computer History Museum’s permanent exhibition, Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing.
When we think of Silicon Valley today, innovative companies such as Google, Facebook, Open Table, and others will come to mind for just about every American. It’s difficult to imagine these powerhouses as small, struggling start-ups, but at some point, each one was just a good idea that needed support, and for these and countless others, that support came through venture capitalists. Venture capital is much more than the caricature many may think of when they hear the term; these businessmen and women do not invest millions with the sole hope of “cashing out” in the future. In fact, they provide creative thinkers with both the capital necessary to turn their vision into a reality, as well as the business know-how and networking skills necessary to keep the company afloat.
The Startup Game covers Bill Draper’s forty years of experience and describes how vital the relationship between venture capitalist and entrepreneur is to the future of business, and offers lessons culled from decades of working in the technology center of the world. Draper extracts lessons and advice that only a lifetime in the field can provide—from the necessary qualities any successful entrepreneur must possess to the importance of friendship and family in the business world. He provides candid descriptions of his own successes and failures in venture capital and public service, and writes passionately about the important role government can—and in his view should—play in encouraging new businesses in the United States.
The Museum is very proud to welcome the team of Draper and Iverson to our stage. Dave Iverson is a master interviewer and will conduct a fascinating conversation with one of our country’s leading venture capitalists.
This event is part of our 2011 lecture series celebrating Revolutionaries, featuring conversations with and about some of the most distinguished thinkers in the computing field. The Revolutionaries lecture series complements the launch of the Computer History Museum’s permanent exhibition, Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing. Kepler’s Books will be on-site selling copies of The Startup Game, and there will be a book signing following the program.
The Startup Game covers Bill Draper’s forty years of experience and describes how vital the relationship between venture capitalist and entrepreneur is to the future of business, and offers lessons culled from decades of working in the technology center of the world. Draper extracts lessons and advice that only a lifetime in the field can provide—from the necessary qualities any successful entrepreneur must possess to the importance of friendship and family in the business world. He provides candid descriptions of his own successes and failures in venture capital and public service, and writes passionately about the important role government can—and in his view should—play in encouraging new businesses in the United States.
The Museum is very proud to welcome the team of Draper and Iverson to our stage. Dave Iverson is a master interviewer and will conduct a fascinating conversation with one of our country’s leading venture capitalists.
This event is part of our 2011 lecture series celebrating Revolutionaries, featuring conversations with and about some of the most distinguished thinkers in the computing field. The Revolutionaries lecture series complements the launch of the Computer History Museum’s permanent exhibition, Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing. Kepler’s Books will be on-site selling copies of The Startup Game, and there will be a book signing following the program.
Video
William (Bill) Draper III, Revolutionary Venture Capitalist
Length: 1:00:30 | Rating: 5.0 | Views: 964
[Recorded: February 10, 2011]
When we think of Silicon Valley today, innovative companies such as Google, Facebook, Open Table, and others will come to mind. It's di...
Date
Thursday February 10, 2011
12:00 PM
Lecture
Bring your lunch and enjoy a lecture with CHM friends and family. Beverages will be provided.
Location
Jan 27,
2011
Speaker Series
CHM Presents Revolutionaries
Jane Smiley, Author of The Man Who Invented the Computer: The Biography of John Atanasoff, Digital Pioneer, in Conversation with CHM's John C. Hollar
This event is the first in our 2011 lecture series celebrating Revolutionaries, featuring conversations with and about some of the most distinguished thinkers in the computing field. The Revolutionaries lecture series complements the launch of the Computer History Museum's permanent exhibition: Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing.
One night in the late 1930s, in a bar on the Illinois-Iowa border, John Vincent Atanasoff, a professor of physics at Iowa State University, after a frustrating day performing tedious mathematical calculations in his lab, hit on the idea that the binary number system and electronic switches, combined with an array of capacitors on a moving drum to serve as memory, could yield a computing machine that would make his life and the lives of other similarly burdened scientists easier. Then he went back and built the machine. It worked. The whole world changed.
Why don't we know the name of John Atanasoff as well as we know those of Alan Turing and John von Neumann? Atanasoff never secured a patent for his early device, and a number of the concepts he pioneered were incorporated into the breakthrough ENIAC computer that evolved into the legendary UNIVAC. But in 1973 a court declared that the patent on that Sperry Rand device was invalid, opening the intellectual property gates to the computer revolution.
Join Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Jane Smiley in a conversation with the Computer History Museum's John Hollar about the fascinating man who beat the world's greatest minds in the quest to develop the first true digital computing machine.
This event is the first in our 2011 lecture series celebrating Revolutionaries, featuring conversations with and about some of the most distinguished thinkers in the computing field. The Revolutionaries lecture series complements the launch of the Computer History Museum's permanent exhibition: Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing. Gordon Bell will introduce the program, which will feature selected footage from John Atanasoff's 1980 appearance at the Computer Museum in Boston.
Kepler's Books will be on location selling copies of The Man Who Invented the Computer.
Why don't we know the name of John Atanasoff as well as we know those of Alan Turing and John von Neumann? Atanasoff never secured a patent for his early device, and a number of the concepts he pioneered were incorporated into the breakthrough ENIAC computer that evolved into the legendary UNIVAC. But in 1973 a court declared that the patent on that Sperry Rand device was invalid, opening the intellectual property gates to the computer revolution.
Join Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Jane Smiley in a conversation with the Computer History Museum's John Hollar about the fascinating man who beat the world's greatest minds in the quest to develop the first true digital computing machine.
This event is the first in our 2011 lecture series celebrating Revolutionaries, featuring conversations with and about some of the most distinguished thinkers in the computing field. The Revolutionaries lecture series complements the launch of the Computer History Museum's permanent exhibition: Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing. Gordon Bell will introduce the program, which will feature selected footage from John Atanasoff's 1980 appearance at the Computer Museum in Boston.
Kepler's Books will be on location selling copies of The Man Who Invented the Computer.
Video
Jane Smiley: Author of The Man Who Invented the Computer
Length: 1:21:54 | Rating: 4.4666667 | Views: 2198
[Recorded: January 27, 2011]
One night in the late 1930s, in a bar on the Iowa-Illinois border, John Vincent Atanasoff, a professor of physics at Iowa State Universi...
Date
Thursday January 27, 2011
6:00 PM
Member Reception
Museum Members Only
7:00 PM
Program
Location
Aug 19,
2010
Speaker Series
CHM Presents
Net@40: Not Your Father’s Internet: Redefining Digital Culture. Intel’s Dr. Genevieve Bell and UC Berkeley’s Dr. Abigail De Kosnik in Conversation with NPR’s Laura Sydell
In 1998 Americans represented nearly three quarters of all Internet users; today they are less than fifteen percent. The complexion of the Web - its users, their desires, their languages, points of entry and experiences - has subtly and not-so-subtly changed. All these new online participants bring with them different values, social norms, and styles of expression. Today's Internet is increasingly a reflection of the world's cultures and its governments, which often have very different ideas about how to shape what happens online.
