January 2016 - Members - lists.sigcis.org

Planning for SHOT meeting in Singapore, June 26-29, 2016
by Andrew Russell 10 Nov '16

10 Nov '16

Colleagues - It was nice to see so many of you for the SHOT and SIGCIS meetings this past weekend in Albuquerque. From my point of view things went extraordinarily well, and I don’t have words to express how happy I am about the quality of scholarship and spirit of camaraderie that I felt throughout the weekend. I think we all owe Nathan Ensmenger a special thanks for such a fantastic keynote presentation on computing’s environmental history - throughout the day people were calling it powerful, moving, transformative, etc. Also on Sunday, we celebrated the achievements of our colleagues, including: - the ten young scholars who were awarded travel grants from MIT Press, the Computer History Museum, and the Mahoney Fund. - Rebecca Slayton, winner of the 2015 CHM Prize for her book Arguments that Count - David Nofre, Mark Priestley, and Gerard Alberts, winners of the inaugural Mahoney Prize for their article “When Technology Became Language” - Sarah McLennan, winner of SHOT’s 2015 Robinson Prize for her paper “Computing and the Color Line,” presented in a session organized jointly by SIGCIS and EDITH, thanks to Marie Hicks and Ruth Cowan. The main purpose of this message is to reinforce and amplify my call on Sunday morning for proposals for SHOT in Singapore in June 2016. SHOT will issuing its call for papers very soon, with a deadline in late 2015. In anticipation, please be thinking about participating in one of the following ways: 1. Put forth an Open Panel Proposal for the main SHOT meeting. SHOT will place a special emphasis on “open panel” topics that SHOT will circulate widely as it publicizes the CFP. 2. Organize a Complete Panel Submission of 3 or 4 papers for the main SHOT meeting. Please feel free to use the list or to contact me (or anyone on the SIGCIS Exec) if you want to float ideas and/or find extra panelists. 3. Submit a paper or panel for the SIGCIS 2016 Workshop that will be held, as usual, at the end of the SHOT conference in Singapore on Sunday, June 26. We expect to issue the CFP for the SIGCIS Workshop well after the SHOT CFP is issued; watch this space in mid-November or early December for details. As you contemplate your participation in the Singapore meeting, please keep 2 additional things in mind: 1. This is a terrific opportunity to forge new bonds with colleagues working on computing and information-related history and STS topics in Asia and the Pacific. To that end, if you have contacts there who have not been active in SIGCIS or SHOT, please do encourage them to join the SIGCIS list and to reach out to me if they want to join or help organize a session. 2. If you are in North America or Europe, try not to be too put off by the expense of the trip - particularly if you are in the early stages of your career. SHOT and SIGCIS have been raising funds for this conference for some time, and the generosity of our communities has been nothing short of inspiring. Travel support will be available! In summary: SHOT and SIGCIS 2015 were fantastic; it’s now up to us to make SHOT and SIGCIS 2016 even better. Please get in touch with me (or the list) if you have questions, suggestions, etc. about making the most of our opportunities at the Singapore meeting! Cheers, Andy Russell SIGCIS Chair

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Marvin Minsky quotation
by Mary Murrell 21 Mar '16

21 Mar '16

I was hoping that the list might help me with the source of a quotation. Marvin Minsky is often quoted as having said the following: "Can you imagine that they used to have libraries where the books didn't talk to each other?" I have not been able to find any actual source for this. Citations, if they exist, are circular, citing back to a source that itself provides not citation. Does anybody know of a published source for this quotation? Thanks, Mary -- Mary Murrell marymurrell(a)fastmail.fm

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Wikipedia marks Elk Cloner Anniversary
by Joly MacFie 31 Jan '16

31 Jan '16

https://www.facebook.com/wikipedia/posts/10153801148348346 On this day in 1982: 15-year-old Richard Skrenta wrote the first PC virus code, 400 lines long and disguised as an Apple boot program. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_virus -- --------------------------------------------------------------- Joly MacFie 218 565 9365 Skype:punkcast -------------------------------------------------------------- -

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Call for papers: Career histories of Scandinavian IS scholars
by Anker Helms Jørgensen 30 Jan '16

30 Jan '16

Probably only of marginal interest to most of you: The journal Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems has issued a call for papers: Special issue on Scandinavian Researcher Career Retrospectives. "The purpose of this special issue is to focus on career histories of Scandinavian IS scholars broadly speaking”, see http://iris.cs.aau.dk/index.php/special-issue-call-for-papers.html Regards Anker Helms Jorgensen Anker Helms Jorgensen http://uihistory.wordpress.com<http://uihistory.wordpress.com/> http://ankervejleder.wordpress.com<http://ankervejleder.wordpress.com/> http://ankervejleder.wordpress.com/materialer<http://ankervejleder.wordpress.com/> Formerly Associate Professor, PhD IT University of Copenhagen Rued Langgaardsvej 7 DK-2300 Copenhagen S Denmark anker(a)itu.dk<mailto:anker@itu.dk>

