[SIGCIS-Members] Reply to an odd tweet

[Martha Poon]

Looks like this message got caught up somewhere. In the week since I sent
it the issue of the mystery tweet has been resolved...! It's good to be in
touch with the list. Thanks to those who have replied.

Martha

On Tue, Apr 5, 2016 at 5:17 PM, Martha Poon <martha.poon at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear SIGCIS,
>
>
>
> Last weekend at the Business History Conference, an odd tweet came off the
> SHOT-SIGCIS handle: *#**bhc2016*
> <https://twitter.com/hashtag/bhc2016?src=hash>* Speaker from **@*
> *datasociety* <https://twitter.com/datasociety>* loves history of comp.
> literature, but sees nothing in it to explain big data or social networking
> today*.
>
>
>
> What gives computer historians? If someone actually said something so
> silly at a conference, would it really be worth tweeting?! And why direct
> the message @ the speaker’s employer??
>
>
>
> Let me take this opportunity to introduce myself to the list: My name is
> Martha Poon. In my research, I track how changes in economic thinking,
> documented by Philip Mirowski in his book *Machine Dreams *(2002), have
> been implemented, through networked information systems, in financial
> markets. I’m trying to draw a link between networked computing and today’s
> debt-driven capital markets.
>
>
> My key piece of empirical work showed how automation of mortgage
> underwriting in the 1990s allowed the shadow banking sector to fund US
> subprime loans:
> http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0361368209000270
>
> But I published my very first article in an edited volume through SIGCIS (*Technological
> Innovation in Retail Finance*, 2010) when Bernardo Batiz-Lazo kindly
> invited me to participate in this working group:
> http://www.sigcis.org/node/9
>
>
>
> At the BHC in Portland, someone asked why I hadn't mentioned the history
> of computing. In the context of my paper on 19th Century life insurance
> markets (*Big Data and the Growing Power of Corporate Capitalism*, I’ll
> attach it), on a panel that paid tribute to *The Age of Fracture* (2012),
> I quickly replied that computer history and Internet studies were not [as]
> well equipped [as business historians] to tackle the question of financial
> value. I would have welcomed the opportunity to converse further with
> SICGIS members, but nobody from the organization spoke to me after the
> session. Just this Dadaist tweet addressed to Data & Society’s
> communication’s team back in New York…!
>
>
>
> I’m looking forward to attending SHOT and meeting the network properly. In
> the meantime, should list-members run into me elsewhere in the world,
> please, come talk to me! I juggle a number of disciplinary interests but I
> have long been a great admirer of computer history. Those of you in the New
> York area will find me here, next week, at Laine Nooney’s *Mistakes Were
> Made*:
> https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mistakes-were-made-20-computer-history-decompiled-tickets-23017718616
>
>
>
> With warm wishes,
>
>
>
> Martha
>
>
>
> --
> Martha Poon|martha at datasociety.net|Research Fellow | Data & Society
> Research Institute| www.datasociety.net
>



-- 
Martha Poon|martha at datasociety.net|Research Fellow | Data & Society
Research Institute| www.datasociety.net
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