[ih] Fwd: History of "accounts"

[Nigel Roberts]

Following on from this, the use of "account" in the context of computers 
relates to timesharing.

The systems kept "an account" of time used - for billing purposes - so 
users had to had "accounts" to keep track of their usage and provide the 
data that could be used to generate bills (or, in the case of university 
users, limit usage).





On 08/02/14 12:30, Miles Fidelman wrote:
> Probably goes back at least as far as the Egyptians - who invented lots
> of things (e.g., surveying) to "account" (root is the same as "count")
> to keep track of fields and grain stores across annual floodings of the
> Nile.  And then there's the whole history of trade and credit in its
> various forms, hence the term "on account."
>
> I expect that if one goes back far enough, one will find that this is a
> case of parallel invention across multiple cultures, during
> pre-historical periods.
>
> Joly MacFie wrote:
>> Anyone here want to give Michele further pointers?
>>
>> j
>>
>>
>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>> From: *Fred Fuchs* <fred at firesabre.com <mailto:fred at firesabre.com>>
>> Date: Fri, Feb 7, 2014 at 10:06 PM
>> Subject: Re: [Air-L] History of "accounts"
>> To: Michelle Forelle <mcforelle at gmail.com
>> <mailto:mcforelle at gmail.com>>, AoIR-L <air-l at listserv.aoir.org
>> <mailto:air-l at listserv.aoir.org>>
>>
>>
>> On 2/7/2014 7:51 PM, Michelle Forelle wrote:
>>
>>     Hi all,
>>
>>     I'm working on a project which requires me to look into the
>>     history of the
>>     concept of "accounts," as in bank accounts or social media accounts.
>>
>>
>> "Accounts" in computing began in the days of batch processing and
>> timesharing. Here are some related links:
>>
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time-sharing
>> http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/history/timesharing/timesharing.html
>> http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Time-sharing.html
>> <http://www.princeton.edu/%7Eachaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Time-sharing.html>
>>
>> http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=880740
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q07PhW5sCEk
>> http://www.bobbemer.com/TIMESHAR.HTM
>>
>> Here's a bit more on banking too:
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_banking
>> http://money.howstuffworks.com/personal-finance/banking/swiss-bank-account2.htm
>>
>> http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0801059.html
>>
>> Good luck,
>>
>> Fred
>>
>> --
>> Fred Fuchs - Founder, CEO, & Producer
>> FireSabre Consulting LLC
>> Content Services for Virtual Worlds
>> Creation, Events, Training, & Simulations
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>> https://twitter.com/Fred_Fuchs
>>
>>
>>
>>
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