Not Your Father's Internet
In 1998 Americans represented nearly three quarters of all Internet users; today they are less than fifteen percent. The complexion of the Web - its users, their desires, their languages, points of entry and experiences - has subtly and not-so-subtly changed. All these new online participants bring with them different values, social norms, and styles of expression. Today's Internet is increasingly a reflection of the world's cultures and its governments, which often have very different ideas about how to shape what happens online.
Join NPR's Digital Culture Correspondent Laura Sydell, and her guests for an engaging discussion about the changing face of the Internet. The many pioneers who built our networked world had a great variety of visions-- and hopes-- for how it might turn out. But nobody could predict all the ways this new mass medium has evolved in the real world of billions of users. Today the Internet may be like a large city with rich and poor neighborhoods, dangerous corners, and gated communities that Netizens must navigate at their own risk.
We'll examine this evolution from a global perspective: What is the Internet becoming? Has its open architecture become so frightening to some users that they would prefer to return to closed networks? How will varying ideas about privacy, identity, anonymity and democracy shape the Internet of the future? Is the free and open Internet our fathers fought to build over the objections of commercial giants, soon to be shaped more by corporations and governments than by individual creativity and the free flow of ideas? The Net@40 Program is in partnership with NPR.
In 1998 Americans represented nearly three quarters of all Internet users; today they are less than fifteen percent. The complexion of the Web - its users, their desires, their languages, points of entry and experiences - has subtly and not-so-subtly changed. All these new online participants bring with them different values, social norms, and styles of expression. Today's Internet is increasingly a reflection of the world's cultures and its governments, which often have very different ideas about how to shape what happens online.
Join NPR's Digital Culture Correspondent Laura Sydell, and her guests for an engaging discussion about the changing face of the Internet. The many pioneers who built our networked world had a great variety of visions-- and hopes-- for how it might turn out. But nobody could predict all the ways this new mass medium has evolved in the real world of billions of users. Today the Internet may be like a large city with rich and poor neighborhoods, dangerous corners, and gated communities that Netizens must navigate at their own risk.
We'll examine this evolution from a global perspective: What is the Internet becoming? Has its open architecture become so frightening to some users that they would prefer to return to closed networks? How will varying ideas about privacy, identity, anonymity and democracy shape the Internet of the future? Is the free and open Internet our fathers fought to build over the objections of commercial giants, soon to be shaped more by corporations and governments than by individual creativity and the free flow of ideas? The Net@40 Program is in partnership with NPR.
Video
Not Your Father's Internet
Length: 1:22:53 | Rating: 4.368421 | Views: 2994
[Recorded: August 19, 2010]
In 1998 Americans represented nearly three quarters of all Internet users; today they are less than fifteen percent. The complexion of th...
Date
Thursday August 19, 2010
6:00 PM
Member Reception
CHM Members Only
7:00 PM
Program
Location
Jul 21,
2010
Speaker Series
CHM Presents
Net@40: The Facebook Effect, Author David Kirkpatrick, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, in Conversation with NPR’s Guy Raz
As part of its Net@40 series, the Computer History Museum is proud to present an evening of fascinating dialogue between Kirkpatrick and Zuckerberg on the past and future of Facebook. The moderator will be Guy Raz, the Peabody award-winning host of NPR’s All Things Considered.
The growth and impact of Facebook is mind blowing, even for an industry that considers “overnight success” to be a long-range goal. Founded in a Harvard dorm room on February 4th 2004 by 19-year-old Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook now has almost 500 million active users. Most are outside of the United States. Half of them log on every day.
Facebook has already made an irreversible impact on society, marketing and politics – even driving protest around the world including in countries such as Colombia and Iran. Facebook is also changing our sense of identity: “I am on Facebook; therefore I am.”
Longtime Fortune technology writer David Kirkpatrick chronicles the rise of Facebook in one of the most anticipated books of 2010: The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting The World. Kirkpatrick gained the full cooperation of Zuckerberg and his team. The Facebook Effect is the first historically authoritative account of how a simple idea became the dominant way to communicate on the Internet.
As part of its Net@40 series, the Computer History Museum is proud to present an evening of fascinating dialogue between Kirkpatrick and Zuckerberg on the past and future of Facebook. The moderator will be Guy Raz, the Peabody award-winning host of NPR’s All Things Considered. The Net@40 Program is in partnership with National Public Radio.
Facebook has already made an irreversible impact on society, marketing and politics – even driving protest around the world including in countries such as Colombia and Iran. Facebook is also changing our sense of identity: “I am on Facebook; therefore I am.”
Longtime Fortune technology writer David Kirkpatrick chronicles the rise of Facebook in one of the most anticipated books of 2010: The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting The World. Kirkpatrick gained the full cooperation of Zuckerberg and his team. The Facebook Effect is the first historically authoritative account of how a simple idea became the dominant way to communicate on the Internet.
As part of its Net@40 series, the Computer History Museum is proud to present an evening of fascinating dialogue between Kirkpatrick and Zuckerberg on the past and future of Facebook. The moderator will be Guy Raz, the Peabody award-winning host of NPR’s All Things Considered. The Net@40 Program is in partnership with National Public Radio.
Video
The Facebook Effect with Mark Zuckerberg
Length: 1:33:54 | Rating: 4.8609796 | Views: 173937
[Recorded: July 21, 2010]
The growth and impact of Facebook is mind blowing, even for an industry that considers "overnight success" to be a long-range goal. Founded...
Date
Wednesday July 21, 2010
6:00 PM
Reception
7:00 PM
Program
8:30 PM
Book Signing
Kepler's will be on-site selling copies of The Facebook Effect.
Location
Jul 15,
2010
Speaker Series
The CHM Affiliated History Program Presents
Before Bangalore and Silicon Valley: How Indian MIT and IIT Graduates Have Shaped Computing History
CHM’s July 15 “In Conversation With” program will feature Dr. Bassett and T.M. Ravi an IIT graduate, Silicon Valley businessman, and member of TIE discussing the roots of the Indian IT industry and its influence on the computing history.
