The husITa organisation and the Journal of Technology in Human Services both have their roots in earlier activity. Growing interest in the use of technology in human services in the late 1970s and early 1980s led a group of US human service technology specialists (meeting at a Council of Social Work Education conference in Louisville Kentucky in 1981) to form the Computer Use in Social Services Network (CUSSN). By the end of 1981 the network had over 350 members. The CUSSN newsletter continued in print until 1992 when it was merged with the first academic journal on human service technology Computers in Human Services. Professor Dick Schoech, the founding member of CUSSN, was the first editor of the new journal and went on to become the founding editor of its successor, the Taylor and Frances Journal of Technology in Human Services.
The third issue of volume eight of the CUSSN newsletter, published in 1988, includes a report of the husITa working group who met in Denver in 1988 to lay the foundations for husITa.
The husITa Working Group (1988): Pictured left to right, top to bottom are Bryan Glastonbury (UK), Hein de Graaf (Netherlands), Walter LaMendola (USA), Stuart Toole (UK), and Dick Schoech (USA).
The CUSSN newsletter archive
1981 Vol 1, No. 1.
1981 Vol. 1, No. 2.
1982 Vol. 2, No. 1.
1982 Vol. 2, No. 2.
1982 Vol. 2, No. 3.
1982 Vol. 2, No. 4 & Vol. 3, No 1.
1983 Vol 3, No.2.
1983 Vol. 3, No. 3.
1983 Vol. 3, No. 4.
1984 Vol. 4, No. 1.
1984 Vol. 4, No. 2.
1984 Vol. 4, No. 3.
1984 Vol. 4, No. 4.
1985 Vol. 5, No. 2.
1985 Vol. 5, No. 3/4.
1986 Vol. 6, No. 1.
1986 Vol. 6, No. 2.
1986 Vol. 6, No. 3.
1986 Vol. 6, No. 4.
1987 Vol. 7, No. 1.
1987 Vol. 7, No. 2.
1987 Vol. 7, No. 3/4.
1988 Vol. 8, No. 1.
1988 Vol. 8, No. 2.
1988 Vol. 8, No. 3.
1988/9 Vol. 8/9, No. 4/1.
1989 Vol. 9, No. 2.
1989 Vol. 9, No. 3/4.
1990 Vol. 10, No. 1.
1990 Vol. 10, No. 2/3.
1990 Vol. 10, No. 4.
1991 Vol. 11, No. 1/2.
1991 Vol. 11, No. 3.
1991 Vol. 11, No. 4.