[SIGCIS-Members] SIGCIS and SHOT updates

[Andrew Russell]

Hi everyone -

Faced with a pile of grading, I am doing some ‘productive procrastination’ and thought I would send a note with a few updates from SIGCIS and SHOT.


1. After some migration hiccups, everything now seems to be running well on the new web and listserv host for sigcis.org<http://sigcis.org>.  The fearless Brent Jesiek sent an update email near the end of March (see http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/2015-March/002149.html), and I want to echo both his gratitude for your patience during the transition and his request to submit any questions, concerns, bug reports, etc. to him.  With the transition to a new host complete, now is a good time to update your profile, revisit any custom subscriber settings (i.e. ‘digest’ mode), and even take a fresh look at the very impressive list of scholars in our Members Directory - http://www.sigcis.org/members.


2. SHOT Secretary Dave Lucsko recently sent an email to SHOT members (on 4/22) about travel and hotels for the SHOT annual meeting in Albuquerque on October 8-11, 2015.  He pointed out that there is a major hot air balloon festival in Albuquerque the same weekend as SHOT, making it all the more urgent to book flights and hotel rooms early.  (I would add that the time is right to begin thinking about clever puns about hot air and historians of technology.)  See http://www.historyoftechnology.org/features/annual_meeting/index.html for more information.  I believe that the SHOT Program Committee will announce their decisions about the program in the next couple of weeks; as far as I know, no decisions have been made yet.


3. Related, SIGCIS is developing ideas for the annual SIGCIS workshop, which will once again be held on Sunday at the end of SHOT (this year it's Sunday, October 11).  This workshop, as usual, will have its own call for papers and its own submission process.  More information about the workshop also will be available within the next couple of weeks.  If you have any suggestions for special themes or topics that the workshop might consider, please let me know.


4. Finally, I wanted to share some highlights of a recent update from SHOT via Atsushi Akera, who is serving as a liaison between the SHOT Executive Committee and the SIG chairs.  I’m sure Atsushi can provide more details (hi Atsushi!), but here’s the quick version:
(a) SHOT continues to value the SIGs, particularly as a way to bring new voices and new energy into SHOT;
(b) SIGs and their members should continue to think creatively about sessions and ideas for SHOT’s June 22-26, 2016 meeting in Singapore (poster sessions; open sessions; works in progress; etc);
(c) SHOT is encouraging SIGs to cultivate connections within “counterpart” societies - they named 4S and HSS explicitly, but there are at least a half-dozen other societies where SIGCIS members are active, and where computer and information histories are hot topics;
(d) SHOT encourages us to use Project Muse when we access Technology & Culture online, since that access method brings much-needed revenue to SHOT.


I’m sure there are other things I’m forgetting, but that’s quite enough for now.  As always, please continue to use the list for announcements, questions, manifestos, and so on!

Cheers,

Andy Russell
SIGCIS Chair
http://www.sigcis.org/<https://www.sigcis.org/>
https://www.facebook.com/SIGCIS
https://twitter.com/SIGCIS


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