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Upcoming deadlines: SIGCIS Workshop, CHM Prize, Mahoney Prize
by Andrew Russell 29 Jan '16

29 Jan '16

Dear colleagues - Please help us spread the word about these important SIGCIS activities. We are eager in all cases to reach out to people and communities who are outside our traditional orbit (i.e. who may not be on this list). Please tweet, like, forward, whisper, and so on! SIGCIS Workshop 2016: Convergence and Divergence Singapore, June 26-27, 2016 || http://www.sigcis.org/workshop16 **deadline for submissions: February 12, 2016** Computer History Museum Prize for outstanding book in the history of computing http://www.sigcis.org/chmprize **postmark deadline for submissions: February 18, 2016** Mahoney Prize for outstanding article in history of computing and IT http://www.sigcis.org/mahoneyprize **deadline for submissions: March 1, 2016** Many thanks, Andy

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Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Need assistance finding CalComp plotting information from 1964-1970
by Len Shustek 29 Jan '16

29 Jan '16

At 07:44 AM 1/29/2016, Dag Spicer wrote: >Check out our online catalog: >http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/search/?s=calcomp There are also scans of Calcomp manuals here: http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/calcomp

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Need assistance finding CalComp plotting information from 1964-1970
by andy patros 29 Jan '16

29 Jan '16

Hello, I’ve been researching a piece for many years called the Digital Mona Lisa, aka Mona by the Numbers, produced by H. Philip Peterson while he was at Control Data Digigraphic in Burlington, Mass. in 1964/65. The output device was a CalComp plotter to the best of my knowledge. Information related to Mr. Peterson and the image is very limited on the web. Might anyone within this group have knowledge of this project, particularly information related to the CalComp hardware used? Pointers to contacts for additional dialogue are also greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time and consideration. Regards, Andy Patros www.digitalmonalisa.com <http://www.digitalmonalisa.com/>

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Call for submissions: Mahoney Prize
by Gerardo Con Diaz 29 Jan '16

29 Jan '16

*Call for Submissions: The Mahoney Prize* The Mahoney Prize recognizes an outstanding article in the history of computing and information technology, broadly conceived. The Mahoney Prize commemorates the late Princeton scholar Michael S. Mahoney, whose profound contributions to the history of computing came from his many articles and book chapters. The prize consists of a $500 award and a certificate. For the 2016 prize, articles published in the preceding three years (2013, 2014, and 2015) are eligible for nomination. The Mahoney Prize is awarded by the Special Interest Group in Computers, Information, and Society (SIGCIS) and is presented during the annual meeting of our parent group, the Society for the History of Technology. The deadline for submission (electronic submissions required) is March 1, 2016. All submissions and questions should be directed to the 2016 Mahoney Prize Committee Chair, Dr. James Cortada (*jcortada(a)umn.edu* <jcortada(a)umn.edu>). *2016 Mahoney Prize Committee:* *Jennifer S. Light* (term ends 2016) Professor of Science, Technology, and Society Professor of Urban Studies and Planning Massachusetts Institute of Technology 77 Massachusetts Ave., E51-173 Cambridge, MA 02139 *jslight(a)mit.edu* <jslight(a)mit.edu> *James Cortada*, Chair (term ends 2017) Charles Babbage Institute University of Minnesota 2917 Irvington Way Madison, WI 53713 *jcortada(a)umn.edu* <jcortada(a)umn.edu> *Jeffrey R. Yost* (term ends 2018) Charles Babbage Institute University of Minnesota 211 Andersen Library 222 21st Avenue South Minneapolis, MN 55455 *yostx003(a)umn.edu* <yostx003(a)umn.edu>

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Need help identifying a photo
by Ceruzzi, Paul 28 Jan '16

28 Jan '16

There is a famous photo on Wikimedia commons, of what purports to be Ken Thompson & Dennis Ritchie in front of a PDP-11, presumably working on UNIX. The problem is that the seated person doesn't look like either of them. And he is clean-shaven. Could it be Bjarne Stroustrup? Does anyone recall seeing T&R w/o facial hair? Any help in tracking this down would be much appreciated! The photo has been reprinted in many places, and I'd like to track this down before I inadvertently propagate an error. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ken_Thompson_(sitting)_and_Dennis_R… Paul E. Ceruzzi Curator, Division of Space History National Air and Space Museum MRC 311, PO Box 37012 Smithsonian Institution Washington, DC 20013-7012 www.ceruzzi.com<http://www.ceruzzi.com> ceruzzip(a)si.edu<mailto:ceruzzip@si.edu> 202-633-2414