In the last fifteen years the very names Bangalore and Silicon Valley have become evocative of the important connections between India and the United States in the global IT industry. Historian Ross Bassett argues that the linkages between the two countries are far older and deeper than is widely known. In the course of his research, he found that Indian graduates of MIT, to a remarkable extent, significantly influenced the creation of modern technological India. In the colonial period, a small group of Indians, including some associated with Gandhi, went to MIT as an anti-colonial act and as a way to develop technological capabilities for India. Indian graduates of MIT played a key role in the founding of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), and in the years after 1947, were central figures in the Indian steel industry, the atomic program, and the space program. The Indian IT industry today is to an astounding degree the product of Indian graduates of MIT. Since 1965, Indian graduates of MIT and graduates of MIT once removed---that is graduates of the IITs---have also played an increasingly important role in American technology and computing.
Bassett’s research is based on numerous research trips to India and scores of interviews. For this project he created a database of every Indian graduate of MIT in the 20th century. Bassett has published articles on Indian graduates of MIT and on IIT Kanpur. His work was profiled in the Economic Times of India and he was invited to give to Godrej Lecture in Business History in Mumbai in October, 2009.
CHM’s July 15 “In Conversation With” program will feature Dr. Bassett and T.M. Ravi an IIT graduate, Silicon Valley businessman, and member of TIE discussing the roots of the Indian IT industry and its influence on the computing history.
Bassett’s research is based on numerous research trips to India and scores of interviews. For this project he created a database of every Indian graduate of MIT in the 20th century. Bassett has published articles on Indian graduates of MIT and on IIT Kanpur. His work was profiled in the Economic Times of India and he was invited to give to Godrej Lecture in Business History in Mumbai in October, 2009.
CHM’s July 15 “In Conversation With” program will feature Dr. Bassett and T.M. Ravi an IIT graduate, Silicon Valley businessman, and member of TIE discussing the roots of the Indian IT industry and its influence on the computing history.
Video
How Indian MIT and IIT Graduates Have Shaped Computer History
Length: 1:20:33 | Rating: 4.7260275 | Views: 42921
Updated Video Location: http://youtu.be/v6q14yBlpjY
[Recorded July 15, 2010]
In the last fifteen years the very names Bangalore and Silicon Valley have become evoca...
Date
Thursday July 15, 2010
6:00 PM
Private Reception
7:00 PM
Program
Location
Jul 13,
2010
Speaker Series
CHM Affiliated History Program Presents
The Foundation of Today's Digital World: The Triumph of the MOS Transistor
Join us for a discussion of the often-difficult path to mainstream acceptance of the MOS transistor and its lasting impact on computing and communications. Technology historian, Dr. Ross Bassett, will chair a conversation with three early MOS champions and semiconductor pioneers---David Hodges, Bell Labs and UC Berkeley; Dr. Lewis Terman, IBM and 2008 IEEE president; and Les Vadasz, Fairchild and Intel. Dr. Bassett authored the definitive book on the topic, “To the Digital Age, Research Labs, Start-up Companies, and the Rise of MOS Technology” from John Hopkins University Press.
The MOS (metal-oxide-semiconductor) transistor, the fundamental building block of digital electronics, is the base technology of late 20th and early 21st century. The story of its development is one of the key chapters in the history of the semiconductor and computing industries. After being the subject of extensive research and vigorous activity among semiconductor pioneers at companies like Fairchild, IBM, RCA, Bell Labs, TI and Intel throughout the 1960s, the MOS transistor first achieved major usage in the 1970’s with DRAMs and microprocessors. When it became the industry standard in the 1980s, the door to the Digital Age was thrown wide open. As a result, tens of thousands of MOS enabled digital products have made their way into offices and homes worldwide, irrevocably changing the human experience.
Join us for a discussion of the often-difficult path to mainstream acceptance of the MOS transistor and its lasting impact on computing and communications. Technology historian, Dr. Ross Bassett, will chair a conversation with three early MOS champions and semiconductor pioneers---David Hodges, Bell Labs and UC Berkeley; Dr. Lewis Terman, IBM and 2008 IEEE president; and Les Vadasz, Fairchild and Intel. Dr. Bassett authored the definitive book on the topic, “To the Digital Age, Research Labs, Start-up Companies, and the Rise of MOS Technology” from John Hopkins University Press.
Join us for a discussion of the often-difficult path to mainstream acceptance of the MOS transistor and its lasting impact on computing and communications. Technology historian, Dr. Ross Bassett, will chair a conversation with three early MOS champions and semiconductor pioneers---David Hodges, Bell Labs and UC Berkeley; Dr. Lewis Terman, IBM and 2008 IEEE president; and Les Vadasz, Fairchild and Intel. Dr. Bassett authored the definitive book on the topic, “To the Digital Age, Research Labs, Start-up Companies, and the Rise of MOS Technology” from John Hopkins University Press.
Video
Triumph of the MOS Transistor
Length: 1:18:18 | Rating: 5.0 | Views: 4011
[Recorded July 13, 2010]
The MOS (metal-oxide-semiconductor) transistor, the fundamental building block of digital electronics, is the base technology of late 20th a...
Date
Tuesday July 13, 2010
6:00 PM
Private Reception
IEEE Members and CHM Members
7:00 PM
Program
Location
Jun 23,
2010
Speaker Series
CHM Presents
The Real Revolutionaries, a documentary film about the Fairchild Eight and the birth of high tech in Silicon Valley
The Real Revolutionaries is the last great story of the American West. It is the untold story of America in the ‘60’s. While the hippies got the headlines, a handful of earnest young men dared to dream about the future, then figured out the science to make all their dreams come true.
It all started with a phone call, amplified by a vacuum tube. In 1956, William Shockley recruited an eclectic group of sharp, young minds to help him change the world. Shockley, while at AT&T Bell Labs, had led the research behind the invention of the Transistor, a tiny electrical gadget that would soon make vacuum tubes obsolete. He quit the telephone giant to be his own boss and lead the charge into the great unknown. With his hand-picked team of chemists and physicists, Shockley headed West to a little orchard community along the California coast.
In dusty Santa Clara Valley, just 30 miles from Haight-Ashbury, his boys would start a quiet revolution that would reshape the modern world.
The Real Revolutionaries is the story of Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore and the rest of the Fairchild Eight— the men who built ‘Silicon Valley’ from the ground up. Brought together by a mad genius to build essential components for the Military, they would become the driving force behind the Digital Age. Together they would engineer the integrated circuit,the little invention that remains at the heart of every electronic device in our world today. In the shadow of Vietnam, at a far west outpost of a divided country, the Fairchild Eight reinvented the American Dream: Technology for the greater good. Stock Options for every worker. Venture Capital for every good idea.
A Community effort for a 21st Century. Shockley would end his career in disgrace. Noyce and Moore would found Intel and bring the Microchip to the global market. And today there are almost as many transistors produced in the world market as there are printed characters in all the newspapers, books,
magazines and computer pages combined.
