February 2013 - Members - lists.sigcis.org

another book by Knuth which is not another volume of TAOCP
by Dave Walden 08 Mar '13

08 Mar '13

See my review at <http://www.tug.org/books/reviews/tb103reviews-knuth9-walden.html>http://www.tug.org/books/reviews/tb103reviews-knuth9-walden.html It will be published in the upcoming issue of the TeX User Group's journal. As the review says, I think this will be a useful volume for computing historians whose research brings them toward Knuth's life and publications.

2 1

Tiny award for dissertation in progress on "philosophy of information".,
by Thomas Haigh 27 Feb '13

27 Feb '13

See below for what seems to be a very small dissertation fellowship for the "philosophy of information." History is not mentioned, and "empirical or literary study" is excluded. I wonder if history is empirical? Maybe compared to philosophy, although I'd expect philosophers to be wary of treating the concept of empiricism so lightly. Applications will be judged, among other things, on "relevance to our time" which could be another point where historical work would be at a perceived disadvantage. Still, if you have a philosophical angle to your project it might be worth trying for. Note also that the message announcing the Litwin Books Award comes from Rory Litwin, so it's reasonable to suppose that his tastes will shape the competition. Litwin Books seems to publish extensively on libraries and library history, including titles such as "Library Juice Concentrate" from Litwin himself. http://litwinbooks.com/books.php So this may be the library science version of information rather than the information technology one. Tom -----Original Message----- From: sighfis-l-bounces(a)asis.org [mailto:sighfis-l-bounces@asis.org] On Behalf Of Rory Litwin Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2013 5:00 PM To: sighfis-l(a)asis.org Subject: [Sighfis-l] Litwin Books Award for Ongoing Doctoral Dissertation Research in the Philosophy of Information I am pleased to announce: The Litwin Books Award for Ongoing Doctoral Dissertation Research in the Philosophy of Information 1. Nature of the Award 1.1 The award shall consist of $1,000, given annually to a graduate student who is working on a dissertation on the philosophy of information (broadly construed). 2. Purpose of the Award 2.1 The purpose of this award is to encourage and support scholarship in the philosophy of information. 3. Eligibility 3.1 The scholarship recipient must meet the following qualifications: (a) Be an active doctoral student whose primary area of research is directly philosophical, whether the institutional setting is philosophy, information science, media studies, or another discipline; that is to say, the mode of dissertation research must be philosophical as opposed to empirical or literary study; (b) Have completed all course work; and (c) Have had a dissertation proposal accepted by the institution. 3.2 Recipients may receive the award not more than once. 4. Administration 4.1 The Litwin Books Award for Ongoing Doctoral Dissertation Research in the Philosophy of Information is sponsored and administered by Litwin Books, LLC, an independent scholarly publisher. 5. Nominations 5.1 Nominations should be submitted via email by June 1, to award(a)litwinbooks.com. 5.2 The submission package should include the following: (a) The accepted dissertation proposal; (b) A description of the work done to date; (c) A letter of recommendation from a dissertation committee member; (d) An up-to-date curriculum vitae with current contact information. 6. Selection of the Awardee 6.1 Submissions will be judged on merit with emphasis on the following: (a) Clarity of thought; (b) Originality; (c) Relevance to our time; (d) Evidence of good progress toward completion. 7. Notification 7.1 The winner and any honorable mentions will be notified via letter by July 1. _______________________________________________ Sighfis-l mailing list Sighfis-l(a)asis.org http://mail.asis.org/mailman/listinfo/sighfis-l

1 0

IEEE Life Member's Prize in Electrical History
by Ross Bassett 25 Feb '13

25 Feb '13

Dear All, I want to call you attention to the IEEE Life Member's Prize in Electrical History. It construes electrical history broadly, so as to include the history of computing. The prize consists of $500, a certificate, and an extra line on your cv. Please submit your worthy articles! The deadline for submissions is April 15. http://www.historyoftechnology.org/awards/ieee.html Best, Ross Ross Bassett Associate Professor of History North Carolina State University Raleigh, NC 27605

1 0

Looking to join NACBS Panel or Roundtable?
by Marie Hicks 25 Feb '13

25 Feb '13

Hi All, This is a message for all the British and British Empire historians on the list. I am considering applying to the 2013 NACBS CFP (due March 1, for conference in Portland, OR on Nov. 8-10, 2013). They are only accepting full panels of 3 papers, or roundtables of 4 people. I was wondering if any of you were planning on going and were looking for a panel (or, barring that, perhaps looking for an extra panelist). An idea that I have been kicking around is a panel or a roundtable on the topic of queering the history of technology, using British history as a space to do this. I think it's an interesting topic because the history of technology has been viewed through a queer lens in other disciplines (media studies, women's studies) and it strikes me that one place where history of technology is being successfully queered in a historical subdiscipline is in British history. I already have one person signed on, so we're looking for a 3rd (and possibly a 4th) presenter. Let me know if you're interested (or know anyone else who might be). Deadline is this Friday, so the sooner the better! Best, Marie ______________________ Marie Hicks, Ph.D. Asst. Professor, History of Technology Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago, IL USA mhicks1(a)iit.edu | mariehicks.net | @histoftech

1 0

PLATO History
by Thomas Haigh 21 Feb '13

21 Feb '13

Hello everyone, I recently came across mention of an interesting project on the history of the Plato system. The historical importance of Plato is, I think, reasonably well understood among expert historians of computing as a crucial contribution to the development of large-scale timesharing, computer mediated communication, online communities, and educational computing. We're also aware of the direct line of influence on Lotus Notes from Plato. It does have a full chapter in Chris McDonald's 2011 Princeton Ph.D. Thesis, and pops up in work on the history of CDC and William Norris, but has not received a thorough history or been featured in many overview histories of computer technology. So I'm glad to learn that Brian Dear has taken up the challenge of preserving and disseminating information on Plato. His main site is http://platohistory.org/. There was a big event at the Computer History Museum back in 2010, http://platohistory.org/conference/50th-anniversary/ and videos of the panel sessions are available online if you scroll way down on his main page. So the project hadn't exactly been in stealth mode, but I thought that if I hadn't known about it then you might not either. Dear has apparently conducted lots of interviews and gathered masses of material for a book in progress, http://friendlyorangeglow.com/. I'm looking forward to the book, but also hope that he will be making sure that this material is properly archived so that future researchers will be able to tell their own stories about Plato. Tom

3 2

SHOT 2013, Portland, ME -- CFP and SIGCIS Panels.
by Thomas Haigh 21 Feb '13

21 Feb '13

Hello everyone, The 2013 CFP for the annual meeting of our parent society, the Society for the History of Technology is now online. The meeting is 10-13 October, 2013 in Portland Maine, which for international travelers is fairly easy to get to as it is a 2.5 hour train ride from Boston or a short connecting flight from many US hub airports. This is NOT the Portland on the west coast. Meeting details at http://www.historyoftechnology.org/annual_meeting.html. Deadline March 31. I lived in Maine for two years, and from the viewpoint of Waterville in central Maine, Portland was a big bustling place with mild weather and fancy restaurants. For Bostonians it's a small quaint town in the exotic north with a blue collar tinge. Anyway, the weather will probably be quite nice in mid-October. SHOT is a friendly conference, open to newcomers. It's a good opportunity to meet people interest in the history of computing, but also to interact with the broader community of historians of technology. SHOT traditionally has some themes in its CFP, but I do not see any this time, just "any topic in the history of technology, broadly defined." Note: this is NOT the call for the annual SIGCIS workshop, which usually takes place on the final Sunday of the conference. Our call will follow and will have a much later deadline. Below is the description I prepared last year for those interested in SHOT and in the service SIGCIS offers of trying to assemble ideas from people interested in presenting in the main conference and knitting the resulting abstracts into coherent, relevant panel proposals. Andrew Russell is now SIGCIS Chair Elect, and so I'll be working jointly with him to get the panels together this year. OPPORTUNITY TO PARTICIPATE IN SIGCIS SPONSORED PANELS: SIGCIS generally organizes two or three panel proposals for the main SHOT conference, and individual members sometimes also use the email list to put together panel proposals with SIG sponsorship. These proposals are reviewed like any others by the SHOT program committee. Sponsorship doesn't guarantee acceptance, but working with the SIG raises the chance of your paper being part of a coherent, relevant, and polished proposal. We also work to match people at different career stages, of different genders, and in different countries which the CFP says will boost chances of acceptance. If you are interested in being part of such a panel please send me an informal expression of interest with a brief description of your possible contribution. I would like this by March 3, well ahead of SHOT's March 31 deadline, so that we have plenty of time to work on the panels. I then try to find common themes to develop in the topics that could tie them together into a coherent looking proposal, and work with the authors to refine the individual abstracts to meet the expectations of historians of technology. SIGCIS members are also encouraged to develop their own panel proposals. These can also be sponsored by the SIG. Feel free to reply to the list (members(a)sigcis.org) to find additional panel members. For some years now SHOT has been calling for more diverse kinds of proposal, such as roundtables or interactive sessions. I've been told that not many are submitted, but the program committee is open to them. HOW SHOT PANELS WORK: Certain things are normal for history conferences but can confuse those from other disciplines. SHOT isn't usually as explicit about some things in its call as it could be. (NB: this part seemed to offend a few people last year, but it's just making explicit the taken-for-granted cultural practices of history conferences for the benefit of those who haven't been to graduate school in the humanities. I'm not judging anyone. For example, in computer science full papers are reviewed, scores and comments are shared with authors, accepted papers are published in proceedings, and everyone is expected to use LaTEX rather than Word. At ASIS&T, the main information science conference, panels and reviewed papers are expected to feature quite different kinds of content and there's a taboo against assembling scholarly papers into a panel format. So if you ever venture outside history you will realize that our practices are not universal.) What you need to know: . Panels generally run for 90 minutes and consist of three panelists, a commentator, and a chair. Speakers get about 20 minutes each, with 10 for the commentator, 10-15 for questions, and the remaining few minutes lost in setup, handover, and late return of the audience from the coffee break. Some panels are proposed as a whole. Others are assembled by the program committee from papers submitted individually. . Most people now use PowerPoint, at least for images. Some people use bullet points. Many historians still read papers word for word. . Reviewing is based on a one page abstract and one page cv, and thus is obviously not double blind. Usually about 1/3 of submissions are rejected, but you will never know why as you do not receive comments from the reviewers. At least I've never received any. Selection is done by the program committee members themselves, with program balance and session coherence a concern. Therefore the odds of being accepted are generally higher as part of a coherent panel than as an individual paper. . The full paper is never reviewed or published, but you are still expected to write out some version of it for the commentator to read prior to the meeting. The commentator is supposed to weave together useful common threads in the papers, add context where missing, and make suggestions on possible improvements. This role is known as a "discussant" in some disciplines. SHOT commentators generally err on the side of niceness, particularly versus some discussion I've seen in business schools. . All the chair does is to introduce the speakers, moderate the question period, and make sure that everything runs to time. It's a good way to get yourself onto the program if you don't have any new work to present. . Only one paper submission per person per year is allowed. SHOT discourages people from speaking two years running, but this has usually been waived in the year following an "overseas" meeting, and last year's meeting was in Copenhagen. I don't see anything in the 2013 call one way or another. . SHOT usually has travel money from the NSF and other sources to help graduate student presenters and those "between jobs." This is applied for separately after acceptance of your paper. Best wishes, Tom

1 0

2nd CfP: Symposium on Mathematics and Computation. Historical and epistemological issues
by Liesbeth De Mol 18 Feb '13

