June 2011 - Members - lists.sigcis.org

2010: SIGCIS's Year in Review
by Thomas Haigh 03 Nov '11

03 Nov '11

Dear SIGCIS members, I hope this end of year message finds you all well and in a relaxed holiday mood. SIGCIS has had another good year, reaching new heights on every measurable aspect of our activities. The number of members reached a new high (over 250), the number and quality of contributions to the email list was greater than ever before, we raised more money at our annual lunch with our book auctions and small than ever before ($1,486) and gave out more travel grants (www.sigcis.org/travelaward) to participants than ever before ($2,400). Our second annual workshop received more submissions than the first, and more people attended. The Mahoney Fund (www.sigcis.org/mahoney) holds its highest balance to date (over $8,000) after its best year of donations so far (at least $2,850). So does our operating account (around $3,500). For the most part, then, it was a year of consolidation and incremental growth. If something can be done annually for several years then it becomes a tradition, and perhaps the most crucial stumbling block is doing something twice. SIGCIS made the second Computer History Museum award (http://www.sigcis.org/chmprize) to Atsushi Akera for his book Computing a Natural World. The second SIGCIS Workshop, http://www.sigcis.org/workshop10, was a great success. See the full report at http://www.sigcis.org/node/13. We are already planning for next year's. SHOT's 2011 meeting is collocated with the IEEE Annals of the History of Computing editorial board meeting, as well as with several scholarly societies, and so we anticipate a particularly good turnout among the field's best known scholars. Despite our focus on institutional sustainability the SIGCIS team did launch several new projects. These fit with our philosophy of looking for simple, easy and low cost ways to strengthen the international scholarly community in history of computing. This year's breakout hit was the syllabus repository (http://www.sigcis.org/syllabi) It now holds around forty syllabi showcasing a broad range of approaches to teaching in the area. (Here's a new year resolution: if you have a new syllabus and are willing to share it please send a copy now to secretary(a)sigcis.org) Our team of international vice presidents added new resource guides for the history of computing in Britain (http://www.sigcis.org/britain) and Japan (http://www.sigcis.org/japan) We also added a new edition of Anne Fitzpatrick's Pioneers of Soviet Computing to the Member Contributions area (http://www.sigcis.org/contributions) Next year we will be looking for new ways to strengthen this part of the website. Another new initiative is currently unfolding. Behind the scenes we updated the site this year to use a current release of Drupal, fixing some glitches that had accumulated over the years. Our platform includes blogging and comment capabilities, and we have been experimenting with the best way to use it. Chris McDonald of Princeton and Marie Hicks of Duke have recently joined the SIGCIS executive committee (http://www.sigcis.org/node/6) and have taken special responsibility for this. Dag Spicer will also be blogging to keep us up to date with events at the Computer History Museum. You can see the latest from them at http://www.sigcis.org/blog. All SIGCIS members can login to post comments. If you would like your own blog on the site them please contact us. In the future we will be experimenting with ways to use blogs, wikis, and the email list together - for example by asking a question by email and then having answers accumulate on a blog page. Another good new year resolution: check your entry in our member directory at http://www.sigcis.org/members and make any updates needed by logging in at http://www.sigcis.org/user. Thanks to all of you who have contributed to SIGCIS over the past year, whether as email posters, organizers, donors, syllabus providers, bidders in the book auction, workshop attendees, or readers of our website and messages. If you have ideas on how to make 2011 another record breaking year for the SIG, or would like to get involved as a volunteer, then please get in touch. Happy holidays, Tom Haigh, SIGCIS chair www.tomandmaria.com/tom

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50th anniversary of CTSS
by Dave Walden 28 Jun '11

28 Jun '11

In the spring of fifty years ago this year, work started on MIT's highly influential Compatible Time Sharing System. The system then was first demonstrated in November of that year. Some of you may be interested in a CTSS commemorative document that a couple of us of recently compiled; see item #5 at <http://www.computer.org/portal/web/volunteercenter/history>http://www.computer.org/portal/web/volunteercenter/history This commemorative document is intended to be popular overview of the history of CTSS, not a scholarly report. We may put out an update with new information we receive post initial publication. (We certainly will update the PDF to fix any typos that anyone spots.) If you have any comments on this document, perhaps send them off list to my email address below so other list members don't have to see messages in which they are not interested. Sincerely, Dave Walden dave.walden.family(a)gmail.com

