February 2009 - Members - lists.sigcis.org

Another question - "Giant Brains"
by Evan Koblentz 31 Oct '09

31 Oct '09

Was the term "Giant Brains" already popular when Edmund Berkeley used it in his 1949 book title, or should he get credit for popularizing it? I'm mentioning the term in a footnote and want to be sure credit goes to the right source.

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Computer History Museum Book Prize
by Jeffrey D. Tang 17 May '09

17 May '09

The Computer History Museum Prize is awarded by SIGCIS to the author of an outstanding book in the history of computing broadly conceived, published during the prior three years (e.g. books published in 2006-2008 are eligible for the inaugural 2009 award). Books in translation are eligible for three years following the date of their publication in English. The prize of $1000, established through the generosity of an anonymous donor who wishes to honor the Computer History Museum, is administered by SIGCIS, SHOT’s special interest group for computers, information and society. Publishers, authors, and other interested members of the computer-history community are invited to nominate books. Send one copy of the nominated title to each of the committee members listed below. To be considered, book submissions must be postmarked by 1 April 2009. For more information, please contact the prize committee chair or SIGCIS secretary (secretary(a)sigcis.org) Thomas J. Misa [chair] Charles Babbage Institute 211 Andersen Library 222 - 21st Avenue South University of Minnesota Minneapolis, MN 55455 tmisa(a)umn.edu Paul E. Ceruzzi MRC 311 National Air and Space Museum PO Box 37012 Smithsonian Institution Washington, DC 20013-7012 CeruzziP(a)si.edu Jennifer S. Light Northwestern University School of Communication Frances Searle Building 2240 Campus Drive, Room 2-152 Evanston, IL 60208-2952 light(a)northwestern.edu

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Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Introducing myself
by Armand Van Dormael 09 May '09

09 May '09

Dear Colleagues, It is a great pleasure for me to join Sigcis. I hope I can make a contribution to your research. Several eminent historians have drawn attention to major gaps in the history of computing. Much of computing technology was developed in Europe, but its originators are not recognized even in their home country. Since Europe has no computer industry, historians have not been interested. On February 24, 2003, the New York Times published an article titled: Herbert F. Mataré. An Inventor of the Transistor Has His Moment. Fifty-five years after the fact, this was the first time Mataré was given credit for his work. In 1986, the Boston Computer Museum held a contest to determine who invented the microcomputer. The Micral created by François Gernelle was recognized as the first commercially distributed microcomputer. . Both Mataré and Gernelle have provided me with ample documentation and information about their work. My forthcoming book The Silicon Revolution explores this unmapped area of history. It constitutes a documented analysis and a coherent narrative of the development of computing in the United States, Europe and Asia. Please see:/http://www.avandor.net IEEE paper The French Transistor. NY Times: Herbert F. Mataré. An Inventor of the Transistor Has His Moment. Armand Van Dormael 33A Drève de la Meute 1410 Waterloo Belgium Tel/fax +32 2 354 96 63 a.vandormael(a)skynet.be

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SHOT 2009 CFP. Deadline March 30. SIGCIS panels being assembled soon.
by Thomas Haigh 23 Feb '09

