Education
University of Pennsylvania: History and Sociology of Science
Ph.D. May 2003 M.A. August 1997.
Dissertation: “Technology, Information and Power: Managerial Technicians in the American Corporation: 1917-2000” with advisor Walter Licht (History Department)
Specialization: The Social Study of Business Organizations (Mauro Guillen, then Wharton)
Technology in Industrial America (Pap Ndiaye, then EHESS, Paris)
Living and Working in Industrial America (Walter Licht)
Manchester University (UK): Department of Computer Science
Systems Integration – dual degree program - Sept 1991 to July 1995
M.Eng. awarded with Distinction, B.Sc. 1st Class Honors (Top 5% of class)
Academic Positions & Teaching
Siegen University, Germany Comenius Visiting Professor of Computing History, 2016-2023.
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee Professor, History Department 2019-Present (Associate Professor 2017-2019). Also Professor, Computer Science (courtesy appointment), 2020-Present.
- Science, Race & Medicine in the United States (Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022) (sample syllabus)
- History of Capitalism in the United States (Fall 2018, Fall 2020, Fall 2021) (sample syllabus)
- Historical Research Methods, graduate seminar (Spring 2021) (Fall 2022)
- History of Work, graduate seminar (Spring 2019)
- How the World Became Digital, graduate seminar (Spring 2018)
- How the Computer Became Universal, honors college undergraduate seminar (Spring 2022)
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee Associate Professor, School of Information Studies, 2010-2017 (Assistant Professor 2004-2010)
- Undergraduate Capstone (Spring 2008, Spring 2009, Fall 2009, Spring 2010, Fall 2010, Spring 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2013, Spring 2014, Fall 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Spring 2016, Fall 2016, Spring 2017)
- Database Information Retrieval Systems (Spring 2007)
- Social Informatics (Spring 2006)
- Introduction to Information Science (Spring 2005, Fall 2007)
- Introduction to Systems Analysis (Fall 2004, Spring 2005, Fall 2005, Spring 2006, Fall 2006, Fall 2007, Fall 2008, Fall 2010, Spring 2011, Spring 2012, Spring 2014, Fall 2014, Fall 2015, Fall 2016, Spring 2017)
- IT & Organizations (Fall 2013, Spring 2015, Spring 2016). Formerly offered as Organizational Informatics (Fall 2004, Fall 2005, Spring 2006, Fall 2006). (syllabus online)
The Haigh Group Partner, Fall 2003 onward
- Consultant to Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics on major DOE sponsored historical project to document the history of scientific computing and numerical analysis. Researched and performed oral histories related to the development of scientific application packages and program libraries and wrote several survey articles and short biographies.
- Consultant to ACM SIGMOD on historical project to document the history of the data base management system via oral history interviews.
- Consultant to the ACM, performing oral histories with former ACM leaders as part of a project to document the association's history and editing the Turing Award Winners website.
- Consultant to Faegre & Benson, LLP on behalf of several clients seeking prior art for software patents.
- Consultant to Rope family Charitable Trusts in researching the history of ENIAC and Colossus.
University of Western Ontario, Canada. Jean Tague-Sutcliffe Visiting Scholar, FIMS, Summer 2012
- Histories of the Information Age (doctoral seminar)
Kiev Mohyla Academy, Ukraine Visiting Researcher, Informatics Faculty, Jan-July 2007
- Social Informatics (co-taught graduate and undergraduate sections), Spring 2007.
Indiana University, Bloomington Visiting Assistant Professor, Informatics School, Fall 2003
- Social Informatics (core course in undergraduate program for school) (online)
- Organizational Informatics (core course in undergraduate program for school) (online)
Colby College Visiting Instructor/Visiting Researcher
in the Science, Technology & Society / Administrative Science programs, 2001-03
- Technological Revolutions: Cultures, Computers and the Internet (new course) (online)
- American Business and Management (taught twice) (online)
- Technology, Information and Business since 1865 (new course) (online)
- The History of the Future: American Culture through Science Fiction (new course) (online)
Drexel University Adjunct, College of Information Science & Technology
- Introduction to Database Management (Spring 2001) (online)
University of Pennsylvania Adjunct, History & Sociology of Science
- Technological “Revolutions” in Perspective - The PC and the Internet (Summer 1998) Proposed, designed and co-taught a new undergraduate seminar course in “cyberculture” area. (online -- syllabus only)
- Teaching Assistant 1997-8: Science and Literature & Comparative Capitalisms
Books & Journal Issues
A New History of Modern Computing (with Paul Ceruzzi), MIT Press, 2021. Translation: Shanghai Scientific & Technological Education Publishing House (Chinese), 2022. (book on Amazon)
Exploring the Early Digital (editor), Springer, 2019. (Book website: early.digital).
ENIAC in Action: Making and Remaking the Modern Computer (with Mark Priestley and Crispin Rope), MIT Press, 2016. Translations: Kyoritsu Shuppan (Japanese), 2016; Shandong Science and Technology Press (Chinese), forthcoming. (project website)
Histories of the Internet, a special issue of Information & Culture 50:2 (May-June 2015). Edited by Thomas Haigh, Andrew Russell and William Dutton. (issue on Project Muse)
Histories of Computing by Michael S. Mahoney, edited and with an introduction by Thomas Haigh, Harvard University Press, 2011. (book on Amazon).
Historical Research Articles and Book Chapters
"Writing the Big Story," in William Aspray (ed.) Writing Computer and Information History: Approaches, Reflections, and Connections, Rowman & Littlefield, forthcoming 2024. (Preprint online)
"Beyond Fake News: Learning from Information Literacy Programs in Ukraine" in Libraries and the Global Retreat from Democracy, Natalie Greene Taylor, Karen Kettnich, Ursula Gorham, and Paul T. Jaeger (eds.) (Emerald, 2021):163-182. (with Maria Haigh, Maryna Dorosh & Tetiana Matychak).(online at Emerald)
"Contextualizing Colossus,” Technology & Culture 61:3 (July, 2020):871:900. (with Mark Priestley) (online at Project Muse) (preprint online locally)
"Fighting and Framing Fake News," The Sage Handbook of Propaganda, Paul Baines, Nicholas O'Shaughnessy & Nancy Snow (eds.) (Springer, 2020): 305-324. (with Maria Haigh) (preprint online locally)
"Assembling a Prehistory for Formal Methods: A Personal Perspective," Formal Aspects of Computing 31:6 (December 2019):663-674. (preprint online locally) (online at Springer)
“Information Literacy vs. Fake News: The Case of Ukraine.” Open Information Science Journal, 3:1 (January 2019): 154-165. (with Maria Haigh and Tetiana Matychak) (online at De Gruyter)
“The Media of Programming,” in Thomas Haigh, ed., Exploring the Early Digital (Springer, 2019): 135-158. (with Mark Priestley) (online at Springer) (preprint online locally)
“Colossus and Programmability,” IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 40:4 (Oct-Dec, 2018): 5-27. (with Mark Priestley) (online at IEEE) (preprint online locally)
- Winner, The Bernard S. Finn IEEE History Prize from the Society for the History of Technology (for the "best paper in the history of electrotechnology—power, electronics, telecommunications, and computer science" published in 2018).
“Stopping Fake News: The Work Practices of Peer-to-Peer Counter Propaganda.” Journalism Studies 19:14 (2018): 2062-87. (with Maria Haigh and Nadine Kozak). (preprint online locally) (online at Taylor & Francis)
Translated as: “Le Conflit Ukrainien et la Traque aux Fausses Nouvelles” in Sauvageau, Florian, Simon Thibault & Pierre Trudel (eds.), Le Fausses Novelles, Nouveaux Siages, Nouveaux Défis (Laval, Quebec: Les Presses de l’Université Laval, 2018). (With Nadine Kozak and Maria Haigh)
IBM’s Tiny Peripheral: Finland and the Tensions of Transnationality.” Business History Review 92:1 (Spring 2018):3-28 (with Petri Paju). (online at Cambridge)
“The History of UNIX in the History of Software,” Cahiers D’Histoire Du CNAM 7-8 (2017):77-90. (online at CNAM)
“IBM Rebuilds Europe: The Curious Case of the Transnational Typewriter” (with Petri Paju). Enterprise & Society 17:2 (June 2016): 265-300. (online Project Muse) (preprint online locally)
- Winner, Philip Scranton Best Article Prize, Business History Conference, 2017 (for best 2016 article in Enterprise & Society)
- Winner, Mira Wilkins Prize, Business History Conference, 2017 (for best treatment of international and comparative history in a 2016 article in Enterprise & Society)
"Histories of The Internet: Introducing the Special Issue of Information & Culture" (with Andrew L. Russell and William H. Dutton). Information & Culture 50:2 (May-June 2015):143-159. (online preprint).
