June 2015 - Members - lists.sigcis.org

Amiga 30th Anniversary Event - History from Below
by Dag Spicer 26 Aug '15

26 Aug '15

Hello friends, If any of you are exploring microcomputers, computer graphics or the rise of personal computing in your work and would like see a unique world-class collation of (mostly functioning) Amiga and other microcomputers, please consider attending this upcoming CHM event. Former Amiga, Apple, and Atari employees in attendance make this a great ‘guerrilla oral history’ opportunity too! Dag --------- The Amiga 30th anniversary event at the Computer History Museum will be the ultimate tribute to the Amiga Computer. Consisting of a two day exhibit hall complete with massive historical display, game zone, presentation area, and exhibitors such as A-Eon, Friend Software Labs, CastAR from Technical illusions, Amiga Forever, Individual Computers, Jim Drew of CBMStuff, and others. In addition to the Amiga systems present, the show will also have a collection of Atari, Apple, Commodore, and other retro computer systems. The creators of the Amiga have been involved in some of gaming and computing's most notable projects like Defender, Atari 2600, Macintosh, Atari Lynx, 3D0, and more. Come join us for a weekend of Amiga and retro computing fun! Starting on July 25th, the event features 2 days of exhibit hall and a banquet Saturday evening with panel discussion. Tickets and more details are available on www.amiga30.com<http://www.amiga30.com>. ----------- -- Dag Spicer Senior Curator Computer History Museum Editorial Board, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 1401 North Shoreline Boulevard Mountain View, CA 94043-1311 Tel: +1 650 810 1035 Fax: +1 650 810 1055

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CHM Fellows Awards - Nominations Now Open!
by Dag Spicer 25 Jun '15

25 Jun '15

Hello everyone! The Computer History Museum Fellow Awards publicly recognize individuals who have made outstanding contributions to computing in areas as diverse as artificial intelligence, networking, programming languages, computer graphics, microprocessors, and operating systems. If you know someone that fits this description please nominate them today! CHM Fellows nominations are now open to the public through August 31. For more details on the nomination process and criteria, please see: http://www.computerhistory.org/fellowawards/nominations/ Dag -- Dag Spicer Senior Curator Computer History Museum Editorial Board, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 1401 North Shoreline Boulevard Mountain View, CA 94043-1311 Tel: +1 650 810 1035 Fax: +1 650 810 1055

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1950s TV show portrayed computers with minmal silliness
by McMillan, William W 24 Jun '15

24 Jun '15

There has been discussion on the list about how computers have been portrayed in movies and other media from the 1950s. I wanted to let you know about an American TV show from that era that did a surprisingly good job of presenting the possibilities for computing, basing ideas on real work in the field. The show was Science Fiction Theatre, hosted by Truman Bradley (available on Amazon for 30-some USD). It ran 1955-1956 and based stories on real science. In fact, each episode begins with an instructional demo of a scientific principle. One episode that centers on computing is "Survival in Box Canyon." A computer predicts weather to inform decisions about an above-ground nuclear test (ah, those were the days, my friends). A scientist flying his own plane in for the test has to bail out, and the computer is used to predict where he drifted on the way down. Regarding weather prediction, the host explains that this will improve greatly once we have weather satellites in orbit. Another episode is "Dr. Robot." A research group is working on machine translation, and an engineer with a sick wife uses the computer to predict the chances of success if she has surgery. Eniac and Univac are mentioned. Computers appear in other episodes as well. The whole series is great fun, filled with fabulous old-tech porn. Tape drives to die for! If you're interested in the place of computing in our culture and imagination, you might want to take a look Of course, the show is entertainment, and takes liberties with scientific ideas, but overall, is surprisingly thoughtful for a TV show. Bill PS: For those interested in aviation, the other hero in the "Box Canyon" episode is the Civil Air Patrol, a uniformed, civilian service in the U.S. that mainly helps in search and rescue operations.