The Real Revolutionaries is the last great story of the American West. It is the untold story of America in the ‘60’s. While the hippies got the headlines, a handful of earnest young men dared to dream about the future, then figured out the science to make all their dreams come true. All it takes is one visionary to start a revolution...
In dusty Santa Clara Valley, just 30 miles from Haight-Ashbury, his boys would start a quiet revolution that would reshape the modern world.
The Real Revolutionaries is the story of Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore and the rest of the Fairchild Eight— the men who built ‘Silicon Valley’ from the ground up. Brought together by a mad genius to build essential components for the Military, they would become the driving force behind the Digital Age. Together they would engineer the integrated circuit,the little invention that remains at the heart of every electronic device in our world today. In the shadow of Vietnam, at a far west outpost of a divided country, the Fairchild Eight reinvented the American Dream: Technology for the greater good. Stock Options for every worker. Venture Capital for every good idea.
A Community effort for a 21st Century. Shockley would end his career in disgrace. Noyce and Moore would found Intel and bring the Microchip to the global market. And today there are almost as many transistors produced in the world market as there are printed characters in all the newspapers, books,
magazines and computer pages combined.
The Real Revolutionaries is the last great story of the American West. It is the untold story of America in the ‘60’s. While the hippies got the headlines, a handful of earnest young men dared to dream about the future, then figured out the science to make all their dreams come true. All it takes is one visionary to start a revolution...
Date
Wednesday June 23, 2010
6:00 PM
Member Reception
CHM Members only
7:00 PM
Film
Location
Jun 2 - Jun 3,
2010
Speaker Series
PLATO@50: Seeing the Future Through the Past
This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet and learn from an amazing variety of technology innovators, including Don Bitzer, creator of PLATO and co-inventor of the flat-panel gas plasma display, Microsoft's Ray Ozzie (who got his start on PLATO at the University of Illinois), and many others.
Perhaps the greatest untold story in the history of computing is the development of the PLATO system at the University of Illinois and later also at Control Data Corporation. Largely unknown today to the general public, PLATO's list of innovations and seminal influences is considerable. For the first time ever, this event will assemble many of the key people involved with the creation of the PLATO phenomenon.
This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet and learn from an amazing variety of technology innovators, including Don Bitzer, creator of PLATO and co-inventor of the flat-panel gas plasma display, Microsoft's Ray Ozzie (who got his start on PLATO at the University of Illinois), and many others.
This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet and learn from an amazing variety of technology innovators, including Don Bitzer, creator of PLATO and co-inventor of the flat-panel gas plasma display, Microsoft's Ray Ozzie (who got his start on PLATO at the University of Illinois), and many others.
Video
PLATO - An Early Online Community
Length: 1:15:56 | Rating: 5.0 | Views: 2686
On June 3, 2010, the Computer History Museum hosted a 6-session conference on the PLATO learning system. Session 6 was entitled "An Early Online Community: People Pl...
Date
Wednesday June 2, 2010
CHM Presents: PLATO@50- Seeing the Future Through the Past
Was it possible to teach with a computer? The fertile minds at the Coordinated Sciences Laboratory at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign thought so. It was a heretical notion in 1959. CSL was proposing to use what was once the world's most powerful computer, the ILLIAC I mainframe, for teaching students. Madness!
The project demanded a paradigm shift. Computers crunched numbers. An educational system required real-time interaction with thousands of users in human terms: words, pictures and concepts. The hardware and software required didn't exist. So the PLATO (Programmed Logic for Automated Teaching Operations) team invented it.
Innovations included a new built-in memory graphical display - the flat-panel plasma screen. The one-inch square prototype debuted in 1967 is the grandfather of today's huge TV screens. Over time, PLATO also generated now-familiar on-line concepts and tools: forums, message boards, on-line testing, e-mail, chat rooms, instant messaging, remote screen sharing and interactive multi-player games. By June 1960, the first PLATO terminal, built from a used television set with a home-made keyset -- remember, there was no such thing in those days -- was running on the ILLIAC I mainframe. Thirty years later, students all over the globe were proving that computers could teach - effectively and affordably.
PLATO is 50 years old. But the project isn't just history. Today, the PLATO-based education system offers 10,000 hours of lesson material available to 100,000 students; the talented minds who helped develop PLATO are still applying what they learned to new technologies; and the PLATO architecture has much in common with what is now known, decades later, as "Cloud Computing".
In celebration of PLATO's 50th Anniversary, The Computer History Museum is proud to host a wide-ranging discussion with Don Bitzer, the "father of PLATO," and Ray Ozzie, Microsoft's chief software architect, who worked on PLATO while a student at the University of Illinois in the '70s. The discussion will be moderated by The New York Times technology writer John Markoff.
Bitzer's work on computational signal processing prepared him to design large educational systems such as PLATO. It also spawned smart modems for telephone and cable systems. Bitzer won an Emmy for scientific achievement in 2002 in honor of his role in the invention of the flat panel screen. That award symbolizes what Bitzer called "completely unanticipated and unplanned consequences of the PLATO project."
No less than Bill Gates called Ray Ozzie "one of the five best programmers in the universe." Ozzie credits his early work on PLATO with inspiring Lotus Notes, the first commercially successful groupware product. Notes brought PLATO-like group collaboration into the office. Ozzie has said he's spent the majority of his career trying to reinvent the user experience of PLATO.
Bitzer and Ozzie's thoughts on problem-solving, cognitive science, innovation and inspiring unbridled creativity are relevant to anyone interested in how "new" happens.
Was it possible to teach with a computer? The fertile minds at the Coordinated Sciences Laboratory at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign thought so. It was a heretical notion in 1959. CSL was proposing to use what was once the world's most powerful computer, the ILLIAC I mainframe, for teaching students. Madness!
The project demanded a paradigm shift. Computers crunched numbers. An educational system required real-time interaction with thousands of users in human terms: words, pictures and concepts. The hardware and software required didn't exist. So the PLATO (Programmed Logic for Automated Teaching Operations) team invented it.
Innovations included a new built-in memory graphical display - the flat-panel plasma screen. The one-inch square prototype debuted in 1967 is the grandfather of today's huge TV screens. Over time, PLATO also generated now-familiar on-line concepts and tools: forums, message boards, on-line testing, e-mail, chat rooms, instant messaging, remote screen sharing and interactive multi-player games. By June 1960, the first PLATO terminal, built from a used television set with a home-made keyset -- remember, there was no such thing in those days -- was running on the ILLIAC I mainframe. Thirty years later, students all over the globe were proving that computers could teach - effectively and affordably.
