April 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?

1 1

Ukrainian sites for information + a European tech hist conference program
by Petri Paju 28 Apr '10

28 Apr '10

All, Here are some sites I recently found from Ukraine and thought someone might be interested in: http://ukrainiancomputing.org/ and conference papers from a meeting in Ukraine: http://www.icfcst.kiev.ua/Symposium/Pr_Content-fr.html ** These come somewhat close to a forthcoming European conference on "Technology & East-West relations: Transfers, parallel histories, and the European laboratory", which now has the program available at: http://www.conference2010sofia.com/ It includes ICT history papers from the "Software for Europe" research projects. Best, Petri -- Petri Paju, tutkijatohtori, Turun yliopisto -- Ph.D. Researcher, Univ. of Turku http://users.utu.fi/petpaju/ http://fi.wikisource.org/wiki/Bibliography_of_Finnish_Histories_of_Technolo…

1 0

symposium: history of informatics in Latin America
by Medina, Eden 26 Apr '10

26 Apr '10

Dear all: I want to draw your attention to the upcoming symposium on the "History of Informatics in Latin America and the Caribbean" and encourage you to consider submitting papers. At present not much is published on the history of computing in Latin America and the Caribbean, but this symposium (and the growing number of scholars in this part of the world who are interested in computer history) suggests that this is starting to change. The symposium is part of the Latin American Conference on Informatics, "the most important Latin American forum in which scientists, professionals and students exchange ideas and share the results of their investigations and experiences in information technology and communications." This is the first time that the conference has included a history track. The paper submission deadline is June 7, 2010. Acceptance notifications will be sent out by August 9, 2010 and final papers are due September 6, 2010. More information about the symposium is available here: http://www.clei2010.org.py/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=73&… Please forward to others who might be interested. Best, -- Eden Medina Assistant Professor of Informatics Adjunct Assistant Professor of History School of Informatics and Computing Indiana University, Bloomington edenm(a)indiana.edu<mailto:edenm@indiana.edu> http://www.informatics.indiana.edu/edenm

1 0

Fellowships in ACM History (deadline Friday 30 April)
by Thomas Misa 26 Apr '10

26 Apr '10

Hi all, A **reminder** that this Friday, 30 April, is the deadline for the ACM fellowship applications. Remember there are two awards: a $5,000 award for a research project dealing (in some fashion) with ACM's institutional history and a $2,500 travel grant for research on ACM activities. ACM is looking to support good solid historical research projects, dealing in some meaningful way with ACM's long and varied history. Last year's awards were made to Irina Nikiforova, for her dissertation project on "ACM, Turing Prize Scientists, and their Web of Affiliations," and Bernard Geoghegan on "Staging the ACM Chess Championships." Both awards are *open* as to rank, "from graduate students through senior researchers." Thanks, 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.

1 0

Japanese web resources
by Chigusa Kita 14 Apr '10

14 Apr '10

Hi All, Just to inform you that our Japanese web resources list related to "histories of computing" is now online: http://www.sigcis.org/?q=node/77 . Of course, other relevant links can be added, so that I recommend any SIGCIS members informing me about new links or suggestions to make it better. Other regional Vice Chairs are also compiling resources. More to come! Chigusa Kita Vice Chair, Japan

1 0

Searchable IT Archival and Historical Database
by Jeffery Stein 13 Apr '10

13 Apr '10

IT History Society April 13, 2010 The Board of Directors of the IT History Society is pleased to introduce to you and the information technology community its latest addition to the IT History Society website. With the many contributions from IT History Society members, the IT historical community at large, and partnering with the Internet Archive <http://www.internetarchive.org/> , and Archive-IT <http://www.archive-it.org/> , we are pleased to introduce to you a unique searchable database of 233 international information technology historical and archival collections. This searchable database today is comprised of 2,433,522 documents which uses 195.16 gigabytes of storage. Every 30 days, each one of the 233 sites is crawled and text indexed to include changes and additions that have occurred at each collection, including new sites that have been added to the database. Currently, 23 sites are blocked from our crawl and we are taking steps to contact each webmaster to have the sites unblocked. The listing of all 233 sites that have information technology historical significance are located at http://ithistory.org/resource_sites/resource-sites.php Try a few searches out and see the great results that can occur in a few seconds. Yes, one can do these types of searches on Google. etc., but here there is NO clutter, it is all about information technology search results. If you know of a site that might be included in the database, please submit your suggestion at http://ithistory.org/resource_sites/resource-form.php We do hope you find value with the IT historical database. This database will be a continual ongoing work in process. If you have any comments, suggestions, or want to note any corrections, please contact us at info(a)ithistory.org This eight month effort was not possible without the contributions and assistance of many. If you know of an information technology associate or colleague that may want to become a member of the Society, please refer them to http://ithistory.org/membership/member-form.php for a membership application. The IT History Society, in addition to individual members, looking for new institutional and corporate members. Please refer them to the same application form. Please remember that at this time, there is no cost to join. 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

1 0

HSS
by JOHNSON, ANN 08 Apr '10

08 Apr '10

Hi All: I am putting together, at the last minute, a panel for HSS in Montreal in November for a session on information technology in science. I have two papers (one on density functional theory and computational chemistry, the other on distributed simulation networks like Nanohub) and need at least one more, preferably two. If anyone is interested, please contact me (offlist) immediately. Cheers, Ann @@@@@@@@ Ann Johnson, Ph.D. Associate Professor Department of History University of South Carolina Columbia, SC 29208 Phone: (803) 777-5701 Fax: (803) 777-4494 Campus office: 222 Gambrell Associate Editor, Technology and Culture

1 0

BBC obituary: Dr Henry Edward Roberts (inventor of the Altair 8800)
by Bernardo Batiz-Lazo 02 Apr '10

02 Apr '10

See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8600493.stm Kind regards Bernardo University of Leicester

1 0

IT History Society Master Calendar of Historical and Archival Events
by Jeffery Stein 01 Apr '10

01 Apr '10

IT History Society March 31, 2010 ITHS has been keeping a Master Calendar of Historical and Archival Conferences and Events located at http://ithistory.org/events/events-other.php If you or someone knows or is hosting an event that should be listed on this calendar, please submit an entry for approval at http://ithistory.org/events/events-form.php Our list is growing and growing through your participation, 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

1 0