February 2018 - Members - lists.sigcis.org

Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Active institutional or individual oral history efforts in history of computing *outside* US
by Troy Astarte (PGR) 07 Feb '18

07 Feb '18

Dear David, I am into the final year of my PhD research on the history of programming language semantics. As a part of this I have conducted, recorded, and transcribed interviews with a number of people (6) who worked in this field or a related field. Best, Troy Astarte On 6 Feb 2018, at 15:58, David C. Brock <dbrock(a)computerhistory.org<mailto:dbrock@computerhistory.org>> wrote: I would like to get a better sense of which institutions or individuals are actively creating oral histories in the history of computing, broadly conceived, *outside* of the US. I’m posting the question here because I’d bet others would like to know as well. Thanks in advance for your help. Best wishes, David .............. David C. Brock Director Center for Software History [http://www.computerhistory.org/softwarehistory/] Computer History Museum [http://www.computerhistory.org/] Email: dbrock(a)computerhistory.org<mailto:dbrock@computerhistory.org> Twitter: @dcbrock Skype: dcbrock 1401 N. Shoreline Blvd. Mountain View, CA 94943 (650) 810-1010 main (650) 810-1886 direct Follow Us: @CHM Blog [http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/] Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/computerhistory] Twitter [https://twitter.com/ComputerHistory] Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/computerhistory/] YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/user/ComputerHistory] Make Software, Change the World! Now Open. [http://www.computerhistory.org/exhibits/makesoftware/] _______________________________________________ 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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The Bernard S. Finn IEEE History Prize
by Medina, Eden 07 Feb '18

07 Feb '18

Dear SIGCIS: Submissions are invited for the The Bernard S. Finn IEEE History Prize (formerly the IEEE Life Members' Prize in Electrical History).The prize is awarded annually to the best paper in the history of electrotechnology-power, electronics, telecommunications, and computer science-published during the preceding year Any article published in a learned periodical is eligible if it treats the art or engineering aspects of electrotechnology and its practitioners. The article must be written in English, although the journal or periodical in which it appears may be a foreign language publication. Complete information is available at https://www.historyoftechnology.org/about-us/awards-prizes-and-grants/the-b… To nominate an article, please send a copy of the paper to each member of the prize committee. The deadline for 2018 nominations is April 15, 2018. 2018 Bernard S. Finn IEEE History Prize Committee Eden Medina, Chair (2017-2019) School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering Informatics West 225 Indiana University 901 E. 10th Street Bloomington, IN 47408 edenm(a)indiana.edu<mailto:edenm@indiana.edu> Matthew Eisler, (2016-2018) Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences University of Stathclyde Glasgow G1 1XQ Scotland (United Kingdom) matthew.eisler(a)strath.ac.uk Paul Ceruzzi (2018-2020) Smithsonian, National Air and Space Museum PO Box 37012 Washington, DC 20013-7012 ceruzzip(a)si.edu? -- Eden Medina Associate Professor of Informatics and Computing Affiliated Associate Professor of Law, Maurer School of Law Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of History Indiana University, Bloomington edenm(a)indiana.edu<mailto:edenm@indiana.edu> http://www.informatics.indiana.edu/edenm/

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Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Active institutional or individual oral history efforts in history of computing *outside* US
by David Walden 07 Feb '18

07 Feb '18

Has anyone yet mentioned Andreu Vea's international Internet pioneers interview project: wiwiw.org Andreu is based in Spain.

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Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Active institutional or individual oral history efforts in history of computing *outside* US
by Justin Zobel 07 Feb '18