23 Feb '09

Hello everyone, It's that time of year again. SHOT, our parent society, meets in Pittsburgh on 15-19 October. The deadline for proposals is March 30, in about five weeks time. In case you are unfamiliar with SHOT's procedures, here is a capsule version: SHOT allows submission of individual paper proposals or proposals for panels. Panels are usually three or four papers plus a commentator devoted to a coherent topic or theme. However the call mentions openness to other formats. Reviews are made on the basis of abstracts. Full papers are not required at any point for review and are not published. However, if your paper is accepted you are expected to send some kind of draft to the commentator ahead of time. SHOT does not release any comments from reviewers. As at other history conferences people sometimes literally read their papers, but more lively styles of presentation are welcome. The theme is "Reform(ed) Technologies" which seems oriented toward industrial decay but, according to the call, also includes "new uses of old technologies, and issues of maintenance." The theme is not usually a big deal at SHOT, but it doesn't hurt to invoke it where possible. The full CFP is online at http://www.historyoftechnology.org/annual_meeting/2009SHOT_cfp.pdf The history of computing has been well represented at the last few conferences. Many of the panels including computer material are submitted independently of SIGCIS. However, we also try to organize coherent panels based on submissions from members. Interested people send in draft abstracts, which I then help to edit and attempt to assemble into thematically arranged panel proposals. This went very well for the 2007 meeting, where we received 12 promising abstracts and submitted three successful panel proposals. It went less well for 2008, where only one of our session proposals was accepted. So whether going with a SIGCIS organized panel helps your chances or not will depend on whether 2008 was a blip or a trend. If you are interested in taking part in a SIGCIS organized panel then please email me WITHIN THE NEXT WEEK a short description of the research you are interested in presenting. Do not reply to the entire list. I will assemble these, circulate them among people who are interested, and start to look for themes. If possible panel themes emerge I may send another general call to SIGCIS members for additional proposals on a particular theme. There are two additional reasons you might want to consider taking part in a SIGCIS-organized panel. The first is that we have the ability to offer some supplemental funding for graduate students who are presenting at the meeting. See http://www.sigcis.org/?q=node/55. This works along with SHOT's own travel assistance for graduate students and other needy types, http://www.historyoftechnology.org/awards/travelgrants.html. Our funds are limited, so priority will be given to students on SIGCIS sponsored panels. The second is that SIGCIS plans to offer a full day of workshop programming on the final day of the conference. So if, as happened last year, a worthy SIGCIS panel proposal is rejected for the main conference then it would stand a good chance of appearing on the SIGCIS program. Our provisional workshop theme is "Mike Mahoney and the Histories of Computing(s)." Of course we hope to do more with this workshop than just salvage conference panels, so look out for more information on the workshop format over the next month or two. SHOT allows SIGs to sponsor panels but has never clarified what this means with any formal policy or procedure. So far we have only sponsored panels we organized, but if you have a panel you are organizing but would like to attach SIGCIS sponsorship then let us know and we'll try to come up with our own policy for this. As well as the sessions themselves, SIGCIS usually organizes an informal dinner on one evening and holds its official lunch meeting on another day. Both have been very well attended recently and provide a great opportunity for meeting others in the field in a friendly environment. So we hope to see as many of you as possible in Pittsburgh this autumn. Best wishes, Tom Haigh www.tomandmaria.com/tom

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Announcing new journal: Engineering Studies! Also please join INES!
by INES Announcements 18 Feb '09