PLATO is 50 years old. But the project isn't just history. Today, the PLATO-based education system offers 10,000 hours of lesson material available to 100,000 students; the talented minds who helped develop PLATO are still applying what they learned to new technologies; and the PLATO architecture has much in common with what is now known, decades later, as "Cloud Computing".
In celebration of PLATO's 50th Anniversary, The Computer History Museum is proud to host a wide-ranging discussion with Don Bitzer, the "father of PLATO," and Ray Ozzie, Microsoft's chief software architect, who worked on PLATO while a student at the University of Illinois in the '70s. The discussion will be moderated by The New York Times technology writer John Markoff.
Bitzer's work on computational signal processing prepared him to design large educational systems such as PLATO. It also spawned smart modems for telephone and cable systems. Bitzer won an Emmy for scientific achievement in 2002 in honor of his role in the invention of the flat panel screen. That award symbolizes what Bitzer called "completely unanticipated and unplanned consequences of the PLATO project."
No less than Bill Gates called Ray Ozzie "one of the five best programmers in the universe." Ozzie credits his early work on PLATO with inspiring Lotus Notes, the first commercially successful groupware product. Notes brought PLATO-like group collaboration into the office. Ozzie has said he's spent the majority of his career trying to reinvent the user experience of PLATO.
Bitzer and Ozzie's thoughts on problem-solving, cognitive science, innovation and inspiring unbridled creativity are relevant to anyone interested in how "new" happens.
6:00 PM
Member Reception
7:00 PM
Program Begins
Date
Thursday June 3, 2010
Speakers
Dr. Donald Bitzer
David Frankel
C.K. Tina Gunsalus
Robert M. Price
Dr. Roger L. Johnson
Dr. Larry Weber
Dr. Robert Rader
Dr. Bruce Sherwood
Michael Walker
Dr. Ruth Chabay
Dr. Sharon Dugdale
Bonnie Anderson Seiler
Bruce Artwick
Flight Simulator
John Daleske
Empire
Dr. Brand Fortner
Airfight
Dr. Andrew Shapira
Avatar
Richard Hilleman
Flight Trainer and many more
Lili Cheng
Kim Mast
David Woolley
Moderators
Dr. Robert I. Sutton
A Culture of Innovation: What Don Bitzer Wrought
Philip McKinney
Innovations in Hardware: Mission-based Developments Led Other Places
Steve Gillmor
PLATO Software: Driven by a Clear, Compelling Challenge
Dr. Roy Pea
Online Education & Courseware: Lessons Learned, Insights Gleaned
John Markoff
PLATO Games: An Early, Robust Community of Multiplayer, Online Games
Charlene Li
An early Online Community: People Plus Computing Grows Communities
- 10:00 AM
8:30 AM
A Culture of Innovation: What Don Bitzer Wrought
The Computer-based Education Research Lab, where the PLATO system was invented, was a caldron of innovation. Out of that environment, new technologies grew and lives were changed. What was it about the environment that stimulated innovation? Bob Sutton, management guru and scholar of innovation, will lead a conversation focusing on the characteristics of a culture of innovation. What was special about the PLATO environment? What generalizable lessons might be gleaned? Are there insights to be gained from CDC’s efforts to commercialize an enormous project from an academic research laboratory, in an unproven market? Sutton will conduct a discussion with Don Bitzer, the director of the lab and lead innovator, two CERL alumni whose career paths have gone in quite different directions, and Bob Price, who led Control Data to the licensing and further development of the PLATO system.
- 11:30 AM
10:15 AM
Innovations in Hardware: Mission-based Developments Led Other Places
Early discussions at the University of Illinois on how to use emerging computer system technology for delivering quality education quickly led to the formation of a very exciting demonstration project called PLATO. This project was a highly "mission oriented" effort to demonstrate "what could be done in the near term" rather than to forecast "what might occur in the more distant future". Rather than wait on the computer, electronics and communication industry to provide anticipated components, PLATO used currently available technology and augmented it with a number of hardware and software innovations. These innovations were stimulated by the need to reach the clearly stated demonstration goals relating to student response time and cost per student contact hour. In four particular hardware cases, these innovations both enabled the development of a fully operational PLATO system and stimulated significant industrial investments by a number of highly successful computer and electronic component companies. The four cases which will be discussed by the panel members are: (1) system architecture concepts to support large, real time student populations, (2) the Plasma Display Panel (PDP) technology, (3) student touch input technology, and (4) intelligent modem technology supporting long distance data communication.
- 1:25 PM
12:15 PM
PLATO Software: Driven by a Clear, Compelling Challenge
The panel discussion will include the following topics:
- The software component of the PLATO system architecture that permitted high interactivity with hundreds of users
- The TUTOR language that enabled faculty (and gamers) to write their own interactive graphics programs
- What was done to manage very scarce resources
- Audience Q&A
- 2:40 PM
1:30 PM
Online Education & Courseware: Lessons Learned, Insights Gleaned
Thousands of hours of courseware in dozens of academic disciplines were developed on the PLATO system, and deployed to thousands of students at levels from K-20. The open environment and sophisticated authoring tools enabled any interested and creative instructor to develop courseware.
Because students came to terminal clusters to work on PLATO assignments, authors were able to watch students work through lessons, and observe how students responded to different tasks and lesson structures. In this rich environment, some authors began to develop lessons that were highly graphical and interactive, and encouraged playfulness and open-ended exploration. The elementary mathematics games "How the West Was One + Three x Four" and "Animal Bagger" (Seiler), and "Darts" and "Pizza"(Dugdale et al.); the chemistry lessons "The Great Synthesis Race" (Smith / Chabay) and "Multistep Aromatic Synthesis" (Smith), and the physics lesson "Freebody Diagrams" (Sherwood) exemplified this genre.
The panel discussion will focus on the development and educational use of these programs and others like them.
Because students came to terminal clusters to work on PLATO assignments, authors were able to watch students work through lessons, and observe how students responded to different tasks and lesson structures. In this rich environment, some authors began to develop lessons that were highly graphical and interactive, and encouraged playfulness and open-ended exploration. The elementary mathematics games "How the West Was One + Three x Four" and "Animal Bagger" (Seiler), and "Darts" and "Pizza"(Dugdale et al.); the chemistry lessons "The Great Synthesis Race" (Smith / Chabay) and "Multistep Aromatic Synthesis" (Smith), and the physics lesson "Freebody Diagrams" (Sherwood) exemplified this genre.
The panel discussion will focus on the development and educational use of these programs and others like them.