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Possible job opportunity?
by Evan Koblentz 26 Jun '11

26 Jun '11

Hello all, I stumbled upon this Craigslist advertisement today: http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/wri/2458335496.html. Does anybody know what this might be? I replied to the message, so hopefully I will hear back soon. It sounds like a potentially interesting opportunity for a non-Ph.D. (like me) to get a paying job in science history. I'm very interested in hearing about similar opportunities.

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Errol Morris series on the history of Email
by Dave Walden 23 Jun '11

23 Jun '11

This excellent series continues on the Times website today: <http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/22/did-my-brother-invent-e-mai…>http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/22/did-my-brother-invent-e-mai… Having started with email, the series has now touched on other early computer developments coming out of MIT in the early 1960s. It is fun to see what a slick (and I mean that in a good sense of the word) history presentation a professional documentary film maker can create with a blog (and an assistant to help with research). -- home address: 12 Linden Rd., E. Sandwich, MA 02537 home ph=508-888-7655; cell ph = 508-280-0446 email address: dave(a)walden-family.com; website(s): http://www.walden-family.com/

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history of email, part 2
by Dave Walden 21 Jun '11

21 Jun '11

The second part of the series on CTSS email by Errol Morris (that I noted yesterday) is at <http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/author/errol-morris/>http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/author/errol-morris/ Apparently, there will be one part per day on the Times website this week. [By the way, I managed yesterday, with help from Chris McDonald, to make my first blog entry at sigcis.org. Several more blog entries will be posted in coming days as I muse about some topics that are important to me relating to how computer history is collected and archived (in case anyone is interested).]

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history of email
by Dave Walden 20 Jun '11

20 Jun '11

It is well known that Ray Tomlinson's email system at BBN was the first instance of networked email but not the first instance of (intra-)computer email. The famous documentary film director, Errol Morris, has posted the beginning of a 5-part series about his brother's involvement in the earlier email system CTSS at MIT: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/19/did-my-brother-invent-e-mai… -- home address: 12 Linden Rd., E. Sandwich, MA 02537 home ph=508-888-7655; cell ph = 508-280-0446 email address: dave(a)walden-family.com; website(s): http://www.walden-family.com/

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Fundraising for Bletchley Park
by Drucker, Thomas L. 16 Jun '11

16 Jun '11

There's a general consensus that Bletchley Park can use financial support as it preserves its buildings and documents the history of computer science. This is going a bit further. Thomas Drucker Math and CS University of Wisconsin-Whitewater druckert(a)uww.edu http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/news/docview.rhtm/644682

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Help finding a NORAD presentation on SAGE?
by Paul Edwards 16 Jun '11

16 Jun '11

Computer historians (and Les) - I'm trying to hunt down high-res copies of some slides from a NORAD or DoD presentation on SAGE, created circa 1960. At some point I had a file containing all of these, but I cannot figure out where it's gone. A few of these slides are attached - all of them have this same distinctive look. I believe there are about 25 slides in the set. (if the attachment doesn't come through, download them at http://pne.people.si.umich.edu/PPT/temp.pptx) Simple web searching and image searching isn't bringing it up. Dag Spicer has hunted through the archives of the Computer History Museum and can't find it either. Any help or pointers would be much appreciated! - Paul ————————————————— Paul N. Edwards, Professor of Information and History Director, UM Program on Science, Technology & Society A Vast Machine: Computer Models, Climate Data, and the Politics of Global Warming (MIT Press, 2010) Terse replies are deliberate (and better than nothing) University of Michigan School of Information 3439 North Quad 105 S. State Street Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1285 (734) 764-2617 (office) (206) 337-1523 (fax) pne.people.si.umich.edu

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SIGCIS Workshop REMINDER - CFP Deadline June 15
by Thomas Haigh 16 Jun '11

