September 2013 - Members - lists.sigcis.org

Response on course design from James Sumner
by Thomas Haigh 01 Oct '13

01 Oct '13

[James is still having problems sending to the list, but has a good reply below. Tom] -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Seeking help -- if you could design your ideal Computer/Information History course, what would you include? Date: Sun, 29 Sep 2013 11:11:34 +0100 From: James Sumner <james.sumner(a)manchester.ac.uk> To: members(a)sigcis.org Dear all What an excellent question -- and it's remarkable to see that the discussion very quickly worked its way round to early hardware and games. My first thought before seeing the follow-up messages was to give the students a task something like this: "It's 1951. The firm you work for has just announced an electronic digital computer -- the first to be offered for commercial sale. You have no established competition, but this also means you're promoting an unfamiliar idea. Many of the people you're trying to sell to are happy relying on human clerical labour or existing punched-card technology, which they see as cheap and reliable. And many people more generally don't have a clear sense of what 'electronic digital computer' means at all. "Your big opportunity to do something about this arrives with a major public exhibition on new science and technology of the future, to be hosted at [insert name of suitable big expo venue]. Your firm has been offered a prime space of [insert dimensions] for a display introducing computers to the public. Your task is to build the display. You have X weeks." This is loosely based on the situation facing the British firm Ferranti when it produced the Nimrod machine (http://www.goodeveca.net/nimrod/) for the 1951 Festival of Britain. There was not enough time to implement a full-scale working computer, and in any case there were questions about whether a complex machine would be either reliable enough or intelligible enough for public display. The engineers instead put together some relatively straightforward electronics to play a simple interactive game (Nim -- one step up from tic-tac-toe), and housed it in an enormous, imposing case. The result worked well enough for attracting column inches, but was judged a partial failure on the marketing side because it didn't lead people to find out more about fundamental computer concepts. The idea behind this kind of project, of course, is to play to the strengths of a class with a mixture of study backgrounds and skills. A clear understanding of the conceptual principles of digital information processing has to be present and correct, but there are avenues for taking the social history seriously -- what kind of promotional technique were conventional to 1950s audiences? What sections of the public would show up to this exhibition? Would it be wise to address possible labour fears? -- and for thinking about the practicalities of display, the style to aim for in any written materials, and the performance aspects of any demonstration involved. It might even rival "costumed battle on the front quad" if it could really be built, assuming the students followed Ferranti in going for the big-and-imposing spectacle approach. The main headache would be in determining what rules to play by on the practical construction. Insisting on only "materials that could have existed in 1951" would create major problems if rigorously enforced, and would focus a lot of time and attention on elements which would probably be most interesting to a small minority of students. Tolerating too much simulation, on the other hand, would defeat the key point that equipment was inherently unreliable, and that the question of whether digital automation was worthwhile or not was still a live one. Perhaps experienced replicationists might be able to advise here? All best James

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SHOT 2013 SIG teaching panel, comments online
by Marie Hicks 28 Sep '13

28 Sep '13

Hi all, As I mentioned recently, this year there will be a panel on the main SHOT program discussing how SIG concerns are integrated into teaching. As part of SHOT's new website launch, comments from this panel and several other roundtables are being made available in advance (at http://shot-talk.org) I'll be representing the SIGCIS at this teaching panel, and I've posted a draft of my comments on the SIGCIS blog (first paragraph is below, rest is at: http://www.sigcis.org/node/380) Thank you to all those who responded with suggestions and insights as I was preparing these remarks. Feel free to leave comments on the blog post as well. Please come to the panel if you can--the full title of the panel is "Integrating SHOT SIG Concerns into the Teaching of History of Technology: Rethinking Modes of Instruction in a Diverse Communities" and it takes place on Saturday, Oct. 12 from 10:30 am to 12:30 pm. It is part of the President's Roundtable program. ________________________________ Learning about Infrastructure, and Infrastructures for Learning: Insights on Pedagogy from the SIGCIS Our SIG is sometimes viewed as the “computer history SIG” and while that forms an important part of what we do, I would like to start by emphasizing that it is only one part of what we do. Members of our SIG work on topics ranging from telegraphy to labor history, and from voice recognition to video games. Collectively, we are interested in much more than a narrowly-defined computing history: our mandate is to study how computers, information, and society interact, shaping the human experience in the process. As a result, one of the main teaching goals of the SIGCIS is to help students learn how to contend with technologies of infrastructure that creep into all aspects of our lives, from the broadest to the most personal level. (Read the rest at http://www.sigcis.org/node/380) Marie ______________________ Marie Hicks, Ph.D. Asst. Professor, History of Technology Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago, IL USA mhicks1(a)iit.edu | mariehicks.net | @histoftech

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Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Seeking help -- if you could design your ideal Computer/Information History course, what would you include?
by Evan Koblentz 26 Sep '13

26 Sep '13

>> I would recommend treading cautiously around the IP owned by the notoriously litigious Nolan Bushnell. .... As the old saw goes, 'Would you like to play a game?' Thus tic-tac-toe is the better choice. Joshua approved.

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Seeking help -- if you could design your ideal Computer/Information History course, what would you include?
by Andrew Meade McGee 26 Sep '13

26 Sep '13

Dear SIG-CIS friends, I hope you might help me with a happy conundrum. This year I am visiting faculty in the history department of Washington and Lee University, a small but affluent liberal arts college in Lexington, Virginia. One of the school’s quirks is a mandatory four-week April term in which students enroll in only one class and have 8-10 hours or more of weekly face-to-face classroom interaction with the professor (and 20+ hours of readings, assignments, labs), usually on a specialized topic. In recent years the school has embraced “high-concept” classes with catchy thematic topics, deep reading lists, and creative final assignments for this mini-mester – last year, for instance, the Classics Department offered a course on the Trojan War that featured students meticulously recreating Bronze Age military formations and engaging in costumed battle on the front quad. Other classes do digital humanities projects or create documentaries, etc. I have been instructed by Dean and Department Chair to develop a “computer-related” history class for Spring 2014. I essentially have carte blanche create my ideal computer history/information history/information and society class from scratch, as long as I can cram it all into four weeks and devise some clever final project. Ideally I would attract history majors and liberal arts students as well as a few stray engineering and business students intrigued by the topic. So I appeal to the SIG-CIS community for ideas – what would you teach if you could design your ideal class on computer or information history? How would you structure it? Any outlandish ideas you wish you had tried? Books or topics or assignments you feel are must have? I might have school-provided funds for a day trip or two, so I could take the kids within a few hour radius (I’ve thought of DC and the Smithsonian, or the supercomputers at Blacksburg or Oak Ridge). I’ve gone through the excellent syllabus repository on the SIG-CIS webpage and have plundered the university faculty page-posted syllabi of some of the list’s more prominent members, but would appreciate any additional ideas. I’m not sure if I’m going to go with straight “computer history” or a broader “From Gutenberg to Google” type information history class. Given my cultural and political history strengths, other options include a “Computers and Society,” “Digital America,” or “Global Information Age” approach, or even something focused more conceptually on "Data" or "Systems." . So, again, any comments would be greatly appreciated. If you could construct your ideal (but timeframe-compressed) computer/information history class, what would you include? Thank you, Andrew -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Andrew Meade McGee Corcoran Department of History University of Virginia PO Box 400180 - Nau Hall Charlottesville, VA 22904

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A little "finding" resource
by Dave Walden 26 Sep '13

26 Sep '13

For a (hopefully) complete list of all of the Anecdotes published in the IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, see <http://computer.org/comphistory/anecdotes/>http://computer.org/comphistory/anecdotes/ [The final slash in that URL is necessary.]

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Photos from SIGCIS events incl new album from 2012 workshop
by Thomas Haigh 25 Sep '13

25 Sep '13

Hello everyone, The looming proximity of the latest SIGICS workshop (http://www.sigcis.org/workshop13, program posted and more messages coming soon) has prompted me to spend an afternoon posting pictures from last year's workshop and tidying up our online coverage of earlier events. You may be excited enough, or at least bored enough by whatever you should be doing right now, to visit our latest Facebook album full of shots from our 2012 workshop in Copenhagen on "Information Identities." The food was really good. Find it, no Facebook login required, at https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.576674705729509.1073741825.1749879 95898184 <https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.576674705729509.1073741825.174987 995898184&type=1&l=b33f8901b4> &type=1&l=b33f8901b4 Likewise, photos from SHOT 2012 events including our sessions and the lunch are at https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.576760025720977.1073741826.1749879 95898184 <https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.576760025720977.1073741826.174987 995898184&type=1&l=d62108e787> &type=1&l=d62108e787. To help you relive your time with us over the past few years the full set of links are as follows: For 2011 and later we are using Facebook albums hosted on the SIGCIS Facebook page <https://www.facebook.com/SIGCIS> . Hosting the pictures externally provides superior tools and helps integrate the workshop images into the social media experience of our members. The links below go directly to the pictures with no login required. However, please add your own tags if you were at the meeting, or recognize your friends on them. The Facebook albums cover: * 2012 SIGCIS Workshop "Information Identities: Historical Perspectives on Technological and Social Change" in Copenhagen. See the pictures. <https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.576674705729509.1073741825.174987 995898184&type=1&l=b33f8901b4> * 2012 SIGCIS events, including our lunch, within the main SHOT annual meeting in Copenhagen. See the pictures. <https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.576760025720977.1073741826.174987 995898184&type=1&l=d62108e787> * 2011 SIGCIS Workshop "Cultures and Communities in the History of Computing" in Cleveland, Ohio. See the pictures. <https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.233609830036000.59331.17498799589 8184&type=1&l=2e0ac02581> * 2011 SIGCIS sessions in the main SHOT meeting in Cleveland, Ohio. See the pictures. <https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.233602770036706.59324.17498799589 8184&type=1&l=47d50a0e27> * 2011 SIGCIS Lunch Meeting held during the main SHOT meeting in Cleveland, Ohio. See the pictures. <https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.233592190037764.59322.17498799589 8184&type=1&l=08958addc2> * A small sample of pictures from earlier events. See the pictures. <https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.175022292561421.46333.17498799589 8184&type=1&l=522f24d6a4> Photos for our SIG events from 2007 to 2010 are hosted in image galleries within the SIGCIS.org site. <http://www.sigcis.org/image/tid> These include * 2010 SIGCIS Workshop on Materiality and Immateriality in the History of Computing and other SIGCIS events in the SHOT annual meeting that year in Tacoma, Washington. See the pictures <http://www.sigcis.org/image/tid/4> . * 2009 SIGCIS Workshop on Michale Mahoney and the Histories of Computing, and other SIGCIS events in the SHOT annual meeting that year in Pittsburgh, Pennslvania. See the pictures. <http://www.sigcis.org/image/tid/5> * 2008 SIGCIS events at the SHOT annual meeting in Lisbon, Portugal. See the pictures. <http://www.sigcis.org/image/tid/3> * 2007 SIGCIS events at the SHOT annual meeting in Washington, DC. See the pictures <http://www.sigcis.org/image/tid/2> . Best wishes, Tom

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Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Invite to Write Essay on Tech History and Stuxnet
by Paul N. Edwards 23 Sep '13

23 Sep '13

Dear James, I wish I could say yes to this, but I'm afraid it's a bit outside my competence, and on top of that my writing queue is completely full for the next year or so. I wish I knew who to suggest. There is an active mailing list for historians of computing where you might find some help: sigcis <members(a)sigcis.org>. You could also try Tom Haigh at UW Milwaukee, who knows everyone. Not a potential contributor himself, though. Best, Paul On Sep 19, 2013, at 15:35 , "Mulvenon, James" <James.Mulvenon(a)defensegp.com> wrote: > Dr. Edwards: > > For the Cyber Conflict Studies Association, I am leading a project entitled “Cyber Conflict After Stuxnet” that explores how cyber conflict, cyber policy, and the cyber environment have changed since the disclosure of Stuxnet. As part of this project, CCSA is seeking experts in the field to write essays on different facets of Stuxnet's deployment and effects. Dr. Michael Adas of Rutgers suggested we contact you to see if you would be interested or available. > > We are asking you to author an essay comparing Stuxnet to previous technology innovations in conflict and the potential ramifications for Stuxnet and cyber conflict. We conceive this as a 10-page essay (approximately 2,500 words), focused on this particular topic and based on your expertise in this field. The piece should be written in an essay/op-ed style, with limited to no footnotes. We invite you to view this essay as an opportunity to be thought-provoking and speculative about the future of cyber conflict. > > In addition to authoring this essay, we are planning a symposium event in the fall (13 November 2013), where authors can discuss their papers, provide feedback, and consider the implications of the project. This symposium will also serve as a forum for cross-disciplinary discussions on Stuxnet and related issues. If you cannot attend the symposium, but still would be interested in writing an essay, that can also be an option. > > We would like to invite you to author an essay and participate in our symposium for an honorarium of $2,000 ($1,000 after the completion of the symposium and $1,000 after the successful delivery of the final draft). Travel costs will be covered for those coming from out of the DC area. > > Please see the attached documents for more information, including information on timing, and let us know if you are willing to participate in this project. The timing is fluid, given our time constraints. We believe the project would benefit greatly from your contribution, and look forward to working with you. If you cannot participate, please provide other experts you think would be able to contribute to this essay compendium. > > If you have any questions, please contact me at this email address or 703-868-4324 or my co-Principal Investigator, Hannah Pitts, at hannah(a)cyberconflict.org or 805-901-2874. > > Warmest, > James > > James Mulvenon > Director, Center for Intelligence Research and Analysis, DGI > Chairman of the Board, Cyber Conflict Studies Association > University of Michigan, 1991<Stuxnet Project One Pager - Final.pdf> ___________________________ Paul N. Edwards Professor of Information and History, University of Michigan 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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Fwd from Atsushi re SHOT Teaching Panel
by Thomas Haigh 20 Sep '13

20 Sep '13

[Atsushi Akera asked me to forward the message below. Note that the report he mentioned is still available online: http://cra.org/uploads/documents/resources/workforce_history_reports/using.…. It includes the first version of what become our main “History Resources” page on the website. Tom] Hi Marie, Sorry, I should have replied to your original query. And perhaps Bill has done so already. (I’m been swamped and not on top of my email, so my apologies if this repeats material already sent to list.) But several years ago, Bill Aspray and I edited a volume called “Using History to Teach Computer Science and Related Disciplines,” which was based on a concept Bill came up with through his work with Computing Research Associates. In addition to the edited compilation, there was a conference… two if I recall… that brought the authors together so we could collectively talk about what we did, and mutually improve what we were writing about. It was not a SIG project, but given the way we work, I think you can call it something that came about in relation to our efforts as a SIG. I think the one thing the volume does is to document the different modes of engagement between history and contemporary STEM education today. These might be: · The value of using history to provide a better sense of the context in which students will pursue their profession · A module embedded within a technical course designed both to enhance learning of an (especially difficult) concept (Bode plots or Fourier transforms, for example, might be one good example) · Material designed to cultivate normative engagement on the part of students · Courses focused on digital literacy · Novel pedagogic strategies such as educational simulation (a simulated social-entrepreneurial environment, for example) designed to foster student engagement with humanistic subjects. I’m not sure whether I’ve captured all of the different modes, but these are the ones that I can think of. Since I served as the Director of First Year Studies at RPI for many years, I was also involved in much more general thinking about creating common experiences (lecture series, common reading across multiple courses), and how to develop these in ways that created a genuine culture of the humanities within an engineering school. (Student, for example, learned the protocols of critical inquiry in lecture series, where they became accustomed to asking questions of a public speaker because of the consistent format we applied to the lecture series.) Faculty development was also a crucial component—we become specialists in our fields, but never are given the training on how to teach. Objectives based course design; student centered teaching; different modes of instruction and the need to pace and vary content within the classroom. These are of course very general things not specific to our work as a SIG, but on the other hand, if we are talking about teaching, I think it’s important to raise the point that we don’t want to always start with content when we speak about teaching. The formulation of the panel (how SIGs contribute to teaching) is oriented in this way that may deserve mention during the panel… Traffic between the general and specific is important in successful teaching. (BTW, this is some of what I hope will come up in our own roundtables on teaching that’s taking place on Sunday morning; opposite, unfortunately, the SIG-CIS program! I’ll have to work on that!) - Atsushi _________________________________________________________ Atsushi Akera Associate Professor, Department of Science and Technology Studies Rensselaer Polytechnic institute 110 8th Street Troy, NY 12180 USA cel: 518.300.0613/fx:518.276-2659/e:akeraa@rpi.edu /w: <http://www.rpi.edu/~akeraa> http://www.rpi.edu/~akeraa From: members-bounces(a)sigcis.org [mailto:members-bounces@sigcis.org] On Behalf Of M. Hicks Sent: Friday, September 20, 2013 4:49 AM To: sigcis Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Soliciting Input for SHOT Teaching Panel Thanks to all who replied so far. I'd still like to get a little more input because I know there are folks in our SIG doing great things with teaching and mentoring. If you have any general thoughts, or specific classes or assignments that you use to bring benefits from our SIG into your teaching, please do let me know. 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 On Sep 18, 2013, at 1:17, Marie Hicks <mhicks1(a)iit.edu> wrote: Hi everyone, I've been asked to participate in a panel at SHOT that discusses how SIGs influence our teaching of the history of technology. There will be one person from each SIG and the panel's goal is to tease out how each SIG's focus influences everything from the teaching of undergraduate survey courses to mentoring graduate students. How do the particular interests of the SIGs aid in "crafting a diversified pedagogical approach"? I'd like to be able to share some insights from members here who have thought about these issues and used specific theories, methods, or topics from the history of computing and information to develop or reorient their approaches to teaching and mentoring. If you have time, I'd be grateful if you would share your ideas with me in the next few days as I finalize my comments. I'd also really like to hear from grad students who can talk about how the SIGCIS might have influenced their learning experiences (as well as their teaching techniques). The panel will be featured on SHOT's new website so that folks can read the presenters' comments before the meeting. Abstract of the panel is below if you'd like to know more. Thanks in advance for your help, Marie Title: Integrating SHOT Special Interest Group Concerns into the Teaching of History of Technology: Rethinking Modes of Instruction in a Diverse Community Organizers: Honghong Tinn, National University of Singapore, Singapore Francesca Bray, University of Edinburgh, UK Discussants: Anna Åberg, the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden Gregory Clancey, National University of Singapore, Singapore Marie Hicks, Illinois Institute of Technology, USA Ann Johnson, University of South Carolina, USA (Chair) Geoff D. Zylstra, the City University of New York, USA Abstract: This roundtable session proposes to discuss the way in which SHOT scholars have incorporated SIG themes in their scholarship as well as in their teaching practices. In recent years, several new Special Interest Groups (SIGs), such as the SHOT Asia Network and Exploring Diversity in Technology’s History (EDITH) have been formed in the Society for the History of Technology. Together with a myriad of well-established SIGs, such as Women In Technology History (WITH), the Prometheans, and the Special Interest Group on Computers, Information, and Society (SIGCIS), SIGs have offered scholars homes of productive space and meaningful interactions during and beyond the annual meetings of SHOT. While we are celebrating the diversification of SIGs as a community, the teaching concerns of the community should also consider the implications of such diversification. In the 2012 SHOT, after the plenary on “Transnationalism and the History of Technology: Lessons from Tensions of Europe and Other Projects,” Ann Johnson brought up an interesting question—how do we mentor graduate students on working in transnational research projects, even as we acknowledge the importance of transnational perspectives? This roundtable session plans to invite SHOT scholars to discuss (1) the possible contributions SIGs could make to advance the field’s graduate student mentoring and undergraduate teaching, and (2) how the recent diversification of SIGs may shape our teaching of survey courses. This session will discuss the hows and whys in crafting a diversified pedagogical approach towards the study of technology’s history, as well as examine the choices of scholars in identifying particular works or approaches in their teaching at both graduate and undergraduate levels. ______________________ Marie Hicks, Ph.D. Asst. Professor, History of Technology Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago, IL USA mhicks1(a)iit.edu | mariehicks.net <http://www.mariehicks.net> | @histoftech <http://twitter.com/histoftech>

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Hiroshi Yamauchi: Nintendo chief's video games legacy
by Bernardo Batiz-Lazo 20 Sep '13

20 Sep '13

Might be of interest: Two historians have assessed his impact on the modern world but how has Nintendo affected your own life? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24157526?ocid=socialflow_facebook_bbcn… Best wishes Bernardo Bangor University (Wales)

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Soliciting Input for SHOT Teaching Panel
by Marie Hicks 20 Sep '13

20 Sep '13

Hi everyone, I've been asked to participate in a panel at SHOT that discusses how SIGs influence our teaching of the history of technology. There will be one person from each SIG and the panel's goal is to tease out how each SIG's focus influences everything from the teaching of undergraduate survey courses to mentoring graduate students. How do the particular interests of the SIGs aid in "crafting a diversified pedagogical approach"? I'd like to be able to share some insights from members here who have thought about these issues and used specific theories, methods, or topics from the history of computing and information to develop or reorient their approaches to teaching and mentoring. If you have time, I'd be grateful if you would share your ideas with me in the next few days as I finalize my comments. I'd also really like to hear from grad students who can talk about how the SIGCIS might have influenced their learning experiences (as well as their teaching techniques). The panel will be featured on SHOT's new website so that folks can read the presenters' comments before the meeting. Abstract of the panel is below if you'd like to know more. Thanks in advance for your help, Marie Title: Integrating SHOT Special Interest Group Concerns into the Teaching of History of Technology: Rethinking Modes of Instruction in a Diverse Community Organizers: Honghong Tinn, National University of Singapore, Singapore Francesca Bray, University of Edinburgh, UK Discussants: Anna Åberg, the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden Gregory Clancey, National University of Singapore, Singapore Marie Hicks, Illinois Institute of Technology, USA Ann Johnson, University of South Carolina, USA (Chair) Geoff D. Zylstra, the City University of New York, USA Abstract: This roundtable session proposes to discuss the way in which SHOT scholars have incorporated SIG themes in their scholarship as well as in their teaching practices. In recent years, several new Special Interest Groups (SIGs), such as the SHOT Asia Network and Exploring Diversity in Technology’s History (EDITH) have been formed in the Society for the History of Technology. Together with a myriad of well-established SIGs, such as Women In Technology History (WITH), the Prometheans, and the Special Interest Group on Computers, Information, and Society (SIGCIS), SIGs have offered scholars homes of productive space and meaningful interactions during and beyond the annual meetings of SHOT. While we are celebrating the diversification of SIGs as a community, the teaching concerns of the community should also consider the implications of such diversification. In the 2012 SHOT, after the plenary on “Transnationalism and the History of Technology: Lessons from Tensions of Europe and Other Projects,” Ann Johnson brought up an interesting question—how do we mentor graduate students on working in transnational research projects, even as we acknowledge the importance of transnational perspectives? This roundtable session plans to invite SHOT scholars to discuss (1) the possible contributions SIGs could make to advance the field’s graduate student mentoring and undergraduate teaching, and (2) how the recent diversification of SIGs may shape our teaching of survey courses. This session will discuss the hows and whys in crafting a diversified pedagogical approach towards the study of technology’s history, as well as examine the choices of scholars in identifying particular works or approaches in their teaching at both graduate and undergraduate levels. ______________________ Marie Hicks, Ph.D. Asst. Professor, History of Technology Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago, IL USA mhicks1(a)iit.edu | mariehicks.net <http://www.mariehicks.net> | @histoftech<http://twitter.com/histoftech>

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