“Von-Neumann-Architektur, Speicherprogrammierung und modernes Code-Paradigma” Zeitschrift für Medienwissenschaft, 12 (2015):127-139. (volume at diaphenes) (online locally)
"Los Alamos Bets on ENIAC: Nuclear Monte Carlo Simulations, 1947-48" (with Mark Priestley and Crispin Rope), IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 36:3 (Jul-Sep 2014):42-63. (online IEEE CS) (online locally)
"Engineering 'The Miracle of the ENIAC': Implementing the Modern Code Paradigm" (with Mark Priestley and Crispin Rope), IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 36:2 (April-June 2014):41-59. (online IEEE CS) (online locally).
"Reconsidering the Stored Program Concept" (with Mark Priestley and Crispin Rope), IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 36:1 (January-March 2014):4-17. (online IEEE CS) (online locally)
"How the Future Shaped the Past: The Case of the Cashless Society," (with Bernardo Bátiz-Lazo & David Stearns) Enterprise & Society 15:1 (March 2014):103-131. (online OUP) (online Project Muse)(online locally)
Adapted as: “Origins of the Modern Concept of a Cashless Society, 1950s–1970s” in The Book of Payments: Historical and Contemporary Views on the Cashless Society, ed. Bernardo Batiz Lazo & Leonidas Efthymiou, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016 (with Bernardo Batiz-Lazo and David L. Stearns).(online Springer)
"'Stored Program' Considered Harmful: History and Historiography," in The Nature of Computation: Logic, Algorithms, Applications, editors Paola Bonizzoni, Vasco Brattka & Benedikt Löwe, Springer, 2013:241-251. (Preprint online locally).
"Engineering Change in Mexico: The Appropriation of Computer Technology at Grupo ICA (1965-1971)," IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 34:2 (April-June 2012):20-33. (with Bernardo Bátiz-Lazo) (online IEEE CS) (online locally).
"Unexpected Connections, Powerful Precedents, and Big Questions: The Work of Michael S. Mahoney on the History of Computing," in Histories of Computing by Michael S. Mahoney, edited and with an introduction by Thomas Haigh,Harvard University Press, 2011: 1-18 (Book on Amazon).
"Technology's Other Storytellers: Science Fiction as History of Technology" Science Fiction and Computing: Essays on Interlinked Domains, ed. David Ferro & Eric Swedlin, McFarland & Company, 2011:13-37 (preprint online) (book on Amazon).
"The History of Information Technology," Annual Review of Information Science and Technology 45 (2011): 431-487 (preprint online).
"Computing the American Way," IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 32:2 (April-June 2010):8-20 (online IEEE CS) (online Project Muse) (online locally).
"Masculinity and the Machine Man: Gender in the History of Data Processing," in Gender Codes: Why Women are Leaving Computing ed. Thomas J. Misa, IEEE Computer Society Press, 2010:51-72 (preprint online) (book on Amazon).
"The Commercialization of Data Base Management Software 1969--1983," (with Tim Bergin) IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 31:4 (Oct-Dec 2009):26-41 (online locally) (online at IEEE CS).
"How Data Got its Base: Information Storage Software in the 1950s and 60s," IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 31:4 (Oct-Dec 2009):6-25 (online locally) (online IEEE CS) (online Project Muse)
"Protocols for Profit: Web and E-mail Technologies as Product and Infrastructure" in The Internet and American Business, edited by William Aspray and Paul Ceruzzi, MIT Press, 2008: 105-158 (online) (book on Amazon).
"The Web's Missing Links: Search Engines and Portals" in The Internet and American Business, edited by William Aspray and Paul Ceruzzi, MIT Press, 2008:159-200 (preprint online) (book on Amazon).
"Ein wahrer Eimer voller Fakten" (German translation of "A Veritable Bucket of Facts:' Origins of the Data Base Management System") in «Nach Feierabend - Zürcher Jahrbuch für Wissensgeschichte» (Zurich Yearbook in the History of Knowledge) 3 (2007): 57-98 (book online)
"Sources for ACM History: What, Where, Why" (with Elizabeth Kaplan and Carrie Seib), Communications of the ACM 50:5 (May 2007):36-41. (online locally) (online at ACM)
"Remembering the Office of the Future: Word Processing and Office Automation before the Personal Computer," IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 28:4 (October-December 2006):6-31. (online locally) (online IEEE CS)
"'A Veritable Bucket of Facts:' Origins of the Data Base Management System," ACM SIGMOD Record 35:2 (June 2006). (online locally) (online at ACM)
"ADAPSO, Regulated Competition, and Professional Services: 1976-1986" IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 27:2 (April-June 2005): 89-93. (online)
"ADAPSO, Timesharing Firms and Software Companies, 1968-1975," IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 27:1 (January-March 2005): 67-73. (online)
“The History of Computing: An Introduction for the Computer Scientist” in Using History to Teach Computer Science and Related Disciplines ed. Atsushi Akera & William Aspray (Washington, D.C.: Computing Research Association, 2004):5-26. (online locally) (book online at CRA)
“Key Resources in the History of Computing” in Using History to Teach Computer Science and Related Disciplines ed. Atsushi Akera & William Aspray (Washington, D.C.: Computing Research Association, 2004):279-294. (updated online version) (book online at CRA)
“A Veritable Bucket of Facts: Origins of the Database Management System” in The History and Heritage of Scientific and Technological Information Systems: Proceedings of the 2002 Conference eds. W. Boyd Rayward & Mary Ellen Bowden(New Jersey: Information Today, 2004):73-78. (online)
"ADAPSO and the Service Bureau Industry, 1961-1968," IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 26:1 (January-March 2004): 78-85. (online)
“Software in the 1960s as Concept, Service, and Product” IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 24:1 (January-March 2002): 5-13. (online locally) (online IEEE CS)
"The Chromium Plated Tabulator: Institutionalizing an Electronic Revolution, 1954-1958" IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 23:4 (October-December 2001): 75-104. (online locally) (online IEEE CS)
“Inventing Information Systems: The Systems Men and the Computer” Business History Review 75:1 (Spring 2001): 15-61. (online locally) (online JSTOR)
“Research Interactions Between University and Industry in Computer Science in the United States and United Kingdom”, 1995 technical report UMCS-95-8-1, University of Manchester (UK) Department of Computer Science. (online)
Encyclopedia Articles
"Internet and World Wide Web," Oxford Encyclopedia of the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology in America ed. Hugh Slotten, Oxford University Press, 2014: 584-591.
"Software," Oxford Encyclopedia of the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology in America ed. Hugh Slotten, Oxford University Press, 2014: 480-486:
"Internet Commerce," Oxford Encyclopedia of American Business, Labor, and Economic History ed. Melvyn Dubofsky & Paul S. Boyer, Oxford University Press, 2013: 405-408.
Communications of the ACM "Historical Reflections" Series
"How the AI Boom Went Bust," Communications of the ACM 67:2 (February 2024):22-26. (Online at ACM).
"There Was No 'First AI Winter'," Communications of the ACM 66:12 (December 2023):35-39. (Online at ACM)
Conjoined Twins: Artificial Intelligence and the Invention of Computer Science," Communications of the ACM 66:6 (June, 2023):33-37. (Online at ACM)
"Becoming Universal," Communications of the ACM 65:2 (February, 2022):25-30. (online at ACM)
"Women's Lives in Code," Communications of the ACM 64:9 (September, 2021):28-42. (online at ACM)
"When Hackers Were Heroes," Communications of the ACM 64:4 (April, 2021): 28-34. (online at ACM)
"The Immortal Soul of an Old Machine," Communications of the ACM 64:1 (January, 2021): 32-37. (online at ACM)
"Von Neumann Thought Turing's Universal Machine Was 'Simple and Neat' But That Didn't Tell Him How to Design a Computer." (with Mark Priestley)Communications of the ACM 63:1 (January 2020):26-32 . (online at ACM)
“OK Google, What’s a Moonshot? How Silicon Valley Mocks Apollo.” Communications of the ACM 62:1 (January 2019): 24-30. (online at ACM)
Condensed version republished as "Silicon Valley has hijacked the language of space," Australian Financial Review, July 19, 2019. (online at AFR)
"Defining American Greatness: IBM from Watson to Trump." Communications of the ACM 61:1 (January 2018): 32-37. (online at ACM)
“Colossal Genius: Tutte, Flowers, and a Bad Imitation of Turing.” Communications of the ACM 60:1 (January 2017): 29-35. (online at ACM)
“How Charles Bachman Invented the DBMS [Data Base Management System], a Foundation of Our Digital World,” Communications of the ACM 59:7 (July 2016): 25-30. (online at ACM)
"Where Code Comes From: Architectures of Automatic Control from Babbage to Algol," Communications of the ACM 59:1 (Jan 2016, with Mark Priestley): 39-33. (online at ACM)
“Innovators Assemble: Ada Lovelace, Walter Isaacson, and the Superheroines of Computing,” Communications of the ACM 58:9 (Sept 2015):20-27 (with Mark Priestley). (online at ACM)
"The Tears of Donald Knuth: Has the History of Computing Taken a Tragic Turn?" Communications of the ACM 58:1 (Jan 2015):40-44. (online at ACM)
"We Have Never Been Digital," Communications of the ACM 57:9 (Sept 2014):24-28. (online at ACM)
"Actually, Turing Did Not Invent the Computer," Communications of the ACM 57:1 (Jan 2014):36-41. (online at ACM)
"Software and Souls; Programs and Packages," Communications of the ACM 56:9 (Sept 2013):31-34. (online at ACM)
"Five Lessons from Really Good History," Communications of the ACM 50:1 (Jan 2013):37-40. (online at ACM)
"Seven Lessons from Bad History: Journalists, Historians, and the Invention of Email," Communications of the ACM 55:9 (Sept 2012):26-29. (online at ACM).
