February 2016 - Members - lists.sigcis.org

CHM Blog: Beckman, Shockley and the 60th Anniversary of the Birth of Silicon Valley
by Dag Spicer 10 Feb '16

10 Feb '16

Something special happened on Valentine’s Day about 60 years ago…! Enjoy the latest blog by CHM semiconductor curator David Laws. http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/beckman-shockley-and-the-60th-annivers… 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 events this month at Penn (Feb 15 & 16), Maryland (Feb 18), and UW Milwaukee (Feb 23)
by Thomas Haigh 10 Feb '16

10 Feb '16

Dear SIGCIS, There are a few ENIAC-related events coming up around its 70th anniversary and the launch of our new MIT Press book ENIAC In Action: Making and Remaking the Modern Computer. (Which you can read more about on the MIT Press blog https://mitpress.mit.edu/blog/eniacs-birthday) PHILADELPHIA, PA: * 15 February 2016, University of Pennsylvania. Wu & Chen Auditorium, Levine Hall 101. 2:30-4:30. ENIAC 70th Anniversary Event, Engineering School. Book signing, talk by Thomas Haigh "Working on ENIAC: Rethinking the Myths of Innovation," and by Mark Priestley "A History of ENIAC in Three Programs." Followed by a reception and musical performance! Full program pasted below. * February 16, 2016, University of Pennsylvania. History Department Lounge, College Hall. 12:00-1:30, brown bag with the authors of ENIAC in Action on "The Many Histories of ENIAC." COLLEGE PARK. MD: * February 18, 2016, University of Maryland College Park. "Working on ENIAC: The Lost Labors of the Information Age" with Thomas Haigh & Mark Priestley. Sponsored by Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities and by Computer Science. Human-Computer Interaction Lab (2105 Hornbake, South Wing), 12:30-1:30. <http://mith.umd.edu/?post_type=mith_dialogue&p=16584> Details online. MILWAUKEE, WI: * February 23, 2016. University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee, Greene Hall. 2:45-4:45. Talk by Thomas Haigh and book signing, with light refreshments. RSVP if possible here. LONDON, UK * May 11, 2016. "The History of ENIAC in Three Programs," with Mark Priestley. Computer Conservation Society, London. UK. <http://www.bcs.org/content/conEvent/10076> Details online. Some events will be happening on April 6 & 7 at Weber State University in Utah. Well post details of all events at http://eniacinaction.com/148-2/ as they become available rather than repeatedly spam you. Best wishes, Tom ENIAC 70th Anniversary Celebration Monday, February 15, 2016 We have three featured events that will be accessible to guests throughout the day. Each location will be indicated with a balloon bouquet. ENIAC Suite - Moore 100 Guests are welcome to visit ENIAC at any time throughout the day. Two notable additions to the artifact's display are 1) the plaque which describes ENIAC's history and purpose and 2) the interactive kiosk designed as a guide and historical reference for guests to explore. Virtual ENIAC Walk-Through - SIG Center for Computer Graphics, Moore 103 A continuous loop will be on display throughout the day that will give guests the sense of what it was like to walk around in the room where ENIAC was created and operated here at The Moore School before relocating to Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Virginia. ENIAC in 3D - Additive Lab, Towne Café Space Guests can watch a 3D model of ENIAC being built from the ground up on three state-of-the-art 3D color printers. The printing of the model from start to finish will take a few hours and completion is estimated around 3pm. Colloquium Wu and Chen Auditorium, Levine Hall 101 2:30 pm: "Working on ENIAC: Rethinking the Myths of Innovation" Thomas Haigh, Associate Professor of Information Science University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee 3:30 pm: "A History of ENIAC in Three Programs" Mark Priestley, Independent Researcher 4:15 pm: Book Signing, Levine Lobby "ENIAC in Action: Making and Remaking of the Modern Computer" Thomas Haigh, Mark Priestley MIT Press 4:30 pm: Reception, Levine Lobby 5:15 pm: "The Counterparts" - A Capella group will perform songs from the WWII era