- 4:10 PM
3:00 PM
PLATO Games: An Early, Robust Community of Multiplayer, Online Games
Social gaming is the fusion of computer games and digital communities. Some of the earliest instances of this occurred on the PLATO system, and were made possible by the PLATO system's technological innovations as well as a sufficiently open environment to allow the development of such games. The most popular PLATO games were engineered with text based communications and what are by today's standards simple graphics. The result was some of the earliest instances of digital environments that are both social and immersive. PLATO games are the ancestors of, among other games, today's massively multiplayer games; they possess key attributes of today's games: users find them compelling or addictive; they are difficult to balance; they facilitate interesting social behavior. Three creators of these games will talk about their experiences. Other panel members will then discuss the influence of the PLATO experience on the current world of simulation and gaming.
- 5:30 PM
4:15 PM
An early Online Community: People Plus Computing Grows Communities
The developers of PLATO didn't set out to build an online community. So how did it turn into one?
In 1972 few suspected that a human community could grow and thrive within the electronic circuitry of a computer. But two years later the world's first online community was flourishing on PLATO, using technologies that didn't become widely available elsewhere for decades: discussion forums, email, chat rooms, instant messaging, presence awareness, screen sharing, and multiplayer games.
Today's social computing is different -- but not all that different than what existed "back then" on PLATO. This panel will explore the similarities and differences, including the early elements in place at PLATO that led to its success. How did the community organize itself? Why was it so successful? What was missing? What can we learn from these experiences? What's next?
PLATO's core technologies, originally developed with educational purposes in mind, incidentally provided tools that were readily adapted to social features like Group Notes and Talkomatic. Those tools, along with the freedom Don Bitzer gave his staff to follow their own interests and explore free of timelines or managerial pressures, allowed PLATO's online community to evolve rapidly and without any overall plan.
With that as background, the panel will focus on the reality that while there were innovations with their genesis at PLATO (notes, in particular, which was recreated on many other platforms by those exposed to GNotes), other of the connecting technologies were independently created elsewhere, in part because of the drive of humans to connect, communicate and build communities. What does this tell us about humans and computers? What insights does it provide about future uses of computing for connecting people in professional and personal settings?
In 1972 few suspected that a human community could grow and thrive within the electronic circuitry of a computer. But two years later the world's first online community was flourishing on PLATO, using technologies that didn't become widely available elsewhere for decades: discussion forums, email, chat rooms, instant messaging, presence awareness, screen sharing, and multiplayer games.
Today's social computing is different -- but not all that different than what existed "back then" on PLATO. This panel will explore the similarities and differences, including the early elements in place at PLATO that led to its success. How did the community organize itself? Why was it so successful? What was missing? What can we learn from these experiences? What's next?
PLATO's core technologies, originally developed with educational purposes in mind, incidentally provided tools that were readily adapted to social features like Group Notes and Talkomatic. Those tools, along with the freedom Don Bitzer gave his staff to follow their own interests and explore free of timelines or managerial pressures, allowed PLATO's online community to evolve rapidly and without any overall plan.
With that as background, the panel will focus on the reality that while there were innovations with their genesis at PLATO (notes, in particular, which was recreated on many other platforms by those exposed to GNotes), other of the connecting technologies were independently created elsewhere, in part because of the drive of humans to connect, communicate and build communities. What does this tell us about humans and computers? What insights does it provide about future uses of computing for connecting people in professional and personal settings?
Location
Jun 2,
2010
Special Events
CHM Presents
PLATO@50 Reunion: Luncheon and Docent-Led Tour
Visit the PLATO@50 Reunion page on Facebook, where you can share your PLATO photos and memories!
Date
Wednesday June 2, 2010
12:00 PM
Luncheon
2:00 PM
Docent-Led Tour
Location
May 13,
2010
Speaker Series
CHM Presents
Net@40: Visionary Robert W. Taylor in Conversation with National Public Radio's Guy Raz
As part of the Net@40 year-long celebration at the Museum, Bob Taylor and NPR’s Guy Raz will share a stage to discuss the origins of the personal computer revolution and computer networking.
As part of the Net@40 year-long celebration at the Museum, Bob Taylor and NPR’s Guy Raz will share a stage to discuss the origins of the personal computer revolution and computer networking.
Bob Taylor planned to be a Methodist minister, like his father. He ended up an evangelist for an idea that changed the world: easy-to-use computers that talk to each other. “I was never interested in the computer as a mathematical device, but as a communication device,” Taylor said. Taylor’s interests – and his genius for getting them funded – helped develop computer networking, the personal computer, and many of the other technologies that drove the global computer revolution.
As director of ARPA’s Information Processing Techniques office, Taylor funded Doug Engelbart, inventor of the mouse and co-inventor of many of the aspects of computing we take for granted today, from clickable links to multiple windows. Taylor then hired networking pioneer Larry Roberts to oversee the ARPAnet project – the first major experiment in general computer networking, and a key ancestor of the Internet. As founder of the Xerox PARC Computer Systems Laboratory, Taylor went on to recruit and manage the hot-tempered brigade of geniuses who developed the set of features so familiar on our Mac and Windows machines today, including the graphical user interface, Ethernet and laser printing. He also oversaw important work in connecting networks to each other.
Taylor will talk about the process of fostering innovation and share stories of how radical ideas evolve in a discussion with Guy Raz, the weekend host of NPR’s All Things Considered.
Bob Taylor planned to be a Methodist minister, like his father. He ended up an evangelist for an idea that changed the world: easy-to-use computers that talk to each other. “I was never interested in the computer as a mathematical device, but as a communication device,” Taylor said. Taylor’s interests – and his genius for getting them funded – helped develop computer networking, the personal computer, and many of the other technologies that drove the global computer revolution.
As director of ARPA’s Information Processing Techniques office, Taylor funded Doug Engelbart, inventor of the mouse and co-inventor of many of the aspects of computing we take for granted today, from clickable links to multiple windows. Taylor then hired networking pioneer Larry Roberts to oversee the ARPAnet project – the first major experiment in general computer networking, and a key ancestor of the Internet. As founder of the Xerox PARC Computer Systems Laboratory, Taylor went on to recruit and manage the hot-tempered brigade of geniuses who developed the set of features so familiar on our Mac and Windows machines today, including the graphical user interface, Ethernet and laser printing. He also oversaw important work in connecting networks to each other.
Taylor will talk about the process of fostering innovation and share stories of how radical ideas evolve in a discussion with Guy Raz, the weekend host of NPR’s All Things Considered.
Date
Thursday May 13, 2010
6:00 PM
Member Reception
CHM Members Only
7:00 PM
Program
Location
Apr 21,
2010
Speaker Series
CHM Presents
Net@40: Hackers and Phishers and Carders- Oh My!
