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

Sun Sep 14 13:24:17 PDT 2014

I agree with the previous posters that SIGCIS should indeed include a strong statement on Gender, Race, Working Class History, Imperialism, etc.
Regards,
-Ramesh

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ramesh Subramanian, Ph.D.
Gabriel Ferrucci Professor of Computer Information Systems
Quinnipiac University
Hamden, CT 06518.
Phone: 203-582-5276
Email: ramesh.subramanian at quinnipiac.edu 
Web: Ramesh Subramanian’s web page 
&
Visiting Fellow, Information Society Project
Yale Law School
New Haven, CT 06511
Email: ramesh.subramanian at yale.edu 
Web: http://www.law.yale.edu/intellectuallife/9841.htm 

Recent books: 
Access to Knowledge in India: New Research on Intellectual Property, Innovation and Development (Bloomsbury Academic, 2011)
The Global Flow of Information: Legal, Social and Cultural Perspectives (NYU Press, 2011)

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated"
Mahatma Gandhi

-----Original Message-----
From: members-bounces at sigcis.org [mailto:members-bounces at sigcis.org] On Behalf Of Irish, Sharon Lee
Sent: Saturday, September 13, 2014 10:04 AM
To: thaigh at computer.org; geoghegb at cms.hu-berlin.de; 'sigcis'
Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] SIGCIS: gender, race, working class history, imperialism....

Dear colleagues,
I want to take this opportunity to give a big thank you to Tom for his leadership. Since I don’t often get to SHOT meetings, I cannot deliver this appreciation in person.
I got one reply to my query about gender and computing, not comprehensive, but thanks to Melissa Chalmers at U Mich. I think Abbate is already on the old list.

Abbate, J. (2012). Recoding Gender: Women's Changing Participation in
Computing: MIT Press.
Chun, W. H. K. (2011). Programmed Visions: Software and Memory: The MIT Press.
Misa, T. J. (2011). Gender Codes: Why Women Are Leaving Computing: Wiley.
     * Includes historical essays from Ensmenger, Downey, Hicks, Abbate,
Haigh, ETC.  *

Edwards, P. N. (1990). The Army and the Microworld: Computers and the Politics of Gender Identity. Signs, 16(1), 102-127.
Ensmenger, N. (2010). The Computer Boys Take Over: Computers, Programmers, and the Politics of Technical Expertise. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
Fritz, W. B. (1996). The Women of ENIAC. Annals of the History of Computing, IEEE, 18(3), 13-28.

A huge challenge is sustaining an effort like this, as Tom notes. In the Society of Architectural Historians there used to be one or two librarians who would add to the resources list on a regular basis. Just dreaming…

Sharon Irish

On 9/12/14, 5:49 PM, "Thomas Haigh" <thaigh at computer.org> wrote:

>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
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion 
>list of SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at 
>http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/
>and you can change your subscription options at 
>http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members
>
>_______________________________________________
>This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion 
>list of SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at 
>http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ and you can change your 
>subscription options at http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members

_______________________________________________
This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ and you can change your subscription options at http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members