September 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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Need a chair for SHOT main conference session
by Thomas Haigh 25 Sep '11

25 Sep '11

Hello SIGCIS members, Here's your chance to get on the program for the main SHOT meeting, November 3-6 in Cleveland. We need a volunteer to chair the session below. Email me if you are interested. Ideally we'd give to slot to someone who is not already coming to the meeting to broaden participation, but SHOT allows people to chair who are already speaking in another session. To get it correctly into the printed booklet I need a name by the end of Monday - I just remembered the need for this when I received a reminder from Jane Carlson. Meeting details here: http://www.historyoftechnology.org/annual_meeting.html. Early bird SHOT registration finishes Oct 1 and must be made by fax or mail: http://www.historyoftechnology.org/pdf/2011_registration_form.pdf. If you come to SHOT you can also come to our wonderful SIGCIS workshop the next day: http://www.sigcis.org/workshop11. Tom Saturday, 5 November 8:30 AM - 10:00 AM Coded Narratives: Memory, Practice and Community in the History of Software Sponsored by the SIG on Computers, Information, and Society Organizer: Thomas Haigh (University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee) Chair: CHAIR NEEDED Commentator: Thomas Haigh (University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee) Irina Nikiforova (Georgia Institute of Technology) [Robinson Prize Candidate]: ACM and Turing Prize Scientists: Defining the Art and Science of Computing, 1947-2008 Hansen Hsu (Cornell University) [Robinson Prize Candidate]: NeXT History and Cocoa Community Memory Joline Zepcevski (University of Minnesota) [Robinson Prize Candidate]: Complexity, Verification and the Rise of Object Oriented Programming

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Job announcement: Indiana University
by Medina, Eden 22 Sep '11

22 Sep '11

Job Announcement: Indiana University, Bloomington The School of Informatics and Computing (SoIC) at Indiana University Bloomington is accepting faculty applications for a position at any level in Social Informatics (SI), defined as the field of study that seeks to understand how the computational sciences and digital technologies shape society and human experience, and how society and culture, in turn, shape the development of science and technology. We are especially interested in senior applicants who are internationally recognized leaders in SI and can help us develop the program further by building on our existing strengths in social studies of computing, in which they should have a strong research and teaching profile. The successful senior candidate should also have interest in at least one additional area of social informatics in which we are active (organizational informatics, social media and Internet research, policy, or social computing). We are also interested in junior applicants who can move the social studies of computing in new directions to take it beyond analytical critique and toward the design and development of new technologies. The position will begin in Fall 2012. Additional information on the SoIC and Bloomington, and application requirements and submission instructions, are available at http://hiring.soic.indiana.edu. To receive full consideration applications must be received by November 15, 2011. Inquiries can be directed to John Paolillo (Assoc. Prof. Informatics), SI Search Committee chair (paolillo(a)indiana.edu) -- Eden Medina Assistant Professor of Informatics Adjunct Assistant Professor of History School of Informatics and Computing Indiana University, Bloomington edenm(a)indiana.edu http://www.informatics.indiana.edu/edenm

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Program for the 2011 SIGCIS workshop
by Marie Hicks 09 Sep '11

09 Sep '11

Folks, The final program for the 2011 SIGCIS workshop is now online: http://www.sigcis.org/workshop11 Tom Misa's opening keynote will be on the topic of "Designing and Using Cyberinfrastructure: Challenges and Opportunities for History." In addition, be sure to check out some of the questions that will be addressed by the great lineup of speakers at our closing plenary: http://www.sigcis.org/node/292 We hope you'll all be able to stay for that, and we plan to organize a dinner outing afterward for those who do stay through Sunday evening. As the conference nears, we will upload texts for our dissertations-in-progress and works-in-progress sessions to the online program, so attendees interested in going to these sessions can read the papers easily in advance. Check back for those a week or two before the conference. Until then, click around the online program for a look at linked paper abstracts and links to background on the presenters, commentators, and moderators. Feel free to send any questions my way. Best, Marie 2011 SIGCIS Workshop program committee chair _______________ Marie Hicks, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of History of Technology Lewis Department of the Humanities Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago, IL mhicks1(a)iit.edu www.mariehicks.net

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2012 CHM Fellows Award
by Dag Spicer 03 Sep '11