18 Feb '09

Colleagues interested in scholarly studies of engineers and engineering, We are writing to ask your help in building interdisciplinary engineering studies as an international field of scholarly research by joining the International Network for Engineering Studies (INES) and contributing manuscripts to its new journal Engineering Studies: Journal of the International Network for Engineering Studies. INES was born in Paris, France in 2004. The founding co-coordinators are Maria Paula Diogo (History, U Lisbon, Portugal), Gary Downey (STS and Engineering Education, Virginia Tech) and Chyuan-Yuan Wu (Sociology and STS, National Tsing Hua U, Taiwan). INES supports workshops and the journal, as well as the sharing of bibliographies and syllabi (the latter beginning Fall 2009, see http://www.inesweb.org/ for details). The publisher Routledge/Taylor & Francis offers INES members the amazingly low subscription rate of US $46, their cost. INES membership, including the subscription, is US $56. The extra US $10 is for bank and web costs, and to subsidize members who qualify for the discounted rate of US $46 (students, retired persons, residents of non-OECD countries). The standard individual rate is US $190 US / £ 98 / € 152. Please go to the INES site now and join! (http://www.inesweb.org/join) [Note: if you are willing to sponsor a member for one year at the discounted rate or are in need of such sponsorship, contact Crystal Harrell at crcrigge(a)vt.edu. She is serving as matchmaker.] Please also contact your library representative personally and ask him/her to purchase a library subscription. The rate is reasonable. A library recommendation form is available at: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/library.asp (We recommend a phone call given that libraries are currently making difficult choices.) Finally, please consider submitting a manuscript. See below for aims and scope. For complete submission guidelines, see www.tandf.co.uk/journals/engineeringstudies<http://seewww.tandf.co.uk/journals/engineeringstudies> . The editors are Gary Downey (Virginia Tech) and Juan Lucena (Colorado School of Mines). They are supported by Jen Schneider (Colorado School of Mines) as Managing Editor, Brent Jesiek (Purdue) as Web Editor, and Kacey Beddoes (Virginia Tech) as Assistant Editor, as well as 12 Associate Editors and 30 Editorial Board members (see below for names and affiliations). Best, Gary Downey, Maria Paula Diogo, and Chyuan-Yuan Wu INES Co-Organizers Brent Jesiek INES Web Editor *-- * *Engineering Studies: Journal of the International Network for Engineering Studies * *Aims and Scope * Engineering Studies is an interdisciplinary, international journal devoted to the scholarly study of engineers and engineering. Its mission is threefold: (1) to advance research in historical, social, cultural, political, philosophical, rhetorical, and organizational studies of engineers and engineering; (2) to help build and serve diverse communities of researchers interested in engineering studies; and (3) to link scholarly work in engineering studies to broader discussions and debates about engineering education, research, practice, policy, and representation. Engineering Studies is published three times yearly by Routledge, an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, beginning in 2009. *Vision Statement* The field of engineering studies is a diverse, interdisciplinary arena of scholarly research built around the question: What are the relationships among the technical and the nontechnical dimensions of engineering practices, and how do these relationships change over time and from place to place? Addressing and responding to this question can sometimes involve researchers as critical participants in the practices they study, including, for example, engineering formation, engineering work, engineering design, equality and diversity in engineering (gender, racial, ethnic, class, geopolitical), and engineering service to society. Engineering Studies juxtaposes contributions from distinct disciplinary and analytical perspectives to encourage authors and readers to look beyond familiar theoretical, topical, temporal, and geographical boundaries for insight and guidance. The diversity in the editorial staff and board is designed to map the diversity in the field and support its persistence. While prospective authors are invited to reflect on and anticipate how their work might prove helpful to others elsewhere, both within the academy and beyond, they can also feel comfortable imagining familiar audiences and producing familiar modes of analysis and interpretation. The heterogeneity of perspectives in engineering studies is its lifeblood, and the goal is high quality scholarship in every case. *Volume 1, Issue 1, Spring 2009* "Doing Gender in Engineering Workplace Cultures: Part I - Observations From The Field" Wendy Faulkner, University of Edinburgh "The Engineer as Judge: Engineering Analysis and Political Economy in Eighteenth Century France" Antoine Picon, Harvard Graduate School of Design and Ecole nationale des Ponts et Chaussées "An Historico-Ethical Perspective on Engineering Education: From Use and Convenience to Policy Engagement" Carl Mitcham, Colorado School of Mines "What is Engineering Studies For?: Dominant Practices and Scalable Scholarship" Gary Lee Downey Virginia Tech *Associate Editors* Atsushi Akera, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA Diane Bailey, Stanford University, USA Konstantinos Chatzis, Université Paris-Est - LATTS (UMR CNRS), France Maria Paula Diogo, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal Joseph Herkert, Arizona State University, USA Ann Johnson, University of South Carolina, USA Ulrik Jørgensen, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark Scott Knowles, Drexel University, USA Donna Riley, Smith College, USA Julia Williams, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, USA Matthew Wisnioski, Virginia Tech, USA Chyuan-Yuan Wu, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan *Editorial Advisory Board* Marcos Azevedo da Silveira, Pontificia Universidad Catolica- Rio, Brasil Stephen R. Barley, Stanford University, USA Sharon Beder, University of Wollongong, Australia Bruno Belhoste, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, France Li Bocong, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China Taft Broome, Howard University, USA Louis Bucciarelli, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA Ivan da Costa Marques, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil Michael Davis, Illinois Institute of Technology, USA Christelle Didier, Université Catholique de Lille, France Wendy Faulkner, University of Edinburgh, UK David E. Goldberg, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA Irina Gouzevitch, Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, France André Grelon, L'Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, France Jang Gyu Lee, Seoul National University, Korea Deborah Johnson, University of Virginia, USA Ronald Kline, Cornell University, USA Eda Kranakis, University of Ottawa, Canada Gideon Kunda, Tel Aviv University, Israel Jack Lohmann, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA Tony Marjoram, UNESCO, France Peter Meiksins, Cleveland State University, USA Carl Mitcham, Colorado School of Mines, USA Antoine Picon, Harvard University, USA Bruce Seely, Michigan Technological University, USA Sheri Sheppard, Stanford University, USA Amy Slaton, Drexel University, USA Knut H. Sørensen, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway Dominique Vinck, University of Grenoble, France Rosalind Williams, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA

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Origin of the words 'program' and 'programming'?
by Marie Gevers 16 Feb '09

16 Feb '09

Could anybody tell me when and in which circumstances the words 'program' and 'programming' did appear? Marie Gevers Dr. Marie d'UDEKEM-GEVERS Chargée d'enseignement et maître de conférence Conseillère à la formation Faculté d'Informatique Facultes Universitaires Notre-Dame de la Paix Rue Grandgagnage 21 B.5000 Namur Belgique Tél.: 32 (0) 81 72 49 73 FAX : 32 (0) 81 72 49 67 http://www.fundp.ac.be/universite/personnes/page_view/01001574/

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Congressional Research Service Report Dump
by John Laprise 09 Feb '09

09 Feb '09

Wikileaks has taken receipt of the complete catalog of Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports. The CRS writes non-partisan reports on every conceivable topic addressed by Congress. All of these materials are supposed to be in the public domain but are released to the public at the discretion of members. Previously, only a very select few reports were ever made public. Apparently (and my guess), some member of congress who wished to remain anonymous gave them all to wikileaks. Their website is understandably under a considerable load at the moment. http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Change_you_can_download:_a_billion_in_secret_Congr essional_reports John Laprise Doctoral Candidate Media, Technology, and Society Program School of Communication Northwestern University

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Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Mechanical Brain metaphor
by Ceruzzi, Paul 02 Feb '09

02 Feb '09

Konrad Zuse independently came up with the same analogy in 1937. In his diary from June 20 of that year, he wrote: "For about a year now I have been considering the concept of a mechanical brain." [mechanischen Gehirns] The diary entry is reproduced in his autobiography, p. 68-69. The notion came to him after he decided to use the binary system in his calculating machine, then realizing that the same binary logic devices that were used to calculate could also be used to make logical decisions: he called the former a "mathematical brain," and the latter a "language brain." No mention of giant size, although his eventual realization of the concept, in the Z4, was physically quite large. What is interesting here is that this was Zuse's private diary, so he was using the analogy to gain an understanding of the computer for himself, not to explain it to others (although he would do that later). The whole issue of anthropomorphizing the computer has a long and contentious history. Eckert & Mauchly were especially angry with von Neumann for taking their ideas, expressed in the language of electrical engineering, and expressing them in terms used by those studying the human nervous system & brain. Paul E. Ceruzzi, MRC 311, National Air and Space Museum, PO Box 37012, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013-7012. phone: 202-633-2414. p.s.: I agree that this ought to be written up somewhere. Maybe Sandra & I could put hit in our blog: <http://ithistory.org/blog/> Sandra? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Mon, 2 Feb 2009 09:16:00 +0000 (GMT) From: Sandra Mols <sandramols(a)yahoo.co.uk> Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Another question - "Giant Brains" To: Sigcis <members(a)sigcis.org> Message-ID: <503307.6006.qm(a)web25304.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Another potential source for reflections is the popular press from the late 1940s, through which the news of EDSAC, ENIAC etc percolated around. The Renwick papers held at Cambridge Uni Library (engineer who worked with Wilkes on the EDSAC mercury delay lines) contain a few papers published in such press that display the same kind of 'brain' comments, expanding interestingly on how right/wrong it is to attribute 'brain' characteristics to a machine, howeve sophisticated and engineeringly impressive. I never found, though, the use of 'giant brain' as an expression in these. The emphasis seems more on the programming possibility, electronics, and marvels of speed the combination allows. Berkeley might have a first in creating the term. Best, Sandra Renwick Papers - CSAC 84.2.82 ? Box 1-File D3: Series of Press Cuttings and Photographs from 1940s?1950s Daily mail, October 1947 ? A Don Builds A Memory. 4ft. tubes in his ?brain? ? Anonymous Cambridge Daily News, 3rd October 1947? ?Brain? will know the answers to 1,000 questions a minute ? Anonymous Discovery , February 1948 ? Cambridge?s High-Speed Calculator ? Anonymous, p.40 Daily Telegraph, 17.6.49 ? New ?Brain? Store Orders. Calculations At 15,000 A Minute ? Anonymous The Star, 5.7.49 ? ?Merrick Winn Sees A Room Full of Astonishing Gadgets ? It?s A MECHANICAL BRAIN? ? Winn, M. The Spectator, 15.7.49 ? Nicolson, H. - Marginal Comment ? p.76 ----------------

