Jeffrey R. Yost, Ph.D.

Director, CBI & Research Professor, HSTM

Contact/Connect

Email: yostx003@umn.edu
Handle for Threads, X, & Mastodon.Social: @JustCodeCulture
Office: 211 Andersen Library
222 21st Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55455

Current and Recently Completed Research 

My primary areas of research are the business, social, and cultural and intellectual history of computing and software. I am also a highly experienced science and technology oral history specialist.

I have deep interest in political economy of software and systems, and power imbalances with regard to race, class, gender, disability, and the environment. This was the impetus for my conceptualization of and co-organization (with Gerardo Con Diaz) of our Fall 2020 Symposium “Just Code: Power, Inequality, and the Global Political Economy of IT.” We will be coming out with a Just Code Book from Johns Hopkins University Press in our new Studies in Computing and Culture Series.

I also do research on the history and sociology of cognitive science and Human Computer Interaction, and the history and sociology of artificial intelligence--including pattern recognition, natural language processing, machine learning, expert systems, and LLM/generative AI. I am particularly interested in issues of privacy, energy/climate, and Big Data, and algorithmic biases and societal inequality. I study some similar social justice issues with blockchain technology. This includes labor and automation, risks, and the potentiality for new forms of governance and collaborations with decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs).

In February 2023 we held a major entitled "Automation by Design: Politics, Culture, and Landscape in an Age of Machine That Learn." I co-led this event with colleagues G. Con Diaz, Colette Perold, and Honghong Tinn. Read more on Automation by Design here.  We will be publishing multiple special issues with IEEE Annals of the History of Computing extending from this major event.

I published Making IT Work: A History of the Computer Services Industry (MIT Press, 2017), FastLane: Managing Science in the Internet World (w/ Thomas Misa; Johns Hopkins University Press, 2016), Computer: A History of the Information Machine, 3rd Edition and 4th Edition (w/ Martin Campbell-Kelly, William Aspray, and Nathan Ensmenger; Westview, 2014 for the 3rd Ed.; the same with Gerardo Con Diaz and Honghong Tinn, with Routledge as the publisher for the 4th Ed.), and four earlier books. I have also published many dozens of articles and book chapters.

I serve on expert committee for history of engineering committee of the National Academy of Engineering, 2021-2024. We held a major symposium and will produce both a report and a National Academy Press book. Upcoming, I will be participating in an expert symposium co-sponsored by Syracuse University & the Artificial Intelligence Caucus of the US Senate, a forum for academics to share ideas and perspectives with US Senators on the opportunities, and social and environmental risks and challenges, with artificial intelligence. IIn 2023 I did a American Historical Association Congressional Briefing on AI and have done other briefings on AI for senior US Senate staffers.

On the editorial front, I am co-editor (w/ G. Con Diaz) on a new Johns Hopkins University Press book series, Studies in Computing and Culture and Culture. 

I also co-edit an essays journals (w/ Amanda Wick) Interfaces: Essays and Reviews in Computing and Culture. I am the PI on a 2022-2025 project for the National Science Foundation (NSF) entitled “Mining a Useable Past: Perspectives, Paradoxes and Possibilities in Security and Privacy (co-PI is G. Con Diaz). 

I have been very active in sponsored research throughout my career and have been an investigator on more than a half dozen sponsored research projects, mostly for the National Science Foundation, but also for the Department of Energy, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, IBM, and the Association for Computing Machinery. Cumulative I have led/co-led more than $2,300,000 in projects as an investigator.

In addition to my research, I am the author of the critical inquiry blog Blockchain and Society, which seeks to promote blockchain history and sociology. It is both a blog and a resources site with annotated bibliographies and blockchain and crypto historical timelines.

I serve on the journal editorial boards of IEEE Annals of the History of Computing and Information and Culture.

Brief Curriculum Vitae

 

Education
Ph.D., History of Technology and Science, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, 1998.

M.A., History of Technology and Science, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, 1993.

M.B.A., Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, 2007.

B.A., Magna Cum Laude, History, Macalester College, St. Paul, Minnesota, 1990.

