Change Is the Constant


Whether it's the geological change that has shaped the entire Bay Area, or the constant pace of innovation and daring, nothing better describes the Bay Area and Silicon Valley than "Change is the Constant", the theme for the 2008 SIA National Conference. Change takes many forms: economic, environmental, technological and social, all of which occur at an ever increasing pace here. The challenge for Industrial Archeology is how to capture this dynamic environment, and to utilize the forces of change to further the research and public outreach that are the core of the SIA mission.

Come to San José, where Change Is the Constant!

Fine Tuning SIA 2008

A variety of factors beyond our control have reduced the number of  attendees to the smallest in the last several years. We remain absolutely committed to a high quality, informative and engaging conference, but have to cut back some things to stay within the budget.  One Thursday tour, Tour 2 - Rediscovering Industrial Santa Clara has been cancelled.  Since the notes for this tour were already under development, they will be put up on this web site for your own explorations.  Two Friday tours, Tour D - Valley of Heart's Delight and Tour F - How Green IS my Valley have also been cancelled. Some of the sites these were to have visited will be incorporated into other tours, and the working drafts fo the tour notes will also be posted. All of the affected indivduals who had signed up for these tours will be contacted. There is space on all of the other tours except Tour 1 - Green Mini-Tour.

We are very pleased to announce a new symposium on Saturday. From 10-12:30 long time SIA member Eric DeLony has organized a panel session with several leading experts in historic brigdes from all over the West Coast.

Difference Engine #2 Arrives!


NEW 5/6/08: The Computer History Museum's Babbage web pages are up in anticipation of the public opening of the Difference Engine exhibit on May 10, 2008. 

NEW 5/2/08: See Dr. Doron Swade, Director of the Difference Engine Project in a new Wired video talking about the Engine and its creator, Charles Babbage.

Charles Babbage's Difference Engine #2 has arrived at the Computer History Museum, site of the Conference Banquet on Saturday, May 31.  Babbage designed the Engine in 1847-49, but the plans remained unimplemented until 1985 when researchers at the Science Museum, London decided to make one to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Babbage's birth in 1991. This is "Serial Number: 2", a second machine commissioned by Nathan Myhrvold, former Microsoft CTO and Group VP.  The formal public opening is May 10. Under current plans, the machine will be on public display for only a year.

This is an absolutely unique exercise in Industrial Archeology. Babbage left behind only 20 pages of drawings, and no details on materials, tolerances, etc.  Researchers constructing the machine deliberately maintained tolerances that could have been achieved in Babbage's time, dispelling the commonly held belief that Babbage could not have realized his design.

Here's Wired's coverage of the arrival.

For anyone interested in the history of technology, Victorian engineering, or mechanical computation, a visit to this remarkable machine is a must!

On-line Registration is Open


You can now register for SIA 2008 on-line.  

Registration Clarification

Registration for the full Conference (regular and student)  includes:

Thursday Early-Bird Tours

Thursday Opening Reception

Friday Tours

Saturday Paper Sessions, including the luncheon

Sunday Stay-Over Tours

The Saturday Banquet is not included in the full Conference Registration, but is a separate option.

We have provided a low cost option for those who want to attend only the Paper Sessions on Saturday, which includes the luncheon. This option does not include any tours, nor does it include the banquet. The on-line versions of the brochure and registration form have been updated. We apologize for any confusion.

Registration Form Error


There is an error on the printed registration form in that Tour C & D were interchanged. It has been corrected in the on-line version of that form, and of the brochure. To avoid confusion please include a note on which tour you're interested in when you mail in the registration form. The on-line registration site will be correct. The Sunday tour "The Beautiful Way" is incorrectly labeled "Cannery Life".

At a Glance

Knight Wheel

The 2008 Society for Industrial Archeology National Conference is co-sponsored by:

  • Samuel Knight Chapter of the SIA
  • History San José
  • Computer History Museum
  • San José State University, Department of Anthropology
  • and others


    • Although centered in San José, the conference tours will take participants to sites of interest all over the greater Bay Area. Click for a map of of conference venues and destinations.

    The planning team has selected The Sainte Claire as the conference hotel. This listed in the National Register of Historic Places and a member of the Historic Hotels of America program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the hotel offers a full compliment of contemporary amenities.

    The current plans for tours are here.   This information is a richer version of the Conference brochure which was mailed to SIA members  in mid-March.  The web site will be kept up to date with the latest information.  Change is the Constant also applies to the tours,  things may change, or we may even be reluctantly forced to cancel a tour all together.

    San José is the 10th largest city in the US, and the largest in the Bay Area. Late May weather should be exceptionally pleasant, highs in the 70s, lows in the 50s, with low humidity and virtually no chance of rain. For many years San José has been the safest large city in the U.S.

    When What
    Thursday, May 29, 2008 Registration Opens (late morning)
    Thursday, May 29, 2008 Early-Bird Tours
    Thursday, May 29, 2008 Opening Reception (early evening)
    Friday, May 30, 2008 Tours, Birds of a Feather Session (evening), Board Meeting
    Saturday, May 31, 2008 Paper Sessions, Annual General Membership Meeting, Banquet
    Sunday, June 1, 2008 Stay-Over Tours

    Contacts


    Conference Steering Committee

    1350 Vance Drive
    San José, CA 95132-2455
    (h)408 926 2312


    Registration

    (o)906 487 1889

    Share Your Conference Experience


    We want to encourage you to share YOUR conference experience by using the Flickr picture sharing site and tagging your conference  images with "sia2008sjc" (other variations were already taken) which is also a Flickr group name.  Flickr supports a forum for the group if you're more a prose person. You may also want to look at the Industrial Archeology group there, and to tag your images also with "industrial archeology".  Flickr is free, but you do need to register.  We have been using the del.icio.us bookmark sharing site for relevant web pages, also using the tag "sia2008".  Not all of these sites will actually be part of the Conference, but they have some useful information.

    New IA Book

    Though not part of SIA 2008, you might want to take a look at a soon to be published book American Industrial Archeology - A Field Guide, by Douglas McVarish, published by Left Coast Press.

    Paper  Session Program

    The preliminary program for the Saturday, May 31 Paper Sessions is here. Thanks to all of the authors who submitted papers. Several of the papers are about places that the Friday tours will be visiting. An early draft of the abstracts booklet is here.

    IA on VTA Preview

    IA on VTA lets you glimpse the industrial heritage and contemporary variety of industry from a ride on VTA light rail. There are notes for the Campbell leg and the North First leg of  VTA light rail, with more to come.

    Conference Registration

    SIA members should have received the Conference brochure in the mail. You can also print just the registration form and mail it in with your check. On-line registration opened on April 1, 2008 at http://www.siahq.org Due to changes to improve the security of credit card processing at MTU, credit cards may only be used for on-line registration.

    Brochure errata: in addition to the Registration Form Error, Lucile Packard's name was spelled incorrectly (an extra l). The stop is at the Los Altos History Museum. The paper session is on Saturday, May 31, 2008.

    We Need Your Help

    To make the Conference work, we need help from YOU! Click to see where help is needed.