03 Sep '11

Dear SIGCIS Friends, As we ponder the computer industry, in which ‘there is no rear-view mirror,’ now is the perfect time to look to the past for perspective, insight and inspiration by helping the Computer History Museum nominate its 2012 Fellows. What is a CHM Fellow? CHM Fellows have changed the world with their accomplishments. They may have worked in such diverse fields as hardware, software, networking, computer science, business, education, public service, or journalism, but they have one thing in common: their contributions have had a direct influence on computing and culture, changing our lives in profound ways. The tradition began with the Museum’s first Fellow, early computing pioneer Grace Murray Hopper, and has grown to a distinguished and select group: http://www.computerhistory.org/fellowawards/hall/ Fellows are nominated by the Museum’s community (of which we hope SIGCIS members feel a part!) and are selected by a committee composed of Museum staff, historians, industry leaders, and other CHM Fellows. Futurist Paul Saffo once told me: “The computer industry suffers from ‘prostalgia:’ the longing for things that aren’t invented yet.” CHM Fellows, celebrated at an annual spring gala event, is our way of taking a breath, thinking historically about technological change and honoring the people who effected that change. For complete info, including the simple one-page nomination form, please visit: http://www.computerhistory.org/fellowawards/nominations/ Nominations close September 10. Thank you for supporting CHM and computer history. We hope to hear from you! Dag -- Dag Spicer | Senior Curator | Computer History Museum Editorial Board | Annals of the History of Computing 1401 N. Shoreline Blvd. | Mountain View CA 94043 Tel: +1 650 810 1035 | Fax: +1 650 810 1055 Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing Visit in person or online! http://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/ Twitter: @dag_spicer

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Tony Sale dies at age 80
by Bernardo Batiz-Lazo 03 Sep '11

03 Sep '11

I thought some might be interested in this note although it was only covered by the local press (see link below). Tony Sale was a driving force in the rebuilding of Colussus at Bletchely Park. I never met him or his team but I thought that it was fitting that SIGCIS acknowledged his work. Best Bernardo Bangor University (UK) Short obituary: http://www.miltonkeynes.co.uk/news/local/tributes_paid_to_a_colossus_of_a_m… -- ================== Twitter @BatizLazo Technological Innovation in Retail Finance: International Historical Perspectives Edited by Bernardo Batiz-Lazo, J. Carles Maixé-Altés, Paul Thomes http://www.taylorandfrancis.com/books/details/9780415880671 Home page: http://www.bangor.ac.uk/business/staff/bernardo_batiz-lazo.en.php Working papers: http://ideas.repec.org/e/pba14.html

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Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Paul Allen and the communities of IT History
by Evan Koblentz 02 Sep '11

02 Sep '11

Bill made an excellent point: "Academic professionals might consider the value of an "adopt a hobbyist" program." All college syllabi in computer history should include at least one hands-on session (a demo, or where possible a field trip.) I can spearhead a matchmaking initiative, in which professors and serious collectors are teamed by geographic region. At the InfoAge Science Center here in central New Jersey, we would gladly host students from Stevens, NJIT, Rutgers, Princeton, Penn, Johns Hopkins*, etc. * We are very grateful to Johns Hopkins; our UNIVAC 1219 was a gift of their Applied Physics Laboratory.

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Paul Allen's Personal Museum
by Thomas Haigh 02 Sep '11

02 Sep '11

An interesting story at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903596904576516552161014410.ht ml It states that Paul Allen has commissioned a kilt-wearing grizzly graduate student to roam the globe tracking down rare machines of a physical size impractical for lesser collectors, such as a PDP-7 and IBM 70XX series machines. They're being restored for a personal museum. I hadn't heard of Ian King, but apparently he's a computing veteran working on an historical Ph.D. in the University of Washington Information School. The museum is online at http://www.pdpplanet.com/. The more machines that get preserved the better, and it certainly does more good for history than most billionaire hobbies. Perhaps this will evolve into a sustainably endowed public museum, or the machines will eventually be donated elsewhere. Yet when I see something like this is does make me ponder the widening disconnect between the growing community of scholars working on many aspects of the history of computing with minimal financial support and the comparatively huge amounts of money being spent/given by billionaires to support preservation with no involvement from Ph.D. historians. Maybe it's inevitable that the interests of the two groups would evolve in different directions. It's also true that academic priorities may have moved further than necessary from micro-level practice and materiality over the past few decades. This might be one of the topics for discussion at the forthcoming SIGCIS workshop, where I'm pleased to say that the panelists include people from the Smithsonian, Henry Ford Museum, Charles Babbage Institute, and Computer History Museum as well as academics from a variety of disciplines. http://www.sigcis.org/workshop11 Tom