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Newlyn/Phillips Machine workshop, University of Leeds Tuesday 3rd Feb 2009
by Graeme Gooday 02 Feb '09

02 Feb '09

List members interested in the history of analog computing might want to take a look at the outline of a workshop below at Leeds University Business School on Tuesday 3rd Feb 2009. For further information about the project to redevelop the Leeds prototype of the Newlyn/Phillips machine, contact Dr Greg Radick G.M.Radick(a)leeds.ac.uk <mailto:G.M.Radick@leeds.ac.uk> or Michael Finn, ph07maf(a)leeds.ac.uk <mailto:ph07maf@leeds.ac.uk> ________________________________ The Newlyn/Phillips machine now displayed in Leeds University Business School is the original prototype of the hydraulic computer developed by A.W.B. Phillips of the London School of Economics and Professor Walter Newlyn of the University of Leeds for modelling macro-economic systems. The machine and its descendents were highly influential in the development of Keynesian economics in the 1950s, and are of interest to economics, to historians of computing, and to historians of science (hence the involvement of Mary Morgan in the program below). 1.30 - 3.00 Open Workshop. Chair Professor Giuseppe Fontana, Leeds University Business School 1. Introduction to the Leeds Machine Project. Dr Greg Radick (Centre for History and Philosophy of Science, University of Leeds) 2. "The Creation of the Newlyn/Phillips Hydraulic Machine" Professor Mary Morgan (LSE) Walter Newlyn's role in inventing the famous hydraulic model of the macro-economy known as the Phillips Machine has often been overlooked, yet his contributions to the machine's design and creation were as important as those of Bill Phillips. Phillips famously knew little economics, whereas Newlyn understood the circulation of money from his participation in the pre-War commodities market. This paper discusses how they combined their different expertises - and their shared pleasure in getting things to work - to create the first prototype, the Mark I machine, for Leeds (forerunner of the better-known Mark II machine, an example of which is housed in the London Science Museum). 3. "Resurrecting the Cambridge Machine", Dr Allan McRobie (Cambridge University Engineering Department) With objects of historical significance there is always a dynamic tension between conservation and restoration. Given the existence of the beautifully conserved Machine in the Science Museum, the decision was made by the Dept of Economics in Cambridge to restore their Machine to full working order, albeit with minimal intrusion on the original workings. Over the summer of 2003, Allan - with help from technicians in the Engineering Dept and advice from economists - undertook the refurbishment. The Cambridge Machine now works and - moreover - is safe to work with. Allan has since given many working demonstrations of the Machine to a wide variety of audiences. This short talk describes what was involved, with a view to assessing what might be involved in the Leeds Machine project. 3.00 - 4.00 Coffee / Visit to the Leeds Machine ________________________________________________________________________ __________________ Graeme Gooday, Professor of the History of Science and Technology & National Teaching Fellow Department of Philosophy Woodhouse Lane University of Leeds LEEDS LS2 9JT United Kingdom E-mail: g.j.n.gooday(a)leeds.ac.uk <mailto:g.j.n.gooday@leeds.ac.uk> Phone: 0113 343 3274 FAX: 0113 343 3265

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The development of language and metaphor in computing and the internet
by Sue Thomas 01 Feb '09

01 Feb '09

Dear all I've joined this list at the suggestion of Evan Koblenz, and it certainly looks like the place I need to be! I am a UK writer/academic from De Montfort University, England, and currently British Academy - funded Visiting Scholar in the Dept of English at the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB). I'm interested in the use of nature metaphors in the history of computing and the internet, e.g. surfing, clouds, fields, roots, etc. This is explained in full on my website http://www.thewildsurmise.com/ I have two requests: . I will be at UCSB until the end of April and I would be delighted to hear from any list members in California who worked on the development of computers and the internet and would like to share their own knowledge. I would be happy to visit you, speak on the phone, or just email - whatever works for you and where you are. . In general terms, I would be interested to hear about any other research in this area in any part of the world. I'm starting my research here but my enquiries will extend to other countries over the next couple of years. Thanks for your attention Best wishes Sue __________ Sue Thomas Professor of New Media, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK Currently Visiting Scholar, English Dept, University of California Santa Barbara http://www.thewildsurmise.com/ sue.suethomas(a)gmail.com

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