[Members] Call for submissions -- SIGCIS Member Contributions series

[julie hugsted]

I am always happy to recieve these very including invitations to
contributions. - Thank you, Tom.

Since I have still not contributed with any texts, I have wondered why not -
and I have wondered if others might have the same reasons not to
contribute.

I experience that SIGCIS as community, as well as the individual members
that I have had contact with, are very open and appreciate new work, new
perspectives and not least new members. Therefore I conclude, that the
reason is not group dynamic.

Nevertheless, I have still not contributed with any texts, and for me, the
reason is lingual. - I am currently working on my first text in English on
the matters of computer history. Apart from this I have written my masters
thesis that is in Danish. I work on translation from time to time, but it
takes much time that I currently do not have - or choose to have for
translations when the alternative is creating new work.

I have thought of publishing my thesis on a personal website that I am
working on, but there is no guarantee that a Dane (or a Norwegian or Swede
that might understand written Danish) would find this personal site. I know
that many SIGCIS members have personal websites with texts in their mother
tongue - I appreciate this, but it takes much time and effort to track down
all open documents from all SIGCIS members that write in different sorts of
languages. - I could also imagine that some works simply stay at home in the
desk drawer because it can seem futile to create a website if you only have
a few texts and they are in your mother tongue.

Why I write this? I think that others might also have done some good work in
their mother tongue and for one or more reasons have not translated it. I
believe that time and lingual abbilities are some of the major reasons.
Since their is no way of creating time or making everyone translating
everything at once, I suggest to make a part of the SIGCIS page for
non-English member contributions, perhaps with an English abstract.

In this way I believe
 - We ensure that these works are shared among people who know the same
languages.
 - It will strenthen the local communties of computer historians
 - Positive responses on the works might motivate authors to translate their
work
 - It would be possible to select works that the local communties will
translate in cooperation with each other - or try to raise money for
translations

All these things are easier to do together, when you have a community, when
you have a group. Even if you do not understand everything that everyone
else write.

Well, that was some ideas from me - I have no complaints about the way
SIGCIS work, I have just been wondering about ways to make good even better
in a way that I view as practical, easy and reasonable. It can seem as if I
problematize something rather small, but I believe that creating a part of
the SIGCIS page for non-English member contributions might help us preserve
and share work that might otherwise be forgotten/dissappear.

Let me know what you think,

All the best

Julie




2010/7/22 Thomas Haigh <thaigh at computer.org>

> The Special Interest Group for Computing, Information, and Society (SIGCIS)
> serves as a foundation for the community development efforts within the
> history of computing. The discipline as a whole is enriched when scholars
> share their work with their colleagues.  In aid of this goal, SIGCIS
> invites
> members to submit their written work to the Member Contributions section of
> the site.
> The Member Contributions area is intended to be a place for historians of
> computing to post work that does not fit into traditional categories such
> as
> the book or published journal article. Technical report series and similar
> online venues are common in the sciences but rare in historical
> disciplines.
>
> Member Contributions could include the following:
>
> . Conference presentations that are not destined for publication in their
> current form, but you feel merit broader consideration.
> . Works in progress, such as the drafts of book chapters or articles.
> . Material too lengthy or detailed to be included within a journal
> publication, such as one finds in traditional technical report series.
> . Masters' or Ph.D. theses.
> . Review essays, reports on conferences or exhibitions, etc.
>
> Though not peer reviewed, Member Contributions should meet normal academic
> standards for rigor and factual accuracy.
>
> SIGCIS does not claim copyright over these items and will not attempt to
> restrict subsequent publication of this material elsewhere. However, please
> do not submit works to which you no longer hold the copyright (e.g.
> articles
> published in journals) without permission of the copyright holder.
>
> If you have material you would like to be included in the Member
> Contributions series on the SIGCIS website please contact the SIGCIS
> Secretary using the email address secretary at sigcis.org. The preferred
> submission format is an Adobe PDF file. Include an abstract of no more than
> 200 words. Accepted submissions will receive a serial number in the format
> SIGCIS_MC_1234 and will be added to the SIGCIS website.
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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> Members at sigcis.org
> http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members
>
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