 

Professional Positions

  • Director, Charles Babbage Institute for the History of Information Technology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2018 to present.
  • Associate Director, Charles Babbage Institute for the History of Information Technology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1998 to 2018.
  • Researcher, Center for Regional Economic Issues, Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, 1997-1998.
  • Consulting Historian, Winthrop Group, Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1994-1997.

 

Concurrent Professional Positions

  • Faculty, Program in the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 2010 to present (Research Professor 2019 to present).
  • Co-Editor, "Studies in Computing and Culture," book series Johns Hopkins University Press, 2021 to present.
  • Co-Editor, "History of Computing" book series Springer, 2019 to 2021.
  • Editor-in-Chief, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, 2008 to 2011.
  • Principal, Blockchain and Society, 2021-present
  • Principal, Enterprise History, LLC, 2021-present

 

Affiliations

  • Society for the History of Technology
  • American Historical Association
  • Business History Conference
  • Association for Computing Machinery

Select Publications, Presentations, Professional Service and Grants

Expand all

PUBLICATIONS

Computer: A History of the Information Machine, 4th Edition (2023), Routledge. [w/ M. Campbell-Kelly, W. Aspray, H. Tinn, G. Con Diaz, and N. Ensmenger].

Yost, Jeffrey R. (March 2021). “Of Mice and Mentalité: PARC Ways to Exploring HCI, AI, Augmentation and Symbiosis, and Categorization and Control". Interfaces: Essays and Reviews in Computing and Culture Vol. 2, Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota, 12-26.

Jeffrey R. Yost (May 2020). “Where Dinosaurs Roam and Programmers Play: Reflections on Infrastructure, Maintenance, and Inequality.” Interfaces: Essays and Reviews on Computing and Culture Vol. 1, Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota, 1 - 8.

Making IT Work: A History of the Computer Services Industry (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2017).

Guest editor, two special issues of IEEE Annals of the History of Computing on the “History of Computer Security.” These are revised papers of an NSF-funded computer security history workshop I co-designed and co-led in July 2014. One issue was April-May 2015, the second October-December 2016.

“The March of IDES: The Advent and Early History of the Intrusion Detection Expert Systems.” IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, 38:4 (October-December 2016): 42-54.

“The Origin and Early History of the Computer Security Software Industry.” IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, 32:7 (April-June 2015): 46-58.

FastLane: Managing Science in the Internet World (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2016) [Co-authored manuscript with Thomas J. Misa.]

Computer: A History of the Information Machine, Third Edition (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2014) [with Martin Campbell-Kelly, William Aspray, and Nathan Ensmenger].

“Appropriation and Independence: BTM, Burroughs, and IBM at the Advent of the Computer Industry.” IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 35:4 (October-December 2013): 5-17.

The IBM Century (Los Alamitos, CA: IEEE Computer Society Press, 2011).

“Airline Travel: A History of Information-Seeking Behavior by Leisure and Business Passengers.” [with Rachel D. Little and Cecilia D. Williams]. In William Aspray and Barbara M. Hayes, eds. Everyday Information: The Evolution of Information Seeking in America (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2011): 121-156.

“History of Computing Technology.” Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (Oxford, UK: UNESCO, EOLSS Publishers, 2011). [28,000 word history and historiographical article available at www.eolss.net]

“Materiel Command and the Materiality of Commands: An Historical Examination of the US Air Force, Control Data Corporation, and the Advanced Logistics System.” In Arthur Tatnall, ed. History of Computing: Lessons from the Past (London: Springer, 2010): 89-100.

“Programming Enterprise: Women Entrepreneurs in Software and Computer Services.” In Thomas J. Misa, ed. Gender Codes: Why Women Are Leaving Computing (New York: Wiley-IEEE Computer Society, 2010): 229-250.

“Manufacturing Mainframes: Component Fabrication and Component Procurement at IBM and Sperry Univac, 1960-1975” History and Technology 25:3 (September 2009): 219-237.

“Internet Challenges for Non-Media Industries, Firms, and Workers: Travel Agencies, Realtors, Mortgage Brokers, Personal Computer Manufacturers, and IT Services Professionals”. In William Aspray and Paul Ceruzzi, eds., The Internet and American Business (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2008): 315-350.

