November 2016 - Members - lists.sigcis.org

Chinese Characters Are Futuristic and the Alphabet Is Old News - The Atlantic
by Sarah T. Roberts 17 Nov '16

17 Nov '16

Of potential interest to many. I always appreciate work that decenters the myth of Western (American, typically) primacy in tech. http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/11/chinese-computers/504… --- S a r a h T. R o b e r t s, P h. D. Assistant Professor University of California, Los Angeles Department of Information Studies Graduate School of Education & Information Studies https://is.gseis.ucla.edu/ Blogging periodically at http://illusionofvolition.com

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Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Importance of history to practitioners
by Brian L. Stuart 17 Nov '16

17 Nov '16

I guess at this point, I should mention a couple of upcoming courses that I'm offering here at Drexel. This winter quarter, we're doing a graduate level special topics on the history of computing. In the spring quarter, we're going to do an undergraduate version. They're definitely going to be technical courses. In fact, to distinguish them from the sort of course that the History department might question CS teaching, we're calling them Evolution of Computing. I'm still in the planning stage, but just to give you an idea of what I've got in mind, here are some of the things I'm planning to do: - Have them write a simulation of the Babbage difference engine the first week as a warm-up. - Have them do a simple program on my ENIAC simulator in the pre-instruction set processing mode of operation. - Demonstrate an analog computer in class. - Have them write a simulator for an early machine. - Have them write a paper analyzing the architectural influence of one early machine on another. - Have them write some code for a PDP-8. Then I'll bring in an 8/M and let them toggle in and run their code. - The graduate version of the class will also read some of the foundational papers on theory, especially Turing's "On Computable Numbers." Between now and the end of the year, I'll be firming up the details, but hopefully you get a sense of what the class will be like. BLS -------------------------------------------- On Thu, 11/17/16, Dave Walden <dave.walden.family(a)gmail.com> wrote: I don't remember if the following has been mentioned on this list or not. If it is unlikely that a university course of study for computer science will be changed to include history, I wonder if some computing history could be done in informal intersession courses (e.g., http://web.mit.edu/IAP/) or through a lunch-hour seminar series. Also, in these days of on-line video courses, maybe one initial computing history course could be developed that is then available to students everywhere; no doubt such videos already exist. If there were a list of the good ones by topic, perhaps the professor for a particular technical course could refer the students to the relevant video in case the students want to watch it.

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Tom Haigh talk
by Dag Spicer 11 Nov '16

11 Nov '16

Sorry, one last detail: to sign up, please visit here: https://connect.computerhistory.org/pages/events/2016-11-thomas-haigh Event: ENIAC In Action Thomas Haigh Friday, Nov 18, 2016 11:00 a.m. Pacific time Computer History Museum 1401 N Shoreline Blvd Mountain View, CA 94043 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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Tom Haigh to speak at CHM!
by Dag Spicer 11 Nov '16

11 Nov '16

Hello everyone! The Computer History Museum is delighted to welcome Professor Thomas Haigh to the museum next week for a special lecture based on the amazing book “ENIAC in Action.” Here is the official lecture announcement: "Rethinking the Myths of Innovation with ENIAC in Action” Books and shows about the history of information technology have usually focused on great inventors and technical breakthroughs, from Charles Babbage and Alan Turing to Steve Jobs and the World Wide Web. Work by non-geniuses, particularly operations work, has been written out of the popular history of innovation, but without it no computer would be useful. Information historian Thomas Haigh is writing it back in. This talk will focus on ENIAC, the first general purpose electronic computer, based on research for his book ENIAC in Action: Making and Remaking the Modern Computer, recently published by MIT Press. Haigh’s book explains that the six women now celebrated as the “first computer programmers” were actually hired as computer operators and worked hands-on with the machine around the clock. Other women, who actually built ENIAC, have been forgotten entirely, as have the contributions of other people working on vital aspects of the project, from procuring the right kind of wire to saving ENIAC from flood water. Haigh’s concluding comments relate this historical material to the human labor and physical infrastructure today vanishing from public view into the “cloud.” Join us as Thomas Haigh discusses his new book and the men and, in particular, women involved in the creation of design of the ENIAC. We are very pleased that Books, Inc. will be selling copies of ENIAC in Action before and after the program. There is no charge for the lecture and we especially encourage all SIGCIS members who can to attend. It would be great to see you there and connect! All the best, 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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Importance of history to practitioners
by McMillan, William W 10 Nov '16

10 Nov '16

Greetings, all. I thought you might like to hear the following. In a meeting with a small software company in Ann Arbor that emphasizes user-centered, agile development, a colleague and I asked what subjects should be included in an academic program in interaction design. The firm's chief designer, who also has a programming background, said that the most important course would be history of computing! His justification was that a designer needed to know where all the tools and techniques came from before designing current systems. His point might be obvious to many on this list, but when professionals in the practical world say things like this, it makes it a lot easier to get approval in a university to offer -- or even require -- classes like history of computing. Regards, Bill

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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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Clinton's Ada
by JD Fleming 10 Nov '16

10 Nov '16

The Washington Post has reported that Hillary Clinton's pre-election confidence was in part based on her campaign's use of a bespoke psephological algorithm, named after Ada Lovelace. Perhaps, as an episode in the history of information, this one writes itself. Nonetheless, I bet there are people on this list who have some interesting things to say about it, and if so, I for one would certainly like to hear. JD Fleming -- J ames Dougal Fleming Associate Professor Department of English Simon Fraser University 778-782-4713 Burnaby -- British Columbia -- Canada. Incipiamus.

