Computing

Audience

Computing is designed to serve three primary audiences: the intellectually curious general public who is attracted to an exploration of computing’s past, present, and future; Boomers to Generation Alpha, inspiring them to better understand the technology that shapes their lives and their futures; insiders to the world of computing, in celebration of the millions of men and women who have contributed to the rise of computing.

Computing is a global story and so is intended to reach a global audience. While much of modern computing has developed from within the United States and the United Kingdom, there are many compelling stories from around the world: from China, the connection between the I Ching and binary code and now its role as a major player in artificial intelligence; the changes that have transformed the economy of India; the social and religious forces that have fueled the rise of robots in Japan; the clear and present reality of cyberwarfare with Russia; the impact of computing on the economic and political realms of every developing country. Computing is a timeless story that speaks to all of civilization.

Author

Grady Booch was Chief Scientist for Rational Software and then IBM, last working at the MIT/IBM Artificial Intelligence Laboratory wherein where he led research and development for embodied neurosymbolic systems. Having originated the term and the practice of object-oriented design, he is best known for his work in advancing the fields of software engineering and software architecture, having also been involved in the architecture of a number of significant software-intensive systems across a multitude of domains. A co-author of the Unified Modeling Language, a founding member of the Agile Alliance, and a founding member of the Hillside Group, Grady has published six books and several hundred technical articles, including an ongoing column for IEEE Software. Grady was a trustee for the Computer History Museum for over a decade. He is an IBM Fellow, an ACM Fellow and an IEEE Fellow, has been awarded the Lovelace Medal and has given the Turing Lecture for the BCS, and was also named an IEEE Computer Pioneer.

Advisors

In the early stages of Computing, we assembled a set of advisors to help shape its stories. In our current stage of development this group is no longer active, but we want to thank them for their help in launching Computing.

• Tilly Blyth
• Jan Booch
• Martin Campbell-Kelly
• Jack Copeland

• Vint Cerf
• Ed Feigenbaum
• Mary Hall
• David Harel

• Dean Kamen
• Alan Kay
• William Lord
• Tim O'Reilly

• Tony Sale
• Mary Shaw
• Dag Spicer
• David Trickett

We also give special thanks to John Hollar, former President and CEO for the Computer History Museum. The idea for Computing began in 2008 in a conversation with John, who had just landed a significant amount of funding for the Museum from the Gates Foundation. Recalling his previous work at PBS, I asked him "have you considered producting a series like Sagan's Cosmos?" He replied "why don't you be our Sagan?" I assured him that I was no Carl but that I'd take on the idea, and thus Computing was born. Special thanks also goes to Dan'l Lewin, formerly Corporate Vice President at Microsoft and then President for the Computer History Museum, who continues his support for the project.

Production

By 2011, we had written and presented several public lectures to test the structure and the stories of Computer. By late 2012, having captured the interest of KQED, Silicon Valley's public broadcasting station, together we embarked on a project to produce the series. Working in collaboration with KiKim Media, we produced a trailer and a treatment which we then presented to the senior executives of PBS in Washington DC. Their reaction was quite positive, telling us that "this is very much the kind of series to which we aspire" and gave us a call to action to find a producer. This we did, successfully engaging with several well-know production companies. Unfortunately, the COVID lockdown bought most of this work to a halt, and so we turned out attention to the book which we'd intially hoped to write in parallel with the video series, much as what Sagan did for Cosmos. Completing the book is our current focus while we also produce a new trailer and treatment to explore distribution with streaming services as well as traditional broadcast mediums.

We've now hired a research assistant, a copyright editor, a concept artist, and a digital artifact artist. We are continuing our search for a production team to develop the twelve one-hour episodes and short-form videos that comprise the visual deliverables of Computing.

Volunteers

In the early stages of our project, we assembled a small team of volunteers to help us shape our stories, start our social media presence, and launch a Kickstarter project. Thank you!

• Jim Bentz
• Seth Friedman

• Austin Heap
• Adam Murray

• Shannon Murray
• Donna Thomas

• Tom Thomas
• Carol Viana

We also give thanks also to the volunteers who helped us curate the thousands of web and print articles that informed our storytelling.

• Mariled Arango
• Joyce Avila
• Laura Contento
• Data Curator
• Kathi Daugherty
• Jackie Duffey
• Fabrizio Francione
• Santiago French

• Celso Gonzalez
• Kevin Grazioplene
• Sada Haider
• Eran Khoo
• Chris Li
• Roberto Martinez
• Sanjiv Sahai
• Aniruddha Nandi

• Ece Ozen
• Jitendranath Palem
• Ivan Portilla
• Leonardo Postacchini
• Prasad Prabhakaran
• James Rhee
• Neal Schlatter
• Sanjiv Sahai

• Myra Snyder
• Andra Sonea
• Gopal Tadepalli
• George Walther
• Ian Wesley
• Stan Zajdel

Kickstarter

In 2011, we conducted a Kickstarter project that raised over $30,000. Thanks to the kind contributions of 348 backers from around the world, we used those funds to launch our lecture series and to advance our research.

• Sandy Adam
• Abhi Mangal Agarwal
• Eman Al Obeidi
• Alberto
• Mark Alder
• Imran Ali
• ALM Solutions Group
• Scott W. Ambler
• Alok Anadkat
• Ananthalakshmi Anbuselvan
• andrewb
• Ann
• Anonymous
• Jeff Aronson
• Yvonne Aviles
• John B
• Ramesh Babu
• Michael Bachman
• Kelly Bailey
• Fred Ballard
• Jerry Banfield
• Eric, Kate and Bill Baran
• Matt and Sara Baran
• Tim Baran
• Alex and Peg Baran
• Granville Barker
• Kent K Barnes
• Lisa Barnes
• Ephraim Baron
• Marget Baron
• Christophe Begue
• Greg Bek
• Jim Bentz
• Steve Berczuk
• Bernij
• Dave Bernstein
• Cristian Bidea
• Bob Binder
• Kurt Bittner
• Amanda Blackburn
• Paul Bonamy
• Susan Amirian Bonser
• Helen Booch Lindsay
• Scott Bosworth
• Bob Bretall
• Paul Brody
• Joshua W. Burton
• Lamar Caldwell
• David Camm
• Brett Camper
• Marco Cantu
• Buddy Carman
• Karla Carter
• Rui Carvahlo
• Cathy
• Juan Miguel Cejuela
• Kevin Channell
• Julie Chickering
• George Chiesa
• Magnus Christerson
• ChristopherAvery.com
• Pang Teck Chun
• Vincent Cina
• Pamala Clift
• CloudOne
• Jim Cluchey
• Mark Cogan
• Stephen Cohen
• Mike Cohn
• Robert Conklin
• Dennis and Sallie Conover
• Jonathan Coon
• Coryographic
• Peter Cripps
• Adrienne Custode
• Rob Daly
• Dan
• Jeffrey Davis
• Barbara De Briganti
• Hans de Wolf
• Roy Decker
• Frank DeMarco
• Jerry M Denman
• Jim Densmore
• Michael Devlin
• Colin Dean

• Michelle Dickey
• Jeff Dinkins
• Ron and Debi Dobley
• Renee Dopplick
• Doug and ML
• John R. Dougan
• Bruce Douglass
• Nicolas Dujarrier
• Matthew Eagar
• Russ Edwards
• Pete Eeles
• Jon Eisenberg
• Maria Ericsson
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• Manny Farber
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• Scott Farnum
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