April 2012 - Members - lists.sigcis.org

The History of File-Sharing
by Brian Randell 23 Apr '12

23 Apr '12

Hi: I've just come across what seemed to me to be an interesting account of the history of file-sharing, at: http://torrentfreak.com/the-history-of-filesharing-120422/ Out of curiosity, I'd be interested if someone with more knowledge of file-sharing than I have could comment on the accuracy and completeness of this account. Cheers Brian -- School of Computing Science, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK EMAIL = Brian.Randell(a)ncl.ac.uk PHONE = +44 191 222 7923 FAX = +44 191 222 8232 URL = http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/people/brian.randell

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1979 Xerox commercial for the Alto
by Thomas Haigh 23 Apr '12

23 Apr '12

Hello everyone, Dag Spicer of the Computer History Museum has been kind enough to process and upload to YouTube for us a short 1979 Xerox commercial showcasing the experimental Alto technology as an embodiment for its vision of the office of the future. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0zgj2p7Ww4 This was something I'd seen years ago (an extract is featured in Triumph of the Nerds) but had been unable to track down anywhere online. I've added a link to my invention of email piece http://www.sigcis.org/Ayyadurai as this video by itself does a pretty good job of disproving the claim that nobody had ever built a system to harness email for office communication before 1980. Best wishes, Tom

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2013 International Congress of HSTM again
by James Sumner 21 Apr '12

21 Apr '12

Dear all Final push for this one: the proposal needs to be submitted by next Monday (30 April). Details as per my previous message, copied below. Interest so far has led to two fairly concrete subtheme ideas which should work well as 90-minute sessions within a wider symposium: banking and the cashless society, co-ordinated by Bernardo Batiz-Lazo, and information systems in biology/biomedical computing, co-ordinated by Miguel Garcia Sancho. I think we can build a good case for an overarching theme titled something like "Data at work", with some focus on typical SIGCIS interests but an appeal to some of the Congress's other constituencies. Ideally, I'd like to include at least one more full session (three or four papers) for breadth. We don't need to include precise details or firm commitments in the symposium proposal, but it would be good to have as concrete a definition as possible. Interested? Drop me a line by the middle of next week, and we'll discuss further. All best James --- Dear SIGCIS members I'm writing to draw your attention to the current call for themed sessions for ICHSTM, the International Congress of History of Science, Technology and Medicine, to be held in July 2013 here in Manchester. Full details are on the Congress website at http://www.ichstm2013.com/ ICHSTM happens every four years and is the largest meeting in the field, drawing around a thousand delegates and lasting a full week. Its constituency is more global than most, with strong participation from China, South America, India and Eastern Europe. The organisation behind it (for details of which, see http://sites.google.com/a/dhstweb.org/www/ ) is structured around international commissions for a variety of sub-disciplines, each of which contributes a "symposium" -- basically, a substantial themed speaker session or group of sessions, covering half a day or more. However, any organisation or (if they represent more than one country) group of people can propose a symposium -- and that, I hope, is where we come in. There is, at least at present, no formal commission representing history of computing and allied interests, whereas SIGCIS is the most active international community in the field. Putting together a SIGCIS session for Manchester would help to raise our profile among the wide range of subject communities present. It would also tie in nicely with Helena Durnova and Slawomir Lotysz's planned session on COMECON computing, which you may recall was announced on this list earlier this month. Their session has been submitted to ICOHTEC (the International Committee for the History of Technology), whose 2013 meeting will be very closely integrated with the Congress, sharing a venue, a single registration, and much of the central organisation. If we can pull together a SIGCIS session, I'll try to persuade the programme planners to run it consecutively with the COMECON session for the benefit of anyone planning a shorter trip. And, of course, I would be very pleased to see as many of you as possible in Manchester, and can promise a friendly environment and a fun programme -- we'll be making the most of the region's industrial culture with plenty of excursions, and we're currently in discussions towards special sessions debating the relationship between historians and science/technology policy and showcasing work to bring history to wider public audiences. The theme of the Congress is 'Knowledge at work'. Conveniently, it so happens that I'm the local committee representative who ended up with the job of explaining what on earth this means: I've put a list of suggested approaches on the site at <http://www.ichstm2013.com/call/>, but notice the customary "may include, but are not limited to" -- all suggestions are welcome. Possible SIGCISsy ideas might include: cultures of working (formal or informal) in IT production and use; the relevance of the fieldwork concept to our research; pure/applied boundary work and its relation to the shape of the computer science discipline; the history of debates over computer literacy in education; computing and craftsmanship. The deadline for symposium submissions is Monday 30 April. We don't, in fact, need detailed abstracts for all papers (there's a later call for these), but would need a schedule of committed participants with titles, and an overview of the session's theme and aims. If you're interested, please drop me a line soon with an indication of what you'd like to present on, and we'll take it from there. All best James