16 Jun '11

Dear SIGCIS members, Time flies, and what back in February seemed the hitherto hugely distant date of June 15 is now just over two weeks away. So if you've been thinking about getting together something for our third annual workshop at SHOT now would be a good time to act. Full details online at http://www.sigcis.org/workshop11, including online submission for panels and abstracts, and for your convenience I'm pasting the original email below. To get you excited, here are a few updates: 1) Tom Misa has agreed to deliver the keynote plenary lecture, addressing the workshop theme of "Cultures and Communities in the History of Computing." 2) Both SIGCIS panels have been accepted for the main SHOT program. One is "Coded Narratives: Memory, Practice and Community in the History of Software" with Irina Nikiforova, Hansen Hsu and Joline Zepcevski. The other is "Geographies of Computing: Straddling the Divide Between the Global and the Local" with Gerard Alberts, David Nofte, Mark Prisetley, Janet Toland and Patryk Wasiak (plus Eden Medina as chair). There are also some interesting sounding panels accepted on communication networks, a panel with on the political aspects of international communications (including Paul Edwards speaking on computer modeling). 3) Also the IEEE Annals board meeting is now confirmed to take place just before SHOT in the same location. So combining that with the sessions in the main program and the workshop we can be sure that there will be a lively turnout in our field that should carry over into the workshop. 4) We will be presenting the third Computer History Museum book prize at the meeting. I have no idea which book the committee will pick, but they tell me we have a record number of submissions this year so we can be sure it will be a worthy winner. Questions should be addressed to Marie Hicks who is serving as chair of the workshop program committee. Email meh20 at duke.edu. (Marie -- if we need to update that let me know...) Best wishes, Tom Haigh -------------------------------------------------------------- (ORIGINAL CALL FOLLOWS) -------------------------------------------------------------- CALL FOR PAPERS SIGCIS Workshop 2011: Cultures and Communities in the History of Computing For the latest updates see http://www.sigcis.org/workshop11. DEADLINE for submissions: 15 June 2011 The Society for the History of Technology's Special Interest Group for Computers, Information and Society (SIGCIS - www.sigcis.org) welcomes submissions for its latest one day scholarly workshop on Materiality and Immateriality in the History of Computing. The workshop will be held in Cleveland, OH all day on Sunday, 6th November 2011. This is the final day of the annual SHOT meeting. SHOT has reserved that day for SIG events and therefore the symposium will not overlap scheduled sessions in the main program. For details on the main SHOT meeting see http://www.historyoftechnology.org/annual_meeting.html. Workshop Theme: Information technologies are created to be used by people, and thus function within particular human communities. The workshop explores a range of disciplinary perspectives on the historical development of computing activity, among them * Connections between and across communities, for example between users and producers, experts and non-experts, across disciplinary communities, within trading zones * The publics of computing, whether in home, business, or science * Communities of practice based around the use and/or creation of information technologies * Use of computers within particular disciplinary traditions or institutions * The cultures and subcultures of information technology However our practice is to welcome contributions on all topics related to the history of computing whether or not there is an explicit connection with the annual theme. Our membership is interdisciplinary and proposals are expected from the perspectives of business history, labor history, social history, science studies and the history of science as well as from historians of technology. SHOT is collocated with HSS (history of science) and 4S (science studies) this year, so contributions from those perspectives would be particularly welcome. Proposals for entire sessions and individual presenters are both welcome. We hope to run special sessions featuring dissertations in progress and other works in progress. The workshop is a great opportunity to get helpful feedback on your projects in a relaxed and supportive environment. All proposals will be subject to a peer review process based on abstracts. Suggested Formats: Individual contributions can fit one of a variety of formats 1. Traditional 20 to 25-minute presentations followed by a question and answer session with the SIGCIS community. In this case a one-page abstract (maximum 400 words) will be reviewed and included in the electronic conference program. Abstracts should address the paper's topic, argument, evidence used, and contribution to the existing literature. A full version of the paper should be sent to the session commentator at least a week prior to the meeting. 2. Dissertation proposals. We hope to include a dissertations in progress session, in which individuals will present their ongoing dissertation work and seek feedback from the history of computing community. In this case submit your dissertation proposal, which will be included in the electronic conference program if accepted. Participants will be encouraged to read this prior to the session. You will have five to ten minutes to introduce the material, leaving the bulk of time available for discussion. 