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Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Paul Allen and the communities of IT History
by B. Degnan 02 Sep '11

02 Sep '11

Evan, I too support your suggestions. Academic professionals might consider the value of an "adopt a hobbyist" program. I find myself in the middle of both worlds. Although recently I taught a computer history class at the University of Delaware for three semesters, the bulk of my day-to-day research is hands-on restoration work. Bill Degnan vintagecomputer.net billdeg(a)udel.edu -------- Original Message -------- > From: "Ceruzzi, Paul" <CeruzziP(a)si.edu> > Sent: Friday, September 02, 2011 8:55 AM > To: "Evan Koblentz" <evan(a)snarc.net>, "members(a)sigcis.org" <members(a)sigcis.org> > Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Paul Allen and the communities of IT History > > Evan: > > I support your suggestions. I remember attending the VCF in Santa Clara, CA in 1999 and it was one of the most memorable high points of my entire career. I gave an interview to an on-line-only journal (radical at that time--this was 1999) about the ASR-33; I saw someone building a replica of the Whirlwind using modern miniaturized vacuum tubes [!]( I think it was Whirlwind, could be wrong but it was definitely vacuum tubes); I got to hang out & shoot the breeze with Lee Felsenstein. The only downside, sort of, is that I got a t-shirt that is so cool that I only wear it once every five years, since I am afraid of wearing it out. > > On the other hand, my general impression of Silicon Valley, from the perspective of the East Coast, is that the people out there have no rear-view mirror or brake pedal. They just go forward as fast as possible. Some exceptions. Not good for historians, but that is who they are. > > Paul E. Ceruzzi > Chair, Division of Space History > National Air & Space Museum > MRC 311; PO Box 37012 > Washington, DC 20013-7012 > 202-633-2414 > <http://www.nasm.si.edu/staffDetail.cfm?staffID=24> > > -----Original Message----- > From: members-bounces(a)sigcis.org [mailto:members-bounces@sigcis.org] On Behalf Of Evan Koblentz > Sent: Friday, September 02, 2011 2:18 AM > To: members(a)sigcis.org > Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Paul Allen and the communities of IT History > > Tom et al, > > >> there's a broader question of how to bridge the interests of > scholars, donors, and enthusiasts which is a challenge not just for > SIGCIS but for the history of computing community as a whole. Any > thoughts on contributions SIGCIS could make in this area are welcome. > > I made an observation at the DC meeting: collectors / hobbyists in > general are as far removed from UNIVAC and Burroughs as history > professors are from Apple and Sinclair, however, as scholars of the > histories of computing begin to cover the minicomputer / homebrew / > microcomputer generations, that will naturally appeal more to hobbyists' > first-person experiences. > > So I have three suggestions for SIGCIS members: > > - Change gears! Rather than clawing for fresh angles about Babbage, > mainframes, and business software, consider "the many histories" of the > PDP-11, CP/M, the S-100 bus, single-board computing, small-scale storage > media, user groups beyond just SHARE, the BBS, x86 chips (and rivals), > and the early days of graphical interfaces, to name a few. > > - Embrace grassroots history. Make consumer end users a priority, not a > curiosity. Learn about computer museums that aren't professional > institutions. CHM isn't the only computer museum doing good work. Attend > the Vintage Computer Festival (as Peter Meyer said in a May 27 SIGCIS > post, "The whole thing was quite electric, memorable, and worthwhile.") > Unfortunately, for each of the past three Vintage Computer Festival East > shows, I posted on this list asking for guest lecturers to creatively > show hobbyists a scholarly perspective -- and received no responses. > > - Touch something! Obtain a piece of vintage computer gear and play with > it. Whether it's an ASR-33 teletype, IMSAI, an ordinary TRS-80, or a > BASIC emulator for Windows 7 -- it doesn't matter what. > > From the opposite perspective, several of us on the hobbyists side are > ourselves easing into scholarly topics, and convincing others to do so. > We've had VCF lectures about ENIAC, UNIVAC, RCA, Monrobot, and the > ARPAnet -- all from people in the industry. My user group's mailing list > is how Ian King learned about the Allen job. CHM's Al Kossow is an > esteemed member of the discussion list at classiccmp.org and also runs > the precious hobby resource at Bitsavers.org. > _______________________________________________ > This email is relayed from members(a)sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ and you can change your subscription options at http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members > _______________________________________________ > This email is relayed from members(a)sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ and you can change your subscription options at http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members

