[SIGCIS-Members] SHOT is Almost Upon Us. Reminders, events.

Wed Oct 14 08:01:21 PDT 2009

Hello everyone,

SHOT gets underway tomorrow evening in beautiful Pittsburgh. You’ve been
seeing a number of emails over the past few months from Jeff Tang and Joe
November, who have been doing a great job keeping things on track. Below is
a summary of the SIGCIS events planned for the conference, including our
very first SIGCIS Workshop (“Michael Mahoney and the Histories of
Computing(s)”) and the presentation of our Computer History Museum book
prize. There’s also a separate summary of non-SIGCIS panels relevant to the
history of computing. It’s shaping up as another record breaking SHOT in
terms of the volume and quality of history of computing activity.

But first, some reminders:

1.       If you are coming to the SIG Lunch on Friday and/or to the SIGCIS
Workshop on Sunday, please send Jeff Tang (secretary at sigcis.org) an updated
little biography for inclusion in the conference packet. 

2.       If you are attending the SIGCIS Workshop on Sunday and still did
not yet let Jeff Tang know that you are coming, please email him
(secretary at sigcis.org). If you are not registered for SHOT itself you will
need to buy a $30 one day registration on the door on Sunday. If you are
registered for SHOT there is no additional charge.

3.       The workshop program features two sessions (one works in progress,
one dissertations) with PRECIRCULATED papers. These sessions are at the same
time, so please pick one then read and bring with you the drafts shared by
participants to enable informed discussion. Find them online at
http://www.sigcis.org/?q=workshop09c. 

Also a NEWSFLASH regarding food at the workshop on Sunday:

If you are attending the workshop, we’ve made our choices for Lunch and
Dinner. These are paid directly to the restaurant. 

·         Lunch: Primanti Brothers. A local institution and sandwich shop,
with an extensive seating capacity. Varied menu, which should have something
to suit everyone who can eat bread or doesn’t mind salad.
http://www.primantibros.com/menu/city/marketsquare/ Also very affordable.
Just around the corner from the hotel.

·         Dinner: We are making the journey (20 mins walk or very short
taxi) over the bridge to the beautiful post-industrial Station Square
development. http://www.stationsquare.com/ There’s a great view and bits of
old technology lying around. The reservation is for 7pm at Buca di Beppo
http://www.bucadibeppo.com/ which is a mid priced chain Italian restaurant
specializing in large dishes intended for sharing. It is a nice area for a
drink afterwards if anyone wants one. This choice is actually very
appropriate for our conference theme, as Mike Mahoney had suggested this
chain for our dinner in Minneapolis a few years ago but it was too full to
accept our reservation.

Lunch will be informal. For dinner, we could do with a final number to make
sure that everyone has a seat. So please update Jeff if you would now like
to join us for dinner on Sunday or if  there is any other shift in your
previously stated dinner status (No > Yes, Yes >No, Maybe > Yes, etc).  

Looking forward to seeing you there.

Tom

Here are the official SIGCIS events for SHOT:

Friday Oct 16

·         10am to 10:30am – “Meet the SIGs” – view our amazingly great
poster and meet the SIG officers over coffee in the Balroom Lobby.

·         10:30am to 12:30pm – Official SIGCIS Panel, Materiality Meets
Practice, Birmingham Room

Friday, 10.30 AM-12.30 PM

8. Materiality Meets Practice (SIGCIS Panel)

Birmingham Room

Chair: James W. Cortada (IBM)

Commentator: Gerard Alberts (University of Amsterdam, Netherlands)

Organizer: Thomas Haigh (University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee)

·         Thomas Haigh (University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee): Opening the
Beige Box:

Materiality and the Evolution of the IBM PC, 1981-95

·         Jeffrey Tang (James Madison University): Plug and Play:
Standardized Connectors and

Home Audio Reproduction

·         Allan Olley (University of Toronto, Canada): The Right Job for the
Tools:

Transitioning to the Computer Age

·         David Alan Grier (George Washington University), The Material
Origins of

Virtualization

·         12:30-2pm: SIGCIS LUNCH, Sterling’s 1 (Lobby Level, behind
elevators)

o   Informal mingling over pizza

o   Annual Book Auction

o   Presentation of the Computer History Museum Prize

o   Announcements

Saturday Oct 17

·         Official SIGCIS Panel, 10:30-12:30, Rivers Room

37. Paths Not Taken and Paths Retraced in the History of Information
Technology

Rivers Room (SIGCIS Panel)

Chair: Helena Durnova (Technical University of Brno, Czech Republic)

Commentator: Peter Meyer (US Bureau of Labor Statistics)

Organizer: Thomas Haigh (University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee)

·         Jonathan Coopersmith (Texas A&M University): Transmission Error:
Fax, Failure,

and Roads Less Traveled in the History of Technology

·         Paul E. Ceruzzi (National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian
Institution): Manned

Space Flight and Artificial Intelligence: “Natural” Trajectories of
Technology and their

Implications for Historians

·         Chris McDonald (Princeton University): From Computer Utility to
Time-Sharing:

Politics and Technology in the 1960s American Computer Industry

·         Evan Koblentz (InfoAge Science Center): The Pre-History of
Portable Computers

Sunday Oct 18: All Day SIGCIS Workshop!

