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<p class="MsoNormal">Dear SIGCIS, </p>

<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>

<p class="MsoNormal">Last weekend at the Business History Conference, an odd tweet
came off the SHOT-SIGCIS handle: <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/bhc2016?src=hash"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:
normal"><s><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman"">#</span></s></i><b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"">bhc2016</span></i></b></a><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman""> Speaker from </span></i><a href="https://twitter.com/datasociety"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><s><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"">@</span></s></i><b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"">datasociety</span></i></b></a><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman""> loves history of comp. literature, but
sees nothing in it to explain big data or social networking today</span></i><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"">.
</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"">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?? </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"">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 <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Machine Dreams </i>(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. <br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman""><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"">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: <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0361368209000270">http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0361368209000270</a></span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman""></span><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"">But I published my very first article
in an edited volume through SIGCIS (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Technological
Innovation in Retail Finance</i>, 2010) when Bernardo Batiz-Lazo kindly invited
me to participate in this working group: <a href="http://www.sigcis.org/node/9">http://www.sigcis.org/node/9</a></span>

</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"">At the BHC in Portland, someone asked why
I hadn't mentioned the history of computing. In the context of my paper on 19^th
Century life insurance markets (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Big Data
and the Growing Power of Corporate Capitalism</i>, I’ll attach it), on a panel that paid tribute to <i>The Age of Fracture</i> (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.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Just this Dadaist tweet addressed to Data
& Society’s communication’s team back in New York…! </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"">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
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Mistakes Were Made</i>: <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mistakes-were-made-20-computer-history-decompiled-tickets-23017718616">https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mistakes-were-made-20-computer-history-decompiled-tickets-23017718616</a></span></p>

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mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"">With warm wishes,</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"">Martha</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p>







<br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><span><font color="#888888"><font face="Century Gothic" size="1"><span>Martha Poon</span>|<a href="mailto:martha@datasociety.net" target="_blank"><span></span>martha@datasociety.net</a>|Research Fellow | Data & Society Research Institute</font><span style="font-family:"Century Gothic";font-size:x-small"></span><span style="font-family:"Century Gothic";font-size:x-small"><span><font face="Century Gothic" size="1">|</font></span> <a href="http://www.datasociety.net" target="_blank">www.datasociety.net</a> </span></font></span></div></div></div></div></div>
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