[SIGCIS-Members] New essay on Kidder's Soul of a New Machine in CACM

Fri Dec 25 23:46:06 PST 2020

Good morning,

Members might be interested in an upcoming online event hosted by the
American Library in Paris on 6th January. The subject is change-over-time
in technology and ethics, and is inspired by rapid changes since the dotcom
boom and bust, especially the rise of social media. I will be in discussion
with Bay Area reporter and columnist, Mike Cassidy, and former dotcom
entrepreneur, Nicholas Hall, who now heads a charitable foundation for
premature infants. It is a huge subject so these will be a personal takes
to try to identify common themes, before opening up to audience. I am
Paris-based just now.
https://americanlibraryinparis.org/event/a-special-panel-on-change-over-time-in-technology-and-ethics/

Best wishes, and seasonal greetings,

Christine

On Sat, 26 Dec 2020 at 01:17, Barbara B Walker <bbwalker at unr.edu> wrote:

> I too much enjoyed this elegant and provocative essay elucidating the ten
> qualities that make Kidder’s book so effective, especially “# 7, It’s
> Unashamedly Masculine,” and “#8, It Dramatizes Ordinary Engineering Work.”
> I hope Tom will let us know when the next two essays come out. “Halt and
> Catch Fire” (Netflix) is absolutely addictive, but I’ve had a hard time
> getting anyone else to watch it. So I look forward to his insights on that.
>
>
>
> Barbara
>
>
>
>
>
> *From: *Members <members-bounces at lists.sigcis.org> on behalf of
> "Subramanian, Ramesh Prof." <Ramesh.Subramanian at quinnipiac.edu>
> *Date: *Tuesday, December 22, 2020 at 8:15 PM
> *To: *"thomas.haigh at gmail.com" <thomas.haigh at gmail.com>, 'SIGCIS
> Listserver' <members at sigcis.org>
> *Subject: *Re: [SIGCIS-Members] New essay on Kidder's Soul of a New
> Machine in CACM
>
>
>
> Oh, that's a beautiful essay, Tom! And does terrific justice to 'The
> Soul,' which I read as a student in India in 1983!
>
>
>
> Thanks for sharing, and for documenting the cultural relevance of Kidder's
> book. It certainly advanced my own interests towards a career in computing!
>
>
>
> I shall look forward to your follow-up essays on the series.
>
>
>
> 'Best,
>
> -Ramesh
>
>
> *"...**the greatest dissents do become court opinions and gradually over
> time their views become the dominant view. So that's the dissenter's hope:
> that they are writing not for today, but for tomorrow." - Justice Ruth
> Bader Ginsburg*
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> Ramesh Subramanian, Ph.D.
> Gabriel Ferrucci Professor of Computer Information Systems
> Quinnipiac University
> Hamden, CT 06518.
> Email: ramesh.subramanian at quinnipiac.edu
> Web: https://www.qu.edu/student-resources/directory/staff.23345.html
> <https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.qu.edu%2Fstudent-resources%2Fdirectory%2Fstaff.23345.html&data=04%7C01%7Cbbwalker%40unr.edu%7C84bb66b0be5446b5db7608d8a6f96504%7C523b4bfc0ebd4c03b2b96f6a17fd31d8%7C1%7C0%7C637442937373139800%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=OkCQSy5kk63KXEvfNiGiwV2%2B8f50FlMWZ3GOlc%2FdXpw%3D&reserved=0>
>
> &
> Fellow, Yale Law School - Information Society Project
>
> New Haven, CT 06511
> Email: ramesh.subramanian at yale.edu
> Web: https://www.law.yale.edu/ramesh-subramanian
> <https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.law.yale.edu%2Framesh-subramanian&data=04%7C01%7Cbbwalker%40unr.edu%7C84bb66b0be5446b5db7608d8a6f96504%7C523b4bfc0ebd4c03b2b96f6a17fd31d8%7C1%7C0%7C637442937373149800%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=dv76xnmPcoEVw58UN8W0vT%2FLMmgP8MZnZTXj1d6Npso%3D&reserved=0>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> *From:* Members <members-bounces at lists.sigcis.org> on behalf of
> thomas.haigh at gmail.com <thomas.haigh at gmail.com>
> *Sent:* Tuesday, December 22, 2020 12:18 PM
> *To:* 'SIGCIS Listserver' <members at sigcis.org>
> *Subject:* [SIGCIS-Members] New essay on Kidder's Soul of a New Machine
> in CACM
>
>
>
> Hello SIGCIS,
>
>
>
> CACM has just published the first in what is supposed to be a trilogy of
> essays from me looking at classic representations of IT work. The first of
> these is “The Immortal Soul of an Old Machine,” inspired by the 40th
> anniversary of the publication of Tracy Kidder's Pulitzer Prize winning
> book The Soul of a New Machine. It's a book that developers and historians
> both continue to find fascinating, as a blending of literary craft and
> engineering practice. My aim is to take the book apart to see how it works
> and discover what it can tell us about how tech work has (and hasn’t)
> changed in four decades. I’ve been thinking about the book for almost
> thirty years, since reading it in the only Manchester University
> undergraduate computer science class that dealt with such things, and it
> was fun to go back with a new perspective to try to understand what makes
> it so readable and relatable.
>
>
>
> The second will look at Levy’s book *Hackers*, with some discussion of
> relevant parts of Turkle’s more critical depiction in *The Second Self.*
> And the third part will explore Ullman’s *Close to the Machine* and the
> relatively recent TV show *Halt and Catch Fire*.
>
>
>
> Unfortunately this wasn’t chosen as one of the paywall-free items for the
> current issue of CACM. Those of you with access might want to show your
> support for historical work by fetching it form the digital library via
> https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3436249
> <https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdl.acm.org%2Fdoi%2F10.1145%2F3436249&data=04%7C01%7Cbbwalker%40unr.edu%7C84bb66b0be5446b5db7608d8a6f96504%7C523b4bfc0ebd4c03b2b96f6a17fd31d8%7C1%7C0%7C637442937373149800%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=%2BnF%2F1IiejNtrtI2kb1I9jMHaZRlJwN%2FqZ5T5ZHNCwZ4%3D&reserved=0>.
> But for everyone else, you can get a copy at
> https://tomandmaria.com/Tom/Writing/CACMSoulOfANewMachine.pdf
> <https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftomandmaria.com%2FTom%2FWriting%2FCACMSoulOfANewMachine.pdf&data=04%7C01%7Cbbwalker%40unr.edu%7C84bb66b0be5446b5db7608d8a6f96504%7C523b4bfc0ebd4c03b2b96f6a17fd31d8%7C1%7C0%7C637442937373159787%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=M%2FXMWCLoePkZiPhwEWNGEBfVEGZsacpCgE62bccvxt4%3D&reserved=0>
> .
>
>
>
> Best wishes,
>
>
> Tom
>
>
>
>
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