January 2017 - Members - lists.sigcis.org

The new thing: Ayyadurai claims to be suing Techdirt
by Thomas Haigh 05 Jan '17

05 Jan '17

The Gawker settlement is old news -- announced some time ago though perhaps the money is only now being paid. Here's the new part of the press release, which doesn't seem to be reported anywhere yet: New Lawsuit against TechDirt.com On January 4, 2017, Dr. Ayyadurai filed a new lawsuit against TechDirt.com for defaming him in 14 different articles published from September 2014 through November 2016. Dr. Ayyadurai seeks a minimum of $15 million in damages in the new lawsuit. Interesting to see how that works out. TechDirt's founder, Mike Masnick, has blogged the most in-depth and sustained coverage of the saga: https://www.techdirt.com/blog/?tag=shiva+ayyadurai. The news reminds me of TechDirt's choice to headline its recent article reporting the Gawker settlement "Here's the Truth, Shiva Ayyadurai Didn't Invent Email." https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20161103/11502935958/heres-truth-shiva-ayy adurai-didnt-invent-email.shtml One commentator asked "Why don't you just flat out DARE Ayyadurai to sue you? Because you're coming pretty close." Looks like he rose to the bait. Another depressing data point suggesting that 2017 is likely to be worse than 2016. Tom -----Original Message----- From: Members [mailto:members-bounces@lists.sigcis.org] On Behalf Of Evan Koblentz Sent: Wednesday, January 04, 2017 5:31 PM To: Sigcis <members(a)sigcis.org> Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Shiva/Gawker, also AAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHHHHH I strongly advise putting on a helmet before reading because you will want to bang your heads against the wall extremely hard. I know I do. <http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/gawker-media-pays-dr-shiva-ayyadura i-inventor-of-email-750000-settlement-300385899.html> http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/gawker-media-pays-dr-shiva-ayyadurai -inventor-of-email-750000-settlement-300385899.html >From the press release: -------------------- Gawker Media has paid Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai a $750,000 settlement payment and later this month will permanently remove its libelous article about him, which denied Dr. Ayyadurai's invention of email. Victory over Gawker Media "This is a historic victory for truth," declared Dr. Ayyadurai. "Americans have no tolerance for fake news, lies or cyberbullying. A 14-year-old kid working in Newark, New Jersey in 1978 invented email. This settlement honors that innovation." There is no reasonable dispute that Dr. Ayyadurai is the inventor of email. -------------------- _______________________________________________ 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/> 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> http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org

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Open Access Living Book: Histories of the Internet and the Web
by Enrico Natale 03 Jan '17

03 Jan '17

// Sorry for cross-posting // infoclio.ch is proud to present the newest volume of his Living Books about History collection: Valérie Schafer & Alexandre Serres: Histories of the Internet and the Web, Living Books about History, 2017. <https://dx.doi.org/10.13098/infoclio.ch-lb-0006 <http://livingbooksabouthistory.ch/en/book/histories-of-the-internet-and-the…>> Living Books about History represent a new form of digital anthology in Open Access. They present short essays on current topics of scholarly interest accompanied by selected contributions that are freely available online. Read the original essai, explore selected ressources and suggest further contributions. Book Abstract: Fifty years after the Arpanet project was launched, twenty-five years after the inception of the Web, twenty years since the beginning of the Internet Archive — by means of a selection of sources and research essays — this anthology seeks to provide an extended panorama of the variety of actors, trajectories, perspectives, methods and writings of Internet and Web history. [Available in French and English] www.livingbooksabouthistory.ch <http://www.livingbooksabouthistory.ch/> Enrico Natale infoclio.ch Hirschengraben 11 Postfach 6811 3001 Bern Tel: +41 31 311 75 72 Follow infoclio.ch on Twitter <https://twitter.com/infoclio> / Facebook <https://www.facebook.com/infoclio.ch>.

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Lead to Air
by Christine Finn 03 Jan '17

03 Jan '17

Hello to all, Members might be interested in this retro technology event later this month near Albany NY. It launches my new media project, Lead to Air, which is a tribute to analogue newsrooms, and lost process. This performance piece is inspired by a video work by the Icelandic artist, Ragnar Kjartansson, and US band The National. I have no idea what I'll write - the idea is to respond to what arises over time - but the text will be available for the audience to read as soon as it leaves the typewriter. http://www.artslettersandnumbers.com/calendar/2017/1/22/lead-to-air-perform… Happy New Year, Christine Dr CA Finn MA (Oxon) DPhil Fellow, Society of Antiquaries of London Former Reuter Journalist Fellow (1990) Former Visiting Fellow Reuter Institute for the Study of Journalism (2015/6) University of Oxford Artifacts: an Archaeologist's Year in Silicon Valley (MIT Press) Edge contributor: https://www.edge.org/annual-questions

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Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Information culture in 2017: recommendations for student readings/other lit?
by Taylor-Smith, Ella 03 Jan '17