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First CfP HaPoP-3, 25 June, 2016
by Liesbeth De Mol 27 Jan '16

27 Jan '16

Dear all, I hope the following CfP might be of interest to some of you, my very best wishes, Liesbeth CALL FOR PAPERS Third symposium for History and Philosophy of Programming June 25, 2016 CNAM, Paris, France www.hapoc.org/hapop3 /An affiliated event of CiE 2016 <https://lipn.univ-paris13.fr/CIE2016/>, Paris/ We are happy to announce the third Symposium for the History and Philosophy of Programming. This symposium follows the first <http://www.computing-conference.ugent.be/hapop12> and second <http://www.computing-conference.ugent.be/hapop2> editions which were organized in 2012 and 2014 respectively. It is supported by the DHST/DLMPS Commission on the History and Philosophy of Computing <www.hapoc.org> and the CNAM <http://www.cnam.fr/>. One major challenge throughout the history of programming is the development of an interface between humans, software and hardware. It has been the task of the so-called operating system to: maintain a file system; regulate access to resources; synchronize operations; etc. Today, Operating Systems are usually equipped with Graphical User interfaces (GUI) designed to give the "user" a "friendly" experience thus hiding – and sometimes even rendering inaccessible – much of the underlying structure and features of the computing machinery. In which way is this changing our relation to machines and what the unintended epistemic consequences are, is still to be assessed. The aim of the current symposium is to offer an opportunity for historical and philosophical reflection on operating systems and the programs they coordinate. Our approach is interdisciplinarity and openness towards different fields relevant to HaPoC. We were and are strongly convinced that such trans- and interdisciplinarity is necessary if one wants to reflect on a discipline such as computer science with its multidimensional nature. The current symposium will be organized in a similar manner and invites researchers coming from a diversity of backgrounds, including historians, philosophers, logicians and computer scientists who want to engage with topics relevant to the history and philosophy of programming and more specifically that of operating systems. Topics of the symposium include but are not restricted to historical and philosophical reflections on: • Origin, evolution and future of OSs • Design and Epistemology of User Interfaces • Principles of Data Access, Control and Sharing, especially in relation to OSs (e.g. the Bell-La Padula model) • Privacy and Security in OSs • Batch processing and time sharing systems • Models, problems and techniques of concurrency, parallelism and distributed systems • Open source vs corporate software • Programming paradigms and techniques (e.g. pair-programming) SUBMISSION DETAILS: We cordially invite researchers working in a field relevant to the main topics of the symposium to submit an abstract of 500 words to: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=hapop3 Abstracts must be written in English. Please note that the format of uploaded files must be .pdf or .doc.   In order to access the submission page, the creation of an EasyChair account will be required. Please notice that what is called “abstract” in the EasyChair “Title, Abstract and Other Information” section corresponds to the short abstract of this call, and what is called “paper” in the EasyChair “Upload Paper” section corresponds to the extended abstract of this call. IMPORTANT DATES: Submission deadline: March 31, 2016 Notification of acceptance: April 22, 2016 INVITED SPEAKERS: Daniel Glazman (Disruptive Innovations) Warren Toomey (Bond University, Australia) SYMPOSIUM CHAIRS: Liesbeth De Mol (CNRS, UMR8163), Raphaël Fournier-S'niehotta (CNAM), Baptiste Mélès (CNRS, UMR7117), Giuseppe Primiero (Middlesex University)  PROGRAMME COMMITTEE:  Maarten Bullynck (Université de Paris 8) Martin Campbell-Kelly (University of Warwick) Liesbeth De Mol (CNRS, UMR 8163 STL) Gilles Dowek (INRIA, Laboratoire Spécification et Vérification) Raphaël Fournier-S'niehotta (CNAM) Jean-Baptiste Joinet (Université Jean Moulin) Baptiste Mélès (CNRS, UMR 7117 Archives Henri-Poincaré) Camille Paloque-Berges (CNAM) Maël Pegny (IHPST, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne) Tomas Petricek (University of Cambridge) Giuseppe Primiero (Middlesex University) Jacques Printz (CNAM) CONTACT AND INFORMATION: For further information please contact us at: info(a)hapoc.org

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