A Special Workshop on Michael Mahoney and the Histories of Computing(s)

9-10.45 AM

Plenary Session

Ft. Pitt Room

·         William Aspray, School of Informatics and Computing, Indiana
University

·         Gerard Alberts, University of Amsterdam

·         Thomas Haigh, School of Information Studies, University of
Wisconsin, Milwaukee

10.45-11 AM Coffee Break, East Lobby Concourse

11-12.30 PM, Sunday

Traditional Paper Session 1: The Computings of Science

Smithfield Room

Chair: Andrew Russell, Program in History, Stevens Institute of Technology

Commentator: Chigusa Kita, Kansai University

·         Joseph November, Department of History, University of South
Carolina: “The

Computer as File Cabinet or Oscilloscope: Two Computings of Biomedical
Research”

·         Buhm Soon Park, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and
Technology: “Chemistry

by Computer: Machines and Ideas for Computational Chemistry”

·         Scott M. Campbell, University of Waterloo: “Agendas and the
Promise of Computer

Science at the University of Toronto”

Traditional Paper Session 2: The Computings of Management

Ft. Pitt Room

Chair: Janet Delve, School of Creative Technologies, University of
Portsmouth

Commentator: William McMillan, Eastern Michigan University

·         Lars Heide, Copenhagen Business School: “Punched Cards in German
Management of

Resources in the Second World War”

·         David Anderson, University of Portsmouth: “The Corridors of Power:
Patrick Blackett

and the Political Context of Early British Computing”

·         Jonathan Aylen, Manchester Institute of Innovation Research,
University of

Manchester: “’You’ve got to roll with it’: radical adoption of computers and
changes to

managerial routines at Llanwern steelworks, South Wales”

12.30-2 PM Lunch Break. (Head to lobby to walk around the corner to Primanti
Brothers, Market Square location). See below for map.

2-4 PM, Sunday

Dissertation Session

Smithfield Room

·         Cristina Turdean, Hagley Program, Department of History,
University of Delaware:

“Reimagining a Gambling Technology: The Digitization of the Slot Machine
(1970-2000)”

·         Christopher McDonald, Princeton University: “A New Nervous System
of Society: The Technology and Politics of Mass Computer-Communications
Systems”

·         Hansen Hsu, Cornell University: “Connections between the Software
Crisis and Object-Oriented Programming”

Works in Progress

Ft. Pitt Room

Chair and Commentator: Janet Abbate, Science and Technology Studies Program,

Virginia Tech

·         Rebecca Slayton, Stanford University: “An Evolving Discipline: The
Political Economy of Software Engineering”

·         Pierre Mounier-Kuhn, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique:
“The Emergence of Computing as an Academic Discipline in France”

·         Anker Helms Jorgensen, IT University of Copenhagen: “History of
User Interfaces to Computers – A Mahoneyan Perspective”

·         Sten Henriksson, Computer Science Department, Lund University: “A
brief history of the stack”

4-4.15 PM Coffee Break, East Lobby Concourse

4.15-5.45 PM, Sunday

Traditional Paper Session 3: Political Institutions in the Histories of
Computings

Smithfield Room

Commentator: Helena Durnová, Department of Mathematics, Faculty of
Electrical Engineering and Communications, Brno University of Technology

·         Andrew Mamo, “Computing Societies: Communications Technologies and
Social Science in the Cambridge Project”

·         Stephen Patnode, Temple University: “The Impact of Computers on
Corporate Paternalism in the Post-war United States”

·         David Nofre, Informatics Institute, University of Amsterdam: “The
Dutch politics of computing and the limits of international cooperation,
1945-65”

Traditional Paper Session 4: Computings as They Rose and Fell

Ft. Pitt Room

Chair: David Hemmendinger, Computer Science Department, Union College

Commentator: Paul Ceruzzi, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian
Institution

·         Dave Goodwin, Birkbeck College, University of London: “Digital
Equipment Corporation: The mistakes that led to its downfall”

·         Larry Owens, University of Massachusetts Amherst: “Walking Around
Computerville: The PC and the Encyclopedia of Computer Science, 1976-83”

6.30 PM Gather for dinner in the lobby for walk to dinner. (Dinner is 7:00pm
at Buca di Beppo in Station Square) – see below for map.