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CfP: Digital fabrications amongst hackers, makers and manufacturers: whose 'industrial revolution'?
by Adrian Smith 08 Feb '16

08 Feb '16

Track title: Digital fabrications amongst hackers, makers and manufacturers: whose 'industrial revolution'? Co-convenors: Johan Söderberg, Maxigas, Adrian Smith 4S/EASST Conference: Science and technology by other means: exploring collectives, spaces and futures, 31 August to 3rd September, 2016, Barcelona Abstract submission here: http://grassrootsinnovations.org/2015/12/14/cfpdigital-fabrications-amongst… Deadline for abstracts 21 February 2016 Our track brings critical analysis to the plurality of collectives, spaces and futures that are assembling around increasingly accessible digital design and fabrication technologies. Computer integrated tools hold particular historical ironies and contradictions: early introduction threatened skills, livelihoods and identities amongst manufacturing communities – while they are celebrated today as enabling agency, identities and communities for makers. Both processes has been promoted as ’Industrial Revolutions’. STS has much to contribute to understanding, engaging and bridging digital fabrications. Conversely, apparent historical turnarounds in digital fabrication, with tools spilling into new collectives and spaces, offers an opportunity to interrogate STS theory and methodology. Fifty years ago, social ecologist Murray Bookchin, like other commentators welcomed a future in which collectives would own tools and organise production non-hierarchically around ‘liberatory technologies’. Does grassroots appropriation of digital fabrication in hackerspaces, makerspaces and amongst user groups online, mean his future for egalitarian tool-based creativity arrived? Or do digital fabrication futures reinforce the automation, flexible specialisation, and globalised outsourcing documented by David Noble in the 1980s, and that hasbeen a driver for the technology amongst manufacturing strategists since then? How do the collectives and spaces pursuing these different futures intersect, contest, and co-exist? In analysing digital fabrications, we are particularly interested in the critical voicesposing unsettling questions: * Who controls the platforms underpinning these activities and their connections, and how doesthis influence the spaces for peer production, and the terms for private appropriation? * What senses of humanity are invigorated, and which excluded, from the political imaginaries, utopias, dystopias, and ideologies embodied in digital fabrication technologies? * How does the materiality of digital fabrications connect to the values of sustainable developments? * Where does the figure of the hacker – forever opening-up technologies - lurk in these collectives and spaces; and what has hacker culture mobilised and been appropriated by these collectives? * When and where will future industrial conflicts arise: what are the political and economic relations at stake between these collectives, spaces and futures? We welcome papers that provide critical reviews, original empirical study, and theoretical development relevant to digital fabrications. Adrian Smith<http://www.sussex.ac.uk/bmec/internal/people/spru/person/16347/research> Professor of Technology & Society SPRU (Science Policy Research Unit) University of Sussex @smithadrianpaul [cid:66180EC9-8F8A-4FD4-A697-DC82979D39D6]

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REMINDER: 2016 SIGCIS Workshop - Singapore June 26/27
by Jason Gallo 08 Feb '16

08 Feb '16

This is a reminder to submit individual papers and panel submission for the 2016 SIGCIS Workshop, which will be held on on June 26th and 27th, immediately following the Society for the History of Technology annual meeting in Singapore. The deadline for submission has been *extended to February 26th*. Please see the full call at *http://www.sigcis.org/workshop16* <http://www.sigcis.org/workshop16> for further details about the workshop and travel support information. Best, Jason >>>>>> *Workshop Theme: Convergence and Divergence* The terms “convergence” and “divergence” are opposite to one another, but they can both be used, sometimes simultaneously, to study information and computing technologies in their social, cultural, and political contexts. For instance, an individual computer may serve as a site of convergence for raw materials sourced around the world. At the same time, the journey of each of those materials from their extraction sites to the manufacturers’ factories may itself be a story of divergence—that is, of how resources and ideas scatter away from their point of origin. Convergence and divergence also occur beyond the material cultures of computing and information. The technical standards, social conventions, and legal frameworks that shape how people can engage with information technologies can vary wildly across the globe, or even from one local context to the next. People working in different national or local contexts may develop similar frameworks by following entirely different paths and, conversely, ways of conceptualizing, using, and regulating computing and information in a local setting may gain global appeal. The theme for this year’s SIGCIS meeting is “Convergence and Divergence,” broadly conceived. Possible lines of inquiry include: - Comparative or international studies of governance and regulation - Local and regional cultures of computing - Changes in computing technologies and market structures (such as digital convergence) - Global systems of resource extraction and equipment manufacturing - The movement of information technology within and across national borders - The convergence and/or divergence of disciplinary perspectives in the history of computing and information As always, we welcome submissions even if they do not align with the workshop 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, business history, labor history, social history, the history of science, science studies, communications, gender and sexuality studies, computing, and museum studies. - Proposals for individual papers should be made at http://www.sigcis.org/workshop16a - Proposals for complete sessions can be made at http://www.sigcis.org/workshop16b