"The IBM PC: From Beige Box to Industry Standard," Communications of the ACM 55:1 (Jan 2012):35-37. (online at ACM)
Technical Reports and Working Papers
"Defining Digitalities III: What's Digital About Digital Media" Medien der Kooperation working paper series No. 32 (Siegen Germany, 2023) (with Sebastian Giessmann). (online at Siegen)
"Defining Digitalities II: What's Digital About Digital Communication?" Medien der Kooperation working paper series No. 31 (Siegen Germany, 2023) (with Sebastian Giessmann). (online at Siegen)
"Defining Digitalities I: What's Digital About Digits?" Medien der Kooperation working paper series No. 30 (Siegen Germany, 2023) (online at Siegen).
"Colossus: The Missing Manual" Medien der Kooperation working paper series No. 9 (Siegen Germany, 2019). (online at Siegen)
“Finding a Story for the History of Computing.” Medien der Kooperation working paper series No. 3 (Siegen Germany, 2018). (online at Siegen)
“Monte Carlo Computation Analysis,” technical report at EniacInAction.com, updated January 2016. (with Mark Priestley)
“Monte Carlo Second Run Code Reconstruction and Analysis,” technical report at EniacInAction.com, updated January 2016. (with Mark Priestley)
"Did V.A. Shiva Ayyadurai Invent Email?", SIGCIS web article, March 2012. (online at SIGCIS)
“Research Interactions Between University and Industry in Computer Science in the United States and United Kingdom”, 1995 technical report UMCS-95-8-1, University of Manchester (UK) Department of Computer Science.
Conference Reports & Misc. Minor Publications
"Fifty Years of Databases," ACM SIGMOD Blog, December 11, 2012. (online at ACM SIGMOD)
"Will We Ever Have a Cash Free Society?" (with Bernardo Batiz Lazo and Dave Stearns), Mercury 1:1 (Summer 2012):29-31. (online locally) (online at Uppsala University)
"Society for the History of Technology 2010 Meeting," IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 33:1 (Jan-Mar 2011):81-2. (online IEEE CS)
"Mahoney Fund," IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 31:3 (Jul-Sept 2009):80 (online IEEE CS).
"SHOT@50: Lisbon Meeting" (Report on SHOT 2008 meeting), IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 31:1 (January-March 2009):63-64. (online IEEE CS)
"Software for Europe: Workshops" (Report on SOFT-E6U Grenoble 2008 meeting), IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 30:3 (July-September 2008):75-76. (online IEEE CS)
"Fifty Years of the History of Technology" (Report on SHOT 2007 meeting), IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 30:2 (April-June 2008). (online IEEE CS)
Report on Amsterdam Computer History Colloquium, SIAM News, January 2006. (online)
“Reports on workshop discussion” for “Software as Economic Activity” and “Software as Science”, in Mapping the History of Computing: Software Issues, U. Hashagen, R. Keil-Slawik, A. Norberg, eds. (New York: Springer-Verlag), 2002: 61-62 & 223-224.
Biographies & Profiles
“Jack Dongarra – ACM Turing Award Winner” for ACM Turing Award Website (2022) (online at ACM)
“Alfred V. Aho – ACM Turing Award Winner” for ACM Turing Award Website (2022) (online at ACM)
“Jeffrey D. Ullman – ACM Turing Award Winner” for ACM Turing Award Website (2022) (online at ACM)
"Geoffrey E. Hinton - ACM Turing Award Winner" for ACM Turing Award Website (2020). (online at ACM)
"Yann LeCun - ACM Turing Award Winner" for ACM Turing Award Website (2020). (online at ACM)
"Yoshua Bengio - ACM Turing Award Winner" for ACM Turing Award Website (2020). (online at ACM)
“Thomas Harold ‘Tommy’ Flowers: Creator of Colossus,” IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 40:1 (Jan-Mar 2018): 72-82. (online at IEEE)
“Tim Berners-Lee – ACM Turing Award Winner” for ACM Turing Award Website (Fall 2017). (online at ACM)
Michael Stonebraker – ACM Turing Award Winner” for ACM Turing Award Website (Fall 2015). (online at ACM)
"Niklaus E. Wirth - ACM Turing Award Winner" for ACM Turing Award Website (Summer 2012) (online at ACM)
"Charles William Bachman - ACM Turing Award Winner" for ACM Turing Award Website (Summer 2012) (online at ACM)
"William ("Velvel") Morton Kahan - ACM Turing Award Winner" for ACM Turing Award Website (Summer 2012) (online at ACM)
"Charles W. Bachman: Data Base Software Pioneer," IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 33:4 (October-December 2011):70-80. (online locally) (online IEEE CS)
"John R. Rice: Mathematical Software Pioneer," IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 32:4 (October-December 2010), 72-80. (online locally) (online IEEE CS)
"Jack Dongarra: Supercomputing Expert and Mathematical Software Specialist" IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 30:2 (April-May 2008), 74-81 (online).
"Cleve Moler: Mathematical Software Pioneer and Creator of Matlab" IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 30:1 (January-March 2008), 87-91 (online).
"Biography: Lawrence Schoenberg" IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 27:2 (April-June 2005), 92-94. (online)
"Biography: Lawrence A. (Larry) Welke," IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 26:4 (October-December 2004): 85-91. (online)
"Biography: Richard L. (Rick) Crandall," IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 26:4 (October-December 2004): 79-85. (online)
"Biography: Bernard (Bernie) Goldstein," IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 26:1 (January-March 2004): 85-90. (online)
"Biography: Frank Lautenberg," IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 26:1 (January-March 2004): 90-93. (online)
“Obituary: I. Bernard Cohen,” IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 25:4 (Oct-Dec 2003): 89-92. (online)
“Obituary: Rob Kling,” IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 25:3 (Jul-Sep 2003): 92-94. (online)
“Biography: Per Brinch Hansen,” IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 25:1 (January-March 2003):80-83 (with JAN Lee). (online)
Review Essays and Book Reviews
Review of "The Media Snatcher: pc/core/turbo/engine/grafx/16/cdrom2/super/duo/arcade/rx" by Carl Therrien, Technology & Culture 62:1 (January 2021):325-326. (online at Project Muse)
"Digital Origins," a review of "The Discrete Charm of the Machine: Why the World Became Digital" by Ken Steiglitz (Princeton, 2019), in Nature Electronics 2 (February 2019): 49-50. (online at Nature)
Review of “Turing: Pioneer of the Information Age” by Jack Copeland, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 67:7 (July 2016). (online at Wiley)
Review of "Biomedical Computing" by Joseph November, American Historical Review 118:3 (October 2013):1226-1227. (online at AHR)
"An Unconventional History of the Early IAS Computer" - Review of "Turing’s Cathedral" by George Dyson, SIAM News 46:2, March 12, 2013.(online at SIAM)
Review of "Emanuel Goldberg and His Knowledge Machine: Information, Invention, and Political Forces" by Michael Buckland, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 63:2 (February 2012):427-8. (online at Wiley).