“History of Computer Security Standards.” In Karl de Leuuw, ed., History of Information Security (Amsterdam: Elsevier Science, 2007): 595-621.

IBM Rochester: A Half Century of Innovation (IBM, 2007). [Co-written with Arthur L. Norberg].

“Maximization and Marginalization: A Brief Examination of the History and Historiography of the U.S. Computer Services Industry.” Entreprises et Histoire 40 (November 2005): 87-101.

“Computers and the Internet: Braiding Irony, Paradox, and Possibility.” in Carroll Pursell, ed. Companion to American Technology (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2005): 340-360.

The Computer Industry (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2005).

“Reprogramming the Hippocratic Oath: The Early History of Medical Informatics and Privacy.” The History and Heritage of Scientific and Technological Information Systems (New Medford, New Jersey: Information Today for Chemical Heritage Foundation and American Society of Information Science, 2004): 46-55.

Bibliographic Guide to Resources in the History of Scientific Computing, 1945-1975 (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2002).

Timken: From Missouri to Mars--A Century of Leadership in Manufacturing (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Business School Press, 1998) [Bettye H. Pruitt with the assistance of Jeffrey R. Yost].

PRESENTATIONS

“Fields of Dream Machines and Processing a Paradoxical Past: IBM Systems Engineering, Gender, and the Irony of Big Blue’s Solutions.” Electrical and Computer Engineering Colloquium, University of Minnesota, September 30, 2021.

“Reassessing the Iconic and Unbundling the Ironic: System Engineering, Gender, and Antitrust.” Just Code: Power, Inequality, and the Global Political Economy of IT Symposium, University of Minnesota, October 22, 2020.

“Oral History: Theory and Method,” ACM SIG History/Heritage Workshop, CBI, University of Minnesota, May 20, 2019.

“Discovering Diebold: IT Consulting and the Organizational Adoption of Computers.” First Friday Colloquium, University Libraries, University of Minnesota, April 11, 2017.

“The March of IDES: The Advent and Early History of Intrusion Detection Expert Systems.” Society for the History of Technology, Dearborn, Michigan, Nov 7, 2014.

“The Early History of U.S. Inter-firm Organizational Cooperation with Computer Security.” Business History Society of Japan, Tokyo, Japan, September 11, 2014.

“The Origin and Early History of the Computer Security Software Products Industry.” Computer Security History Workshop, Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota, July 12, 2014.

“Access Control Software, Corporate Responsibility, and the Origin and Early History of the Computer Security Industry.” Business History Conference, Frankfurt, Germany, March 14, 2014.

“Diebold and Associates, Information Technology Consulting, and the Diffusion of Knowledge on Digital Computers and Applications Programming in the 1950s.” Business History Conference, St. Louis, Missouri, April 1, 2011.

“Materiel Command and the Materiality of Commands: An Historical Examination of the US Air Force, Control Data Corporation, and the Advanced Logistics Systems.” IFIP World Congress. Brisbane, Australia (September 22, 2010).

“Programming Enterprise: Women Entrepreneurs in Software and Services, 1965-1990.” Business History Conference.  Athens, Georgia (March 26, 2010).

“The Evolving US Computer Services Industry as a Lens into Understanding Organizational Boundaries of Data Processing Operations: An Examination of the Defense and Banking Sectors, 1955-1975.” Copenhagen Business School (June 7, 2009).

“Appropriation and (In)dependence: Examining the British Tabulating Machine Company (BTM), IBM, and Burroughs at the Advent of the Computer Industry.” Appropriating America Conference, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (January 17, 2009).

“Manufacturing Mainframes: Examining the Semiconductor Strategies of IBM and Sperry Univac, 1960-1975.” International Meeting of the Society for the History of Technology, Lisbon, Portugal (October 12, 2008).

“Examining Resources in the History of Computing and Software.” Society of the History of Technology, Washington, D.C. (October 20, 2007).

"The Internet and the Transformation of American Industries: A Case Study of Travel Reservations." Society for the History of Technology (SHOT) Annual Meeting, Las Vegas, Nevada (October 13, 2006).