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A hello from Ian King
by Thomas Haigh 01 Sep '11

01 Sep '11

Continuing the previous thread... below is a message we received from Ian King himself (the kilt-clad globe trekker with the "Grizzly Adams-like coiffure" as the WSJ introduced him). He describes the museum a little bit, and reveals that he's just now starting his Ph.D. and is beginning to immerse himself in the scholarly literature. Ian has also told me that it is OK to share this message with the list and also asked to join SIGCIS! So let's welcome him to our community. A few SIGCIS resources he, and others getting involved with the scholarly side of IT history, might find useful: Our resource guide at http://www.sigcis.org/resources, and my review essay at http://www.tomandmaria.com/tom/Writing/HistoryOfInformationTechnologyARIST_D raft.pdf. The syllabus repository at http://www.sigcis.org/syllabi, if he's curious about what's being taught or needs to plan his own course soon. The member directory at http://www.sigcis.org/member, where he can learn about others working in the field. And of course, we'd love to welcome him to our workshop this year http://www.sigcis.org/workshop11 or a future event. In particular, our "dissertations in progress" special session offers the chance to present a draft dissertation proposal for friendly critique, or for students a little further along the chance to get comments on a precirculated dissertation chapter. We also offer graduate student travel funds, which it sounds from the article like he won't need. (Hint to Ian: get serious about air miles and hotel reward programs). Tom -----Original Message----- From: Ian King [mailto:IanK@vulcan.com] Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2011 3:35 PM To: thaigh(a)computer.org; j-coopersmith(a)neo.tamu.edu Subject: RE: [SIGCIS-Members] Paul Allen and the communities of IT History Gentlemen, I am that grizzly kilt-wearer to whom you refer in the original message. :-) First, let me clarify my position a bit: I am a member of the Living Computer Museum team, and as such I do acquisition, restoration, operation and maintenance, and I am responsible for our educational outreach which has included guest lecturing at the University of Washington. Our scope is the era of timeshared systems and the emergence of interactive computing, and as such embraces roughly the late 50s (CTSS, PDP-1, TX-0) through the mid-80s or so (the rise of the microcomputer and PC/workstation). As I'm sure you recall, Mr. Allen was one of the co-founders of Microsoft with the introduction of Altair BASIC, but you may not know that said product was actually developed on a PDP-10 mainframe. Needless to say, a running DECSYSTEM-20 is one of the centerpieces of the LCM. I wasn't a grad student when I started at LCM three years ago, but I'm starting my Ph.D. in Information Science this fall (with Mr. Allen's approval). My 'hidden agenda' is to contribute to the preservation of the history of the minicomputer era, and I will likely have some sort of impact on the world view to which you refer. My stated research interest is understanding the interrelationship between the evolutionary paths of information science and information technology, highlighting the arcs of innovation and inflection points that led us to the IST-dependent world in which we live today. If that sounds fuzzy, it's because I'm a first-year student. :-) There's so much surface area, so little time..... I hope this exchange will begin a conversation. Since I started down this academic pathway, I've seen more and more interest in this subject matter, which I don't think is merely because I'm paying more attention to it as a scholarly topic: much of what I've been reading and hearing are fairly recent, suggesting that interest is in fact on an upswing. I guess my timing was good this time. I must excuse myself, as I am being interviewed by the Australian Broadcasting Company in just a bit and I want to prep. But I look forward to talking further. -- Ian Ian S. King, Curator of Education Living Computer Museum A presentation of Vulcan, Inc. http://www.livingcomputermuseum.org

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