March 2010 - 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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ACM History Fellowships (announcement)
by Thomas Misa 25 Mar '10

25 Mar '10

Hi all, ACM History Committee announcement as promised. ---Tom Misa ============================================ ACM History Committee Fellowships in ACM History The Association for Computing Machinery, founded in 1947, is the oldest and largest educational and scientific society dedicated to the computing profession, and today has members in more than 100 countries. To encourage historical research, the ACM History Committee plans to make two awards. One, a travel grant of $2,500 to support historical research on the wide variety of ACM-related _activities_, including ACM members, officers, and prize winners. Second, a fellowship grant of $5,000 focusing on ACM’s rich _institutional_ history, including consideration of its organization, publications, SIG activities, and sponsored conferences. Successful candidates for either award may be of any rank, from graduate students through senior researchers. To Apply: Applicants for either award should send a 2-page CV as well as a 750- word project description that [a] describes the proposed research project; [b] identifies the importance of specific ACM historical materials, whether traditional archival collections or online historical materials (oral histories, digitized conference papers, ACM organizational records, et al.); [c] discusses the project’s planned outcome (e.g. conference paper, journal article, book or dissertation chapter, teaching resource, museum exhibit, etc.); and [d] outlines a timeline for completing the project, generally within one calendar year of the award, including a final project report. In preparing a proposal, applicants should examine the extensive list of “ACM Research Materials” posted at <history.acm.org/content.php?do=links > as well as “Sources for ACM History,” CACM 50 #5 (May 2007): 36-41 <doi.acm.org/10.1145/1230819.1230836>. Other research materials relating to ACM’s rich history may also be used. Applicants should include a letter of endorsement from their home institution or an external scholarly reference. Proposals are due by **30 April 2010**. Proposals should be submitted as .pdf documents to <history-webmaster(a)acm.org>. Notification of awards will be made within six weeks.

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Job: Assistant Curator for Computing and Communications at Science Museum, London
by James Sumner 25 Mar '10

25 Mar '10

Dear all I don't recall that this went out to members@sigcis, so am forwarding it here (with the usual apologies for any duplication). NB: "Assistant Curator" is entry level, and "06/04" is 6 April, not 4 June... JS -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Assistant Curator for Computing and Communications at Science Museum Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2010 17:13:35 -0000 From: Blyth Tilly <Tilly.Blyth(a)ScienceMuseum.org.uk> I’d appreciate if you could pass this link on to anyone you think might be interested in applying for the role: http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/about_us/jobs/assistant_curator_compcoms.as… Dr Tilly Blyth Curator of Computing and Information Science Museum 0207 942 4211 --- Location: Science Museum Salary: £17,909 to £19,561 per annum depending on knowledge and skills with £1,000 Regional Weighting Allowance. 23 month fixed term contract. Closing Date: 06/04/2010 Brief Description The Science Museum’s vision to be the best place in the world for people to enjoy science. Already one of the UK’s most popular days out, we have more than 200,000 historic objects in our world-renowned collections, innovative exhibitions and awe-inspiring galleries. We are looking for an assistant curator to be part of our ongoing success. Working within the computing and communications collections, you will be a motivated individual with a keen interest in the history and current state of electronics, computing and communication technologies. You will ideally have demonstrable knowledge and experience in at least one of the related areas and have the commitment to gain knowledge in others. Under direction, you will be able to research, write and deliver outputs across a range of media including exhibitions, printed publications, web, presentations and broadcast that is engaging to a variety of audiences, including visitors, academics and enthusiasts. You will be well organised, and able to use your passion to assess an object’s usability for story-telling in order to develop and share knowledge about our collection of electronics, information and communication technologies. You should be able to work with contextual understanding to represent these subjects effectively at a level that could be represented, for instance, by a Bachelor’s degree or equivalent qualification in a relevant discipline. You will be self-motivated and able to work effectively within a team and comfortable communicating with a range of people including colleagues, volunteers and students. Previous collections experience, including handling and assessing objects, documentation and cataloguing would be advantageous but not essential. Interview date: Thursday 29 April 2010 How to apply To apply: 1) Please read the job description fully and then email your CV and covering letter, explaining clearly how you meet all our stated requirements, to recruitment(a)sciencemuseum.org.uk. Alternatively, you can send your CV and covering letter explaining clearly how you meet all our stated requirements to: HR Assistant, ref. CUR/MAR10-EXT Human Resources Department The Science Museum Exhibition Road London, SW7 2DD 2) Please quote the reference CUR/MAR10-EXT either in your email subject header, or at the top of your covering letter. 3) Please make sure that you have taken care in your cover letter to explain why the skills you have match the role described in the job description. We will only be able to consider your application if you have taken care to show us why you are right for this role. We regret that we are only able to respond to short-listed applicants. No agencies please.