Non-SIGCIS Panels Related to History of Computing

·         Friday, Oct 16: 8:30-10 am

3. Web 2.0 and the History of Technology

Ft. Pitt Room

Chair: Sheldon Hochheiser (IEEE History Center)

Commentator: Thomas J. Misa (Charles Babbage Institute)

Organizers: Michael N. Geselowitz (IEEE History Center) and Thomas J. Misa

(Charles Babbage Institute)

Stephanie H. Crowe (Charles Babbage Institute): Experimenting with Web 2.0
at the

Charles Babbage Institute

Suzanne Fischer (The Henry Ford): The History Museum as Communication
Platform

Michael N. Geselowitz (IEEE History Center): The IEEE Global History Network

5: Operating Technological Networks

Duquesne Room

Includes: Nathan Ensmenger (University of Pennsylvania): From Computer
Operations to

Operating Systems: The Hidden Costs of Business Computing

·         Friday, Oct 16, 10:30-12:30

9. Technological Shifts

Smithfield Room

Chair & Commentator: Glenn Bugos (NASA Ames Research Center)

Yasushi Sato (National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, Japan): An
Inconspicuous

Giant in the History of Japanese Computing: NTT and its Early Masterwork,
DIPS-1

14. Increasing Women’s Participation in Engineering and Computer Science:

Perspectives from the Field and from History - Roundtable

Rivers Room

Organizer: Jennifer Light (Northwestern University)

Participants: Allan Fisher (Laureate Education, Inc); Janet Abbate,
(Virginia Tech),

Marie Hicks (Duke University), Patricia L. Eng (U.S. Nuclear Regulatory

Commission), Ruth Schwartz Cowan (University of Pennsylvania)

·         Saturday, Oct 17, 8:30-10am

26. Navigating Virtual and Physical Landscapes: Geocaching, Locative Media,
and

Video Games

Ft. Pitt Room

Chair: Stephen H. Cutcliffe (Lehigh University)

Commentator: Hugh Slotten (University of Otago, New Zealand)

Organizer: Silas Chamberlin (Lehigh University)

Silas Chamberlin A High-Tech Easter Egg Hunt: Geocaching in Historical
Perspective

Nathan Schulman (California Institute of the Arts): Navigating the
Cityscape: Digital

Locative Media in the Modern City

Matthew Schandler (Lehigh University) [Robinson Prize Candidate]: Navigating

Virtual Worlds: Agency and Alternatives in the History of Video Games

30. Confrontation and Cooperation in the Cold War (I)

Duquesne Room

Chair & Commentator: Paul Josephson (Colby College)

Helena Durnova (Brno University of Technology, Czech Republic): Computers as
the

messengers of freedom in Soviet bloc countries

Anna Geltzer (Cornell University): Cybernetics without computers? Medical

cybernetics in the USSR

·         Saturday, Oct 17, 10:30-12:30

35. The Instability of Technological Identities

Benedum Room

Chair & Commentator: Edmund Russell (University of Virginia)

(includes)

Yasuo Deguchi (Kyoto University, Japan) and Chigusa I. Kita (Kansai
University,

Japan): Punched cards from accounting office to laboratory: Eckert and von
Neumann

36. Consumer Agency in the History of Technology

Duquesne Room

Chair & Commentator: Karin Zachmann (Deutsches Museum, Germany)

(includes)

Dov Lungu (York University, Canada) and Zbigniew Stachniak (York University,

Canada): The Toronto Region Association of Computer Enthusiasts (1976-85): A
case

study in the evolution of the Computer Hobbyist Movement in Canada

38. Robots in Practice

Forbes Room

Chair: Roger D. Launius (National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian
Institution)

Commentator: Lisa Nocks (New Jersey Institute of Technology)

Organizer: Frank Dittmann (Deutsches Museum, Germany)

Hironori Matsuzaki (Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Germany)

[Robinson Prize Candidate]: M.A Humanoid robots and the borders of the
social

world. A cross-cultural analysis between Europe, the USA, and Japan

Ralf Spicker (Deutsches Museum, Germany): Between Science Fiction and

technological concepts: An Overview over the History and (near) Future of
industrial

robots

Catarina Caetano da Rosa (RWTH Aachen University): Can medical robots act?

Frank Dittmann (Deutsches Museum): Service Robots – The Brownies of

the 21st Century?

·         Saturday, Oct 17, 2-3:30pm

40. Girls Buy Dresses; Boys Buy Video Games: Gender, Technology, and

Consumption in Twentieth-Century America

Smithfield Room

Chair & Commentator: Regina Lee Blaszczyk

Organizer: Deirdre Clemente (Carnegie Mellon University)

(includes)

Racquel Gonzales (University of Texas at Austin) [Robinson Prize Candidate]:
This

is a Man’s Man’s Man’s World?: The Gendering of Video Games through
Television

Advertising

41. Making Technologies Public

Ft. Pitt Room

Chair & Commentator: Alex Roland (Duke University)

Organizer: Jason Young (York University, Canada)

(includes)

Andrew Meade McGee (University of Virginia) [Robinson Prize Candidate]: A
Sort

of Breathing IBM Machine: The Social Security Administration, Publicized

Technology, and Promotion of the Public’s Role in an Information System,
1936-79

·         Saturday, Oct 17, 4-5:30pm

51. Technological History of the “Third Industrial Revolution”

Benedum Room

Chair & Commentator: Steven Usselman (Georgia Tech)

Co-organizers: Hyungsub Choi (Chemical Heritage Foundation) and Andrew L.

Russell (Stevens Institute of Technology)

(includes)

Hyungsub Choi: The Long Tail of the Third Industrial Revolution: Technology

Platform and Supply Chain Relationships at SEMATECH

Map: How to get to Lunch on Sunday

Map: How to get to Dinner on Sunday

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