August 2017 - Members - lists.sigcis.org

Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Konrad Zuse's 1936 patent - German text?
by Brian Randell 24 Sep '20

24 Sep '20

Hi Mark: I have a copy of the original 1936 Zuse patent application that I had translated into English for my Origins book. (It took some finding - some of my Zemanek documents had strayed into the middle of the Zuse documents, and so had obscured them! :-) It is a type-written document, on the letterhead of Zuse’s patent attorney Dr.-Ing. Bruno Wolf, Berlin Charlottenberg 5, Kantstrasse 85, dated 9.4.36 (i.e. 9 April 1936). It is some twenty or so pages in length. However I should warn you that some of the pages are barely legible (though could probably be deciphered by someone who knows German - which I don’t). I could scan this document for you if you wish. (I have about two inches thick of documents about Zuse’s work, including a number of patents and patent applications, some pre-war, immediately some post-war, together with several typescripts from him. My plan is that this material will be added to the archive of my files held in the Special Collections section of Newcastle University Library. This already holds all the extensive correspondence that I was involved in while compiling Origins.) Cheers Brian On 24 Jan 2017, at 10:58, Mark Priestley <m.priestley(a)gmail.com<mailto:m.priestley@gmail.com>> wrote: Dear list, Zuse's 1936 patent "Method for Automatic Execution of Calculations with the Aid of Computers" is reprinted in Brian Randell's "Origins of Digital Computers" collections. Does anyone know if/where I can get hold of the German original? Thanks in advance. Mark _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org<http://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 -- School of Computing Science, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK EMAIL = Brian.Randell(a)ncl.ac.uk<mailto:Brian.Randell@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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IBM 610
by John Impagliazzo 25 Apr '18

25 Apr '18

Hi All, Allegedly, some consider the IBM 610 Auto-Point computer (1959) the ‘first personal computer’. http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/plugboard.html Is this true – even slightly true?? John John Impagliazzo, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus, Hofstra University IEEE Life Fellow ACM Distinguished Educator

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Email "inventor" claimant to run for U.S. Senate -- alternative facts about technology and democracy collide
by Andrew Meade McGee 18 Sep '17

18 Sep '17

Continuing with the ongoing saga of V. A. Shiva and his claims regarding the invention of e-mail, that gentleman has just announced his candidacy for the United States Senate. https://twitter.com/va_shiva/status/835420061993218048 As several SIGCIS contributors noted earlier this month, this nicely parallels the upcoming SHOT themes of technology and democracy. "Alternate facts" about the history of technology will play a major public element of this campaign next year. --Andrew

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Updates and changes to SIGCIS website and mailing list
by Andrew Russell 25 Aug '17

25 Aug '17

Dear colleagues - As you know, the SIGCIS email list has been in an “emergency moderation” mode since late May. Since then the SIGCIS Officers have reflected on the problems that occurred on and beyond the list, and we have been working on ways to address these problems and make positive changes for our community. I’m writing today with an update about what we have done, and what our next steps are. 1. Statement of Community Values The Officers decided that a good first step would be to articulate the foundational values that we, as a community, aspire to embody and uphold. This statement is posted at http://www.sigcis.org/node/404 <http://www.sigcis.org/node/404> (the page name was system-generated, in case you’re wondering), and I’m pasting it here as well. It can be found under the “About SIGCIS” heading on the left-sided menu at sigcis.org <http://sigcis.org/>. We study the past: SIGCIS is a community dedicated to studying the past of information technology. We tackle this common task using many disciplinary perspectives and analytical methods. We embrace SHOT’s call for openness and pluralism: SIGCIS welcomes SHOT’s description of SIGs as groups aimed at “bringing together scholars and professionals with interests in specific fields of the history of technology.” We aim to bring people and institutions together: SIGCIS values our community’s ability to bring together people from a broad range of institutions—which include universities, museums, libraries, clubs, corporations, and professional associations. We are strengthened by our community’s diversity: SIGCIS recognizes that our members’ social diversity and breadth of disciplinary approaches constitute our core strengths as a scholarly community. We are committed to supporting our community’s diversity: SIGCIS does not tolerate oppressive behavior. This includes, but is not limited to, objectification, online or off-line harassment, and stereotyping or discriminating based on gender, race, class, national origin, religion, or professional affiliation and background. 2. Revised Acceptable Use Policy for members(a)SIGCIS.org <mailto:members@SIGCIS.org> The Officers also agreed that we should update our old Acceptable Use Policy, and we worked hard to find a consensus about what it should say. The revised AUP can be found at http://www.sigcis.org/node/14 <http://www.sigcis.org/node/14>, available from the “Email List” heading on the left-sided menu. I won’t paste it here, since it’s somewhat lengthy, but it will be posted to the list regularly (at least twice per year). It consists of four sections: History and Function; Community Standards and Expectations; Acceptable Topics; and Restricted Topics. 3. Moderation of members(a)SIGCIS.org The Officers discussed many options for the future of our main email list, members(a)SIGCIS.org. I can’t say we achieved unanimity, but I think we feel comfortable with our solution. We have decided to keep the list open, with one significant change: a group of volunteer moderators who will keep a close eye on the list and promptly address any questions or violation of list policies that come up. The moderators will work with SIGCIS Officers to take action on posts that they determine to be marginally inappropriate, inappropriate, or clearly offensive. We have already taken action regarding some specific past postings. Our overarching goal in moving to a model of list moderation is simple: to devote more care to guiding discussion in respectful and productive ways, and to avoid problems we have encountered in the past when discussions have veered off the rails. A description of the Moderator Responsibilities and Guidelines, as well as contact information for our (heroic!) moderators, is posted at http://www.sigcis.org/node/19 <http://www.sigcis.org/node/19>. With these steps in place, we plan to open up the list to regular postings in the coming weeks. If you have comments or questions in the meantime, please feel free to reach out to me or any of the Officers or Moderators. Thank you for your patience as we have worked through this challenging time for our community. We are trying our best to strengthen our community, to demonstrate our unwavering support for our community’s diversity and collegiality, and to restore the mailing list so that it can function again as a productive space for all of us who are passionate about computer and information history. Sincerely, Andy Russell SIGCIS Chair

