OVERVIEW OF THE COLLECTION

Title: Share Records

Collection Date(s): 1955-1986

Extent and Forms of Material: 20.5 cubic feet, including audio cassettes (57 boxes)

Creator: Morton I. Bernstein

Abstract: SHARE, the first organized user group in the computer industry, was established by a group of IBM 704 users in the Los Angeles area in 1955. The records document the SHARE group through proceedings of minutes, technical reports, by-laws, policies, projects, and subject files.

Repository: Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. archivescenter@si.edu 202-633-3270 www.americanhistory.si.edu/archives

Collection Number: AC0567

Processing Note: Processed by Brian Keough (intern), 1997 and Katrina Schoorl (intern), 2010; supervised by Alison Oswald, archivist.

INFORMATION FOR USERS OF THE COLLECTION

Conditions Governing Access: The collection is open for research use.

Conditions Governing Reproduction and Use: Copyright held by the Smithsonian Institution. Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Reproduction permission from Archives Center: fees for commercial use.

Preferred Citation: [Title and date of item], SHARE Records, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, box number X, folder number XX, digital file number XXXXXXXX

IN-DEPTH INFORMATION ABOUT THE COLLECTION

Administrative/Biographical History: SHARE (Society to Help Avoid Redundant Effort), the first organized user group in the computer industry, was established by a group of IBM 704 users in the Los Angeles area in 1955. After IBM announced the introduction of the 704 in early 1955, MM installations recognized the need for a cooperative effort to prepare for the onset of new hardware. A similar group, the Project for the Advancement of Coding Techniques (PACT), had been formed in 1954 to improve computer productivity of the IBM 701. The spark for the creation of SHARE was a seminar conducted by the MM Applied Science on the new IBM 704. At the seminar, many users realized that they were more informed about IBM hardware than the IBM seminar instructors. After lunch on the day of the seminar, Jack Strong and Frank Wagner of North American Aviation, Lee Amaya of Lockheed, and Paul Armer of the Rand Corporation placed calls to all known 704 customers from a phone booth in Los Angeles to plan a meeting. The meeting was to bring together all 704 users for the purpose of cooperative planning for 704 installations. During the week of August 22, 1955, the first SHARE meeting (SHARE I) was held in the basement conference room of the RAND Corporation. Forty-six people, representing seventeen IBM 704 installations, were at the first meeting.

From the beginning SHARE's primary goals were to foster joint research and development, provide a forum for the exchange of ideas pertaining to computer science, facilitate the development of data processing standards and for dialogue with IBM hardware and software users, and promote the exchange of programs. During the ensuing years, SHARE held meetings biannually and various organizational policies and trends were established. SHARE III established basic rules of procedure and definition of membership. SHARE V, held in May 1956, established the practice of having smaller workshops at the meeting. At SHARE VII, members from Canada, France, and England were included and a formal set of by‑laws was created establishing SHARE as a formal organizational structure. In addition, SHARE VII initiated Standing Committees and an Executive Board. At SHARE IX, the hardware emphasis was combined with a focus on programming languages, translators, commercial data processing, and application packages. In April 1964, IBM announced the availability of the new System 360 and the next several years were focused on the OS/360, new time-sharing technology, and absorbing new members with application interests varying from the original SHARE members.

During 1968 and 1969, SHARE was planning for a merger with another user group, GUIDE. GUIDE was an IBM user group concerned with the 705 and the 7080. In 1969, the merger was voted down and this prompted a major restructuring of SHARE. An administrative office with full-time help was established, the by-laws were redrawn, and SHARE in its original form was dissolved and renamed SHARE Inc. The name change was completed at SHARE 34 in Denver, Colorado in March 1970. In practice, SHARE continued to function in the same way but with more precise definition of behavior and larger recognition of the information processing marketplace.

By 1986, members of SHARE represented the mainstream of the world's computer usagedevelopment. A substantial percentage of major users of high speed digital computing equipment now belong to SHARE. SHARE continues to provide users with a forum to gain knowledge from formal proceedings and informal conversations with colleagues having similar concerns. SHARE provides IBM with documented user requirements for developing new products and for modifying present hardware and software systems. SHARE has produced formal specifications to further define these requirements. Through SHARE procedures forestablishing such requirements and evaluating their relative costs and merits, IBM has received concise information about user needs.

Scope and Content: The collection documents the SHARE group through proceedings of minutes, technical reports, by-laws, policies, projects, and subject files.

Series 1, Proceedings of Meetings, 1958-1986, contains published proceedings of SHARE meetings.

Series 2, Share Secretary Distributions (SSD), 1958-1986, is a series of numerically arranged technical reports which SHARE distributed to its membership.

Series 3, Corporate Organization, 1970‑1973, contains information on the history of SHARE and includes membership lists, by-laws, policies, organizational practices, and projects and meeting dates.

Series 4, Computer Measurement and Evaluation Project, 1967-1984, contains bound volumes and newsletters about the Computer Measurement and Evaluation Project. The bound volumes are compendiums of select papers and Computer Measurement and Evaluation Newsletter. Members of the Computer Measurement & Evaluation Project wrote pieces for the newsletter and prepared open sessions for SHARE Meetings. The material in the bound volumes also appears in the SHARE Proceedings. The Computer Measurement and Evaluation Newsletter served as an impartial vehicle for stimulating innovation and application of new ideas in the area of computer performance measurement and evaluation.

Series 5, Committee on Graphic Requirements, 1965-1967, contains memoranda, correspondence, reports, and specifications from a SHARE committee related to problems associated with graphics. The committee was created to determine that areas of commercial and scientific applications for graphics were needed in order to better define system interfaces and software requirements.

Series 6, Subject Files, 1955-1979, contains memoranda, correspondence, reports, manuals, by-laws, contact sheets, meeting minutes, committee documentation and audio cassettes. The audio cassettes contained within this series relate to the SHARE Pioneer Days and commemorate the founding of SHARE as an organization. The files are arranged alphabetically.

System of Arrangement: This collection is divided into six series:

Series 1, Proceedings of Meetings, 1958-1986
Series 2, Share Secretary Distributions (SSD), 1958-1986
Series 3, Corporate Organization, 1970-1973
Series 4, Computer Measurement and Evaluation Project, 1967-1984
Series 5, Committee on Graphic Requirements, 1965-1967
Series 6, Subject Files, 1955-1979

Acquisition Information: This collection was donated by Morton and Maurine Bernstein, October, 1996.

Custodial History: Materials in document box 55 were transferred from the Division of Information Technology and Society.

Related Archival Materials: Computer Oral History Collection, 1969‑1973; 1977 and Share Numerical Analysis Project Records, 1964‑1970, located in the Archives Center.

Access Points:

Subject/Topical:
Computers—1950-2000

Form/Genre:
Audio cassettes
Correspondence
Manuals
Reports

CONTAINER LISTING

archivescenter@si.edu
Revised: February 19, 2010