EDSIG
Board to Meet in April
The EDSIG Board is scheduled to meet for the second time in three months on
Saturday, April 18, 1998 to continue its EDSIG revitalization program. The University of
Texas at Arlington will again host the meeting.
Useful Web Sites Offer Much to
Information Systems Educators
A very useful site for those who teach IS and CIS is the Global Informing Science Education Web site. It includes links
to over 1,000 syllabi, full text of papers on IS education and links to many others, as
well as other useful information for those preparing for teaching. Last month, an essay by
Brian Janz on Rewarding the Use of Technology in Teaching and a page on Resources
for Computer/Web-Based Teaching by Mike Lucas were added. You can receive a free
monthly notice of the site's updates by sending an email message with your name to subscribe@gise.org.
The site also is associated with the refereed printed and on-line journal
"Informing Science". Its URL is http://inform.nu
(yes, that is a domain name). The journal has editors from around the world whose research
focus on the various aspects of Informing Science. Both Web sites are maintained by EDSIG
member and former officer, Eli Cohen, who also serves as the journal's editor-in-chief.
His email is Eli_Cohen@acm.org.
Thank you, Eli. |
Historically Speaking
We have all heard it said that "truth is stranger than
fiction", and information technology is no exception to this rule. One case in point
comes from the annals of telecommunications.
Back in the 1880s, there was a successful funeral home director in the Kansas City
area, Almon B. Strowger. Over a period of time, however, he began to notice that for no
apparent reason his business was falling off. Then, it came to his attention that the
local telephone operator was the girlfriend of his chief competitor. The cause of his
declining business was now clear; the telephone operator was diverting business to her
boyfriend.
At this point, most of us would have consulted a lawyer and sued the telephone company.
But not Strowger. He headed for his basement and began work on what would later become the
first automatic switching device, the Strowger or "step" switch. The idea was to
bypass the operator altogether. Within ten years they were in common use and probably can
be found in some countries even today. History does not record whether Strowger's funeral
business picked up.
Did you know that PBXs (Private Branch Exchanges) were in common use as early as 1900?
The book American Telephone Practice published in 1905 devotes a full
chapter to the subject. It describes a PBX as an "exchange, complete in itself, in
that it is adapted to bring into communications any two subscribers in a comparatively
small community, such as that in a business establishment, and also affording
communication between these subscribers and those of a larger exchange, such as that of a
city." Not all that different from today, is it? |