"Internet Challenges for Non-Media Industries, Firms, and Workers: Travel Agencies, Realtors, Mortgage Brokers, Personal Computer Manufacturers, and IT Services Professionals." Deutsches Museum, Munich, Germany (July 24, 2006).

“A Brief Historical Examination of Business Strategy and Innovation in the Computer Services Industry.” Invited lecture, Computer Science and Engineering Colloquia (April 3, 2006).

“IT Business Archives, Interdisciplinary Research, and the Use and Abuse of History.” Invited lecture to faculty and graduate students, Strategic Management and Organization Department, Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota (April 29, 2005).

“Reprogramming the Hippocratic Oath: The Early History of Medical Informatics and Privacy.” Conference on the History and Heritage of Scientific and Technological Information Systems, Chemical Heritage Foundation, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (November 17, 2002).

“Chasing IBM: Common Challenges in British and U.S. Computer R&D Management in the 1950s” International Meeting of the Society for the History of Technology, Munich, Germany (August 18, 2000).

“An Historiographical and Bibliographical Examination of Scientific Computing” [Session Chair and Presenter] History of Science Society Annual Meeting, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (November 6, 1999).

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE

Member, National Academy of Engineering Committee on Extraordinary Engineering Impacts on Society, 2021 to present

Member, Association for Computing Machinery History Committee, 2018 to present

Editorial Board, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, 2004 to present

Chair, IEEE Computer Society History Committee, 2013 to present

Editorial Board, Rutherford Journal: The New Zealand Journal for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, 2010 to present

IEEE Publications Board Member (Ex Officio), 2008 - 2011

IEEE Magazines Operations Committee Member, 2008 - 2011

Editorial Advisory Board Member, Springer (History of Computing Series), 2009 to present

International Federation of Information Processing (IFIP) Working Group 9.7 History of Computers, 2003 to present

Committee Member, Da Vinci Medal Award Committee for Lifetime Achievement in the History of Technology. Society for the History of Technology (SHOT), 2002.

Chair, IEEE Life Members Prize Committee. Society for the History of Technology (SHOT), 2002.

GRANTS

Co-Principal Investigator, “Mining a Useable Past: Forging New Resources and Understandings for Security and Privacy,” National Science Foundation, 2022-2025.

Principal Investigator, “Just Code: Power, Inequality, and the Global Political Economy of IT.” Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, 2020.

Principal Investigator, “High Performance Computing History Project.” Department of Energy, 2018-2019.

Co-Principal Investigator, “Building an Infrastructure for Computer Security History,” National Science Foundation-sponsored project, 2011-2014

Co-Principal Investigator, “Designing and Using FastLane: Distilling Lessons From Cyberinfrastructures,”National Science Foundation-sponsored project,  2008-2011

Co-Principal Investigator, “Research Methods for Contemporary History,” National Science Foundation-sponsored project, 2007-2008

Principal Investigator, “Building a Future for Software History,” National Science Foundation-sponsored project, 1999-2004

Co-Principal Investigator, “The Computer as a Scientific Instrument,” National Science Foundation sponsored project, 1998-2001

ORAL HISTORIES

I have conducted over 90 career-spanning, research-grade published oral histories—each 2 to 6 hours of interview time (generally 50-to-150-page edited transcripts) with pioneering historical figures in computing and software. In addition, I have conducted more than 250 shorter oral histories—15 to 75 minutes (12 to 40 pages)—studying users of NSF’s FastLane cyber-infrastructure grants submission and grants management system (one of the largest oral history project ever conducted to study users of an IT system)—this includes approximately 200 interviews with university faculty and sponsored research personnel at about 20 universities nationwide, and at NSF (approximately 45 program officer users of FastLane/eJacket).

The following is a partial/select list of career, research-grade published oral histories I have conducted with computer/software pioneers and industry leaders that are all published online.