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New issue of the journal Internet Histories
by Niels Brügger 17 Aug '17

17 Aug '17

New issue of the journal Internet Histories is now out! In issue 1(3) you'll find the following articles: What is “internet”? The case for the proper noun and why it is important Morten Bay When search engines stopped being human: menu interfaces and the rise of the ideological nature of algorithmic search Niels Kerssens--OPEN ACCESS Towards a nonlinear, material history of digital swarms Alberto Micali Infonie: a forced conversion to the Internet (1995–2000) Stéphanie Le Gallic Conversations with a pioneer: Paul Baran in his own words Morten Bay You can find more information about all the articles here http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rint20/1/3?nav=tocList Please also consider submitting an article to the journal, more information about submission can be found here http://www.tandfonline.com/action/authorSubmission?journalCode=rint20&page=…. We are already now planning issue 2(1) and we would very much like to have more submissions for this issue within the next 1-2 months. -Niels Brügger —————————————————————————————— NEW JOURNAL: Internet Histories—Digital Technology, Culture and Society, inaugural issue (1(3)) OUT NOW, http://tandfonline.com/loi/rint20<http://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Ftandfonline.com%2Floi%2Frint20&h…> LATEST PUBLICATIONS AND PAPERS The Web as History: Using Web Archives to Understand the Past and the Present (eds. N. Brügger, R. Schroeder). London: UCL Press, 2017 Download FREE copy: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ucl-press/browse-books/the-web-as-history Probing a nation’s web domain: A new approach to web history and a new kind of historical source. In G. Goggin, M. McLelland (Eds.), The Routledge Companion to Global Internet Histories (pp. 61-73). New York/Abingdon: Routledge 2017. Webraries and Web Archives: The Web between public and private. In D. Baker, W. Ewans (Eds.), The End of Wisdom?: The Future of Libraries in a Digital Age (pp. 185–190). Oxford: Chandos Publishing, 2017. Pre-pub versions: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312006853_Webraries_and_Web_Archiv… https://www.academia.edu/30729119/Webraries_and_Web_Archives_The_Web_betwee… Digital Humanities. In K.B. Jensen, R.T. Craig, J. Pooley, E. Rothenbuhler (Eds.), The International Encyclopedia of Communication Theory and Philosophy (vol. 1, pp. 548-556). Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell/The International Communication Association (ICA), 2016 Digital Humanities in the 21st Century: Digital Material as a Driving Force, Digital Humanities Quarterly, 10(3), 2016 Read article: http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/10/3/000256/000256.html The Web’s first 25 years (guest editor and Introduction), New Media & Society, 18(7), 2016 Read more: http://nms.sagepub.com/content/18/7 A brief history of Facebook as a media text: The development of an empty structure, First Monday, 20(5), 2015 Read article: http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/5423 NIELS BRÜGGER, Professor (MSO, with special responsibilities), PhD Head of the Centre for Internet Studies, and of NetLab School of Communication and Culture Aarhus University Helsingforsgade 14, building 5347, room 236 8200 Aarhus N Denmark Phone (switchboard) +45 8715 0000 Phone (direct) +45 8716 1971 Phone (mobile) +45 2945 3231 E-mail nb(a)cc.au.dk<mailto:nb@dac.au.dk> Webpage http://imv.au.dk/~nb Profile at LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/1/50a/555 Skype name: niels_bruegger Orcid.org/0000-0003-1787-1980<http://Orcid.org/0000-0003-1787-1980> The Centre for Internet Studies, http://cfi.au.dk NetLab, http://netlab.dk RESAW, a Research Infrastructure for the Study of Archived Web Material, http://resaw.eu

