June 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

References on computer hobbyists, user periodicals etc.
by Theodore Lekkas 30 Jun '10

30 Jun '10

Hello, I am looking for references on the history of computer hobbyists, home computer user groups, home computer publications. Any suggestions from the members of the list would be most welcomed. Theodore Lekkas Ph.D. Candidate University of Athens Greece

10 10

About Peter Sachs Collopy
by Peter Sachs Collopy 29 Jun '10

29 Jun '10

I'm interested in the cultural history of communications technology in the late 20th century, and especially in the political ideologies of democracy and technocracy associated with computers, networks, and video technology. My current research focuses on technological utopianism in the countercultural video communities of the 1970s. These actors developed their identities and politics around video cameras rather than computers, but had much in common with early computer hobbyists and referred to computers in their writings and videos. Peter Sachs Collopy Graduate Student History and Sociology of Science University of Pennsylvania http://collopy.net/

1 0

SIGCIS Workshop -- CFP reminder for July 1. ONE WEEK LEFT!
by Thomas Haigh 24 Jun '10

24 Jun '10

Hello everyone, Things continue to go well in our preparation for the 2010 SIGCIS Workshop, with the theme "Materiality and Immateriality in the History of Computing." Jeff and the rest of the team have been fielding a number of questions and inquiries, and we know a number of people are working on panel and session proposals as well as individual papers. Time flies, however, and we have just one week remaining to the July 1 deadline for proposals. So if you're like most of the people I've worked with on session proposals over the years and leave your submissions to the last minute this would be an excellent time to get a little frenzied. See http://www.sigcis.org/?q=workshop10 for details and the submission form. We're still particularly keen to receive submissions from graduate students, including our special options to submit the proposal for a dissertation being planned or in progress. I'm glad to report that we received an additional $500 pledge of travel support from my own institution, the School of Information Studies of the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. That gives us a travel assistance budget of at least $2,500 to help SIGCIS Workshop presenters who are graduate students, visiting assistant professors without travel budgets, and others without access to institutional funds. We've been busy lately with the workshop, but next month look for messages announcing the expansion and redevelopment of two important parts of our online activity: the member contributions area and the online syllabus repository. Best wishes, Tom Haigh From: Thomas Haigh [mailto:thaigh@computer.org] Sent: Thursday, June 10, 2010 4:07 AM To: 'members(a)sigcis.org' Subject: SIGCIS Workshop Updates: CFP deadline July 1, Edwards will keynote, other news Hello everyone, Planning work is going well on the SIGCIS 2010 workshop on "Materiality and Immateriality in the History of Computing," to be held in conjunction with the SHOT annual meeting in Tacoma, Washington on October 3. This is our second annual workshop. The first one drew around 50 people. Full details and the submission forms are online at http://www.sigcis.org/?q=workshop10. Here are some updates: 1. The deadline for submitting session and paper proposals is JULY 1. Please make your submissions via our website before that date. We're open to a very broad range of topics and formats including work in progress. We're particularly interested in getting graduate students to submit draft or in-progress dissertation proposals for discussion and have some money to help them attend (see 3 below). Draft chapters can also be submitted for a works in progress session. 2. Paul Edwards will give a keynote address in the opening plenary session, discussing aspects of his work on cyber infrastructure and his hot new book "A Vast Machine Computer Models, Climate Data, and the Politics of Global Warming" related to the theme. Paul's been involved with the history of computing community for many years, but his work has won acclaim from a diverse array of audiences and we're very excited to have secured him for the workshop. 3. We've raised more money to help support the travel costs of graduate students, the unemployed, and recent graduates in temporary positions without travel funds. In addition to the $1,000 or so we raised last year for this purpose via the book auction and cash donations (thank you MIT Press for so many books) we've received pledges from the IT History Society for an extra $200 and Harvard Business School Professor Richard S. Tedlow for an extra $1,000 to give grants in honor of the Computer History Museum. So that brings the budget to over $2,000 from which we plan to make awards of up to $500 depending on need and the volume of applications. Preference will be given to those presenting only at our workshop, and hence unable to apply for the main SHOT travel grant program. However if funds remain we may also be able to make supplemental contributions to those who are presenting on the main SHOT program and at the SIGCIS workshop to cover need unmet by SHOT and other sources. 4. SHOT Secretary Bernie Carlson has confirmed arrangements on our behalf with the stylish and modern conference venue, the Hotel Murano. http://www.hotelmuranotacoma.com/ He's been able to secure us access to two meeting rooms for the full day at no extra charge to SHOT or SIGCIS. 5. This means we will not need to impose an additional fee for the workshop beyond regular SHOT registration (or a discounted 1 day registration if you are unable to attend the rest of SHOT). Just make sure you indicate your plans to attend the workshop when you register for SHOT. What a bargain! We will just pass our money cup during the event to help cover the cost of the coffee breaks. More details and reminders later on this. Please spread the word to anyone you know who might be interested. Also remember that you can use this list to find contributors for your panel proposals or locate interested chairs and commentators. Best wishes, Tom Haigh www.tomandmaria.com/tom

1 0

Fw: Request of reading advices on statistics and computing in agriculture and life sciences
by Sandra Mols 16 Jun '10