The panel will examine the kinds of threats out there, how they've evolved, and what the future may hold. It will also tackle some of the key questions around cybercrime today: Are there steps individuals should take to protect themselves? How important a threat is cyberterrorism? Can society combat cybercrime in ways that don't restrict the net's openness, or civil liberties?
Stalking, scams, theft, underhanded business tactics, vandalism and the like have existed for millennia, and have found ways to exploit emerging technologies from check writing to the telegraph. The Internet age is no exception.
A fair amount of early cybercrime fit the popular image of the pimply-faced teenager in his bedroom, breaking into government networks for the thrill of it. But today a growing class of professional criminals are targeting ordinary users and their private information. Some work alone, while others are part of organized crime groups. Their profits may rival those of illegal drug trafficking. This underground economy has matured into a self-sustaining and geographically diverse global network. Criminals use phony e-mails, fake Web sites, and plant malware on legitimate Websites and online ads. While we're uploading, downloading, transferring and sharing our most personal information, sophisticated criminals may be lurking on the other side of the screen.
The panel will examine the kinds of threats out there, how they've evolved, and what the future may hold. It will also tackle some of the key questions around cybercrime today: Are there steps individuals should take to protect themselves? How important a threat is cyberterrorism? Can society combat cybercrime in ways that don't restrict the net's openness, or civil liberties?
A fair amount of early cybercrime fit the popular image of the pimply-faced teenager in his bedroom, breaking into government networks for the thrill of it. But today a growing class of professional criminals are targeting ordinary users and their private information. Some work alone, while others are part of organized crime groups. Their profits may rival those of illegal drug trafficking. This underground economy has matured into a self-sustaining and geographically diverse global network. Criminals use phony e-mails, fake Web sites, and plant malware on legitimate Websites and online ads. While we're uploading, downloading, transferring and sharing our most personal information, sophisticated criminals may be lurking on the other side of the screen.
The panel will examine the kinds of threats out there, how they've evolved, and what the future may hold. It will also tackle some of the key questions around cybercrime today: Are there steps individuals should take to protect themselves? How important a threat is cyberterrorism? Can society combat cybercrime in ways that don't restrict the net's openness, or civil liberties?
Date
Wednesday April 21, 2010
6:00 PM
Reception
7:00 PM
Program
Location
Mar 4,
2010
Speaker Series
CHM Soundbytes
Author Kurt W. Beyer in Conversation with Northern California Public Broadcasting’s Linda O’Bryon – Grace Hopper and the Invention of the Information Age
Don’t miss what is certain to be a lively and inspiring discussion, moderated by Northern California Public Broadcasting’s Chief Content Officer Linda O’Bryon.
According to Beyer, Grace Hopper is arguably as important a figure to computing as Bill Gates, Larry Ellison and Steve Jobs, and serves as a responsible, civic-oriented role model for current and future technical and business leaders.
A Hollywood movie about the life of computer pioneer Grace Murray Hopper (1906-1992) would go like this: a young professor abandons the ivy-covered walls of academia to serve her country in the Navy after Pearl Harbor and finds herself on the front lines of the computer revolution. She works hard to succeed in the all-male computer industry, is almost brought down by personal problems but survives them, and ends her career as a celebrated elder stateswoman of computing, a heroine to thousands, hailed as the inventor of computer programming. Throughout Hopper’s later years, the popular media told this simplified version of her life story.
In Grace Hopper and the Invention of the Information Age, Kurt Beyer goes beyond the screen play-ready myth to reveal a more authentic Hopper, a vibrant and complex woman whose career paralleled the meteoric trajectory of the postwar computer industry, and discusses the indelible contribution she made to the nascent computer industry.
Hopper made herself “one of the boys” in Howard Aiken’s wartime Computation Laboratory at Harvard, then moved on to the Eckert and Mauchly Computer Corporation. She was influential in male-dominated military and business organizations at a time when women were encouraged to devote themselves to housework and childbearing. Hopper’s greatest technical achievement was to create the tools that would allow humans to communicate with computers in terms other than ones and zeroes. This advance influenced all future programming and software design and laid the foundation for the development of user-friendly personal computers.
March is Women’s History Month and the Computer History Museum is proud to showcase the career and accomplishments of a genuine innovator, Grace Hopper. Among her many awards, Grace Hopper was the Computer History Museum’s first Fellow award recipient for her development of programming languages, computer instruction, and her lifelong naval service. The complete list of her awards and degrees exceeds two full pages, including the National Medal of Technology and 37 honorary doctoral degrees.
She is most definitely a role model – but not just for women. Author Kurt Beyer, who met Hopper while he was a student at the U.S. Naval Academy, says she influenced his own career choices – first as a naval officer, then as an academic, and finally as an entrepreneur.
Don’t miss what is certain to be a lively and inspiring discussion, moderated by Northern California Public Broadcasting’s Chief Content Officer Linda O’Bryon.
A Hollywood movie about the life of computer pioneer Grace Murray Hopper (1906-1992) would go like this: a young professor abandons the ivy-covered walls of academia to serve her country in the Navy after Pearl Harbor and finds herself on the front lines of the computer revolution. She works hard to succeed in the all-male computer industry, is almost brought down by personal problems but survives them, and ends her career as a celebrated elder stateswoman of computing, a heroine to thousands, hailed as the inventor of computer programming. Throughout Hopper’s later years, the popular media told this simplified version of her life story.
In Grace Hopper and the Invention of the Information Age, Kurt Beyer goes beyond the screen play-ready myth to reveal a more authentic Hopper, a vibrant and complex woman whose career paralleled the meteoric trajectory of the postwar computer industry, and discusses the indelible contribution she made to the nascent computer industry.
Hopper made herself “one of the boys” in Howard Aiken’s wartime Computation Laboratory at Harvard, then moved on to the Eckert and Mauchly Computer Corporation. She was influential in male-dominated military and business organizations at a time when women were encouraged to devote themselves to housework and childbearing. Hopper’s greatest technical achievement was to create the tools that would allow humans to communicate with computers in terms other than ones and zeroes. This advance influenced all future programming and software design and laid the foundation for the development of user-friendly personal computers.
March is Women’s History Month and the Computer History Museum is proud to showcase the career and accomplishments of a genuine innovator, Grace Hopper. Among her many awards, Grace Hopper was the Computer History Museum’s first Fellow award recipient for her development of programming languages, computer instruction, and her lifelong naval service. The complete list of her awards and degrees exceeds two full pages, including the National Medal of Technology and 37 honorary doctoral degrees.
She is most definitely a role model – but not just for women. Author Kurt Beyer, who met Hopper while he was a student at the U.S. Naval Academy, says she influenced his own career choices – first as a naval officer, then as an academic, and finally as an entrepreneur.