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Isaacson
by Daniel Ferrell 23 Jun '15

23 Jun '15

SIGCIS members, I have recently began reading Walter Isaacson's The Innovators chronicling the history of the digital revolution. In a vast array of historical books on the history of digital technology, do you feel Isaacson's contribution is legitimate? -Daniel Ferrell Home Acceptance Corporation (NMLS #1151715). 65 S. Outer Rd. P.O. Box 72 Benton, MO 63736

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CFP: SIGCIS 2015 Workshop - Infrastructures - submissions due June 30
by Andrew Russell 23 Jun '15

23 Jun '15

Greetings all - Please find below the call for papers for the annual SIGCIS workshop. The theme for 2015 is “Infrastructures.” As always, we hope that submissions will engage the theme, although, as always, we warmly welcome submissions on the history of computing and information (broadly conceived) that have no connection to the theme. Please share, tweet, like, fax, photocopy, and cross-post this CFP widely! Full details about submissions, travel grants, etc. are available from http://www.sigcis.org/workshop15. Cheers, Andy Russell SIGCIS Chair https://www.facebook.com/SIGCIS https://twitter.com/SIGCIS http://www.sigcis.org —————————————————————— SIGCIS Workshop 2015: Infrastructures Sunday, October 11, 2015 Albuquerque, New Mexico Deadline for submissions: June 30, 2015 The Special Interest Group for Computers, Information and Society (SIGCIS<http://www.sigcis.org>) welcomes submissions for our annual one-day scholarly workshop to be held on Sunday, October 11, 2015 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This is immediately after the end of the regular annual meeting of our parent organization, the Society for the History of Technology, details of which are available from http://www.historyoftechnology.org/features/annual_meeting/. Questions about the SIGCIS 2015 workshop should be addressed to Andrew Russell (Stevens Institute of Technology), who is serving as chair of the workshop organizing committee (e-mail: arussell(a)stevens.edu<mailto:arussell@stevens.edu>). Workshop Theme: Infrastructures Across academic, artistic, and popular domains, curiosity and concern over the information and computing infrastructures that sustain economic, cultural, and social interaction has never been more salient. In contrast to the hype generated by the gadgetry of innovation prophets and venture capitalists, an emphasis on infrastructure highlights networks of labor and focuses on the human, material, and ecological cost and scale of information and computing technologies. For the SIGCIS 2015 Workshop, we invite papers that engage historical dimensions of the prosaic work of building networks, cultivating workforces, and maintaining computing and information infrastructures. Related themes necessarily include maintenance, labor, and ordinary experiences with information and computing technologies. Proposals for individual papers or complete sessions might include the following topics: * the maintenance of legacy hardware and software * the training and treatment of labor and workforces * the lived realities of computers and IT * digital archives and their sustainability * cyberinfrastructures for bureaucratic and scientific collaboration * materiality of computing, media, and information technologies * specific infrastructural technologies such as cables, fiber-optics, switching, and wireless * political and economic aspects of infrastructure maintenance and development * tensions between local or national legal regimes and global information infrastructures As always, SIGCIS welcomes all types of contributions related to the history of computing and information, whether or not there is an explicit connection with the annual theme. Our membership is international and interdisciplinary, and our members examine the history of information technologies and their place within society from a variety of scholarly perspectives including the history of technology, labor history, social history, business history, the history of science, science & technologies studies, communications, media studies, gender and sexuality studies, and museum studies. Suggested Formats for Submissions Proposals for entire sessions and individual presenters are both welcome. We hope to run special sessions featuring dissertations in progress and other works in progress. The workshop is a great opportunity to get helpful feedback on your projects in a relaxed and supportive environment. All proposals will be subject to a peer review process based on abstracts. As we attract submissions from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds, it is best to be explicit: SIGCIS follows traditional practices for the submission of papers for professional historical conferences. These include selection based on abstracts rather than full papers; no dissemination of full papers (with the exception of works in progress and dissertations in progress, as noted in the CFP); and the requirement that presenters share their full papers with the session commentators at least 2 weeks prior to the meeting. The deadline for submissions is June 30, 2015; the program committee will send notifications no later than July 15, 2015. For complete details about the workshop, the submissions procedure, travel grants, and previous workshops, please visit http://www.sigcis.org/workshop15. ——————————————————————

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Two works
by Daniel Ferrell 23 Jun '15

23 Jun '15

SIGCIS members, Concerning the subject of automation, and how it relates to modern society--particularly, the economic and psychological effects that ensue, seems to be a thought-provoking topic in our current milieu. Can anyone suggest any good publications on this topic? -Daniel Ferrell Home Acceptance Corporation (NMLS #1151715). 65 S. Outer Rd. P.O. Box 72 Benton, MO 63736