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Submissions for Computer History Museum Prize due 18-Feb
by Joy Lisi Rankin 08 Feb '16

08 Feb '16

2016 Call for Submission Books published in 2013-2015 are eligible for the 2016 award. Books in translation are eligible for three years following the date of their publication in English. Publishers, authors, and other interested members of the computer history community are invited to nominate books. Please note that books nominated in previous years may be nominated again, provided they have been published in the timeframes specified above. Send one copy of the nominated title to each of the committee members listed below. To be considered, book submissions must be postmarked by February 18, 2016. For more information, please contact Dr. Joy Rankin, the 2016 prize committee chair. Current information about the prize, including the most recent call and a list of previous winners, always may be found at http://www.sigcis.org/chmprize. 2016 Prize Committee Members • Joseph A. November Associate Professor and McCausland Fellow Department of History University of South Carolina 817 Henderson Street Gambrell Hall, Room 245 Columbia, SC 29208 USA • Joy Rankin (2016 Chair) Visiting Scholar, American Academy of Arts and Sciences 136 Irving Street Cambridge, MA 02138 USA • Christophe Lécuyer LIP6 Université Pierre et Marie Curie 4 place Jussieu 75005 Paris France

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Andy Clark: Lorenz, Colossus and the Dream of a Universal Machine for Cryptanalysis
by Brian Randell 05 Feb '16

05 Feb '16

Hi: Now on YouTube: Andy Clark: Lorenz, Colossus and the Dream of a Universal Machine for Cryptanalysis A talk by Andy Clark of TNMOC and Royal Holloway at the "ENIGMA – Precursor of the Digital Civilization" conference organized by the Foundation for Polish-German Cooperation on 10 November 2015 in Warsaw. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnzjPmNDom4 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.cs.ncl.ac.uk/people/brian.randell

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Digital Technology - Past and Present
by Brian Randell 05 Feb '16

05 Feb '16

Hi: This 52 page booklet, from the Open University, produced in conjunction with the BBC (which I learned about from a documentary about Ada Lovelace on BBC2 last night, part of their Making it Digital season), can be downloaded from: https://css2.open.ac.uk/outis/docs/publications/OZRDIG.pdf Its Introduction: "Digital technologies have changed the way we work, shop, socialise, and are entertained. Behind them lie clever algorithms – step by step procedures that detect where we are and suggest a route, predict the weather, recognise our fingerprint, and do many other things. Algorithms pre-date computers by over 2000 years. For example, simple arithmetic procedures, like long division, are algorithms. In this pack you will see how computation changed over time, from early calculating devices to modern computers, who are some of the women and men behind major breakthroughs, what are the fundamental concepts and the limitations of algorithms. You will also see how to translate algorithms into code, so that computers can execute them much faster and more precisely than humans ever could. " Cheers Brian Randell PS The documentary about Ada Lovelace was much better than the brief account of her in this booklet. Hopefully this BBC series will show up on PBS soon. -- 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.cs.ncl.ac.uk/people/brian.randell

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E-book version of ENIAC book
by Thomas Haigh 04 Feb '16