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Smithsonian needs a 1yr exhibition assistant - business/econ history
by Thomas Haigh 25 Mar '10

25 Mar '10

See below for the full announcement. Theres a pretty ambitious wish list: a business or economic historian (I think at least at the M.A. level) with expertise on globalization or the impact of IT on American business with museum experience in developing exhibitions. Being part of an ethnic minority would be a big plus. Tom -------OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT BELOW---------- Exhibition Researcher The National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center, Smithsonian Institution, is seeking an individual to take a curatorial role in the development of a new 14,000 square foot exhibition on American business history. As part of an exhibition team, the researcher will collaborate with museum staff in shaping the intellectual content of the exhibition; selecting objects; conducting historical research; writing script; and participating in presentations to outside groups. Applicants CV should document: Knowledge of the impact of globalization and/or computer technology on American business Scholarly knowledge of American business and/or economic history Knowledge of material culture and object research Writing skills Experience developing exhibitions. This is a fulltime, 1-year non-federal position with possible extension. Salary ranges from $51,630 - $67,114 plus excellent benefits. To apply, send your resume to liebholdp(a)si.edu by April 5, 2010. The Smithsonian is an Equal Opportunity employer. Women and minorities are strongly encouraged to apply.

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ACM history fellowship (announcement coming very soon)
by Thomas Misa 24 Mar '10

24 Mar '10

Hi all, We are "finalizing" the language for this year's ACM history travel- grant / fellowship. Please be looking for an announcement, on this list, in the next day or so. Two awards will be offered ($2500 and $5000). Deadline will most likely be ***30 April 2010*** Broadly, it will resemble LAST year's award. You can see the details from LAST YEAR still posted on the ACM-HC website -- but do **NOT** take this as directions for this year's competition! (Indeed, read THIS year's announcement carefully.) Remember, ACM is interested in promoting its own history. Last year, with awards to Irina Nikiforova and Bernard Geoghegan [see below], the history committee was very pleased to sponsor high-quality scholarly research that engages ACM's history. This year's competition will have a similar focus. It happened that last year's awards went to two junior (graduate student) scholars. But that is not any precedent or iron-clad preference. Best, Tom ---------------------------------------------------------- FROM LAST YEAR: http://history.acm.org/public/public_documents/acm_history_fellowship.php The Association for Computer Machinery's History Committee is [announced] the two winners of its inaugural [2009] fellowship in ACM history: Irina Nikiforova, a Ph.D. student at Georgia Tech's School of History, Technology and Society, for her dissertation project entitled "ACM, Turing Award Scientists, and their Web of Affiliations." Nikiforova will examine archival materials held at Stanford University, the University of Michigan, and the Charles Babbage Institute as well as online ACM materials concerning the Turing Award. Bernard Geoghegan a Ph.D. student at Northwestern University and Bauhaus University - Weimar, for a specific project on "Staging the ACM Chess Championships" which will draw on archival materials presently in private hands. Geoghegan plans a journal article from this research as well as a museum exhibit.

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Volunteer for SIGCIS!
by Thomas Haigh 16 Mar '10

16 Mar '10

Hello everyone, SIGCIS needs some enthusiastic volunteers to assist with special projects and fill a vacant position on our Executive Committee. As you're aware our activities have been growing steadily over the past few years and include this email list, our website at www.sigcis.org, the organization of sessions for the main SHOT conference, an annual one day workshop held in conjunction with SHOT, the Computer History Museum prize for an outstanding book in the history of computing, a guide to resources for the history of computing, the Mahoney fund as a capital reserve (now over $5,000) and our supplemental student travel grants (four made last year) supported primarily by the book auction at our annual meeting. In the near future we should be posting a new set of regional resource guides and expanding our online syllabus repository. Coordinating all this hard, particularly in an environment where pressure on graduate students and untenured faculty limits the amount of time anyone person can devote to the SIG. So to help us push forward with new initiatives and make sure our existing commitments are handled properly we are looking for a couple of volunteers. In the past these have tended to be dissertation writing graduate students and new faculty, but we're open to volunteers of all kinds including those outside academia. You do not need to be based in the US, and there are many opportunities for which it is not necessary to be able to attend the annual meeting. Our current needs are described below. If you have any questions or want to volunteer for something please get in touch. My main priority for the SIG now is to institutionalize its structure and make sure that we have a pipeline of new volunteers so that it will not collapse when the existing cohort needs to move on. Thanks, Tom COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER The main post we need to fill is that of Communications Officer. You may notice that our website is not updated as often as it should be, and our email list sometimes misses important announcements. That's why we need a communications officer. .Monitor relevant email lists and website for news of forthcoming conferences, journal special issues, and other developments of interest to SIGCIS members. Forward relevant material to the list with short introductory summaries. .Post a current selection of interesting news items to the front page of the SIGCIS website. .Create and maintain a set of reminders of forthcoming events and deadlines on the SIGCIS website. .Create and maintain an online repository of history of computing syllabi in Acrobat format. .Create and keep current a page of fellowships sometimes given to history of computing students. We've invested a lot of effort in our Drupal content management system, which makes it easy to update the website, promote items to the front page, and share responsibility for different parts of the site. So you would really be focusing on the content itself rather than being a traditional webmaster. The communications officer is a member of the SIGCIS Executive Committee, which also means taking part in monthly conference calls (we use Skype). These are usually scheduled early afternoon in the Eastern US/early evening for Europeans. Existing terms expire at the next SHOT meeting, so we aim to make a trial appointment for approximately six months, which might be followed by nomination to a full two year term. SPECIAL PROJECTS There are a number of special projects for which we need volunteers for a limited period. This would be a great way to get involved with SIGCIS. * SIGCIS Workshop program coordinator (2010 meeting). Dealing with technical aspects of submissions, corresponding with possible participants, coordinating the review process, drafting a program schedule. * Member contributions area. We have already an area on our site where contributions from members can be posted -- similar to a technical report series. In the near future we aim to expand this and issue a general call for possible material. Having a volunteer to oversee this and work with authors to get material posted would expedite the process. * Other specific aspects of the SIG's activities (see http://www.sigcis.org/?q=node/6) including those currently demarcated for its officers. For example someone might volunteer to lead the improvement of the member directory or to develop bylaws. * Anything else you think the SIG needs.