Review of "From Counterculture to Cyberculture" by Fred Turner, Isis 101:1 (March 2010) 267-268. (online JSTOR)
Review essay on "Structuring the Information Age: Life Insurance and Technology in the Twentieth Century" by JoAnne Yates, EH-Net, 2007. (online)
Review of "Computers and Commerce: A Study of Technology and Management at Eckert-Mauchly Computer Company, Engineering Research Associates, and Remington Rand, 1946-1957" by Arthur Norberg, Business History Review, Winter 2006. (online)
Review of "The Second Information Revolution" by Gerald W. Brock, Business History Review 78:2 (Summer 2004):316-318. (online locally) (online JSTOR)
Review of “From 0 to 1: An Authoritative History of Modern Computing”, edited by Atsushi Akera and Frederik Nebeker (Oxford University Press, 2002), Technology and Culture 44:4 (October 2003):841-842. (online locally) (online Project MUSE)
Review of "Between Human and Machine: Feedback, Control, and Computing before Cybernetics," by David A Mindell, Business History Review 77:3 (Autumn 2003):358-360. (online locally)
Review of "Anytime, Anywhere: Entrepreneurship and the Creation of a Wireless World," by Louis Galambos and Eric John Abrahamson, Business History Review 77:1 (Spring 2003). (online)
Review Essay, “Multicians.Org and the History of Operating Systems”, Iterations: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Software History 1 (2002). (online)
Published Oral History Interviews
James Mann. Oral history interview by Thomas Haigh, 20 May 2010, New York, NY. Computer History Museum, Mountain View (online at CHM).
David Hsiao. Oral history interview by Thomas Haigh, 12-13 June 2009, Mountain View, CA. Association for Computing Machinery, New York (online at ACM).
Frank Belvin. Oral history interview by Thomas Haigh, 4 June 2009, Mountain View, CA. Computer History Museum, Mountain View (online at CHM).
John Phillips. Oral history interview by Thomas Haigh, 4 June 2008, Mountain View, CA. Computer History Museum, Mountain View. (online at CHM)
C.J. Date, Oral history interview by Thomas Haigh, 13 June 2007, Mountain View, CA. Computer History Museum, Mountain View. (online)
G.W. "Pete" Stewart. Oral history interview by Thomas Haigh, May 5 & 6 2006, Washington, D.C. Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, Philadelphia, PA. (online at SIAM)
Robert L. Patrick. Oral history interview by Thomas Haigh, 16 February 2006, Mountain View, CA. Computer History Museum, Mountain View. (online)
Walter M. Carlson, ACM Oral History Interview #3. Oral history interview by Thomas Haigh, November 26 & 27 2005, Los Gatos, CA. Association for Computing Machinery Press, New York (online at ACM) (online).
Gene Golub. Oral history interview by Thomas Haigh, October 21 & 22 2005, Stanford, CA. Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, Philadelphia, PA (online at SIAM).
C. William Gear. Oral history interview by Thomas Haigh, September 17 & 18 2005, Princeton, NJ.Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, Philadelphia, PA (online at SIAM).
Iain S. Duff. Oral history interview by Thomas Haigh, August 31-September 1 2005, Oxford, UK. Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, Philadelphia, PA (online at SIAM).
William Kahan. Oral history interview by Thomas Haigh, 5-8 August 2005, Berkeley, CA. Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, Philadelphia, PA. (online at SIAM).
I. Edward Block. Oral history interview by Thomas Haigh, 26-27 July 2005, Philadelphia, PA. Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, Philadelphia, PA. (forthcoming pending review by interviewee).
Paul Swarztrauber. Oral history interview by Thomas Haigh, 16-17 July 2005, Boulder, CO. Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, Philadelphia, PA (online at SIAM).
Al Eisman. Oral history interview by Thomas Haigh, 6-7 July 2005, Bellevue, WA. Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, Philadelphia, PA (online at SIAM).
Phyllis Fox. Oral history interview by Thomas Haigh, 7-8 June 2005, Short Hills, NJ. Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, Philadelphia, PA (online at SIAM).
Bill Buzbee. Oral history interview by Thomas Haigh, 8-9 April 2005, Westminster, CO. Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, Philadelphia, PA (online at SIAM).
Gaston Gonnet OH TBA. Oral history interview by Thomas Haigh, 16-18 March 2005, Zurich, Swizterland. Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, Philadelphia, PA (online at SIAM).
Alan J. Hindmarsh. Oral history interview by Thomas Haigh, 5-6 January 2005, Livermore, CA. Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (online at SIAM).
Peter Harris, Oral history interview by Thomas Haigh, 19 November 2004, Mountain View, CA. Computer History Museum, Mountain View. (online)
Charles L. Lawson. Oral history interview by Thomas Haigh, 6-7 November 2004, San Clemente, CA. Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, Philadelphia, PA (online at SIAM).
Charles Bachman, ACM Oral History Interview #2. Oral history interview by Thomas Haigh, 25-26 September 2004, Tucson, AZ. Association for Computing Press, New York (online at ACM) (online locally).
Charles W. Johnson. Oral history interview by Thomas Haigh, 25 August 2004, Racine, WI. Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, Philadelphia, PA (online at SIAM).
W.J. Cody. Oral history interview by Thomas Haigh, 3-4 August 2004, Glen Ellyn, IL. Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, Philadelphia, PA (online at SIAM).
Augustin Dubrulle. Oral history interview by Thomas Haigh, 30-31 July 2004, Arroyo Grande, CA. Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, Philadelphia, PA (online at SIAM).
Jim Pool. Oral history interview by Thomas Haigh, 14-15 July 2004, Pasadena, CA. Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, Philadelphia, PA. (online at SIAM).
Brian Ford. Oral history interview by Thomas Haigh, 29-30 June 2004, Oxford, UK. Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, Philadelphia, PA (online at SIAM).
Thomas J. Aird. Oral history interview by Thomas Haigh, 3-4 June 2004, Reno, NV. Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, Philadelphia, PA (online at SIAM).
Oscar Schacter, OH 389. Oral history interview by Thomas Haigh, 7 May 2004, Needham, MA. Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (online).
Dan Fylstra. Oral history interview by Thomas Haigh, 7 May 2004, Needham, MA. Computer History Museum, Mountain View (online at CHM).
Jerome Dreyer. Oral history interview by Thomas Haigh, 1 May 2004, Pittsburgh, PA. Computer History Museum, Mountain View (online at CHM).
Jack Dongarra. Oral history interview by Thomas Haigh, 26-28 April 2004, Knoxville & Oak Ridge, TN. Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, Philadelphia, PA (online at SIAM).
John R. Rice. Oral history interview by Thomas Haigh, 24-25 March 2004, West Lafayette, IN. Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, Philadelphia, PA (online at SIAM).
Joseph Traub. Oral history interview by Thomas Haigh, 19-20 March 2004, New York, NY. Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, Philadelphia, PA (online at SIAM).
Cleve Moler. Oral history interview by Thomas Haigh, 8-9 March 2004, Santa Barbara, CA. Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, Philadelphia, PA (online at SIAM).
Lawrence Welke, OH 335. Oral history interview by Thomas Haigh, 3 May 2002, Washington, DC. Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (online).
Joseph A. Piscopo, OH 342. Oral history interview by Thomas Haigh, 3 May 2002, Washington, D.C. Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (online).
Competitively Reviewed Conference Presentations
"How The Computer Became Universal," The Universal Ambitions of Computing, Honolulu, November 2023 (workshop held in conjunction with 4S meeting).
"Technology and Empire: IBM's Communist Collaboration," Annual Meeting of the Society for the History of Technology, New Orleans, October 2022.
"Fact Checking After Truth," Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association for Information Science, online conference, 2022. (with Maria Haigh and Stefan Swanson) (paper in proceedings)
"Finding a Story for the History of Computing: Confessions of a Reluctant Master Narrator," 26th International Congress of History of Science and Technology, Prague, July 2021 (conference held online).
"Three Empires in the East: IBM's Communist Collaboration," Business History Conference, Charlotte, North Carolina, March, 2020.
"Exploring the Early Digital: A Roundtable," Annual Meeting of the Society for the History of Technology, Milan, Italy, October, 2019.
“IBM's Eastern Front: American Capitalism Behind the Iron Curtain,” 9th Tensions of Europe Conference, Luxembourg, June 2019 (with Petri Paju).
“The Other Women of ENIAC,” Annual Meeting of the Society for the History of Technology, Philadelphia, October 2017.
“We Have Never Been Digital,” Digital Practices: Situating People, Things and Data, Siegen University, June 2016.
“Making Time for the Past: Historical Scholarship in the iSchool,” 2015 Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association for Information Science (CAIS), Ottawa, June 2015. (with Nadine Kozak)
“Making Time for the Past: Historical Scholarship in the iSchool,” 2015 Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association for Information Science (CAIS), Ottawa, June 2015. (with Nadine Kozak)
"IBM as the Very Model of a Modern Major Corporation," Business History Conference, Frankfurt, Germany, March 2014.
"Rethinking the Stored Program Concept," 24th International Congress of History of Science, Technology and Medicine, Manchester, UK, July 2013.
"Stored Program Considered Harmful: History and Historiography," Computability in Europe 2013: The Nature of Computation, Milan, July 2013. (slides)
"How Information First Became a Thing: Early Developments in the United States and Soviet Union" (with Maria Haigh), Canadian Association for Information Science annual meeting, Waterloo, May/June 2012.
