About IS History

"If you don't know where you've come from, you don't know where you are." – James Burke

The history of any academic field plays an important role in shaping the field’s present state and giving the field its unique identity. The Information Systems (IS) field has a unique yet rich history of its own. It is important for all involved to study its past to understand its present, and to guide its possible future.

AIS has initiated an effort to collect, preserve, interpret, write and disseminate the history of the IS field. AIS hopes to maintain the legacy and heritage of the IS field by starting now when many pioneers in our field are still among us. Please see AIS President's message: In Praise of Our History (and Future).

Given history is in the eye of the beholder, it is up to our entire community to present the history of the field by understanding the diverse views and multiple facets of the history. The AIS Historian welcomes any and every of our community members to share their views and collections related to IS history.

About IS History Website

This website shows the efforts, events, collections, and representations about and of the IS history. It is constantly being expanded. What you see here is never complete but a demonstration of the current collection. The Repository section contains various types of IS history related materials. It also contains a link to a public group (IS History on Mendeley) that collects published work on or about the IS history. The history website is an extension of the AIS website.

It takes an entire community to collect, preserve, present and disseminate the history. Thus every community member is encouraged to provide input. If you would like to contribute in any way (writing a piece, providing artifacts, providing links, sharing opinions, etc.), please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..