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Software Crisis redux
by Janet Abbate 20 Apr '12

20 Apr '12

Did anyone see the piece in the latest issue of IEEE Computer on "Software Crisis 2.0"? (April 2012, 89-91). While historians of computing have been moving away from the idea that the "software crisis" was a real phenomenon (see, e.g., Tom Haigh's essays on this), the computer scientist who wrote this article refers to the crisis as "well-documented" and "confirmed." Not only that, he claims there is a new software crisis upon us, fueled by information overload and demands for ubiquitous computing. Am I right that there is a gap in perception here between practitioners and historians? Dr. Janet Abbate Associate Professor Science & Technology in Society Virginia Tech

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cyber jedis
by Taylor-Smith, Ella 18 Apr '12

18 Apr '12

Hi This is perhaps a little present-tense for this list, but I the guardian is running an interesting series of articles: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/series/battle-for-the-internet In particular, I thought that you'd be interested in the term "cyber jedi" -seemingly used withou comment in this article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/apr/16/militarisation-of-cyberspa… (It seems to me that the term cyberspace was out of fashion after the turn of the century and has recently become current again -just an impression though) -Ella Ella Taylor-Smith Institute for Informatics and Digital Innovation Edinburgh Napier University 10 Colinton Road Edinburgh, EH10 5DT Telephone: +44 (0) 131 455 2392 Email: e.taylor-smith(a)napier.ac.uk http://www.iidi.napier.ac.uk/e.taylor-smith @EllaTasm http://www.facebook.com/OnlineAmbition @OnlineAmbition Edinburgh Napier University is one of Scotland's top universities for graduate employability. 93.2% of graduates are in work or further study within six months of leaving. The university is also proud winner of the Queen's Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education 2009, awarded for innovative housing construction for environmental benefit and quality of life. This message is intended for the addressee(s) only and should not be read, copied or disclosed to anyone else outwith the University without the permission of the sender. It is your responsibility to ensure that this message and any attachments are scanned for viruses or other defects. Edinburgh Napier University does not accept liability for any loss or damage which may result from this email or any attachment, or for errors or omissions arising after it was sent. Email is not a secure medium. Email entering the University's system is subject to routine monitoring and filtering by the University. Edinburgh Napier University is a registered Scottish charity. Registration number SC018373

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Latest on Email Invention incl. my article
by Thomas Haigh 17 Apr '12