04 Feb '16

Thanks to Evan for checking up on the status of the e-book. While MIT Press remains far and away the best place to publish a book of this kind, some recent personnel changes and resultant turmoil there came just at the wrong moment for our book. I think the e-book delay is probably tied to another problem, which is that the person the press hired to do the indexing (as per our contract) never produced an index. We were told that she had just stopped replying to emails. So back in September the press told us that to have books out by this month's anniversary we had to forgo a subject index in the print edition. As Penn was already planning to use the book as the centerpiece for its anniversary event that seemed like a better option than a further delay from the originally promised publication date of October 2015. We've been promised that an index will be ready this month, and made available online for download by purchasers of the print edition. A PDF index would be more useful than a print version anyway, as it's searchable. My understanding is that the index will be incorporated into the e-book edition, which is presumably why it's delayed as this complicates the usual production process. Hopefully there will be a Kindle version, which is a different thing from the MIT e-book, but that would be in the hands of Amazon and I don't think could happen until after MIT makes its own electronic version. Best wishes, Tom -----Original Message----- From: Members [mailto:members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org] On Behalf Of Evan Koblentz Sent: Thursday, February 04, 2016 10:27 AM To: thaigh(a)computer.org; members(a)sigcis.org Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] ENIAC in Action - book, website, and free poster > Looks like the e-book option is not yet available. Web site only shows > hardcover when you mouse over 'buying options'. I called MIT Press; > they said they'll check and reply soon. They called back and said the e-book option won't be available until early April. _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org

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ENIAC in Action - book, website, and free poster
by Thomas Haigh 04 Feb '16

04 Feb '16

Hello SIGCIS, I'm pleased to announce the publication by MIT Press of ENIAC in Action: Making and Remaking the Modern Computer, which I wrote with Mark Priestley and Crispin Rope. Thanks to all those in the SIGCIS community who helped us at various points along the way. Copies are now shipping from the MIT Press warehouse, and Paul Ceruzzi tells me that his has already arrived. You can get 30% off this or any other MIT Press STS title by using the code M16STS30 at checkout from the MIT Press store. https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/eniac-action The book is much less boring than you probably expect. Because the book focuses on a single artifact we could expand our breadth of coverage in time (from 1943 to the present day) and in the variety of historical approaches taken. Thanks to a series of major legal battles running from the 1950s to the 1970s we could draw on an exceptionally extensive archival collections. We used these to dig deep into the technical mysteries of ENIAC, reconstructing the programming techniques used, the physical spaces built to house it, and the evolution of its design. Yet we also explore ENIAC as a workplace (literally, as its operators stood inside it), as an object in historical memory, and as the product of a bureaucratic organization. This challenged us to integrate historical methods from fields as disparate as business history and the history of mathematics and to package the results in a form accessible to diverse audiences. It chimes with several recent topics of discussion on this list, from the importance of the "maintainers" (by broadening ENIAC from a dot on a timeline of innovation to a place for humdrum and diverse human toil) to the recent announcement of a summer school on the history of computer simulation. Any help that members of the SIGCIS community can give in drawing the book to the attention of other potential readers would be appreciated. I'm confident that it will be well received by people who already know that they would like to read an academic book about ENIAC, which is not all that many people. I have no idea whether it will be noticed in broader communities such as the history of physics, media studies, people interested in cold war technology, etc. Within the history of computing we've tended to view a disinclination to engage with technological detail as the hallmark of scholarly professionalism, but within the humanities more broadly there's a lot of enthusiasm for "the digital," non-human turns, thing theory, object oriented ontology, media archaeology, racism in Unix, etc. This relates very much the questions about the role of technical history I explored in the Communications of the ACM column "The Tears of Donald Knuth <http://www.tomandmaria.com/Tom/Writing/CACMKnuthTears.pdf> " last year (which with more than 115,000 downloads seems to have been by some distance the most popular article published in Communications last year). There is a lot of material already on the book website at www.EniacInAction.com <http://www.EniacInAction.com> . This includes downloads of related articles, technical reports, and archival documents. These include the earliest known ENIAC set-up diagrams. There is also a poster http://eniacinaction.com/the-book/eniac-monte-carlo-poster/ of the astonishing December 1947 flow diagram for the Los Alamos Monte Carlo program run on ENIAC, which we view as the first modern computer code ever executed. Even if it wasn't a "first", it would still be of great interest as the best documented and most complex application program preserved from the 1940s. There's a PDF version online, but if you like it and want a free glossy poster (24x18 inches) then just email me your mailing address (offer limited to first 100 requests). We also have an extensive tabulation of ENIAC-related errors in Walter Isaacson's The Innovators. So if you ever feel tempted to believe a detail from that book, check it first at http://eniacinaction.com/the-articles/eniac-errors-in-isaacsons-the-innovato rs/. Best wishes, Tom www.tomandmaria.com/tom <http://www.tomandmaria.com/tom>

