ADAPSO Reunion 2002
May 3 & 4, 2002
Monarch Hotel, Washington, DC

More than sixty attendees gathered at ADAPSO Reunion 2002 to help preserve the history of ADAPSO, a trade association representing computer software and services companies, which was established in 1961.  Ten workshops covering various programs that ADAPSO pursued on behalf of the industry were held throughout the day on Saturday, May 4.  At each of these workshops, the participants recalled the environment in which their companies were operating in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s and discussed why ADAPSO's activities were important to their companies and the impact of ADAPSO's efforts.   Each workshop was co-moderated by a former ADAPSO member who was actively involved in the program and an eminent computer historian.  These discussions were recorded and a transcript is being created which will help to fill gaps that are missing from the association's written records and will provide a context for historians seeking to understand the industry's development as reflected in the issues and programs that ADAPSO pursued.

More information on workshops

List of attendees

Senator Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ, 1982-2001), a founder of Automatic Data Processing, Inc. and ADAPSO President in 1967-68, spoke at the Friday evening dinner about his experiences in the early years of the computer services industry and about ADAPSO's programs in the 1960s and 1970s.  Also at the Friday evening event, Mrs. Joan Wessel, widow of former ADAPSO General Counsel Milton Wessel, announced the donation of his ADAPSO files to the Charles Babbage Institute (CBI) archives at the University of Minnesota.

Speakers at the Saturday morning plenary session were:  Luanne Johnson, President of the Software History Center, who gave an overview of SHC's mission and goals, and representatives of each of the meeting's four co-sponsors:

• David Allison, Chair, Information Technology and Society Division, Smithsonian National Museum of American History
• Jeff Yost, Associate Director, The Charles Babbage Institute
• Tim Bergin, Editor-in-Chief, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, and
• Harris Miller, President, Information Technology Association of America (the successor to ADAPSO)

The Saturday luncheon speaker was Dr. Martin Campbell-Kelly of the University of Warwick in England, author of A History of the Software Industry: From Airline Reservations to Sonic the Hedgehog to be published by MIT Press in 2002.

A complete transcript of the meeting including plenary sessions and workshops will be available from the Software History Center in late 2002.

More information on the ADAPSO History Project

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