17 Apr '12

Hello SIGCIS members, You may remember some flurries of interest a while ago in the "Inventor of Email" saga. The happy outcome was that the Washington Post had asked me to write an article outlining the actual history of email and putting the claims of V.A. Shiva Ayyadurai in context. That never took place, but the article is now published in the blog section of the SIGCIS website as www.sigcis.org/ayyadurai. Thanks to all those who contributed, and I'm sorry if this won't have the visibility and impact we'd anticipated with the promised Post website publication. For myself I am glad to be done with this and hope the article can still help to put the record straight. A number of people have asked me what happened to the article. There's an outline of the whole confusing saga in a letter I wrote to the Washington Post ombudsman, www.sigcis.org/node/330. Basically I don't know. The article was accepted, but just before publication something killed the planned series of four articles on the episode (including one by Noam Chomsky!!) The only one of the four to be published, by Dave Crocker, is a useful capsule history of Internet email but was published without reference to Ayyadurai and attracted just two comments. http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-innovations/a-history-of-e-mail-co llaboration-innovation-and-the-birth-of-a-system/2012/03/19/gIQAOeFEPS_story .html Ayyadurai's public relations firm is, at least as of a couple of weeks ago, still trying to interest journalists in his story so perhaps we can anticipate more press coverage to come. Personally I am glad to be done with this. Other news from the world of email invention: . Another journalist featured Ayyadurai as inventor of email, even after the Post's retraction. Callie Crossley on WGBH ran a full interview segment: http://www.wgbh.org/programs/The-Callie-Crossley-Show-855/episodes/Mon-31212 Innovation-Hour-USPS-Goes-Electric-36918. . Gizmodo ran a lengthy debunking. The quoting of one word insults from anonymous sources is not really fair, and you could argue that putting "crazy" and "man" a few words apart in the title is prejudicial. But overall it does a good job of investigating. http://gizmodo.com/5888702/corruption-lies-and-death-threats-the-crazy-story -of-the-man-who-pretended-to-invent-email . Dave Crocker has set up a website and associated discussion list to try to preserve the actual history of email. www.emailhistory.org. . Ayyadurai's book "The EMAIL Revolution: How to Build Brands and Create Real Connections," is available for preorder on Amazon for just $16.47. Publisher is Allworth (rather than Norton as suggested by Gizmodo). Interesting subtitle there. http://www.amazon.com/The-EMAIL-Revolution-Brands-Connections/dp/1581159803 Best wishes, Tom Haigh SIGCIS Chair, www.sigcis.org www.tomandmaria.com/tom

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IT History Society Appoints New Board Member - Dr. Randy Katz
by Info ＠ IT History Society 16 Apr '12

16 Apr '12

Randy Howard Katz, UC Berkeley Professor of Computer Sciences and Noted Information Technology Scientist, Joins the IT History Society Board San Francisco, CA (PrBuzz) April 11, 2012 - Randy H. Katz, University of California, Berkeley United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), and a noted information technology scientist, joins the <http://www.ithistory.org/> IT History Society's (www.IThistory.org) board of directors. "Randy Katz is a well known computer scientist and professor. His contributions as a Board member and Trustee of the IT History Society will expand our reach", said Jeffery Stein, Chairman; "Randy's experience bringing the White House onto the Internet, his developing RAID technology for file systems, his many courses and teachings at one of America's top universities, and his many other accomplishments will strengthen ITHS even more". "I am honored to be associated with the Society dedicated as it is to saving the history of this crucial field of technology, largely created within our own lifetimes," said Randy Katz, UMC Distinguished Professor of EECS at UC Berkeley. The IT History Society with its many new databases is becoming the 'table of contents' of where the history of information technology is located. In addition, the Society wants to encourage information technology companies to preserve their histories and show companies the return on investment derived by keeping their histories alive. The Society's membership includes nearly 700 historians and archivists, as well as institutions such as IBM, Hewlett-Packard, INTEL, The Internet Archive, Center for Technology Innovation, Charles Babbage Institute, Computer History Museum, IEEE History Center, Mid-Atlantic Retro Computing Hobbyists, McKesson, U.K. National Archive for the History of Computing, ACM History Committee, FedEx, Agilent, British Library, Applied Materials, Caltech, Computer Conservation Society, Deutsches Museum, Deltek, Microsoft, MIT, the Smithsonian Institution, and Symantec. Membership in the Society is complimentary due to the generous donations from the computer industry. The IT History Society supports the collaboration of like-minded institutions and individuals in expanding the reach of historical and archival activities. At the same time ITHS focuses on communicating to the private sector the value of preserving their history and heritage for future generations. The IT History Society continually promotes the value of preservation of information technology corporate history with its many databases and acting as a gateway for the location of historical information as a teaching and research aid for colleges, universities and researchers in both the public and private sectors. Another key resource is the IT Honor Roll Database <http://ithistory.org/honor_roll/honor-roll-random.php> http://ithistory.org/honor_roll/honor-roll-random.php The Honor Roll includes individuals who have made a noteworthy contribution to the information technology industry. The IT History Society Historical Resource Sites comprises over 1,600 historical information technology sites that are indexed by the Society for use by educators, students, and researchers. <http://www.ithistory.org/resource_sites/resource-sites.php> http://www.ithistory.org/resource_sites/resource-sites.php An added database is the hardware database of all information technology hardware ever manufactured. The library consists of over 2,000 entries growing by over 100 per day. The database is located on the web at <http://ithistory.org/hardware/hardware-name.php> http://ithistory.org/hardware/hardware-name.php About ITHS The IT History Society exists to enhance and expand works concerning the history of Information Technology and to demonstrate the value of IT history for the understanding and improvement of our present and future world. IT History Society One Blackfield Drive - Suite 331 Tiburon, CA 94920 (415) 435-2263 <mailto:info@ITHistory.org> info(a)ITHistory.org <http://www.ithistory.org/> www.ITHistory.org Sm logo dropEnsuring the Future by Preserving the Past <http://www.twitter.com/ithistoryorg> twitter <http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/It-History-Society/143799552346273> find-us-on-facebook <https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=RRE7C2 JV47KKJ> btn_donate_LG