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Announcing the 2016-2017 Arthur Molella Distinguished Fellowship (Apps Due: 31 March 2016)
by Hintz, Eric 04 Feb '16

04 Feb '16

Dear SIGCIS- We are pleased to announce the Arthur Molella Distinguished Fellowship in honor of our friend, colleague, and long-time SHOT member, Art Molella. Details below - please consider applying or forwarding this announcement - many thanks! Best- Eric Hintz --- Announcing the 2016-2017 Arthur Molella Distinguished Fellowship Apps Due: 31 March 2016 The Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation<http://invention.si.edu/> is pleased to announce the creation of the Arthur Molella Distinguished Fellowship at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History (NMAH). We seek to appoint an experienced author or senior scholar from the history of technology, science and technology studies, business history, museum studies, STEAM education, or an allied field. The specific arrangement is flexible: the Molella Distinguished Fellow may use the funds as a sabbatical supplement; for several short-duration visits; for a single residency focused on research and writing; or for a series of lectures leading to a major publication. We invite the Molella Distinguished Fellow to participate in the intellectual life and programmatic activities of the museum; to take advantage of the expertise of the museum's research staff<http://americanhistory.si.edu/about/staff>; and to consult the Institution's vast invention and technology collections (see http:/collections.si.edu/<http://collections.si.edu/>). The Lemelson Center will assist in arranging a visa for non-US citizens, provide a workspace, and facilitate startup procedures at the Smithsonian. The Lemelson Center invites applications covering a broad spectrum of research topics in the history of technology, invention, and innovation. However, strong preference in the selection of the Arthur Molella Distinguished Fellow will be given to projects whose topics align with one (or more) of the Lemelson Center's strategic research and programmatic areas, including: (1) the role of place in invention and innovation; (2) the making and training of inventors and innovators; (3) innovation in sports; (4) the role of risk and failure in invention and innovation; or (5) projects that illuminate inventors from diverse backgrounds or any inventions and technologies associated with groups (e.g. women, minorities, disabled, LGBT, etc.) that are traditionally under-represented in the historical record. About Arthur P. Molella, PhD The Arthur Molella Distinguished Fellowship is endowed by The Lemelson Foundation<http://www.lemelson.org/> in recognition of Dr. Arthur P. Molella's<http://invention.si.edu/arthur-molella> scholarly contributions in recording and celebrating the history and importance of invention and innovation in American society. During his 40+ years at the Smithsonian, and as founding director (emeritus) of the Lemelson Center, Molella has been responsible for collecting initiatives, major exhibitions, and numerous publications that have explored Joseph Henry's scientific contributions; science in American life; Nobel laureates; foundational scholars (e.g. Mumford, Usher, Gideon) in the history of technology; eco-cities and connections between technology and the environment; museum strategies and best practices; the history of world's fairs and expos; and the influences of culture, play, and place in the inventive process. Stipend and Residency: $35,000 (US). Funds may be used flexibly to support travel for several short-term visits; living expenses for longer residences up to six months; and related research expenses. Dates are flexible. Fellows may begin their residencies on/after June 1, 2016 through May 31, 2017. To Apply: For application procedures, please visit http://invention.si.edu/arthur-molella-distinguished-fellowship. Applications are due 31 March 2016. For more information, please contact the fellowship coordinator, Eric S. Hintz, PhD, hintze(a)si.edu<mailto:hintze@si.edu>, +1 202-633-3734.

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