SIGCAS in the early days: a history from 1967 to 1985

This article is an excerpt from a chapter in a forthcoming book, Communities of Computing: Computer Science and Society in ACM. The chapter covers the debates that went on within ACM during the 1960s and 1970s about the organization's stance on issues such as the Vietnam War, the women's movement and the human rights of Soviet computer scientists. As the special interest group on Computers and Society, SIGCAS had a leading role to play in influencing ACM's position on social issues. This excerpt charts the emergence of SIGCAS as a special interest group and explores the SIGs relationship with ACM management. The article also considers the changing focus of SIGCAS members' interests over the first twenty years.