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CFP: “Critical Data Studies” – Big Data & Society Special Theme
by Andrew J Iliadis 23 Jun '15

23 Jun '15

CFP: “Critical Data Studies” – Big Data & Society Special Theme Guest Editors: Andrew Iliadis (Purdue University) and Federica Russo (Universiteit van Amsterdam) Critical Data Studies (CDS) is a growing field of research that focuses on the unique theoretical, ethical, and epistemological challenges posed by “Big Data.” Rather than treat Big Data as a scientifically empirical, and therefore largely neutral phenomena, CDS advocates the view that data should be seen as always-already constituted within wider data assemblages. Assemblages is a concept that helps capture the multitude of ways that already-composed data structures inflect and interact with society, its organization and functioning, and the resulting impact on individuals’ daily lives. CDS questions the many assumptions about data that permeate contemporary literature on information and society by locating instances where data may be naively taken to denote objective and transparent informational entities. CDS may be viewed as an emerging field connected to Information Ethics, Software Studies, and Critical Information Studies in that it seeks to question the ethical import of information and Big Data for society. Problems of causality, quality, security, and uncertainty concern CDS scholars. Recent articles outlining the theoretical program of CDS offer a new platform from which to question data in this manner. We seek essays for this special volume that broaden these latest commitments in CDS to include new empirical research projects on information and communication technologies (ICTs) that fall under the umbrella of Big Data, while also seeking to question their attendant epistemological shifts. Through the critical lens of ethics and morality, this special volume opens up CDS to localizations where Big Data can no longer be seen as neutral, and where an ethics of Big Data might emerge. Issues of interest include (but are not limited to): - Causality: how should we find causes in the era of ‘data-driven science?’ Do we need a new conception of causality to fit with new practices? - Quality: how should we ensure that data are good enough quality for the purposes for which we use them? What should we make of the open access movement; what kind of new technologies might be needed? - Security: how can we adequately secure data, while making it accessible to those who need it? How do we protect databases? - Uncertainty: can Big Data help with uncertainty, or does it generate new uncertainties? What technologies are essential to reduce uncertainty elements in data-driven sciences? Proposals of 1000 words are invited for consideration and inclusion in the Special Theme to be published in Big Data & Society (BD&S), an open access peer-reviewed scholarly journal that publishes interdisciplinary work principally in the social sciences, humanities and computing and their intersections with the arts and natural sciences about the implications of Big Data for societies. Manuscripts should be 8,000 words for an Original Research Article, 3,000 words for a Commentary, and 1,000 words for an essay in the Early Career Research Forum section. All submissions of Original Research Articles to BD&S are double-blind, and triple peer-reviewed. Commentaries and ECR submissions are reviewed by the Guest Editors. Proposals should be sent to the Guest Editors: ailiadis(a)purdue.edu and f.russo(a)uva.nl Manuscript Guidelines: http://www.uk.sagepub.com/msg/bds.htm#PEERREVIEWPOLICY Style Guidelines: http://www.uk.sagepub.com/repository/binaries/pdf/SAGE_UK_style_guide_short… Proposal Deadline: July 10, 2015 Notification of Acceptance: end of July Paper Deadline: October 4, 2015 Reviews Returned: end of December Revised Paper Deadline: February 29, 2016 Anticipated Publication Date: Spring/Summer 2016 CFP link: http://bigdatasoc.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/call-for-proposals-special-theme-o…

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Fwd: Hands-on History Feb 2016 CFP
by Andrew Russell 22 Jun '15

