JF Ptak Science Books  Quick Post

The history of computing, in its inception, could be measured in decades, beginning, say with Babbage; by the time of the earliest large machines (1945-1950), computer time could be measured in a decade.  Come the deacade of 1960, the computer year could be measured finally in years.  After that, after microminiaturization, and the personal computer, the year started to be measured in months.  And then, of course, the year really sped up–I’m not sure if there is only a week or two in the year, now; maybe its measured in days. [This piece of computer history ephemera is available at our blog bookstore, here.]

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Looking at this document from the beginning of the first tweeks of mass professionalism in the development of the computer emphasizes this business of time.  This draft of the constitution and bylaws of the Association for Computing Machinery (the ACM) was complete in four pages, including the establishment of its members, officers, executive committee, meetings, bylaws, meetings–the whole deal, in four pages. 

The document is undated, but as far as I can determine, I believe that this document was printed in late 1949, soon after the ACM dropped the “Eastern” that used to appear as the first word in the title of the organization.   

Its quite a spectacular thing, seeing what would become a vast organization be summed up in its infancy on one sheet of folded paper.   

The rest of the document follows: