Stretching from Punch Card/Programming to Business Data Processing to Business Information Systems

The world’s oldest undergraduate degree program in data processing and information systems at Mississippi State University turned fifty years old in 2013. In this paper, we review the pioneering activities of the program’s founder, Charles Moore, and provide insights into his foresight about the potential importance of information systems to business organizations. We explain how the program’s founding marked a shift in the epistemological view of information systems education in the mid-1960s. We show the course offerings of business data processing and information systems and the timeline at MSU over the past five decades. We also share how his efforts are instilled in the continuing development of the business information systems program at Mississippi State University to this day

Britain's first computer centre for banking: What did this building do?

At the beginning of the 1960s Barclays became the first British bank to open a computer centre. In this paper I trace the life of this building starting with its official opening on 4 July 1961 and ending with its protracted closure a decade later. From initial status as the most advanced bank bookkeeping system in the world serving as a highly visible symbol of the bank's technological power, to a final repurposing of its grandiose reception as a distribution point for pre- and post-decimalisation output, the building's various meanings are revealed. Making use of written, oral, and visual sources I explore the centre's spatial characteristics, its relation to the distributed structure of the branch, and its place as a first dedicated working home for a newly emerging computing subculture. A blend of multiple perspectives internally from the top down and bottom up, and externally from customer and competitor, offer an analysis that uncovers the part played by the first computer centre place in the banking automation race

First-Class Objects

What is the difference between James Grimmelmann and @grimmelm and why should we care? Some computer systems, like Facebook and credit reporting agencies, are inherently about people. Others are not. This essay argues that the key technical difference is whether they use unique identifiers to refer to people in their databases. From this single distinction, a host of social and humanistic consequences follow. The essay taxonomizes them and teases out some of their implications for privacy law

Invited Paper: The Times they are a Changin’: How Non- Technology Factors have Affected IS Curriculum over Time

Changes to degree programs in Information Systems are often attributed to quickly-evolving technology and the subsequent changing needs of the employers who hire IS graduates. In this paper, we explore other social and economic factors that were the inspiration for curriculum changes by assigning them to one of four eras in the IS timeline. Using enrollment figures and archival data, we identify both legitimate reasons and misconceptions that led to fluctuating programming requirements, the rise and fall of trendy courses, and the wholesale elimination of programs and faculty positions. We conclude the paper by using our findings to speculate what the future of IS education could look like and how degree programs should prepare for the next era of IS academia

NASA Tech Briefs, September 1987

Topics include: NASA TU Services; New Product Ideas; Electronic Components and Circuits; Electronic Systems; Physical Sciences; Materials; Computer Programs; Mechanics; Fabrication Technology; Machinery; Mathematics and Information Sciences; Life Sciences

NBS monograph

From Introduction Purpose and Scope of Report: "This report is one of a series prepared for the Research Information Center and Advisory Service on Information Processing (RICASIP), and intended as a contribution to improved cooperation in the fields of information selection systems development, information retrieval research and mechanized translation.