22 Jun '15

Perhaps of interest - Begin forwarded message: From: Communication History Discussion List <communicationhistory(a)communicationhistory.org<mailto:communicationhistory@communicationhistory.org>> Subject: Hands-on History Feb 2016 CFP Date: June 22, 2015 at 3:41:32 PM EDT To: <discussion(a)communicationhistory.org<mailto:discussion@communicationhistory.org>> Reply-To: Communication History Discussion List <discussion(a)communicationhistory.org<mailto:discussion@communicationhistory.org>> __ HANDS-ON HISTORY: EXPLORING NEW METHODOLOGIES FOR MEDIA HISTORY RESEARCH (can also be viewed at http://tinyurl.com/HandsOn16) 8â?"10 February 2016 Geological Society, London Confirmed keynote speakers: * Prof. Susan J. Douglas (Professor of Communication Studies, University of Michigan) * Dr. Gerard Alberts (Associate Professor of the History of Mathematics and Computing, University of Amsterdam) â?oMedia Scholars and Amateurs of All Countries and Disciplines, Hands-on!â? * Recent years have witnessed a growing turn to experimental historical research in the history of media technologies. In addition to archival investigation and oral history interviews, historians and enthusiasts are increasingly uncovering histories of technology through hands-on exercises in simulation and re-enactment. Equipment lovingly restored by amateurs, or preserved by national heritage collections, is being placed in the hands of the people who once operated it, provoking a new and rich flood of memories. The turn to experimental research raises profound methodological questions. The unreliability of narrative memory is well proven, but what do we know about the limits of haptic and tactile memory? To what extent is it possible to elicit useful memories of technological arrays when parts of those arrays are missing or non-functional? How do the owners of old equipment shape the historical narratives which are stimulated by their collections? Hands-On History is a colloquium designed to facilitate discussion of these issues between historians, users, curators and archivists (amateur and professional) who are making use of and taking part in these historical enquiries. In addition to a series of keynote presentations by leading scholars in the field, the event will also include stimulating workshops on specific focus areas. While the focus of the event will be on media technologies, broadly defined, we invite contributions from other areas of technology and from other academic disciplines. This colloquium aims to make a decisive intervention in this emerging area of academic interest. It is part of the ADAPT project, a European Research Council funded project investigating the history of television production technologies through hands-on simulations. Research conducted by ADAPT will form a key case study for the colloquium. In order to facilitate productive discussion, numbers will be limited. It is expected that papers presented will form the basis of an edited collection focused on hands-on historical research. We invite proposals for research presentations, panel discussions, and historical equipment demonstrations. Presentations may take whatever format is most appropriate, and we welcome approaches which deviate from the traditional 20 minute lecture. Please send a brief proposal to nick.hall(a)rhul.ac.uk<mailto:nick.hall@rhul.ac.uk> by 28 August 2015. * Andreas Fickers and Annie van den Oever, â?oExperimental Media Archaeology: A Plea for New Directionsâ? 2013 --

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Diagrammatic models of human computing
by Paul Fishwick 22 Jun '15

22 Jun '15

I recently listened to a podcast on Pickering's human-intensive computing for processing astronomical data. Here is a wiki page that contains an overview and photograph from 1890: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_Computers I am seeking diagrammatic workflow models of the types of computation that occurred under Pickering's direction, but more generally, any articles or texts that contain such diagrams for human computing. I am familiar with modern formalisms such as BPMN: http://www.bpmn.org/ in which business workflows might be formalized. I also have read Grier's excellent book: http://www.amazon.com/When-Computers-Human-David-Grier/dp/0691091579/ref=sr… The history and cultural context is interesting to me, and most appropriate for engaging readers, however, the main end-point in this story-telling process, for me, is for people to appreciate the path toward the diagrammatic formalisms with their nodes, merges, branches, and connections. If I need to, I can embark on a path toward creating some models with the written historical accounts as a guide, but I thought that checking here would be the best starting location in this quest for diagrammatic evidence. -paul Paul Fishwick, PhD Chair, ACM SIGSIM Distinguished University Chair of Arts & Technology and Professor of Computer Science Director, Creative Automata Laboratory The University of Texas at Dallas Arts & Technology 800 West Campbell Road, AT10 Richardson, TX 75080-3021 Home: utdallas.edu/atec/fishwick Lab Blog: creative-automata.com SIGSIM Blog: modelingforeveryone.com

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Businessweek - What is code?
by Dag Spicer 21 Jun '15

21 Jun '15

Great long-form article on software, code, the psychology of software development and management, how it works… highly recommended! http://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-paul-ford-what-is-code/ Dag -- Dag Spicer Senior Curator Computer History Museum Editorial Board, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 1401 North Shoreline Boulevard Mountain View, CA 94043-1311 Tel: +1 650 810 1035 Fax: +1 650 810 1055

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