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Minitel: Welcome to the Internet
by Kevin Driscoll 15 Aug '17

15 Aug '17

Dear colleagues, We are happy to announce the publication of our new book, Minitel: Welcome to the Internet. Minitel: Welcome to the Internet Julien Mailland & Kevin Driscoll The MIT Press, June 2017 https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/minitel In the 1980s, the French Minitel network was the first online system to reach mass-market penetration at the level of a country. With its unusual balance of public and private control, Minitel offers an alternative model for thinking about platforms, policy, and public culture. For a taste of our argument and approach, check out this recent article in the IEEE Spectrum, "The Online World France Built Before the Web": http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/networks/minitel-the-online-world-france… And for a deeper dive, visit the Minitel Research Lab, an independent digital archive featuring hundreds of Minitel artifacts, from terminal hardware to synthpop records: http://minitel.us/ Sincerely, Kevin Driscoll and Julien Mailland

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CfP: Workshop on the History of Expressive Systems at ICIDS 2017
by Mark J. Nelson 07 Aug '17

07 Aug '17

Call for Papers: First Workshop on the History of Expressive Systems === Website: http://www.expressive-systems.org/hex/01/ Held November 14, 2017, in conjunction with the International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling (ICIDS) in Funchal, Madeira, Portugal. We invite researchers interested in the history of expressive systems to participate in the first Workshop on the History of Expressive Systems (HEX1), to be held at ICIDS 2017 in beautiful Funchal, Madeira, on November 14, 2017. The purpose of this workshop is to improve the historical understanding of our field, both to ensure an accurate historical record for its own sake, but also to bring the history 'into the present' by understanding lines of research and their implications for current work in this rapidly expanding area. By 'expressive systems', we broadly mean computer systems (or predigital procedural methods) that were developed with expressive or creative aims; this is meant to be a superset of the areas called creative AI, expressive AI, videogame AI, computational creativity, interactive storytelling, computational narrative, procedural music, computer poetry, generative art, and more. Important Dates === * September 15, 2017: All submissions due. * September 29, 2017: Submission notifications sent. * November 1, 2017: Camera-ready copies due. * November 14, 2017: Workshop held. Submission Types === HEX1 will be accepting submissions of the following kinds: * Abstracts: Papers up to two pages in length, with unlimited additional space for references and appendices (e.g., supporting visual materials). Accepted abstracts will be invited for oral presentation at the workshop. * Papers: Papers of any length. Accepted papers will be invited for oral presentation at the workshop. Additionally, accepted papers will be invited for publication in the workshop proceedings, which will be made freely available online. Scope === For this first iteration of the workshop held at ICIDS, we prefer a focus on systems within the usual scope of ICIDS, i.e. historical computational narrative systems, videogame narrative, story generation, expressive natural language generation, text bots, e-literature, story understanding, computational narratology, etc. Additionally, histories of the field itself (or specific eras, approaches, etc.) would be a great fit for HEX. Here are some examples of potential contributions: * Portraits of forgotten or relatively unknown expressive systems. * Histories of specific research labs, such as the Yale AI Project led by Roger Schank in the 1970s. * Overviews of the careers of unheralded researchers or practitioners. * Reimplementations of early expressive systems, such as Montfort's reimplementation of Strachey's 1952 love-letter generator. * Rational reconstructions and rethinkings of historical expressive systems, such as Skald or Wide Ruled. * Reappraisals of conventionally disregarded systems, such as Wardrip-Fruin's extensive overview of Tale-Spin's underlying processes. * Reframings of known historical systems as expressive systems, or specifically as narrative systems — for example, mainframe war simulations of the 1950s. * Discussion of obscure computer games as early examples of interactive storytelling, such as Don Daglow's 1973 Star Trek game that extensively featured character dialogue. * Bringing history into the present: borrowing old techniques for new settings and architectures. * Bringing the present into history: applying new techniques to old settings and architectures. * Many more. Not sure if your project is a good fit? Reach out and ask us! -- Mark J. Nelson The MetaMakers Institute Falmouth University http://www.kmjn.org

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