16 Jun '10

Dear colleagues Here below follows a call for help by G. Parolini, who looks out for material on statistics and computing in biology in the UK, 30s to 70s. She's as cc for those who may want to help, Best, Sandra Mols ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: Giuditta Parolini <giuditta.parolini2(a)UNIBO.IT> To: MERSENNE(a)JISCMAIL.AC.UK Sent: Mon, 14 June, 2010 14:22:06 Subject: Request of reading advices on statistics and computing in agriculture and life sciences Hi, I am a PhD student at the University of Bologna (http://www.cis.unibo.it/sth/doc_students/curricula/parolini.html) interested in the development of statistics in agricultural and biological research in UK (especially from 1930s to 1970s). I want to examine as a case study the development of the statistical researches related to life sciences at Rothamsted experimental station and the Galton Laboratory. As I am interested in the history of computing, I want to investigate in particular which role had computing technologies (mechanical calculators, punched cards machines and electronic computers) in the development of statistical practices and methodologies and in the local negotiations among statisticians, biologists and agricultural scientists. Key figures in my research will be R.A. Fisher, Frank Yates (Fisher's successor at Rothamsted) and Cedric A.B. Smith (statistician at the Galton Laboratory headed by Penrose). I am looking for sources on various aspects: - the history of statistics - and more generally the history of quantification - in agriculture and life sciences for the period 1930s-1970s - the use of computing technologies in statistics, especially with relation to agriculture and life sciences - the visual culture of statistics in 20th century Can you help me with reading suggestions? You can write to my email address giuditta.parolini2(a)unibo.it Best regards, Giuditta Parolini

2 1

SIGCIS Workshop Updates: CFP deadline July 1, Edwards will keynote, other news
by Thomas Haigh 10 Jun '10

10 Jun '10

Hello everyone, Planning work is going well on the SIGCIS 2010 workshop on "Materiality and Immateriality in the History of Computing," to be held in conjunction with the SHOT annual meeting in Tacoma, Washington on October 3. This is our second annual workshop. The first one drew around 50 people. Full details and the submission forms are online at http://www.sigcis.org/?q=workshop10. Here are some updates: 1. The deadline for submitting session and paper proposals is JULY 1. Please make your submissions via our website before that date. We're open to a very broad range of topics and formats including work in progress. We're particularly interested in getting graduate students to submit draft or in-progress dissertation proposals for discussion and have some money to help them attend (see 3 below). Draft chapters can also be submitted for a works in progress session. 2. Paul Edwards will give a keynote address in the opening plenary session, discussing aspects of his work on cyber infrastructure and his hot new book "A Vast Machine Computer Models, Climate Data, and the Politics of Global Warming" related to the theme. Paul's been involved with the history of computing community for many years, but his work has won acclaim from a diverse array of audiences and we're very excited to have secured him for the workshop. 3. We've raised more money to help support the travel costs of graduate students, the unemployed, and recent graduates in temporary positions without travel funds. In addition to the $1,000 or so we raised last year for this purpose via the book auction and cash donations (thank you MIT Press for so many books) we've received pledges from the IT History Society for an extra $200 and Harvard Business School Professor Richard S. Tedlow for an extra $1,000 to give grants in honor of the Computer History Museum. So that brings the budget to over $2,000 from which we plan to make awards of up to $500 depending on need and the volume of applications. Preference will be given to those presenting only at our workshop, and hence unable to apply for the main SHOT travel grant program. However if funds remain we may also be able to make supplemental contributions to those who are presenting on the main SHOT program and at the SIGCIS workshop to cover need unmet by SHOT and other sources. 4. SHOT Secretary Bernie Carlson has confirmed arrangements on our behalf with the stylish and modern conference venue, the Hotel Murano. http://www.hotelmuranotacoma.com/ He's been able to secure us access to two meeting rooms for the full day at no extra charge to SHOT or SIGCIS. 5. This means we will not need to impose an additional fee for the workshop beyond regular SHOT registration (or a discounted 1 day registration if you are unable to attend the rest of SHOT). Just make sure you indicate your plans to attend the workshop when you register for SHOT. What a bargain! We will just pass our money cup during the event to help cover the cost of the coffee breaks. More details and reminders later on this. Please spread the word to anyone you know who might be interested. Also remember that you can use this list to find contributors for your panel proposals or locate interested chairs and commentators. Best wishes, Tom Haigh www.tomandmaria.com/tom

1 0

Bletchley Park WWII archive to go online
by Bernardo Batiz-Lazo 05 Jun '10

05 Jun '10

Might be of interest - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/10239623.stm Best wishes Bernardo University of Leicester (UK)

1 0

Conference - From Practice to Results in Logic and Mathematics, Nancy (France), June 21-23, 2010
by Sandra Mols 02 Jun '10

02 Jun '10

Apologies for crossposting Dear colleagues Please find enclosed information regarding the forthcoming conference "From Practice to Results in Logic and Mathematics", which is to take place on June 21-23 in Nancy, France. This conference is not a computing conference and will include papers coming mostly from philosophy. Still some of you may find it interesting in relation to some papers related to Turing and also to the so-called field of 'experimental mathematics' in which activities are partly made of making proofs using computer systems... Detailed information on the conference can be found from the following weblinks: Booklet: http://filex.univ-nancy2.fr/recup?k=5wl5UP1IEALcOqHlgVx Poster: http://filex.univ-nancy2.fr/recup?k=FVZN9mL1JMeEF0FdlQz Registration (free of charge) is now open through the following link: http://www.univ-nancy2.fr/poincare/colloques/formulaires/form_fprlm2010.html. Hoping that this will be of interest and possibly to meeting you at the event, With best regards Sandra Mols ************** "I do not like experts [...] They are our goalers. [...] Experts are addicts. They solve nothing! They serve whatever system hires them. They perpetuate it. When we are tortured, we shall be tortured by experts. When we are hanged, experts will hang us. Did you not read what I wrote? When the world is destroyed, it will be destroyed not by its madmen but by the sanity of its experts and the superior ignorance of its bureaucrats." Yakov Saveleyev, The Russia House by John le Carré, 1990

1 0