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Mobile Technologies and Access to Knowledge: New Call for Chapter Proposals
by Subramanian, Ramesh Prof. 10 Nov '16

10 Nov '16

Hello all, Greetings from Ramesh Subramanian! I am a Fellow at the Yale Information Society Project (Yale Law School), and a professor of Information Systems at Quinnipiac University. The "Access to Knowledge Global Academy (A2KGA)" is one of the initiatives that Yale ISP is involved in. I am co-editing a book titled "Mobile Technologies and Access to Knowledge" for the A2KGA. I would like to invite you to submit a chapter proposal for this book. I am attaching the book proposal here, and I would be grateful if you could help by submitting a proposal, and passing this CFP to anyone you know who might be interested. I look forward to hearing from you! Thanks in advance, -Ramesh --------------------------------------------------------------------- Ramesh Subramanian, Ph.D. Gabriel Ferrucci Professor of Computer Information Systems Quinnipiac University Hamden, CT 06518. Phone: 203-582-5276 Email:rameshs@quinnipiac.edu Web: http://www.quinnipiac.edu/about/directory/faculty-detail/?Dept=16&Person=23… & Fellow, Yale Law School - Information Society Project New Haven, CT 06511 Email: ramesh.subramanian(a)yale.edu Web: http://www.law.yale.edu/intellectuallife/9841.htm

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Gawker removing history
by Jonathan Coopersmith 06 Nov '16

06 Nov '16

http://fortune.com/2016/11/05/gawker-settlement-email-inventor/ with all due respect, would Katie Hafner be appropriately described as a historian? Jonathan Coopersmith Professor Department of History Texas A&M University College Station, TX 77843-4236 979.845.7151 979.862.4314 (fax) http://historynewsnetwork.org/blog/author/42 : latest post is "Coal Comfort. Is Hillary Clinton being 'Al Gored'?" at *http://historynewsnetwork.org/blog/153818 <http://historynewsnetwork.org/blog/153818>* * FAXED. The Rise and Fall of the Fax Machine* (Johns Hopkins University Press) is the co-recipient of the 2016 Business History Conference Hagley Prize for best book in business history.

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Kelly Gotlieb Obituary
by Brian Randell 04 Nov '16

04 Nov '16

Hi: >From the (Toronto) Globe and Mail: The father of Canadian computing U of T professor found new uses for computers, ranging from library systems to designing jet planes BILL ATKINSON Special to The Globe and Mail November 4, 2016 Computing pioneer Kelly Gotlieb was quintessentially Canadian in that he united high technical achievement with a low public profile. Leaders in the field of digital computation, however, have long regarded the University of Toronto professor emeritus, who died on Oct. 16 at the age of 95, as the father of Canadian computer science. In 1948, just a year after receiving his doctorate, Dr. Gotlieb helped establish the country's first computation centre, at the University of Toronto, and in 1952, he imported Canada's earliest digital computer, FERUT, to his new lab. This 800-pound thermionic-tube-filled monster was the second of its kind to be produced by the British firm Ferranti Electric Co. (FERUT is an acronym for 'FERranti U of T'). With FERUT up and running, Dr. Gotlieb collaborated with the University of Saskatchewan to process research data digitally. U of S sent metres of paper tape by Teletype to U of T over analog phone lines, encoding gigabytes of raw data. Dr. Gotlieb's computation centre fed this into FERUT, which in mere hours had analytical output, also on paper tape, that was then sent back to U of S. The process was lightning-fast compared with previous snail-mail turnaround times of up to four months. When the university established its Department of Computer Science in 1964 (for graduate students only), Dr. Gotlieb was appointed its first director. By that point, he had already distinguished himself in digital computation, calculating the dynamic stability of designs for the new Avro Arrow fighter plane and modelling the hydrological consequences of various configurations for the St. Lawrence Seaway then being mooted. Dr. Gotlieb's calculations so reassured the U.S. Congress that it reversed its initial opposition to the Seaway, for the first time opening the industrial and agricultural heartland of North America to global seaborne trade. <snip> Full story at http://v1.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20161104.OBGOTLIEB/BDAStory… Cheers Brian Randell -- School of Computing Science, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK EMAIL = Brian.Randell(a)ncl.ac.uk PHONE = +44 191 208 7923 FAX = +44 191 208 8232 URL = http://www.ncl.ac.uk/computing/people/profile/brianrandell.html

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