"The Future of Information History," annual meeting of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, New Orleans, October 2011.
"The Red Route to Open Access? Scholarly Publishing and the Politics of National Identity in Post-Soviet Ukraine," (with Maria Haigh) Canadian Association for Information Science annual meeting, Fredericton, June 2011.
"Dijkstra's Crisis: The End of Algol and the Beginning of Software Engineering: 1968-72," workshop on History of Software, European Styles, Lorentz Center, University of Leiden, Netherlands, September 2010 (text online)
"'Crisis, What Crisis?' Reconsidering the Software Crisis of the 1960s and the Origins of Software Engineering,’ Final ESF Eurocores Program Inventing Europe, Sofia, Bulgaria, June 2010 (text online).
(with Maria Haigh) "Open Source Software Practices: Forgotten History of the 1950s and 1960s," Media In Action Conference, University of Siegen, Germany, June 2010.
(with Bernardo Batiz Lazo) “Engineering Change in Mexico: The Adoption of Computer Technology at ICA (1965-1971),” Second Latin American Economic History Congress (CLADHE-II), Mexico City, February 2010.
"Challengers and Opportunities in Information History," Annual Meeting of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Vancouver, November 2009. (slides)
"Opening the Beige Box: Materiality and the Evolution of the IBM PC, 1981-1995," Annual Meeting of the Society for the History of Technology, Pittsburgh, October 2009. (slides)
"Computing the American Way," at “Appropriating America, Making Europe,” Inventing Europe Eurocores European Science Foundation Workshop, Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences and Arts, Amsterdam, January 2009. (draft paper)
"Masculinities in the Histories of Computing(s)," History|Gender|Computing, Charles Babbage Institute, Minneapolis, June 2008. (draft paper)
"Open Source Software at 50: Its Corporate and Mathematical Origins," Annual Meeting of the Society for the History of Technology, Washington DC, October 2007. (slides)
"Knowing Numbers: How Numerical Software Libraries Changed Scientific Practice, 1954-1975," Annual Meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science, Montreal, October 2007. (slides)
"The Web's Missing Links: The Search Engine & Portal Industry," Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, Philadelphia, August 2007.
"Missing Links: The Development of the Search Engine & Portal Industry," British Society for the History of Science, Manchester, July 2007. (slides)
"Missing Links: The Search Engine & Portal Industry," at Business History Conference, Cleveland, May/June 2007. (slides)
“Making the Computer Personal: Reconstructing Domesticity for the Information Age” at Gumanitarni Problemy Stanovlennia Suchasnoho Fakhivczia (8th International Conference for the Professionalization and Modernization of the Humanities and Social Sciences), March 22-23, 2007, Kyiv, Ukraine.
"Learning on a Jet Plane: Distributed Problem Solving and Knowledge Sharing in a Virtual Community of Frequent Fliers," at the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Information Science & Technology, Austin, November 2006.(abstract) (slides)
"The Corporate Origins of Open Source," at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science, Vancouver, November 2006. (session abstract) (slides)
"Crippled by its Own Strengths: The Software Infrastructure of the Commercializing Internet," at the Annual Meeting of the Society for the History of Technology, Las Vegas, October 2006. (session proposal) (abstract) (slides)
"SHARE and the Origins of Open Source Software, 1954-1972," at the Annual Symposium of the International Committee for the History of Technology, Leicester, UK, August 2006. (abstract) (slides)
"An Industry of Enthusiasts: Users Make the Computer Personal, 1975-1981." Business History Conference, Minneapolis, May 2005. (abstract) (slides)
“Making the Computer Personal: Reconstructing Domesticity for the Information Age” at Annual Meeting of the Society for the History of Technology, Amsterdam, October 2004. (abstract) (slides)
“Technology versus Technocracy in the Progressive Office in the United States, 1917-1931" at Business History Conference, Le Creusot (France), June 2004. (abstract) (slides)
“A Veritable Bucket of Facts: Origins of the Database Management System” at Second Conference on the History and Heritage of Scientific and Technical Information Systems (ASIS&T/Chemical Heritage Foundation), Philadelphia, November 2002. (abstract) (slides)
“Lost In Translation: Total Systems from War Room to Board Room, 1954-1968” at Annual Meeting of the Society for the History of Technology, Toronto, October 2002. (abstract), (text), (slides)
“Information is the Fix, Now What Was the Problem?” at The Technological Fix, Hagley Museum and Library conference, Delaware, October 2002. (abstract), (text), (slides)
“A Veritable Bucket of Facts: Origins of the Database Management System” at Preliminary Workshop on the History and Heritage of Scientific and Technical Information Systems (ASIST/Chemical Heritage Foundation), Philadelphia, June 2001. (abstract)
“Corporate War-Rooms: The Computer and ‘Total Systems’ in Business, 1959-1968” at Cold War Science, Technology and Medicine: Global Perspectives, University of Pennsylvania, November 2000. (abstract) (slides)
“From Machine Man to Information Manager: Class Formation and Group Mobility in Corporate Computing, 1953-1964”, at 22nd North American Labor History Conference, Detroit, October 2000. (abstract), (text) (slides)
"Inventing Managerial Information: The Systems Men and the Computer, 1957-1967" at Society for the History of Technology (SHOT) annual meeting, Munich, August 2000. (abstract) (slides)
"Failure as a Cultural Resource: Early Computer Systems for Corporate Management" at the Interdisciplinary Graduate Student Conference on Failure, Harvard University, May 2000. (abstract)
Dissertation in Progress Presentation at Business History Conference, Palo Alto, March 2000. (dissertation proposal)
"The Taylored Office: Technology, Power and Expertise in Systematic Office Management" at Mid-Atlantic Conference in the History of Science, Technology and Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, August 1998. (abstract)
Invited Presentations
"Rethinking Success and Failure in the History of Computing" at World Computer Day, online event, February 2024.
"Artificial Intelligence -- The History of a Brand" at Can Machines Save the World?, Technical University Vienna, November 2023. (report and video link)
"What Can Go Wrong With Oral Histories?" at Oral History Meets European Studies. Sources, Tools and Methods in the Digital Age, University of Luxembourg, July 2023.
"ENIAC in the Archives: What We Learned from a Rack of Tubes, a Bit of Wire, a Page of Numbers, and a Table of Accounts" keynote talk at Surprising Sources (a Tensions of Europe workshop), University of Luxembourg, May 2023 (delivered online). (event program)
"The Data Base Management System: Where the History of Data Meets the History of Computing," Database Histories Workshop, University of Basel, June 2023.
"Artificial Intelligence: The Brand That Wouldn't Die," Käte Hamburger Kolleg:Cultures of Research (c:o/re), RWTH Aacchen Univesity, June 2023. (details)
"The Eckert Mauchly Computer Company (and Why it Was Doomed)," World Computer Day, Philadelphia, February 2023 (delivered online).
"Modularity and Interoperability as Building Blocks for Historical Narrative," Interoperabilität. Siegen University, December 2022 (delivered online).
Roundtable participant, SWHAP Days: Preserving our Landmark Legacy Software, Paris, October 2022. (delivered online)
"Chances Seized and Opportunities Squandered: Writing A New History of Modern Computing," Rethinking and Rebuilding: Grand Narratives in the History of Computing, Siegen University, Germany, July 2022.
"Becoming Universal: A New History of Modern Computing," Loyola University Chicago & ACM Chicago Chapter, May 2022. (video)
"Becoming Universal: A New History of Modern Computing," University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee Digital Humanities series. April 2022.
"Lost Women of Science: Klara Dan von Neumann," a conversation between me and Katie Hafner moderated by Maria Klawe, Computer History Museum, April 2022. (video)
"Becoming Universal: A New History of Modern Computing," Humanities Institute at UC Santa Cruz, April 2022.
Keynote Speaker, "Becoming Universal: A New History of Modern Computing," 6th International Conference on the History of Philosophy of Computing, Zurich, Switzerland, October 2021. (watch here)
"Opacity and Transparency in the History of American Business," for a symposium on "Accepting Opaque Algorithms?" Tubingen, Germany, June 2021 (delivered online).
"Rebooting Gender History: Myth versus Reality in Narratives of Early Programming," University of Luxembourg, March 2021 (delivered online).
"What's Digital About the Digital Humanities, in the Colloquium History of Digital Cultures series, University of Amsterdam, March 2020.
"What's Digital About Digital History," Center for Contemporary and Digital History, University of Luxembourg, March 2020.
"Moonshots Then and Now: Apollo vs ARPANET as Rival Models of Innovation," Siegen University, March 2020.