18 Feb '13

Dear all, I hope the following CfP is of interest to some of you, best wishes, Liesbeth. /2nd CFP: Symposium on Mathematics and Computation. Historical and epistemological issues/ The Centre for Logic and Philosophy of Science of Ghent University was founded in 1993. On the occasion of its 20th anniversary the Centre organises an international Conference on Logic and Philosophy of Science (CLPS13) on the themes that are central to its research: - Logical analysis of scientific reasoning processes - Methodological and epistemological analysis of scientific reasoning processes Conference dates: 16-18 September 2013 Keynote talks will be given by Diderik Batens (the founder of the Centre), three logicians (Natacha Alechina, Graham Priest and Stephen Read) and three philosophers of science (Hanne Andersen, Hasok Chang, and Jim Woodward). We will also schedule parallel sessions with contributed papers and special symposia with a limited number of papers. I organise the symposium (#2) on /Mathematics and Computation: Historical and epistemological issues/ Traditionally, mathematics is the home of computation. This is one of the reasons why ``eo ipso computers are mathematical machines'' (Dijkstra, 1985). Therefore, it is not surprising that when the first electronic computers were being developed it was to study and solve mathematical problems. It was partly by way of (applied) mathematics, viz. through the simulation of mathematical models, that the other sciences like biology, physics, etc started to feel the impact of the computer. While several mathematicians have, in the meantime, embraced massive computation, this almost natural relation between computation and mathematics is not always evaluated positively, as witnessed, for instance, by some of the commotion that still surrounds computer-assisted proofs like the four-color theorem. Such commotion lays bare some fundamental issues within (the philosophy of) mathematics and challenges our understanding of notions such as proof, mathematical understanding, abstraction, etc. Because of this natural and problematic relation between computation, computers and mathematics, the impact of computation and computers on mathematics, and vice versa, is far from trivial. The aim of this special session is to bring together researchers to reflect on this relation by way of a historical and/or epistemological analysis. We welcome contributions from mathematicians, computer scientists, historians and philosophers with a strong interest in history and epistemology. Topics include but are not restricted to: . discrete vs. continuous mathematics . time and processes in mathematics . mathematical software systems (e.g. Mathematica, Maple, etc) . computer-assisted proofs (e.g. Hales' proof) . "experimental" mathematics . computation before or without the electronic computer . numerical tables . role of programs in mathematics . on-line mathematics (e.g. Polymath or Sloane's encyclopedia) . mathematical style(s) If you want to present a paper at this symposium, please upload an abstract in PDF format (between 500 and 1000 words) to: https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=clps13 before 1 April 2013. You will be asked to choose between one of the following submission categories: - Logical analysis of scientific reasoning processes - Methodological and epistemological analysis of scientific reasoning processes - Symposium submission Select the last option and mention the symposium number in the title of your abstract. If you do not have an EasyChair account you can create one here: https://www.easychair.org/account/signup.cgi Unfortunately, we cannot offer any financial support for symposium speakers. Neither can we waive the registration fee. All abstracts for symposia will be refereed by the organisers and other members of the programme committee. Notification of acceptance will be given by 15 May 2013. All further information (e.g. accommodation, registration, maps) can be found at the conference website: http://www.clps13.ugent.be/. The programme will be available on the website by 1 July 2013.

1 0

Eli Harari Lecture - Now Online!
by Dag Spicer 14 Feb '13

14 Feb '13

Dear SIGCIS Friends, This CHM lecture was just posted this week: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXcwFQ6KK8g&feature=em-subs_digest Description: Published on Feb 11, 2013 [Recorded: August 20, 2012] Please join us as we welcome physicist, inventor and entrepreneur Dr. Eli Harari. He will be interviewed about his life's journey from Israel to the UK, and then coming to America to study at Princeton and work in Silicon Valley. This journey culminated in the inventions that led to the use of Flash Memory for data storage, an essential component of every significant consumer electronics product on the market today. Technology developed by Eli at Hughes Microelectronics in the 1970s led to the industry's first commercial floating gate electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM) in 1978. This same technology is essential to NAND Flash, a technology introduced by Toshiba in 1987. In 1989, Eli developed the System Flash architecture, which combined a processor, firmware and Flash Memory to fully emulate a disk drive. System Flash was the genesis of SanDisk, a company Eli co-founded that same year. While a simple-sounding concept, many obstacles had to be overcome before this architecture could made its mark in the marketplace. The System Flash concept is now married to NAND Flash Memory, and it has enabled an inexpensive, low-power and compact data storage medium that is the foundation of an industry expected to exceed $33 billion in sales in 2012. The dramatic impact of Eli's inventions was recognized by the IEEE History Committee in the form of an IEEE Milestone that will be dedicated tonight by IEEE President Dr. Gordon Day. The title of the Milestone is The Floating Gate EEPROM, and its citation reads "From 1976-1978, at Hughes Microelectronics in Newport Beach, California, the practicality, reliability, manufacturability and endurance of the Floating Gate EEPROM -- an electrically erasable device using a thin gate oxide and Fowler-Nordheim tunneling for writing and erasing -- was proven. As a significant foundation of data storage in flash memory, this fostered new classes of portable computing and communication devices which allow ubiquitous personal access to data." A special video, funded in part by local IEEE sections and chapters, will be shown which describes the IEEE Milestone program as well as this EEPROM/Flash Memory Milestone. Enjoy! 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 Twitter: @ComputerHistory FB: facebook.com/computerhistory Blog: http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/ "Only art and science give us hope of a higher life." -- Beethoven