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CfP Turing in Context II
by Liesbeth De Mol 12 Apr '12

12 Apr '12

Dear all, as some of you might have noticed I am actively involved with the organization of a number of meetings and conferences which, I hope, are interesting to you. In October I co-organize another such meeting called Turing in context II (the first Turing in context I was held at King's college in Cambridge and was an event for a general academic public with invited speakers only). The idea of this meeting is to consider Turing's work in context. We aim at gaining a deeper understanding of Turing's legacy by bringing together historians, philosophers, logicians, mathematicians and computer scientists who work on topics that are relevant to one of the many fields Turing has contributed to. The focus of this meeting is not Turing's work per se, but rather the work of others before, during and after Turing's life up to today. Below you can find the call for papers and I hope that you will be interested to submit an abstract for this meeting. very best wishes, Liesbeth. CALL FOR PAPERS "Turing in context II" Historical and Contemporary Research in Logic, Computing Machinery and AI www.computing-conference.ugent.be/tic2 10-12 October, 2012 Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Sciences and the Arts, Brussels, Belgium In the spirit of Alan Turing's interdisciplinary research, an international meeting will be held at the Royal Flemish Academy for the Sciences and Arts, exploring recent research into the many directions brought together in his work. This meeting is the second Turing in Context event during the 2012 Turing centennial. The first was held at King's College, Cambridge, 18-19 February 2012. It was an outreach event for the general academic public with invited speakers only. Turing in Context II is a research meeting meant for experts in the fields touched by Turing's contributions to science. TOPICS of the meeting include but are not restricted to: * history and theory of symbolic and physical machines * human and artificial intelligence * logic, computability and complexity We cordially invite contributions in all fields relating to the work and legacy of Alan Turing, both current research continuing Turing's ideas, and historical and philosophical reflections on them. Researchers from areas that Turing worked in but are not listed above, such as pattern formation and cryptography are explicitly encouraged to submit as well. Submissions should be 200-500 words abstracts and should be submitted to EasyChair via the following link: http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=tic2 Authors of accepted papers will later be invited to send an extended abstract (max. 6 pages) to be reviewed by the programme committee for publication in a volume of the Academy Proceedings Series. A volume of full papers might follow after the conference. TIMETABLE: Deadline Submission of Abstracts: July 20, 2012 Notification of Acceptance: August 20, 2012 Conference: October 10-12, 2012 KEYNOTES: S. Barry Cooper, "Turing Machines, Embodied Information, and Higher Type Computability" Leo Corry, Turing and the Computational Tradition in Pure Mathematics: The Case of the Riemann Zeta-Function Daniel Dennett, "Turing's gradualist vision: making minds from proto-minds" Marie Hicks, The Imitation Game Writ Large: Thinking about gender, labor, and sexuality in making machines useful. Maurice Margenstern, Universality everywhere and beyond, an epic of computer science Elvira Mayordomo, From Computability to Information Theory Alexandra Shlapentokh, Definability and decidability over function fields of positive characteristic Rineke Verbrugge, Cognitive systems in interaction PROGRAMME COMMITTEE: Bill Aspray (University of Texas) Tony Beavers (University of Evansville) Liesbeth De Mol (Ghent University) Luc De Raedt (Leuven University) Pablo Gervas (Universidad Complutense de Madrid) Antonina Kolokolova (University of Toronto) Benedikt Loewe (University of Amsterdam) David McCarty (Indiana University Bloomington) Erik Myin (Antwerp University) Giuseppe Primiero (Ghent University) Wilfried Sieg (Carnegie Mellon University) Mariya Soskova (Sofia University) Jean-Paul van Bendegem (Free University of Brussels) Bart van Kerkhove (Hasselt University) ORGANIZING COMMITTEE: Liesbeth De Mol, Benedikt Loewe, Giuseppe Primiero, Jean-Paul van Bendegem, Dagmar Provijn The meeting is sponsored by the Royal Flemish Academy of the Sciences and the Arts and the Belgian Society for Logic and Philosophy of Science