"Moonshots Then and Now: Why Google Isn't NASA," UWM Manfred Olson Planetarium, September 2019.
Speaker and Panelist, Symposium on the History of Artificial Intelligence, Cambridge University, UK, November 2018.
“The History of UNIX in the History of Software,” Københavns Universitet Datalogisk Institut, Copenhagen, Denmark, March 2018.
“Working on ENIAC: The Lost Labors of the Information Age,” Danish History of Science Society Lecture Series, Copenhagen, Denmark, March 2018.
“The Other Women of ENIAC: Rethinking the Myths of Innovation,” Montagskolloquium, Deutsches Museum, Munich, January 2018.
“Contextualizing Unix: Cooperative Software Development Practices From the 1950s to the 1970s,” keynote for Unix en France et aux États-Unis: innovation, diffusion et appropriation, CNAM, Paris, October 2017.
“The Other Women of ENIAC: Rethinking IT Innovation,” IEEE Silicon Valley History Chapter, March 2017.
“Working on ENIAC: Memory, Labor, and Gender in the Early Digital,” Studio X, DePaul University, Chicago, February 2017.
“Working on ENIAC: Design, Repair, and Maintenance in the Early Digital,” Center for Digital Cultures, Leuphana University Luneberg, January 2017 .
“Working on ENIAC: Rethinking the Myths of Innovation,” CHM Live series, Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA, November 2016.
“Working on ENIAC: The Lost Labors of the Information Age,” Vintage Computer Festival Midwest 11, Elk Gove Village, Illinois, September 2016.
“The Lost Labors of ENIAC,” keynote for Beyond ENIAC: Early Digital Platforms and Practices, Siegen University, June 2016.
“We Have Never Been Digital,” Digital Practices: Situating People, Things and Data, Siegen University, June 2016
“Working on ENIAC: Rethinking the Myths of Innovation,” Weber State University (Utah), April 2016.
“Working on ENIAC: The Lost Labors of the Information Age,” book signing and Geek Week talk, University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee.
“Working on ENIAC: The Lost Labors of the Information Age,” University of Maryland, sponsored jointly by the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities and Computer Science. Human-Computer Interaction Lab, February 2016 (with Mark Priestley).,
“The Many Histories of ENIAC,” Economic History Seminar, University of Pennsylvania, February 2016 (with Mark Priestley).
“Working on ENIAC: Rethinking the Myths of Innovation,” ENIAC 70th Anniversary Event, University of Pennsylvania, February 2016
"Working on ENIAC: The Lost Labors of the Information Age," Directions in Digital Humanities Series, Digital Humanities Laboratory, University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee, October 2015.
“The Secret History of Computer Operations, From ENIAC to The Cloud,” Data Center World Conference, Las Vegas, April 2015.
"We Have Never Been Digital: Lessons from the History of Information Technology," Directions in Digital Humanities Series, Digital Humanities Laboratory, University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee, April 2014.
"Reconsidering the Stored Program Concept as the Foundation of Modern Computing," University of Wisconsin--Whitewater (for Computer Science Education Week), December 2013.
"Taking Care of Business History: Challenges and Opportunities for the 21st Century" (keynote), Association of Business Historians 21st Annual Conference, Preston, UK, June 2013. (text)
"The Secret History of Open Source: Origins in the 1950s Military-Industrial Complex," Jean Tague-Sutcliffe Lecture, University of Western Ontario, July 2012.
"Techniques from History," LIS DREaM (Developing Research Excellence and Methods), British Library (London, UK), January 2012.
"The Historian for Hire: Conducting a Career Oral History Series in a Technical Area," University of Siegen, Germany, June 2010.
"Opening the Beige Box: Materiality and the Evolution of the IBM PC, 1981-1995", Helmut Kreuzer lecture series, University of Siegen, Germany, June 2010.
"The Web's Missing Links," symposium at the School of Library and Information Science, University of Wisconsin--Madison, February 2010.
“The Web’s Missing Links” presented in the Science, Technology and Society cluster symposium series at the National University of Singapore, Jan 2010.
“The Web’s Missing Links,” Yonsei University, Seoul, Jan 2010.
“Status Anxiety Among the High Fliers: An Online Ethnography of a Frequent Flier Community” presented at the Money, Markets and Consumption workshop series, University of Chicago, December 2009.
(with Maria Haigh) “The Goodby Petrovka Plan: The Moral Economy of File Sharing in Post-Soviet Society,” presented at the Free Culture Research Workshop, Harvard Law School, October 2009. (working paper online)
"Knowing Information: The Social History of Information in American Business," Center for 21st Century Studies, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, September 2009. (slides)
Keynote Speaker, "The Historian for Hire: Conducting a Career Oral History Series in a Technical Area," Summer School: Oral History and Technological Memory: Challenges in Studying European Pasts, University of Turku, Finland, August 2009. (slides)
Keynote Panel Speaker, Online Marketing Summit, Brookfield, Wisconsin, July 2008.
Panel Discussant, Collaborative Online Communication, Milwaukee World Trade Association, April 2008.
"Making the Computer Personal: Reconstructing Domesticity in the Information Age," History Department Symposium Series, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, February 2008.
"How the Computer Became Information Technology: Constructing Information in Corporate America," Center for Information Policy Research Symposium Series, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, February 2008.
"The Software Crisis Reconsidered," at the SOFT-EU Workshop on ALGOL, IBM and Software Crisis,
The state of Historiography in Transnational Interpretations, Grenoble & St Pierre de Chartreuse, January 2008. (slides)
"The Secret History of Open Source Software Practices: Their Corporate and Scientific Origins, 1954-1980", GSLIS Research Forum, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, November 2007. (audio)(slides)
"Tools and Issues in Software History," at the Software for Europe Project Inaugural Workshop, Prague & Hejnice, September 2007. (slides)
"The Web's Missing Links: Search Engines and Portals," at Monday Lunch Symposium, Computer Science Department, ETH, Zurich, May 2007. (slides)
"How the Computer Became Information Technology: Constructing Information in Corporate America," School of Management, Leicester University, May 2007. (slides)
"How the Computer Became Information Technology: Constructing Information in Corporate America," Symposium in the Humanities Computing Group series, Faculty of Technology, Portsmouth University (UK), May 2007.
"The Web's Missing Links: Search Engines and Portals," at Institut für Geschichte, ETH, Zurich, May 2007.
"Free as in Science: The Forgotten Mathematical Origins of Open Source Software," at Brno University of Technology, Czech Republic, May 2007.
"How the Computer Became Information Technology: Constructing Information in Corporate America," Deutsches Museum, Munich, April 2007.
“Making the Computer Personal: Reconstructing Domesticity for the Information Age” guest lecture for American Studies, National Aeronautical University, Kiev, March, 2007.
“Making the Computer Personal: Reconstructing Domesticity for the Information Age” at Informatics School Doctoral Symposium Series, UKMA, Kiev, March, 2007.
"The Software Infrastructure of the Commercializing Internet," at Workshop on the History of the Internet and its Impacts, Munich, July 2006. (slides)
"Blue Collars, White Shirts: The Conflicted Identity of 1950s Punched Card Men" at Computers in Use: Historical and Social Perspectives, Manchester, UK, July 2006.
“Making the Computer Personal: Reconstructing Domesticity for the Information Age” at Japan Association for Science, Technology and Society Symposium Series, Tokyo University, January, 2006. (slides)
"Free as in Science: The Forgotten Mathematical Origins of Open Source Software," Colloquium History of Computing: Software, CWI, Amsterdam, June 2005 (public keynote lecture) (slides)
“A Veritable Bucket of Facts: Origins of the Database Management System”, School of Information Studies Symposium Series, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, November 2003.
"The Disunity of Computing: Pan-Computing Professionalism and the Tensions of Science and Trade," Informatics School Symposium Series, Indiana University Bloomington, December 2003. (abstract) (slides)
“The Newly Minted Ph.D.: Opportunities and Constraints,” Doctoral Student Professional Workshop Series, School of Library and Information Studies, Indiana University, Bloomington, October 2003.
“A Veritable Bucket of Facts: Origins of the Database Management System”, School of Library and Information Science, Emporia State University, Kansas, March 2003.
“New Technologies, Old Problems: Historical Amnesia and Enterprise Computing,” Informatics School Symposium Series, Indiana University, December 2002. (abstract) (slides)
“The Disunity of Computing: Misplaced Holism and Professional Identity:1958-1972,” University of Pennsylvania, November 2002. (slides)
“Why Users Matter: Software Development & Soviet Architecture,” Computer Science Symposium Series, Colby College, April 2002.
“Between Science and Trade: Pan-Computing Professionalism, 1958-1972,” STS Symposium Series, Colby College, March 2002. (abstract)
“Tools and Methods in the History of Computing” and “Corporate Considerations”, Computing Research Association Workshop on Using History to Teach Computer Science, Amherst College, August 2001. (slides)
"Timeless Theory vs. Changing Users: Reconsidering Database Education,” College of Information Science and Technology Symposium Series, Drexel University, March 2001. (slides)
“Adoption as Innovation: Corporate Computing and the Productivity Paradox,” STS Symposium Series, Colby College, Jan 2001.
Conference Sessions Organized and Workshop Participation
Lead organizer, Rethinking and Rebuilding: Grand Narratives in the History of Computing, Siegen University, Germany, July 2022. (program)
Co-organizer, Digital Matters (conference), Siegen University, Germany, December 2021. (program)
Lead organizer, Interviewing in Theory and Practice (two day oral history workshop), Siegen University, Germany, September 2021. (program)
Session Chair, 4th RESAW Conference Mainstream vs Marginal Content in Web History and Web Archives, online, June 2021.
Faculty member, Summer School: Historiography of Digital Cultures, Leuphana University, Luneburg, Germany, September 2018.
Organizer and Chair, two day workshop for book project Becoming Digital, May 2018, at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA.
Organizer and Chair, small workshop to follow up on Mapping the Early Digital, University of Pennsylvania, October 2017.
Organizer and Chair, Mapping the Early Digital, two day workshop for book project, July 2017.
Organizer, Computing is Work!, Siegen University, three day international conference, July 2017. (with Sebastian Giessmann) (program)
Historical Moderator, Desktop Publishing Pioneer Meeting, Computer History Museum, May 2017.
Organizer and Chair, Exploring the Early Digital, Siegen University three-day research workshop, January 2017.
Session Chair and Commentator, “Usage and Representation,” SIGCIS Workshop at the Annual Meeting of the Society for the History of Technology, Singapore, June 2016.
Organizer and Chair, Beyond ENIAC: Early Digital Platforms and Practices, Siegen University three-day research workshop, June 2016.
Session Commentator & Chair, "Pushing the Limits," SIGCIS Workshop at the Annual Meeting of the Society for the History of Technology, Albuquerque, New Mexico, October 2015.
Session Organizer, "IBM and Technological Nationalism," Business History Conference, Frankfurt, Germany, March 2014.
Session Organizer, "IBM and the Evolution of Corporate Virtue," Business History Conference, Frankfurt, Germany, March 2014.
Session Organizer & Commentator, "Analog History: The Forgotten Post-WWII World of Analog Computing," Annual Meeting of the Society for the History of Technology, October 2013.
Session Commentator, "The Social Origins of Personal Computing," Annual Meeting of the Society for the History of Technology, Copenhagen, October 2012.
Session Organizer, "International Information Identities," Annual Meeting of the Society for the History of Technology, Copenhagen, October 2012.
Session Organizer, "International Information Societies," Annual Meeting of the Society for the History of Technology, Copenhagen, October 2012.
Session Organizer & Commentator, "Coded Narratives – Memory, Practice and Community in the History of Software," Annual Meeting of the Society for the History of Technology, Cleveland, October 2011.
Session Organizer & Chair, "Networks as Places in the History of Computing," Annual Meeting of the Society for the History of Technology, Tacoma, October 2010.
Invited Workshop Participant, Service Bureau Pioneer Meeting of the Software Industry SIG, Computer History Museum in New York City, May 2010.
Session Organizer, "New Directions in Information History," Annual Meeting of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Vancouver, November 2009. (session proposal)
Session Organizer, "Political Institutions in the History of Computing," SIGCIS Workshop on "Mike Mahoney and the Histories of Computing(s)" at the Annual Meeting of the Society for the History of Technology, Pittsburgh, October 2009.
Session Organizer, "Materiality Meets Practice," Annual Meeting of the Society for the History of Technology, Pittsburgh, October 2009. (session proposal)
Session Organizer, "Paths Not Taken and Paths Retraced in the History of Information Technology," Annual Meeting of the Society for the History of Technology, Pittsburgh, October 2009. (session proposal)
Invited Participant, workshop on "Innovation, Organizations and Society," University of Chicago (joint between U of Chicago Booth School of Business and Northwestern School of Communication). October 2009.
Resident Instructor, Summer School: Oral History and Technological Memory: Challenges in Studying European Pasts, University of Turku, Finland, August 2009.
Session Organizer and Commentator, "Looms, Chips, Users and Code: The Business of Computing," Annual Meeting of the Society for the History of Technology, Lisbon, October 2008. (session proposal)
Session Organizer and Chair, "Symbolic Internationalism: Computing, Users, and (Trans)national Agendas," Annual Meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science, Rotterdam, August 2008. (session proposal)
Invited workshop participant, Minicomputer Software Meeting, Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA, June 2008.
Discussant, Session on "Information Technology and Organizational Change," Business History Conference, Sacramento, April 2008.
Session Organizer, "Knowing with Computers: How Software and Systems Encapsulate Expertise," Annual Meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science, Montreal, November 2007. (session proposal)
Session Organizer & Commentator, "50 Years of Computing Historiography," Annual Meeting of the Society for the History of Technology, Washington DC, October 2007. (session proposal)
Session Organizer, "50 Years of Computer Use -- Continuity Amid Change," Annual Meeting of the Society for the History of Technology, Washington DC, October 2007. (session proposal)
Session Organizer, "Networks of Knowing -- Technology Transfer & Open Source Invention," Annual Meeting of the Society for the History of Technology, Washington DC, October 2007. (session proposal)
Invited Participant & Associate Partner, "Software for Europe Project Inaugural Workshop," Prague & Hejnice, September 2007.
Invited workshop participant, Relational Database History Meeting, Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA, June 2007.
(with David Kirsch) Session Organizer, "Industry Emergence: Institutional Entrepreneurship and the Commercialization of the Internet, 1993-2004," Business History Conference, Cleveland, May/June 2007. (session proposal)
Session Organizer, "The Secret History of Open Source," Annual Meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science, Vancouver, November 2006. (session proposal)
Session Organizer, "State Ideology and Computerized Modernity, 1950-1970," Annual Meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science, Vancouver, November 2006. (session proposal)
Session Organizer & Chair, "The Commercialized Internet and its Users in the 1990s," Annual Meeting of the Society for the History of Technology. (session proposal)
Session chair, "Communications 1," International Committee for the History of Technology Symposium, Leicester, UK, August 2006.
Invited workshop participant, Professional Services Genealogy Meeting, Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA, February 2006.
Session organizer and commentator, "User and Usability in Personal Computing -- International Perspectives," Annual Meeting of the Society for the History of Technology, Minneapolis, November 2005. (session proposal)
"Senior foreign colleague" at small three day workshop devoted largely to discussion of my work, Amsterdam University, June 2005.
Session organizer, "Adoption as Innovation -- User Roles in the Creation of Technological Industries," Business History Conference, Minneapolis, May 2005. (session proposal)
Historical moderator for session on "Financial and Management Software" at PC Software: The First Decade, Mountain View, CA, November 2004.
Session organizer, “The Electronic Eighties: Domesticating, Gendering, and Consuming, 1975-1990,” Annual Meeting of the Society for the History of Technology, Amsterdam, October 2004. (session proposal)
Historical moderator for sessions on “Spreadsheets: Lotus 1-2-3” and “Technical Issues: Customer Support, Documentation, and Training,” PC Software: The First Decade, Needham MA, May 2004.
Invited workshop participant, Using History to Improve Computer Science Education, Computing Research Association, Boston, May 2004.
Invited workshop participant, Using History to Improve Computer Science Education, Computing Research Association, Chicago, April 2004.
Committee member and presenter, Presidential Ad Hoc Committee on ACM History, New York, January 2004.
Invited participant & presenter, Strategic Planning Meeting on the History of Software, Palo Alto, May 2003.
Moderator, “Relations with Big 8 Accounting Firms”, ADAPSO Reunion Conference, Washington D.C., May 2002. Published in ADAPSO Reunion Transcript, ed. Luanne Johnson (iBusiness Press, 2003): 209-235.
Rapporteur, International Conference on the History of Computing, Paderborn (Germany), April 2000
Awards, Fellowships & Contract Research
Center for 21st Century Studies Fellow, University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee. Course buyout for 1:1 teaching load, academic year 2022/3.
IEEE Finn Prize from the Society for the History of Technology for "Colossus and Programmability," 2019.
Philip B. Scranton Best Article Prize from the Business History Conference for "IBM Rebuilds Europe," 2017.
Mira Wilkins Prize from the Business History Conference for "IBM Rebuilds Europe," 2017.
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG-Graduiertenkolleg 1769 “Locating Media”, I am an “associated scientist” on approx. EUR 3,000,000 award to Siegen University, 2017-2021. Principal investigator Tristan Thielmann.
SFB-Cooperative Research Center 1887, “Media of Cooperation,” cooperation partner for project A01 “Digital vernetzte Medien zwischen Spezialisierung und Universalisierung,” 2016-2020. Total grant approx. EUR 10,000,000. Support to me from Siegen as subcontractor around $200,000. Principal investigator Erhard Schüttpelz.
Lead contractor and project manager for Mrs. L.D. Rope's Second Charitable Settlement on Colossus History project (2015-circa 2017), total approx $170,000 over two phases.
Lead contractor and project manager for Mrs. L.D. Rope's Second Charitable Settlement on ENIAC History project (2011-circa 2015), total approx $500,000 over several phases.
Jean Tague Sutcliffee Visiting Scholar, University of Western Ontario, Summer 2012.
European Science Foundation, Associate Partner with project “Inside the Box: A History of the Software Package” as part of the Software for Europe grant in the EuroCores program. Provided travel funding for collaborative events between 2007 and 2010.
Center for 21st Century Studies Fellow, University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee. Course buyout for 1:1 teaching load, academic year 2008/9.
UWM School of Information Studies Internal Research Grant ("SIRG") (2007), $6,000.
Historical Consultant to ACM SIGMOD (2004), $5,000 & to Association for Computing Machinery (2005), $4,500.
Historical Consultant to Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (2003-6), approximately $195,000.
Software History Center Research Fellowship (2003), $21,000.
IEEE Life Member Fellowship in Electrical History (2000-01), one year stipend of $15,000.
Penn SAS Dissertation Fellowship (1999-00), one year stipend and fees (approx $20,000).
Tomash Fellowship in the History of Information Processing (Charles Babbage Institute, 1999-00), $12,000.
William Penn Fellowship (1995-99), four year non-service stipend and fees (circa $135,000).
Kennedy Scholarship for study at Harvard/MIT. Travel, fees, stipend (circa $35,000). Declined.
Fulbright Award for post-graduate study in the US (1995-96), $12,000.
Royal Academy of Engineering grants to pursue thesis research in the United States (1994) and United Kingdom (1994-95). Total $2,200.
Degree sponsorship for M.Eng/B.Sc. from ICL UK, Ltd. Stipend for three years and two internships. Total approx $12,000.
Selected Reviews and Media
"The Evolution of Computers," UWM Today, WUWM, May 8 2008 (30 minute radio interview).
Nathan Ensmenger, “Computing As Science and Practice,” Science 333:6048 (Sept 09, 2011):1383. (review of Histories of Computing) (online)
Janelle Nanos, “Return to Sender,” Boston Magazine, June 2012. (Discusses my work on the “Inventor of Email” case) (online)
Mark Priestley, “Mahoney, Histories of Computing” British Journal for the History of Science 45:4 (December, 2012):703-4.
Martin Campbell-Kelly, “Remembering Michael S. Mahoney,” Perspectives on Science 21:3 (2013):379-383. (review essay on Histories of Computing).
David Pogue, “E-Mail Birthday Intrigue,” New York Times blog “Pogue’s Posts,” September 6, 2012. (Based on and quotes most of a message I sent him regarding the “Inventor of Email.”). (online)
Jon Agar, “Histories of Computing,” Isis 104:4, (December 2013): 868-9.
Mike Masnick, “Huffington Post Finally Responds, Stands By Its Completely Bogus, Totally Debunked ‘History of Email’ Series,” Techdirt, September 4, 2014. (Discusses and quotes extensively from my work on the “Inventor of Email”).(online)
Albert Meroño-Peñuela, “We’ve Always Been Digital,” eHumanities Magazine (Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences), November 11, 2014. (essay response to "We Have Never Been Digital"). (online)
Gil Press, “When Artificial Intelligence Started to ‘Change the World’,” Forbes.com, April 18, 2016. (review feature on ENIAC in Action) (online)
John Prendergast, “A People’s History of ENIAC,” The Pennsylvania Gazette, May 2016: 28-29. (feature on ENAIC In Action) (online)
Len Shustek, “Programming the ENIAC: An Example of Why Computer History is Hard,” @CHM, Computer History Museum, May 18, 2016. (online)
Jesper Olsson, "Med Eniac föddes moderniteten," Svenska Dagbladet, 23 June, 2016. (online)
Hansen Hsu, “The Neverending Quest for ‘Firsts’,” @CHM, Computer History Museum, June 29, 2016. (online)
Ernest Davis, “ENIAC: The First Electronic Computer’s Place in History,” SIAM News, October 2016. (online)
Sebastian Vehlken, Review of ENIAC in Action, Berichte zur Wiseenschaftsgeschichte 41:1 (March 2017): 98-100.
Quoted in New York Times and Washington Post obituaries of Chares W. Bachman, July 2017.
David Theodore, “Past Calculations: New Histories of Computing Technology" (review essay featuring ENIAC in Action) Scientia Canadensis 40:1 (2018):98-103.(online)
Martin Schmitt, Review of ENIAC in Action, Technikgeschichte 85:1 (2018): 77-78.
Contributor to "What Technology is Most Likely to Become Obsolete During Your Lifetime," Gizomodo, July 22, 2019. (online)
Contributor to "The Lines of Code that Changed Everything," Slate, Oct 14, 2019. (online)
Podcast guest, My Nuclear Life episode 20, "History of Early Computing with Thomas Haigh," August 17, 2021. (online)
Contributor to the 2022 Guinness World Records book, for a spread on IT-related records. My picture is in the back! (online)
Podcast guest: New Books Network, interview by Austin Clyde on A New History of Modern Computing, March 30, 2022. (online)
Contributor: Season 2 of Lost Women of Science podcast about Klara von Neumann. Reviewed scripts for accuracy and featured in episodes 3 ("The Experimental Rabbit"), 4 ("Netherworld"), 5 ("La Jolla") and the bonus episode.
Gil Press, "Read This Engaging Story of How The Computer Has Been Eating the World For 75 Years," Forbes.com (article on A New History of Modern Computing).(online)
Martina Heßler, Review of A New History of Modern Computing, Technology & Culture 63:2, April 2020. (online)
David B. Henderon. Review of A New History of Modern Computing. Computing Reviews, April 2022.(online)
Paul Messina, “A Comprehensive Exploration of the Path to Modern Computing,” SIAM News, September 1, 2022. (review of A New History of Modern Computing) (online at SIAM)
Podcast Guest. Worldview from Engelsberg Ideas. October 2022.
Victor Petrov, Review of a New History of Modern Computing, Isis 114:1 (March 2023): 219-220.
James Van Spreybroeck, Review of A New History of Modern Computing. Computing Reviews, September 2023. (online)
Other Professional Activities
Special Interest Group on Computers, Information and Society, Society of the History of Technology, Chair, 2005-2014.
Special Interest Group on History and Foundations of Information Science, American Society for Information Science & Technology: Chair, 2007-8. Advisory Board Member, 2009-present. Webmaster, 2007-13. Also Secretary, ASIS&T Wisconsin Chapter, 2005-7.
Computer History Museum: Member of the CHM Fellows Selection Committee, 2012, 2013 & 2015.
Association for Computing Machinery: Editor-in-Chief of the ACM Turing Award Winners’ Website (2015-present). Ad Hoc Presidential Committee on ACM History, 2004. ACM History Committee, 2005.
“The History of IT Education and Its Relation to Broadening Participation of IT Worked in the United States” (Sloan Foundation initiative): Advisory Board Member, 2014-16.
Canadian Association for Information Science: Program Committee, 2012.
Charles Babbage Foundation/IT History Society: Charles Babbage Foundation Collaboration Group, 2005-6, IT History Society Historical Advisory Committee 2007-Present.
Society for the History of Technology: SHOT Website Committee, 2013-2015.
Editorial Board Member: IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 2002-present; Editor of Biographies department, 2002-2012. Information & Culture (formerly Libraries and the Cultural Record) 2011-present. Internet Histories, 2016-present.
Proposal Reviewer: National Science Foundation STS Program, European Science Foundation, UK Economic & Social Research Council, Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada..
Manuscript Reviewer: Communications of the ACM. Technology and Culture. Business History Review. The Internet Encyclopedia. Iterations. IEEE Annals of the History of Computing. Journal of the American Society for Information Science & Technology. Harvard University Press. Organization Science. Journal of Education for Library and Information Science. Management & Organization History, Knowledge Organization, History and Philosophy of Logic, Journal of Information Technology, Pacific Historical Review, AI & Society, Annual Meeting of the American Society & Technology, MIT Press.
Member: Society for the History of Technology, Business History Conference, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), American Historical Association, AAUP.