3. Works in progress. This is your chance to receive informal and expert discussion of draft dissertation chapters, journal articles, or book chapters. Submit a one page abstract (maximum 400 words) including discussion of the current state of the work and any specific kinds of feedback you are seeking. If your proposal is accepted you will need to supply the draft for discussion by 1 September for inclusion in the electronic program for the workshop. You will have five to ten minutes to introduce the material, leaving the bulk of time available for discussion. 4. Proposals in other formats are also welcome. For example round table discussions, demonstrations of software of interest to historians of computing, or "author meets critics" sessions. We follow the normal format for a history meeting. That is: selection on abstracts rather than full papers, no submission of full papers for regular sessions (although works in progress and dissertation proposals must be submitted in advance for inclusion on the workshop website), and no publication of proceedings (presenters are welcome to submit their work the SIGCIS Member Contributions collection). However presenters in regular sessions will be required to share some version of their paper at least two weeks in advance with the session commentator so that he or she can prepare insightful and helpful remarks. Submission Procedure: All submissions should be made online via the SIGCIS website. People already scheduled to participate on the main SHOT program are welcome to submit an additional proposal to the SIGCIS workshop, but should make sure that there is no overlap between the two presentations. However program committee may choose to give higher priority to submissions from those not already presenting at SHOT. The same person should not be included as a panelist or speaker in more than one proposal to the SIGCIS Workshop, though it is OK to appear both as a speaker/panelist in one session and a chair or discussant in another. Individual submissions should be made at http://www.sigcis.org/workshop11a. Note that this requires a one page curriculum vitae as well as the proposal itself in the form described above. Proposals for complete sessions should be made at http://www.sigcis.org/workshop11b. They should include: * a description of the session that explains how individual papers contribute to an overall theme) * the names and email addresses of each presenter) * an abstract and title for each presentation (in the form described above) * a one-page c.v. for each presenter and other participant (including commentator or chair if named) Travel Support: The top financial priority of SIGCIS is the support of travel expenses for graduate students, visiting faculty without institutional travel support, and others who would be unable to attend the meeting without travel assistance. The submission includes a box to check if you fall into one of these categories and would like to be considered for an award. These is no separate application form, though depending on the volume of requests and available resources we may need to contact you for further information before making a decision. Details on our travel grant program are at http://www.sigcis.org/travelaward. Funding sources include donations from SIGCIS members at our annual meeting, income from the Mahoney Fund http://www.sigcis.org/mahoney and support from MIT Press for our annual book auction. Please note that the SHOT does not classify workshop presentations as participation in the SHOT annual meeting and so acceptance by SIGCIS does not realistically make you eligible for the main SHOT travel grant program. Last Year's Workshop: This is the third annual SIGCIS workshop. The 2010 event featured a plenary session with a distinguished keynote speaker followed by six further sessions grouped into two tracks. Around sixty people attended, many staying an extra night and attending a group dinner in the evening after the workshop. You can see last year's program at http://www.sigcis.org/mahoney and a report from the Charles Babbage Institute at http://www.cbi.umn.edu/newsletter/article5.html. We expect to follow a similar format this year. Questions should be addressed to Marie Hicks who is serving as chair of the workshop program committee. Email meh20 at duke.edu.

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new book announcement
by Zbigniew Stachniak 13 Jun '11

13 Jun '11

New history of computing book: Z. Stachniak, "Inventing the PC: the MCM/70 Story", McGill-Queen's University Press, 2011, http://mqup.mcgill.ca/book.php?bookid=2643 The book details the invention and design of the MCM/70 micro, possibly the world's earliest computer dedicated specifically for personal use. The MCM/70 was designed and manufactured by a Toronto-based electronics company Micro Computer Machines in the early 1970s. The first prototype of the MCM/70 was publicly demonstrated in May of 1973. Providing comprehensive historical background and rich photographic documentation, "Inventing the PC" offers an insider's view of events on the front lines of pioneering work on personal computers. -- Zbigniew Stachniak Associate Professor Department of Computer Science and Engineering York University 4700 Keele Street Toronto, Ontario, M3J 1P3 Canada ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program.

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