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Recent article in Business History
by Bernardo Batiz-Lazo 16 Mar '10

16 Mar '10

As this is not one of the usual outlets for many, I thought you might be interested in Cloodt, M. and others (2010) "Inter-firm R&D networks in the global software industry", Business History vol 52:1, pp. 120-149 best Bernardo University of Leicester

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SHOT Panels -- last chance
by Thomas Haigh 15 Mar '10

15 Mar '10

Hello everyone, Looking at what has come in so far, we are in need of extra proposals in the following areas to help get us to possible three person panels: . "International Perspective on the History of Computing" . "Reconsidering the History of the Internet" The Internet idea might be part of or in addition to Andrew Burtica's suggestion of a join SHOT/Mercurians panel. I'll try to coordinate with him on this topic. Again, this is for the main conference so SIGCIS panel proposals would go through a review process within SHOT and would not be guaranteed acceptance. There's just two weeks left to the deadline, so I'll make decisions on the possible panels based on what we have by Wednesday. Tom

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Proposed Session for SHOT
by Andrew Butrica 13 Mar '10

13 Mar '10

Greetings! I have proposed the following idea to the Mercurians SIG and feel that it is equally appropriate for the Computers, Information, and Society SIG. We could make this a combined Mercurians-SIGCIS session proposal. Here is the proposal: I would like to propose that Mercurians organize a SHOT session around the theme of the computer as a communications device. Obviously, we could do this jointly with the computer SIG, as well. The papers could be on any aspect of the topic. They might touch on the development of the technology, the roots of the idea of computers as communication devices in cybernetics (Norbert Wiener et al), the role of federal dollars, the role of federal policy (eg, communication policy), the role of the military, or the applications of the computer as a communication device, such as in making medical assistance available over great distances or in isolated regions or various auction (e-bay) and other commercial uses. Consumer applications, of course, would dovetail with one of SHOT's themes for this conference. Approaches could be historical, philosophical, sociological, anthropological, etc. Any ideas, suggestions, or proposals? Andrew Butrica Andrew J. Butrica MERCURIANS ANTENNA Newsletter P.O. Box 30224 Bethesda, MD 20824-0224 USA mercurians(a)earthlink.net www.mercurians.org

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Call for Submissions -- SIGCIS Computer History Museum Prize
by Thomas Haigh 13 Mar '10

13 Mar '10

Hello everyone, Please find below the call for nominations for our history of computing book prize. Last years went to Christophe Lecuyer for Inventing Silicon Valley. Theres a nice write up in the CBI newsletter: http://www.cbi.umn.edu/newsletter/article3.html. Jen Light is chair of the prize committee this year, and Pierre Mounier-Kuhn joins the committee to replace Paul Ceruzzi. Tom Misa is now in his final year on the panel. Thanks to all of them for their service to SIGCIS. Jen has told me that to renominate a book submitted last year you or your publisher need send only ONE additional copy, to Pierre Mounier-Kuhn as the new committee member. $1000 and a certificate could be yours! Tom THE 2010 CHM PRIZE CALL The Computer History Museum Prize is awarded to the author of an outstanding book in the history of computing broadly conceived, published during the prior three years. The prize of $1000 is awarded by SIGCIS, the Special Interest Group for Computers, Information and Society. It is established through the generosity of an anonymous donor who wishes to honor the Computer History Museum. SIGCIS is part of the Society for the History of Technology. Books published in 2007-2009 are now eligible for the 2010 award. Books in translation are eligible for three years following the date of their publication in English. 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 15 April 2010. For more information, please contact the prize committee chair. Current information about the prize may always be found at http://www.sigcis.org/?q=chmprize. 2010 Prize Committee Members Jennifer S. Light (Chair) Northwestern University School of Communication 2240 Campus Drive, Room 2-152 Evanston, IL 60208-2952 light(a)northwestern.edu Thomas J. Misa Charles Babbage Institute 211 Andersen Library 222 - 21st Avenue South University of Minnesota Minneapolis, MN 55455 tmisa(a)umn.edu Pierre Mounier-Kuhn CNRS & Université Paris-Sorbonne 28 rue Serpente, 75006 Paris, France mounier(a)msh-paris.fr

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