 

  • Rebecca Bace Oral History. Charles Babbage Institute. Conducted in Baltimore, Maryland (July 31, 2012).
  • David Bell Oral History. Charles Babbage Institute. Conducted in Reston, Virginia (September 24, 2012).
  • James Bidzos Oral History. Charles Babbage Institute. Conducted in Sausalito, California (December 11, 2004).
  • Susan Bodker Oral History. Charles Babbage Institute. Conducted via Zoom (May 21, 2021).
  • Richard Canning Oral History. Charles Babbage Institute. Conducted in Vista, California (August 23, 2002).
  • Stuart Card Oral History. Charles Babbage Institute. Conducted in Los Altos Hills, California (February 17, 2020) 
  • John Cullinane Oral History. Charles Babbage Institute. Conducted in Boston, Massachusetts (July 29, 2003).
  • Dorothy Denning Oral History. Charles Babbage Institute. Conducted in Monterey, California (April 11, 2013).
  • Peter Denning Oral History. Charles Babbage Institute. Conducted in Monterey, California (April 10, 2013).
  • Susan Dray Oral History. Charles Babbage Institute. Conducted in Minneapolis, Minnesota (January 28, 2020).
  • Ernest Edmonds Oral History. Charles Babbage Institute. Conducted via Zoom (March 17, 2021).
  • Werner Frank Oral History. Computer History Museum. Conducted in Mountain View, California (February 14, 2006). [video]
  • Grace Gentry Oral History. Charles Babbage Institute. Conducted in Berkeley, California (August 11, 2008).
  • Martin Goetz Oral History. Charles Babbage Institute. Conducted in Washington, D.C. (May 3, 2002).
  • Martin Hellman Oral History. Charles Babbage Institute. Conducted in Palo Alto, California (November 22, 2004).
  • Luanne Johnson Oral History. Charles Babbage Institute. Conducted in Benicia, California (August 12, 2008).
  • Richard Kemmerer Oral History. Charles Babbage Institute. Conducted in Santa Barbara, California (April 30, 2014).
  • Kenneth Kollence Oral History. Charles Babbage Institute. Conducted in Palo Alto, California (October 3, 2001).
  • Butler Lampson Oral History. Butler Lampson Oral History. Conducted in Cambridge, Massachusetts (December 11, 2014).
  • Carl Landwehr Oral History. Charles Babbage Institute. Conducted in McLean Virginia (April 21, 2014).
  • Steve Lipner Oral History. Charles Babbage Institute. Conducted in Redmond, Washington (August 15, 2012).
  • Jack London Oral History. Computer History Museum. Conducted in Falls Church, VA (March 30, 2009).
  • Teresa Lunt Oral History. Charles Babbage Institute. Conducted in Palo Alto, California (June 4, 2013).
  • John McLean Oral History. Charles Babbage Institute. Conducted in Washington, D.C. (April 22, 2014).
  • Harry Markowitz Oral History. Charles Babbage Institute. Conducted in San Diego, California (March 18, 2002).
  • Joy Mountford Oral History. Charles Babbage Institute. Conducted via Zoom (March 25, 2021).
  • Phyliss Murphy Oral History. Charles Babbage Institute. Conducted in Los Angeles, California (December 12, 2008).
  • Peter Neumann Oral History. Charles Babbage Institute. Conducted in Menlo Park, California (June 3, 2013).
  • Don Norman Oral History. Charles Babbage Institute. Conducted in La Jolla, California (February 12, 2020) 
  • Donn Parker Oral History. Charles Babbage Institute. Conducted in Palo Alto, California (May 14, 2003).
  • Roger Schell Oral History. Charles Babbage Institute. Conducted in Monterey, California (May 1, 2012).
  • Seymour Rubinstein Oral History. Charles Babbage Institute. Conducted in Needham, Massachusetts (May 7, 2004).
  • Eugene Spafford Oral History. Charles Babbage Institute. Conducted in West Lafayette, Indiana (November 12, 2013).
  • Harvey Shulman Oral History. Computer History Museum. Conducted in Mountain View, California (March 30, 2006). [video]
  • Peggy Smith Oral History. Charles Babbage Institute. Conducted in Greensboro, North Carolina (January 29, 2009).
  • Steven Walker Oral History. Charles Babbage Institute. Conducted in Columbia, Maryland (November 8, 2012).
  • Willis Ware Oral History. Charles Babbage Institute. Conducted in Santa Monica, California (August 11, 2003).