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CFP Grad Stud conference "InfoSocial" - Northwestern, Deadline April 15
by Thomas Haigh 11 Apr '12

11 Apr '12

Hello SIGCIS members, I just came across this during an assault on the material I've allowed to pile up in my inbox over the past few weeks. We're getting close to the APRIL 15 deadline, but note that "History and Information," "Networks and the Information Society" and "Open source and innovation" are included as bullet items for topics. The Comms school at Northwestern includes several scholars with STS and history backgrounds. Could be fun. Northwestern is in the Chicago suburbs, accessible by train. Details at http://www.communication.northwestern.edu/programs/phd_media_technology_soci ety/infosocial/ Tom

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Wedgewood Museum and Archives
by Bernardo Batiz-Lazo 11 Apr '12

11 Apr '12

Colleagues Together with some colleagues, I am drafting a letter to The Guardian concerning the imminent threat to the Wedgwood collections. If anyone would like to consider signing the letter, please let Peter Scott know (p.m.scott(a)reading.ac.uk) Cheers, Bernardo OPEN LETTER We the undersigned wish to express our concern regarding the threat to the preservation of the Wedgwood Museum and Archive ? as an integrated collection maintained within the UK. The threatened sale could result in the collection being broken up, passing into private hands, or going overseas. Each of these outcomes would be a disaster for Britain?s industrial and artistic heritage. The Wedgwood Museum & Archive preserves the design, production, organisational, and social histories of one of the world?s leading ceramics manufacturers. It represents a flagship collection for the history of British consumer goods industries; a testimony to one of the most brilliant designers, technologists, and industrial artists of the eighteenth century; and a key part of Britain?s industrial and artistic heritage. Yet, in contrast to the high priority and profile given to campaigns to save various paintings for the nation, this important collection appears to be relatively neglected by a national art establishment which seems more interested in individual high priced works by overseas painters than in saving the artistic legacy of both Josiah Wedgwood and the numerous individual artists and craftsmen who worked for Wedgewood from the eighteenth to twentieth centuries. For a country which prides itself as leading the world in creative industries and in producing high quality art for a broad market, this seems to be an unfortunate set of priorities. -- Bernardo Batiz-Lazo, FRHistS Athro Hanes Busnes ac Rheolaeth Bancio / Professor of Business History and Bank Management Ysgol Busnes Bangor Business School Prifysgol Bangor University Gwynedd LL57 2DG (Cymru / Wales) b.batiz-lazo [at] bangor.ac.uk Twitter @BatizLazo ffon / phone : +44 (0) 1248 388349 Home page: http://www.bangor.ac.uk/business/staff/bernardo_batiz-lazo.en.php Working papers: http://ideas.repec.org/e/pba14.html Blog: http://www.nephis.org

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