IT History Society Blog

For a year or so, even since our project on Belgian computing history here started, we have been wondering about what a Belgian computing pioneers’ day (we thought about it as early as late 2007) would look like … That wish materialised this just gone Monday during a Belgian Computing History Day held here at the Faculty. After two months of preparation, e-mails, phone calls etc., we have just welcomed, in a room that finally ended up to be just the right size, a meeting of Belgian computing pioneers and ancients, some of whom having started their career as early as in 1955….

Coming back to my more boring – boring indeed by comparison! – routine at the office, I cannot help but think that it is a huge pay-off for our efforts.  By around 2 PM, a crowd of 40 or so retired Belgian computing experts, practitioners and pioneers in their best Sunday suits gathered up in the corridor for a full afternoon at which I was expecting them much later, for the late afternoon round table. Kicking off with a talk on computer sounds in relation to computer usage monitoring by Gerard Alberts, the programme included some presentation on the project and especially a round table of retired Belgian computing experts in fields ranging from programming syntax and Algol 68 with Michel Sintzoff, numerical analysis, with Jean Meinguet, computer centre management, with Rita de Caluwe and René Florizoone, management informatics, with François Bodart, computing as part of military training with Paul Gennart, also one of the founders of the now almost defunct Société d’Informatique Fondamentale, … to computer use in textual analysis with Friar R.-F. Poswick from the Centre Informatique et Bible.

That round table was a quite fascinating thing to listen to, with reminiscences flowing out about the Machine IRSIA-FNRS, about the Algol 68 endeavour, about “reken-punten” and computer centres management, about how and why informatics institute were created… Even more interesting there was the discussion that sparked up spontaneously from the audience that included likes of Jacques Loeckx, Jean-Jacques Quisquater, and Pierre-Jacques Courtois, from the Laboratoire de Recherches MBLE, Paul Pâquet from the Observatoire Royal de Belgique, Claude Fosséprez, from Philips, and others that we finally managed to meet thanks to the meeting, Paul Dagnélie among others, engineer on the Machine IRSIA-FNRS in the mid-1950s. While I was expecting a meeting filled up with mostly the retelling of happy souvenirs, I got confronted with past practitioners confronting expert opinions, contrasting views on what computing is supposed to be about: research or enhanced productivity? hardware or software? And you even hear about some of them writing up a biography of Vitold Belevitch….

Summing up in 4 words: definitely worth the effort….

Before there were blogs and Twitter and Facebook there was the Listserv. For computer historians the Listserv is very much alive and well. You can find the URL here.  I encourage you to join if you like. A few weeks ago Paul Edwards posted a query asking for advice on teaching a course on the history of computing, specifically a “recent book on the history of personal computers that’s well-written and exciting for undergrads.”

That was bouncing around in the back of my mind for a while, until I went to my files & found my notes on a very interesting book: 

James Chposky & Ted Leonsis, “Blue Magic: the People, Power and Politics Behind the IBM Personal Computer.” New York, 1988.

Yes, the same Ted Leonsis who now owns the Washington Capitals hockey

team, which made a run for the Stanley Cup and is by far the hottest

professional team in DC. Leonsis is easily one of the most popular

people in DC right now, and for a good reason. The book is pretty good, too!

Now, if only the owners of the Washington Redskins, Wizards, and Nationals could write about computer history. Anyway, thanks, Ted, for bringing so much excitement to what is really a very boring city, regardless of what the politicians may say about it.