IFIP TC8 information systems : Conception, birth and early years

The paper begins by discussing the conception and birth of IFIP TC8 in Amsterdam in 1975 and 1976, describing the roles of the main players (such as IFIP and IFIP ADP). The background in terms of the IFIP organization and its already extant technical committees is reviewed. The birth pains associated with IFIP TC8’s early existence are also explained. The early meetings of TC8 and its Working Groups are discussed. From 1976 to 1986 formally planned events are discussed, with emphasis on the driving forces influencing the TC8 decision process throughout thiese years. The second half of this paper then reviews the background in the IT world (outside IFIP) as it prevailed in the period leading up to 1976. This backgound is examined in terms the of software and hardware technology of the timeThe past and the future of information systems: 1976-2006 and beyondRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Several types of types in programming languages

Types are an important part of any modern programming language, but we often forget that the concept of type we understand nowadays is not the same it was perceived in the sixties. Moreover, we conflate the concept of "type" in programming languages with the concept of the same name in mathematical logic, an identification that is only the result of the convergence of two different paths, which started apart with different aims. The paper will present several remarks (some historical, some of more conceptual character) on the subject, as a basis for a further investigation. The thesis we will argue is that there are three different characters at play in programming languages, all of them now called types: the technical concept used in language design to guide implementation; the general abstraction mechanism used as a modelling tool; the classifying tool inherited from mathematical logic. We will suggest three possible dates ad quem for their presence in the programming language literature, suggesting that the emergence of the concept of type in computer science is relatively independent from the logical tradition, until the Curry-Howard isomorphism will make an explicit bridge between them.Comment: History and Philosophy of Computing, HAPOC 2015. To appear in LNC

IFIP TC8 information systems : Conception, birth and early years

The paper begins by discussing the conception and birth of IFIP TC8 in Amsterdam in 1975 and 1976, describing the roles of the main players (such as IFIP and IFIP ADP). The background in terms of the IFIP organization and its already extant technical committees is reviewed. The birth pains associated with IFIP TC8’s early existence are also explained. The early meetings of TC8 and its Working Groups are discussed. From 1976 to 1986 formally planned events are discussed, with emphasis on the driving forces influencing the TC8 decision process throughout thiese years. The second half of this paper then reviews the background in the IT world (outside IFIP) as it prevailed in the period leading up to 1976. This backgound is examined in terms the of software and hardware technology of the timeThe past and the future of information systems: 1976-2006 and beyondRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Draft Bibliography of Lake Victoria & associated freshwater systems

Lake Victoria lies between latitudes 0020'N and 3°00'5, and longitudes 31°40'E and 34°55'E. The lake is situated at an altitude of 1,134m above sea level, and has a total area of 68,800.square km. It is the largest lake in Africa, and the second largest freshwater lake in the world. Tanzania manages 51%, Uganda 43% and Kenya 6% of the entire lake surface area. The lake is highly dendritic and has a coastline of about 3,400 km that is extremely diverse and variable. Indentations to the east, deep inlets to the south, papyrus and ambatch swamps to the west, and flat, indented and forested coasts to the north typify the coastline (Acere et aI., 1989)

Virtual informatics museum

ALMEIDA, José M. F. Virtual Informatics Museum. In: PUTNIK, Goran D; CUNHA, Maria Manuela (Eds). Encyclopedia of Networked and Virtual Organizations (pp. 1785-1791). Information Science Reference, Hershey PA, USA, 2008. ISBN 159904885X.The only virtual informatics museum (VIM) existing in Portugal was conceived over personal memoirs and a long investigation and research work. The first publication by VIM was done over the first trimester of 1997 in Terravista, a site created by the Ministry of Science and Technology (Ministério da Ciência e Tecnologia - MCT). On its first version, available in the Terravista Project, the contents were not chronologically ordered

Forty years of computers and education : A roller-coaster relationship

For forty years the relationship between computers and education has been engaged in a headlong journey, full of ups and downs, wild swerves to right and left, somehow both exhilarating and frightening, sometimes in tandem but at others barely still holding hands. The engine of the technologies keeps changing while the driver is sometimes a discipline, learners, or the teacher. The landscape passed along the way includes fleeting glimpses of beautiful but unconquerable mountains followed by attractive rivers with treacherous currents. The population is sometimes persuaded by innovators to come along for the ride, and then suddenly they embark on their own journey into an entirely different valley. The paper analyses this journey along the TC3 twin track of education with and about information and communication technologies, using evidence from its publications and debates, organisational structure and the influence of individuals. The presentation, from one who is neither a computer scientist nor mathematician, will aim to portray a particular perspective on this roller-coaster relationship.2nd IFIP Conference on the History of Computing and EducationRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI