December 2009 - Members - lists.sigcis.org

Vacuum Tube Development Committee
by Evan Koblentz 09 Sep '10

09 Sep '10

Last week I visited Harvard's archives of the Radio Research Lab, and found some meeting minutes of the Vacuum Tube Development Committee (1943-1945 timeframe) .... I can't find much online that nicely summarizes this committee and its activity / purpose. Can someone here point me to a good overview?

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Two good recent TV programmes on the history of computing that are worth viewing.
by Bernardo Batiz-Lazo 07 Feb '10

07 Feb '10

A heads up to Ken Tennet's Blog (he is part of the Business History Unit at the London School of Economics): http://kdtennent.blogspot.com/2009/10/recent-business-history-on-bbc.html He comments on two recent tv programs on the history of computing. Not sure if everyone will be able to download and play.But at least you can get an idea from Ken and if really keen, then ask for a copy for your uni's library. You can keep up with Ken via Facebook. Best, Bernardo University of Leicester

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Semi-rare John Mauchly document
by evan＠snarc.net 01 Feb '10

01 Feb '10

Hi all. I received this document from Bill Mauchly today. I asked him if it's okay to share freely; he said yes. File is attached. Bill added: "In 1979, just a few months before he died, John Mauchly had a letter published in DATAMATION. Examples of his writing are rare, but here he clearly wanted to have his say. In it he laid out very clearly how he and Eckert, in the wee hours of 1944, worked out the stored-program architecture of EDVAC, the successor to ENIAC. Later they told von Neumann, and he published it as his own work. He also talks about BINAC. This was at the time that Burks and Goldstine were trying to drain as much credit away from Eckert and Mauchly and towards von Neumann as they could.I've attached a copy of the letter; it a good read if you like this sort of thing. This short essay does not seem to be available on the web. I typed it in from a copy I had that was among my mother's things, apparently a draft from his TRS-80 word processor, on the prompting of Jean Bartik. Enjoy.Bill Mauchly"

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CFP: 6th Annual HAPSAT Conference (fwd)
by Allan Olley 18 Dec '09

18 Dec '09

Hello all, This is the call for papers for my department's annual graduate student Conference. -- Yours Truly, Allan Olley http://individual.utoronto.ca/fofound/ ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 15 Dec 2009 12:34:08 -0500 From: Jaipreet Virdi <jai.virdi(a)utoronto.ca> Reply-To: jaipreetvirdi(a)gmail.com To: HAPSAT <hapsat-list(a)chass.utoronto.ca>, hps-faculty-staff(a)chass.utoronto.ca Subject: CFP: 6th Annual HAPSAT Conference *Call for Papers Instruments: Mental and Material* *6th Annual HAPSAT Conference* On *Sunday April 25*, HAPSAT, the Graduate Student Society at the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science at Technology at the University of Toronto, will host its sixth annual conference, *Instruments: Mental and Material. * * * Scientific instruments have emerged as a central theme in the history and philosophy of science and in science and technology studies. In *Leviathan and the Air Pump*, Shapin and Schaffer cite instruments, together with writing style and modest witnessing, as the technologies that enable the new scientific life. More recently, Galison’s *Image and Logic *gives instrument makers equal standing with theorists and experimentalists within the trading zones of scientific discovery. The historiography of medicine has also explored how instruments played a significant role in changing the diagnostic acumen of doctors and revolutionizing concepts of disease. However, there is still a great deal of work to be done in order to consider instruments as both a serious subject of study, and a resource for historical investigation and argumentation. Similarly, since Hacking’s seminal *Representing and Intervening*, philosophers of science have acknowledged instruments as being of central importance to the practice of science. They have become a nexus for worries about empiricism and standards of evidence; Latour (*Science in Action*) for instance, has argued that facts and artifacts are constructed in the same way, while Davis Baird (*Thing Knowledge*) argues that instruments contain knowledge of how to produce effects. The keynote address will be given by *Jacalyn Duffin* (Queen’s University): “Stethoscope: Technology and the Meaning of Life” We welcome papers addressing, but not limited to, the following questions: · How do we learn from instruments? What roles do scientific instruments play in scientific investigations of nature/ · What is the relationship between science and instrumentation? · To what extent have medical instruments transformed the patient-practitioner relationship? · Can abstract entities like scientific models or mathematical equations be considered instruments? Is there anything to be gained by doing so? · How have social, cultural, and economic contexts shaped decisions about instruments? · How can we, as historians, learn from instruments? Can our textual field learn to effectively marshal material evidence? · How can we trust scientific instruments? · What kind of evidence do we get from scientific instruments? We invite graduate students and recent graduates working in fields such as HPS, STS< history, sociology, philosophy, anthropology, gender studies, and law, to submit paper and panel proposals that critically engage with this theme. For papers please email abstracts of up to 250 words to HAPSAT(a)gmail.com by *March 19, 2010* and for panels please email a document with a 250 word abstract describing the panel as a whole in addition to individual abstracts for each paper (also 250 words). Each presenter will be given 20 minutes. We hope to be able to offer billeting and small travel subsidies for graduate students traveling to Toronto for the conference. For more details and our past programs, please go to www.hps.utoronto.ca/hapsat/ Apologies for cross-posting. Please distribute freely.

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IT History Database Contest
by Jeffery Stein 17 Dec '09

17 Dec '09

IT History Society December 17, 2009 The IT History Society wanted to let you know of a contest to build for everyone's reference on the IT History Society website an international database of all IT historical and archive sites. This site will benefit IT professionals and students for research of our industry. We want to point out that the Society wants to incentivize everyone to join in the creation of this site, we are launching a contest that is open to all IT History Society members and anyone else in the international IT community. The prizes for the most submissions are - First Prize - A Kindle 2.0 cid:image001.jpg@01CA41EF.50BB6CD0(You will love this!) Second Prize - An Apple iTouch cid:image002.jpg@01CA41EF.50BB6CD0 (Very cool!) Third Prize - An Apple iPhone cid:image003.png@01CA41EF.50BB6CD0 (Closing in on 100,000 uploadable apps soon - very hot!) Fourth Prize - An Autographed Copy of "The Digital Hand" which comprises of 3 volumes by Dr. James Cortada cid:image004.jpg@01CA41EF.50BB6CD0 (An ITHS Director and IT History Guru!) Fifth Prize - Your choice of autographed copies between the Digital Hand: How Computers Changed the Work of American Manufacturing, Transportation and Retail Industries, or How Societies Embrace Information Technology by Dr. James Cortada The Contest Rules- * Contest end date: January 31, 2010. * Submitters: Anyone (a member of the Society or not) can submit an entry. * Duplicate entries: All entries may be submitted even if other submitters put in the same entry * Submission of entries: all entries are to be submitted via the following URL <http://www.ithistory.org/resource_sites/resource-form.php> http://www.ithistory.org/resource_sites/resource-form.php with the following required fields: Institution, Country, Institution URL, Sector site services (Public, Private, Academia, Research, or Other), and your (the submitter) email address. Any additional information would be appreciated. There is no issue if each participant have aides submit entries under one email address. * Minimum total submissions: If there are fewer than 75 submissions, the contest can be terminated and no prizes will be awarded (We will extend the contest before the January 31 deadline, if we expect fewer than 75 submissions.) * Winners: The winners of all the prizes will be those entrants with the most legitimate entries. * Award announcement: Contest winners and their awards will be notified by email after the tallies are completed. * Rights: The IT History Society reserves the right to reject any entries and or participants based solely on its own judgment that the entries are not within the spirit of the contest. We are optimistic that the contest will be a success and valuable to our fellow professionals. Please spread the word and point colleagues to this email and the contest URL - <http://www.ithistory.org/resource_sites/resource-form.php> http://www.ithistory.org/resource_sites/resource-form.php Anyone who wishes to join the IT History Society (membership of the IT History Society is not required to enter the contest), please refer them to the application for membership link at <http://ithistory.org/membership/member-form.php> http://ithistory.org/membership/member-form.php Questions? Please address them to <mailto:info@ithistory.org> info(a)ithistory.org Thank you, Best regards, Jeffery D. Stein Chairman (415) 435-7464 Tel (415) 435-6115 Fax http://www.ithistory.org IT History Society One Blackfield Drive Suite 331 Tiburon, CA 94920 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Email that means Business, Every email, Every day! - LetterClick BrandMail(TM) found only at www.letterclick.net

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IEEE Annals CFP-Theme issue on labor history of computing
by Jeff Yost 15 Dec '09

15 Dec '09

Dear SIGCIS members, Please find below (and attached) a call for papers for an upcoming (32:4 October 2010) thematic/special issue of IEEE Annals of the History of Computing on the labor history of computing. Please note the deadline for submission for this issue is January 15, 2010. Best, Jeff Jeffrey Yost Associate Director, Charles Babbage Institute Editor in Chief, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing University of Minnesota 222 21st Avenue South Minneapolis, MN 55455 612 624 5050 612 625 8054 (Fax) Call for Papers Thematic Issue: Labor History of Computing IEEE Annals of the History of Computing// IEEE Annals of the History of Computing invites article manuscript submissions for a thematic/special issue on the history of labor and computing. Manuscripts that connect to the broader literature on labor history are particularly encouraged. Submissions can address labor issues, practices, or structures within a wide range of settings including computer, software, networking, or semiconductor/components companies throughout the world; user organizations (corporations, government, universities, hospitals, etc.); peer production projects (open source); trade organizations; professional associations; etc. Possible themes and approaches include, but are not limited to, the history of work practices, work culture, shop floor dynamics, labor organization, legislation/lobbying, professionalization, automation and labor displacement, offshoring, gender/race/ethnicity and IT work, safety and risk in the workplace, etc. The deadline for submission to this thematic issue is January 15, 2010. Manuscripts will go through IEEE Annals of the History of Computing’s standard peer review process. If there are more accepted manuscripts than slots for the issue, editors will decide which articles to include based on quality, coverage, and synergies between manuscripts. If there are accepted manuscripts not included in the issue, they will be added to the general publication queue and published in a later issue of IEEE Annals of the History of Computing. All articles must be between 5,000 and 8,000 words, including citations/endnotes. To submit your manuscript go to http://www2.computer.org/portal/web/annals/home Select “Write for Us” tab at the top and follow instructions (including selecting the Labor History thematic/special issue). If you have any questions or would like feedback on ideas/manuscripts prior to submission, please contact IEEE Annals of the History of Computing Editor in Chief Jeffrey Yost (yostx003(a)umn.edu <mailto:yostx003@umn.edu> or 612 624 5050)

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SIGCIS member directory (updates functional again).
by Thomas Haigh 06 Dec '09

06 Dec '09

Hello everyone, This is an opportune time to encourage you to visit the SIGCIS member directory, a unique listing of contact details and research interests for historians of computing worldwide. Sadly the march of browser technology meant that many people were unable to login and make changes to their entries for the past few months after receiving automatic updates to their computer software. We have now upgraded, thanks to the efforts of Brent Jesiek, to a newer version of our Drupal content management system compatible with the full range of authentication mechanisms present in modern browsers. This should also allow us to roll out some new capabilities and updated content over the next few months. The directory is at http://www.sigcis.org/?q=profile Many, but by no means all, SIGCIS members have created profiles but many of them are out of date and several are blank! So why not check yours today, and make any necessary updates. Here's how to create or update your directory entry (including email and home page information): 1. Login to SIGCIS here: http://www.sigcis.org/?q=user. You should have received an email with your password when you registered. If you've forgotten your password, then go here http://www.sigcis.org/?q=user/password, enter your email address, and it will send you a new one. If you were on the listserv prior to our move to SIGCIS.org then you may not have a SIGCIS account, but creating one is easy. http://www.sigcis.org/?q=user/register 2. The system will then take you directly to the screen where you view your member profile. 3. To edit the member profile click the "edit" tab toward the top of the screen. 4. Then to get to the screen with your affiliation and statement of interests click the "Member Information" tab which will have appeared just below the "Edit" tab. 5. Make changes, or paste in an updated statement. Then click "Submit." I just did mine - it really only takes a minute. While you're logged in, you can change your password to something more memorable. Best wishes, Tom Haigh www.tomandmaria.com/tom

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Karl Kempf?
by Evan Koblentz 01 Dec '09

01 Dec '09

Does anyone know how to reach Karl Kempf, who published the Aberdeen computer history at http://ftp.arl.army.mil/~mike/comphist/61ordnance/?

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