February 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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SIGCIS Introduction
by J. Michael Wahlen 29 Feb '16

29 Feb '16

Hello Everyone, I’m new to the SIGCIS community and wanted to introduce myself. I’m a PhD student at MIT Sloan and am really interested in the history of technology, particularly in the history of the U.S. home video games industry. I really appreciate your adding me to the list - I’m already enjoying getting updates from the community on what others are doing in this area. And, if anyone has any suggestions, I am looking for archival sources on the U.S. home video game industry during its early years and would love to hear your ideas. I know there are a number of sources available online, but I would like supplement these wherever possible with original records, if anyone has any thoughts on the best places to look? Thanks again for having me. Michael Michael Wahlen PhD Student jmwahlen(a)mit.edu MIT Sloan School of Management

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fyi - an oral history interview with Wes Clark from May 1990
by andy patros 28 Feb '16

28 Feb '16

Clark describes his research at Lincoln Laboratory and interaction with the Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO) of the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). Topics include: various custom computers built at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; timesharing and network research; artificial intelligence research; ARPA contracting; interaction with IPTO directors; the work of Larry Roberts at IPTO. https://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/handle/11299/107217/oh195wc.pdf?seque… <https://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/handle/11299/107217/oh195wc.pdf?seque…> Andy Patros www.digitalmonalisa.com <http://www.digitalmonalisa.com/>

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Wes Clark obit in NY Times
by Dave Walden 28 Feb '16

28 Feb '16

The obit, written by the NYT computer columnist John Markoff, is on line at http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/business/wesley-a-clark-made-computing-pe… . Presumably it is also in the print edition of the paper.

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“Please Read the Article”? Please Cite Women Academics.
by Meryl Alper 25 Feb '16

25 Feb '16

Hi all, Over the weekend, journalist Fred Kaplan published an article in the New York Times, entitled "'WarGames' and Cybersecurity's Debt to a Hollywood Hack" ( http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/21/movies/wargames-and-cybersecuritys-debt-t…) The core argument -- that WarGames culturally influenced the Reagan administration's cyberpolicy -- sounded a great deal like communication scholar Stephanie Ricker Schulte's work. When I brought this reference to Kaplan's attention on Twitter, he was super dismissive and minced my words. So, naturally, I wrote a blog post about the incident, situating it within a broader trend of tech journalists (mostly men) minimizing the work of academics (mostly women), and capitalizing on this sin of omission in promoting their own books and other works: https://merylalper.com/2016/02/22/please-read-the-article-please-cite-women… I'm really interested to know the thoughts of this community, both as one that knows the history of cyber law/policy inside and out, but one with many members committed to egalitarian principles. Best, Meryl -- *Meryl Alper* Assistant Professor Department of Communication Studies Northeastern University Holmes 217 m.alper(a)neu.edu merylalper.com

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CHM News - New Blog on Supercondutivity-based Computing
by Dag Spicer 25 Feb '16

25 Feb '16

This great capsule history of superconductor-based computing was just published in IEEE Spectrum by CHM's Director for Software History David Brock. http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/hardware/will-the-nsa-finally-build-its-… Enjoy! 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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Wes Clark obituary by Evan Koblentz
by Dave Walden 25 Feb '16

25 Feb '16

See http://www.techrepublic.com/article/wesley-a-clark-legendary-computer-engin… -- 12 Linden Road, East Sandwich, 02537 landline=508-888-7655; cell=774-205-3203 website=walden-family.com

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CHM Archives Update - Community Memory Archive now open to researchers
by Dag Spicer 24 Feb '16

24 Feb '16

Anyone studying the origins and development of online communities and social networking may find our collection of the Community Memory Archives to be of interest. Now that processing is complete, the collection is now open to researchers! Archivist Bo Doub describes the Community Memory project and archive in this week’s blog: http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/community-memory-precedents-in-social-… 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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ENIAC in Action
by Dag Spicer 23 Feb '16

23 Feb '16

Just fyi: When you order EIA from Amazon, it quotes a long (4+ week) delivery time. However my experience with several separate orders indicates that it will actually arrive in only 3 days. Best, Dag

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