03 Jan '17

Dear James there's been a series of relevant discussions on the Association of Internet Researchers' list e.g. the Fake News thread http://listserv.aoir.org/mmsearch.cgi/air-l-aoir.org See also "breaking news and fake news" One of the resources I picked up is Jeanine Finn's bibliography https://jeaninefinn.me/2016/11/15/understanding-fake-news-in-2016-before-th… Hope this helps -Ella Dr Ella Taylor-Smith School of Computing Edinburgh Napier University 10 Colinton Road Edinburgh, EH10 5DT Email: e.taylor-smith(a)napier.ac.uk http://www.iidi.napier.ac.uk/e.taylor-smith http://about.me/EllaTaylorSmith @EllaTasm This message and its attachment(s) are intended for the addressee(s) only and should not be read, copied, disclosed, forwarded or relied upon by any person other than the intended addressee(s) without the permission of the sender. If you are not the intended addressee you must not take any action based on this message and its attachment(s) nor must you copy or show them to anyone. Please respond to the sender and ensure that this message and its attachment(s) are deleted. It is your responsibility to ensure that this message and its attachment(s) are scanned for viruses or other defects. Edinburgh Napier University does not accept liability for any loss or damage which may result from this message or its attachment(s), or for errors or omissions arising after it was sent. Email is not a secure medium. Emails entering Edinburgh Napier University's system are subject to routine monitoring and filtering by Edinburgh Napier University. Edinburgh Napier University is a registered Scottish charity. Registration number SC018373

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Siegen workshop "Exploring the Early Digital" Jan 12-14
by Thomas Haigh 02 Jan '17

02 Jan '17

Dear SIGCIS, Those of you in easy reach of NW Germany might be interested in an event we're holding at Siegen University in just under two weeks (Jan 12-14). There's no registration charge. If you need overnight accommodation the Ramada is the best bet. The workshop is primarily intended to lay the framework for a book, working title "Exploring the Early Digital" that will probably be a mix of new chapters (accessible and argument-driven) with reprints/excerpts of some previously published work. We're trying to broaden from "computers" to "the digital" and so engage with some aspects of media studies, engineering practice, etc. Most of the time will be spent discussing early drafts, but we do have public talks by Paul Ceruzzi and William Aspray. I'm also excited by a panel discussion on structuring overview narratives of computing/the digital with Aspray, Ceruzzi, and Martin Cambell-Kelly. Other participants from beyond Siegen include Gerard Alberts, Maarten Bullynck, Edgar Daylight, Liesbeth De Mol, Ron Kline (via Skype), Pierre Mounier Kuhn, David Link, David Nofre, Mark Priestley, Doron Swade, and Ksenia Tatarchenko. The draft program, which I'll be updating as more details are filled in, is at www.socialstudiesof.info/earlydigital <http://www.socialstudiesof.info/earlydigital> . Or, for those who like shorter URLs, socstud.info/earlydigital. Best wishes, Tom

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Information culture in 2017: recommendations for student readings/other lit?
by James Sumner 02 Jan '17

02 Jan '17

Dear SIGCIS Happy New Year, and best wishes for more than usually unsettled times. I'm writing with a request for suggested sources which arises from my annual attempt to update my introductory survey course for undergrads, The Information Age – a task that always leaves me hugely envious of the local early-modern and medieval historians, who can usually get by with rolling the course content forward from one year to the next without any seismic geopolitical events leaving their priorities and interpretations wildly outdated. The Spring 2016 version, for what it's worth, is in the Syllabus Repository at http://www.sigcis.org/files/2015-2016%20HSTM%2020282%20Information%20Age%20… I'm looking both for straightforward, accessible material that can be used directly by a mixed group of STEM (mostly computer science) and humanities (mostly history) students, a few of whom will have little background in any branch of the field, and for more complex literature I could digest for lecture content. Like others – see in particular Lee Vinsel's howl of frustration at https://twitter.com/STS_News/status/807580040116445184 – I'm wondering how best to use the recent rise of public concern about online information and the social cultures formed around it, given that the analytical discourse over the past 25 years has been strongly shaped by optimistic, sometimes utopian techno-determinist accounts, and that the more nuanced and seemingly level-headed accounts that have so far opposed this trend are now starting to look overly optimistic themselves, giving too little agency to the nature of the platforms that dominate info consumption. On a related note, I'm also keen to give more specific coverage to the workings and influence of digital formalisations and automated processing in everyday information culture, particularly bearing in mind the mixture of disciplinary backgrounds of these students. One of my concerns is obviously to wean CS students away from the common IT-solutionist mindset that presents technical answers to social problems and expects them to work in defiance of every single lesson of recorded history – but I see a corresponding problem on the humanities side, in that many students don't have a working familiarity with algorithmic processing, and will routinely size up blind and bulk processes in terms of intentions and individualisations that may not be there. I usually open these areas up for group discussion with questions like the classic "What do you do if your identity doesn't match any of the boxes on the form?", or why supermarkets (at least in the UK) occasionally display posters for special offers that are obviously poorer value than the regular price. I notice that Tarleton Gillespie and Nick Seaver have put together a very detailed reading list of "Critical algorithm studies": https://socialmediacollective.org/reading-lists/critical-algorithm-studies/ and also that there's a new collection titled /Algorithmic Cultures/ edited by Robert Seyfert and Jonathan Roberge, so there are plenty of promising leads in the academic literature – but I'm also looking for good journalism. All recommendations gratefully received! Best James

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