[SIGCIS-Members] "pre-announcement" of new ACM short-term history fellowship --> 30 April deadline

[tmisa at umn.edu]

Dear colleagues,

The ACM History Committee has created a new source of support for computer 
history, aimed naturally enough at research on activities in which ACM 
played some important role. The announcement will formally be launched when 
the <history.acm.org> site is updated, but the basic information is all 
here (see the announcement text below).

The "back story" is this: ACM has devoted substantial resources in recent 
years to creating historical documentation (about its members, its prize 
winners, and about its organization -- both its central HQ and its three 
dozen SIG's). The ACM History Committee (which I recently joined) wants to 
make sure that these research materials actually get USED. As an 
experiment, ACM-HC created this "short term fellowship" to attract 
historians' attention to these materials as well as to support two projects 
directly. The awards are modest, $2,500; but the conditions are rather 
wide-open. You might travel to Stanford and use ACM-relevant materials 
there, or to Hagley, or anywhere (even CBI). There are also on-line 
materials, including some organizational records, conference proceedings, 
and a growing set of oral histories with ACM luminaries. (For some of 
these, you'll need access to the ACM Digital Library.)

The deadline for proposals is SOON -- 30 April. Please have a look at the 
announcement below, or the formal announcement soon to appear on 
<history.acm.org>. Then, please frame a research project that has *some* 
significant ACM angle: for instance, you might investigate how an ACM 
conference sparked interest in a particular set of computing developments; 
or investigate one of the ACM Turing Award winners; or even examine some 
organizational aspect of ACM's universe of SIGS). Merely mentioning that 
someone was an ACM member is likely under-the-bar for significance.

We hope to get a solid out-pouring of proposals. Especially if there are a 
good number of high-quality proposals, it's more likely that future funding 
would be continued -- possibly even expanded.

Thanks for your attention!

Best, Tom Misa

====================================

ACM History Committee 
Short-term Fellowships in ACM History

The Association for Computing Machinery, founded in 1947, is the oldest and 
largest educational and scientific society dedicated to the computing 
profession, and today has members in more than 100 countries. To encourage 
historical research, the ACM History Committee announces a new program of 
short-term fellowships in ACM history. This year we plan to make up to two 
$2,500 awards to support historical research on the wide variety of ACM 
related activities, including ACM members, officers, and prize winners, as 
well as ACM as an organization. Successful candidates may be of any rank, 
from graduate students through senior researchers.

To Apply:

Applicants should send a 2-page CV as well as a 750-word project 
description that [a] describes the proposed research project; [b] 
identifies the importance of specific ACM historical materials, whether 
traditional archival collections or online historical materials (oral 
histories, digitized conference papers, ACM organizational records, et 
al.); and [c] discusses the project's planned outcome (e.g. conference 
paper, journal article, book or dissertation chapter, teaching resource, 
museum exhibit, etc.).

In preparing a proposal, applicants should examine the extensive list of 
ACM historical resources posted at <history.acm.org> (click on ‘Links’ and 
choose ‘ACM Research Materials’). Other research materials relating to 
ACM's rich history may also be used. Applications should include a letter 
of endorsement from their home department or institution.

Proposals are due by 30 April 2009. Proposals should be submitted as .pdf 
documents to <history-webmaster at acm.org>. Notification of awards will be 
made within six weeks.

============================================