Don’t miss what is certain to be a lively and inspiring discussion, moderated by Northern California Public Broadcasting’s Chief Content Officer Linda O’Bryon.
Date
Thursday March 4, 2010
12:00 PM
Come and enjoy a free lunch and lecture with CHM friends and family.
Lunch and Beverages will be provided.
Location
Feb 18,
2010
Special Events
Free Event
IBM ACS System: A Pioneering Supercomputer Project of the 1960's
Please join us to hear former project members describe the exciting atmosphere of the ACS team and the computer design innovations that ACS created.
The showcase IBM effort at high-performance computing in the 1960's has traditionally been considered the IBM S/360 Model 91. That machine well-deserves the attention it has received. In fact, in the field of computer architecture, the decade of the sixties is known for the CDC 6600 and the IBM Model 91, and many modern processors trace features back to those machines.
However, there was another relatively unknown IBM effort that operated in parallel with the deployment of the Model 91. It was launched by IBM Chairman T. J. Watson, Jr., “to come up with something so much better than the [just announced] 6800 as to once more, in the eyes of the public, put IBM far away in the prestige league.”
The project was called Advanced Computing Systems (ACS). It was set up in California specifically to be located far from normal mainframe development on the East Coast as well as to be close to the Livermore National Laboratories and the advanced work on disk drives at IBM’s San Jose facility.
ACS built upon earlier IBM work on Stretch and Stretch-Harvest influenced by the legendary John Cocke, and on IBM’s follow-on “Project Y” at the T. J. Watson Research Center. Most of the Project Y personnel moved to California in 1965 to launch ACS. Many other designers and engineers were recruited and one visitor from Livermore Labs commented that he “had not seen such a high concentration of talent since the Manhattan Project.”
The ACS architecture incorporated innovations that remain important today, including multiple out-of-order dynamic instruction scheduling, multiple condition codes, a decoupled branch architecture, and instruction pre-fetching. Advanced ECL circuits and optimizing compilers were also crucial parts of the plans for ACS. On reflection it appears to have been the first “superscalar” design, and yet its story remains virtually untold to this day.
Please join us to hear former project members describe the exciting atmosphere of the ACS team and the computer design innovations that ACS created.
This event will present two consecutive panel discussions:
Panel 1- Early ACS / also ACS-1 architecture and SW
- Fran Allen, IBM Fellow, Moderator
- Lynn Conway, Emerita Professor of EE/CS, University of Michigan
- Brian Randell, Emeritus Professor of CS and Senior Research Investigator, Newcastle University
Panel 2- Later ACS and dispersion of folks elsewhere after
1969 cancellation / also ACS HW
-Russ Robelen, Moderator
-Bill Mooney
-John Zasio
However, there was another relatively unknown IBM effort that operated in parallel with the deployment of the Model 91. It was launched by IBM Chairman T. J. Watson, Jr., “to come up with something so much better than the [just announced] 6800 as to once more, in the eyes of the public, put IBM far away in the prestige league.”
The project was called Advanced Computing Systems (ACS). It was set up in California specifically to be located far from normal mainframe development on the East Coast as well as to be close to the Livermore National Laboratories and the advanced work on disk drives at IBM’s San Jose facility.
ACS built upon earlier IBM work on Stretch and Stretch-Harvest influenced by the legendary John Cocke, and on IBM’s follow-on “Project Y” at the T. J. Watson Research Center. Most of the Project Y personnel moved to California in 1965 to launch ACS. Many other designers and engineers were recruited and one visitor from Livermore Labs commented that he “had not seen such a high concentration of talent since the Manhattan Project.”
The ACS architecture incorporated innovations that remain important today, including multiple out-of-order dynamic instruction scheduling, multiple condition codes, a decoupled branch architecture, and instruction pre-fetching. Advanced ECL circuits and optimizing compilers were also crucial parts of the plans for ACS. On reflection it appears to have been the first “superscalar” design, and yet its story remains virtually untold to this day.
Please join us to hear former project members describe the exciting atmosphere of the ACS team and the computer design innovations that ACS created.
This event will present two consecutive panel discussions:
Panel 1- Early ACS / also ACS-1 architecture and SW
- Fran Allen, IBM Fellow, Moderator
- Lynn Conway, Emerita Professor of EE/CS, University of Michigan
- Brian Randell, Emeritus Professor of CS and Senior Research Investigator, Newcastle University
Panel 2- Later ACS and dispersion of folks elsewhere after
1969 cancellation / also ACS HW
-Russ Robelen, Moderator
-Bill Mooney
-John Zasio
Video
The IBM ACS System: A Pioneering Supercomputer Project
Length: 1:33:26 | Rating: 5.0 | Views: 2958
[Recorded February 18, 2010]
The showcase IBM effort at high-performance computing in the 1960's has traditionally been considered the IBM S/360 Model 91. That machi...
Date
Thursday February 18, 2010
12:00 PM
Come meet the ACS vets and enjoy a free lunch with CHM friends and family.
Sandwiches will be provided.
Suggested donation of 10 dollars.
Suggested donation of 10 dollars.
Location
Dec 12 - Dec 13,
2009
Special Events
Visible Storage Celebration Weekend
Please join us for a special celebration of the Computer History Museum’s Visible Storage exhibit. The exhibit will be closing in December as the Museum prepares for the major, new exhibition opening in the fall of 2010.
Please join us for a special celebration of the Computer History Museum’s Visible Storage exhibit. The exhibit will be closing in December as the Museum prepares for the major, new exhibition opening in the fall of 2010.
The Celebration and Open House will include a computer holiday sign along on Friday, special set of themed, docent-led tours of the Visible Storage Exhibit on Saturday and Sunday, and an afternoon reception with holiday munchies on Sunday. Saturday & Sunday Events!
Please Register for the day and or tour you would like to attend.
The Celebration and Open House will include a computer holiday sign along on Friday, special set of themed, docent-led tours of the Visible Storage Exhibit on Saturday and Sunday, and an afternoon reception with holiday munchies on Sunday. Saturday & Sunday Events!
Please Register for the day and or tour you would like to attend.
Date
Saturday December 12, 2009
Special Docent-Led Tour(s)
12:00 PM
History of Video Games
1:30 PM
Cray and his Supercomputers
3:00 PM
Standard Tour of Visible Storage
Date
Sunday December 13, 2009
Open House with Holiday Cookies and Apple Cider
Special Docent-Led Tour(s)
Special Docent-Led Tour(s)
12:00 PM
History of the Macintosh
1:00 PM
Data Processing in the 1960’s
2:00 PM
Brief History of the Internet
3:00 PM
How the Mouse Crawled on Your Desk
Location