1 0

Photoshop source code
by Dag Spicer 14 Feb '13

14 Feb '13

SIGCIS Friends! For the geekier among you, here is a new blog post on the Computer History Museum's recent acquisition of the Photoshop 1.0 source code. Those in critical code or software studies might find this of interest! http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/adobe-photoshop-source-code/ Enjoy! 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 Twitter: @ComputerHistory FB: facebook.com/computerhistory Blog: http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/ "Only art and science give us hope of a higher life." -- Beethoven

1 0

Fwd: CfP HaPoC 2013
by M. Hicks 11 Feb '13

11 Feb '13

Please see the call for HaPoC 2013 in Paris (below). At least 2 of our SIGCIS members will be there--Janet Abbate and Nathan Ensmenger are invited speakers. Best, Marie ______________________ Marie Hicks, Ph.D. Asst. Professor, History of Technology Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago, IL USA mariehicks.net | mhicks1(a)iit.edu | @histoftech > > Subject: CfP HaPoC 2013 > > [Apologies for cross-posting] > CALL FOR PAPERS, 2nd International CONFERENCE on the HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF COMPUTING (HaPoC 2013) > 28th - 31st October 2013 > Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris. > with a special session on "Computing and the Arts" at Ecole Nationale Superieure des Arts Decoratifs > http://hapoc2013.sciencesconf.org > > We are happy to announce that the 2nd International Conference on the History and Philosophy of Computing (HaPoC 2013) will take place from the 28th to the 31st of October 2013 at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris (France). > The birth of the computing and its sciences has often been the topic of philosophical and historical reflection. The HaPoC-conferences have decided to bring together the historical and the philosophical viewpoints. They want to create an environment for a true interdisciplinary convergence around computer science, reenforcing research on the science(s) of computing and its history and stimulating a theoretical dialogue between these domains. To furter this dialogue HaPoC has chosen to have no parallel sessions. > Our invited speakers are: Janet Abbate; Bernard Chazelle (tbc); Walter Dean; Nathan Ensmenger; Jean-Yves Girard; Barbara Liskov (tbc); Margit Rosen and Franck Varenne. HaPoC 2013 is the follow-up conference to HaPoC 2011 (Gent, Belgium). > Please check out the website of HaPoC 2013 for more information on the conference: > http://hapoc2013.sciencesconf.org > > For HaPoC 2013 we welcome contributions from logicians, philosophers and historians of computing as well as from philosophically aware computer scientists and mathematicians. Topics include but are not limited to: > 1. Approaches to the notion of computing > a. History and Philosophy of Computability > b. History and Philosophy of Computation > c. History and Philosophy of Programming > d. History and Philosophy of the Computer > 2. Applications and uses of Computing > a. . History and Epistemology of the use of Computing in the sciences > b. Computing and the Arts : historical and conceptual issues > c. Social, ethical and paedagogical aspects of Computing > > We cordially invite researchers working in a field relevant to the main topics of the conference to submit a short abstract of approximately 200 words and an extended abstract of at most a 1000 words (references included) to > > https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=hapoc2 > > Abstracts must be written in English and anonymized. Please note that the format of uploaded files must be .pdf or .doc. > > The submission deadline is: April 30th, 2013 > > Best regards, > the organisers, > > Maarten Bullynck (Paris 8 & SPHERE) > Jean-Baptiste Joinet (Lyon 3 & CIRPHLES) >

1 0