[SIGCIS-Members] SIGCIS: gender, race, working class history, imperialism....

[Thomas Haigh]

Hello Bernard,

That is a great idea. The resources list is in need of an update anyway. I
wrote the current version, but have not updated it for several years and
there are dozens of important new resources to add, as well as the old ones
that I overlooked. Some time ago I discussed with the then-SIGCIS officers
the idea that it would be best for it to become more of an institutional
project than a personal one, with new short entries in the current format
added by multiple contributors at tagged with the initials of contributors
from the SIGCIS leadership. There would then be a list at the bottom mapping
initials to names. That retains the slightly informal, personal quality of
the current entries but doesn't require me to write them all. They liked the
idea, but did not in the end write any new entries and I did not follow up
with reminders. So this reminds me that we need to revive the project.

We also have a number of more specialized resource guides -- for example on
British history of computing. So one might imagine some specialized guides
on topical areas, for example sexuality, aside from the main resource list.
That would allow lists that go more in-depth or encompass areas less
directly related to the history of computing (for example crossing over into
work that is primarily situated within STS or digital humanities but likely
to be of crossover interest to many SIGCIS members). On the other hand, we
should not ghettoize all coverage of these issues on a separate list, or
even under separate headings within the main list. For example, Light is
grouped under "Scientific Computing" rather than placed in a separate
section for gender.

One of the problems here, of course, is the idea that the main list is a
kind of canon for the "history of computing" as that can be approached from
so many different perspectives. The current list is personal, and out of
date, but I tried to imagine a kind of consensus SIGCIS view of the world
that would cover areas of significant intersection in our different visions
of what is important. Of course that will itself change over time along with
the interests and composition of our members.

I would be happy for you to pull together material to address these areas,
perhaps by coordinating the drafting one or more specialized guides and by
nominating entries and or categories to include in the updating of the main
guide. As you know Andy Russell is taking over as chair soon, but I will try
to make sure that we have a plan in place with our new volunteers for
updating the main guide and that you are in the loop on this and able to
contribute.

Best wishes,

Tom


-----Original Message-----
From: members-bounces at sigcis.org [mailto:members-bounces at sigcis.org] On
Behalf Of geoghegb at cms.hu-berlin.de
Sent: Tuesday, September 09, 2014 5:43 AM
To: sigcis
Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] SIGCIS: gender, race, working class history,
imperialism....

Hi SIGCIS,

One of the surprising accusations surrounding this email nonsense was that
SIGCIS promoted racism, gender bias, and industrial domination. I was
curious enough to visit our website and see where we address these topics in
the history of informatics. It seems that on http://www.sigcis.org/resources
we have not addressed  issues like race, gender, sexuality, and working
class history in informatics. Given the rich range of other resources we
offer along these lines, I think a few subsections in these areas would be
worthwhile. If the group approves of adding these resources, topics and
authors that may be germane include

1) Gender and Computing (Hayles on the Turing Test in POSTHUMAN, Haraway
misc., Stone on Lovelace, Light on "When Computers were Women")
2) A People's History of Computing (Robins & Webster on "Long History of the
Information Revolution", Schaffer on "Babbage's Intelligence"?)

If there is interest in putting something like this together and putting it
up as resources, maybe we can bounce the email back and forth, quoting and
amending the brief list above to quickly generate something better.

Best,
Bernard


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