The 1960 Western Joint Computer Conference met in San Francisco for the third time. Interest in these conferences has been increasing steadily along with the impressive growth of the computer industry in the San Francisco Bay area. Manufacturing representation in the form of exhibits was the greatest in the history of the Western Joint Computer Conference.
In keeping with the theme of the 1960 Conference, "The Challenge of the Next Decade," the papers presented in the Proceedings were selected on the basis of trends in techniques and applications rather than descriptions of existing or about-to-be announced equipment. The philosophy of this year's conference committee was that of "taking stock" and attempting to "look ahead" to determine which way this dynamic industry is going. We have essentially reached a plateau where technology has given us a feel for the tremendous impact that this industry will have upon our everyday life. It seems desirable, occasionally, to pause and evaluate and, indeed, this in itself can justify the value of a conference.
This publication contains the papers presented at the 1960 Western Joint Computer Conference, and was available at the time of the Conference.