ACM Workshop on Oral History, May 12-13, 2016
ACM History Committee
Call for Participation
The Association for Computing Machinery, founded in 1947, is the oldest and largest educational and scientific society dedicated to the computing profession, and today has more than 100,000 members around the world. The ACM History Committee is sponsoring an oral history workshop to help diffuse knowledge of professional oral history practices into ACM’s membership and others with an active interest in preserving our computing heritage through the medium of oral histories.
Applications are invited to a 1.5 day oral history workshop, to be held Thursday and Friday, May 12-13, 2016 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina. For each successful application, one person’s expenses for workshop travel, lodging, and meals will be paid by the ACM History Committee. The workshop will be led by Mary Marshall Clark, director of the Columbia Center for Oral History (CCOH), see <http://library.columbia.edu/locations/ccoh.html>.
Practice and Tutorial
Who should attend? ACM members and others who are planning or actually doing oral history projects. The audience is people who are performing interviews for oral histories, or thinking about doing so. The workshop should be of special interest to ACM officers and staff, SIG leaders, historically minded ACM members, and others working on oral history projects. Priority will be given to ACM members and members of other national computer societies affiliated with the ACM, but some places have been reserved for non-affiliated individuals who are actively engaged in oral history projects.
Workshop topics and activities include: [a] developing an oral history program; [b] presentation and training on oral history processes and principles; [c] hands-on exercises interviewing each other; [d] analysis and discussion of the exercises; [e] how to analyze results, findings and evaluate an oral history project; [f] practical considerations: lessons learned and best practices; and [g] ample networking time, including lunches and the workshop dinner. Participants will leave with a “tool kit” of practical, useful procedures as well as insight into professional oral history practices.
Small workshop format will permit maximum hands-on experience and personal interaction. We are planning for 16 participants.
The ACM History Committee will fund travel, hotel and meals for accepted invitees. Applicants should send a 2-page CV as well as a 250-word proposed project and/or oral history interest description that [a] explains the significance of a proposed oral history project (if applicable), potential uses of the techniques learned, and its importance; and [b] affirms your willingness to participate fully in the 1.5 day agenda.
Project proposals are due by Friday, January 15, 2016. Proposals should be submitted as a single pdf-format document to