Rebuilding the Office around the Mainframe: IBM’s S/360 in Context

Scientific Conference (2019, October 27)

The Oxford English Dictionary states that originally, a mainframe only defined the central processing unit and primary memory of a computer, whereas now a mainframe describes any large or general-purpose ... [more ▼]

The Oxford English Dictionary states that originally, a mainframe only defined the central processing unit and primary memory of a computer, whereas now a mainframe describes any large or general-purpose computer, specifically supporting numerous peripherals or subordinate computers. The IBM System/360, announced in 1964 and first installed at around 1967, consists of a collection of peripherals that can be connected to any central processing unit in the system family. Due to the size of both the individual components and the entire system, the design and layout of the office often needed to accommodate for the machine. Furthermore, “the experiences of weight, surface texture, sound and smell are part of the physicality of object” (Dannehl 2013, 130) so in order to experience the environment of a designated computer room, several museums have reconstructed at least some of the structure of a computer room. At the Living Computers Museum+Labs in Seattle the entrance to the separately airconditioned room is up a ramp, because of the raised floor that supports the weight of the computer and hides the very thick cables. Purchasing and installing an IBM System/360 required careful planning in terms of physical requirements and site selection, taking into account environmental, electrical, and signal factors. Besides the system and associated personnel, other furniture including storage cabinets, work tables, chairs, and desks also influenced planning. Furthermore, the length of the cables connecting the machines limited the distance between the system components. The schedule proposed by IBM encouraged customers to order six months before delivery and finalizing the layout two months later to allow for building alterations and time to process the cable order (IBM, 1975). Once the machine was installed, the dimensions and layout continuously influenced the workflow and working conditions of the users. Dannehl, Karin. 2013. “Object biographies. From production to consumption.” In History and Material Culture: A Student’s Guide to Approaching Alternative Sources, edited by Harvey, Karen, 123-138. Routledge. IBM System/360 Model 20 Installation Manual-Physical Planning. Systems Reference Library. Atlanta, Georgia: International Business Machines Corporation, 1975. Living Computers Museum+Labs, IBM, Box 1, 76027. [less ▲]

Visualizing Gender Balance in Conferences

in Umanistica Digitale (2019), (5), 91-105

Data visualization is a powerful tool for digital scholarship yet not without its pitfalls. Based on the dissertation “Visualizing Gender Balance” comparing ten computer science conferences, several ... [more ▼]

Data visualization is a powerful tool for digital scholarship yet not without its pitfalls. Based on the dissertation “Visualizing Gender Balance” comparing ten computer science conferences, several visualization techniques and tools undergo a critical review. The dataset underlying the visualizations contains data researchers encounter daily: bibliographic information. Analyzing larger sets of authors writing and publishing for conferences in computer science changes our perception of the gender (im)balance in this academic research area. But only a careful curation and visualization can truly reveal what goes on behind the scenes. Still the more complicated, detailed and nuanced the visualization, the harder it becomes for an untrained eye to interpret the patterns. [less ▲]

Mind the Gap: Gender and Computer Science Conferences

in Kreps, David; Ess, Charles; Leenen, Louise (Eds.) et al This Changes Everything - ICT and Climate Change: What Can We Do? 13th IFIP TC 9 International Conference on Human Choice and Computers, HCC13 2018. Held at the 24th IFIP World Computer Congress, WCC2018, Poznan, Poland, September 19-21, 2018, Proceedings. (2018)

Computer science research areas are often arbitrarily defined by researchers themselves based on their own opinions or on conference rankings. First, we aim to classify conferences in computer science in ... [more ▼]

Computer science research areas are often arbitrarily defined by researchers themselves based on their own opinions or on conference rankings. First, we aim to classify conferences in computer science in an automated and objective way based on topic modelling. We then study the topic relatedness of research areas to identify isolated disciplinary silos and clusters that display more interdisciplinarity and collaboration. Furthermore, we compare career length, publication growth rate and collaboration patterns for men and women in these research areas. [less ▲]