07 Feb '18

Hi David, We're at the early stages of undertaking a focused oral history of aspects of early computing in Australia. It's funded (so it is going to happen!), and will add to existing oral histories already held in the National Library of Australia. Regards, Justin - Justin Zobel Pro Vice-Chancellor, Graduate & International Research, Chancellery (Research and Enterprise) and Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor, School of Computing & Information Systems The University of Melbourne E: jzobel(a)unimelb.edu.au W: http://www.cis.unimelb.edu.au <http://www.cis.unimelb.edu.au/>, http://research.unimelb.edu.au/contact-us/chancellery-research Executive Assistant: Sharon Renaut T: +61 3 8344 8479 E: s.renaut(a)unimelb.edu.au On 7/2/18, 3:59 am, "Members on behalf of David C. Brock" <members-bounces(a)lists.sigcis.org on behalf of dbrock(a)computerhistory.org> wrote: I would like to get a better sense of which institutions or individuals are actively creating oral histories in the history of computing, broadly conceived, *outside* of the US. I’m posting the question here because I’d bet others would like to know as well. Thanks in advance for your help. Best wishes, David .............. David C. Brock Director Center for Software History [http://www.computerhistory.org/softwarehistory/] Computer History Museum [http://www.computerhistory.org/] Email: dbrock(a)computerhistory.org Twitter: @dcbrock Skype: dcbrock 1401 N. Shoreline Blvd. Mountain View, CA 94943 (650) 810-1010 main (650) 810-1886 direct Follow Us: @CHM Blog [http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/] Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/computerhistory] Twitter [https://twitter.com/ComputerHistory] Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/computerhistory/] YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/user/ComputerHistory] Make Software, Change the World! Now Open. [http://www.computerhistory.org/exhibits/makesoftware/] _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at 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

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Panel on "object-oriented history of technology" for SHOT?
by David C. Brock 06 Feb '18

06 Feb '18

I was thinking that it might be interesting and fun to pull together a traditional organized panel for SHOT 2018 of people who rely on the study of artifacts (including digital artifacts like computer programs, and also online platforms) for their research in the history of technology. The panel could be an opportunity to present this kind of “object-oriented history of technology” work, and to talk about its promise and pitfalls. https://www.historyoftechnology.org/annual-meeting/2018-shot-annual-meeting… If this sounds interesting to anyone, please send me a direct email, and I’ll see what I might pull together. All the best, David .............. David C. Brock Director Center for Software History [http://www.computerhistory.org/softwarehistory/] Computer History Museum [http://www.computerhistory.org/] Email: dbrock(a)computerhistory.org Twitter: @dcbrock Skype: dcbrock 1401 N. Shoreline Blvd. Mountain View, CA 94943 (650) 810-1010 main (650) 810-1886 direct Follow Us: @CHM Blog [http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/] Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/computerhistory] Twitter [https://twitter.com/ComputerHistory] Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/computerhistory/] YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/user/ComputerHistory] Make Software, Change the World! Now Open. [http://www.computerhistory.org/exhibits/makesoftware/]

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Revew of Lori Emerson's Reading Writing Interfaces in Digital Humanities Quarterly
by McGrath, James 06 Feb '18

06 Feb '18

Hi! Some folks on here might be interested in this review I wrote for *Digital Humanities Quarterly *on Lori Emerson's *Reading Writing Interfaces: From The Digital to the Bookbound*. I use excerpts from Emerson's texts in most of the courses I teach: highly recommended! http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/11/3/000356/000356.html <http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/11/3/000356/000356.html> https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/reading-writing-interfaces <http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/11/3/000356/000356.html> <http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/11/3/000356/000356.html> -Jim Jim McGrath, Ph.D Postdoctoral Fellow in Digital Public Humanities John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage <http://www.brown.edu/academics/public-humanities/> Brown University Twitter: @JimMc_Grath <http://twitter.com/jimmc_grath>

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CfP: Outlaw innovation and the invention of the outlaw (EASST panel D04)
by maxigas 02 Feb '18

02 Feb '18

CfP: Outlaw innovation and the invention of the outlaw EASST 2018, 25-28th July 2018, Lancaster University, UK Convenors: Johan Söderberg (Göteborg University) & Maxigas (Lancaster University) Deadline for submissions: February 14th 2018. Submit abstracts and contact the conveners at: https://nomadit.co.uk/easst/easst2018/conferencesuite.php/panels/6286 We would like to invite you to submit abstracts to our panel at EASST 2018 The panel investigates innovation processes driven by antagonistic relations between actors on both sides of the law. We invite case studies of how mutual hostilities between actors are pursued through technological change, whereby each actor seeks to gain an edge against their adversary. Three empirical fields that exemplify this dynamic are the surge of legal highs, information security and crypto-currencies. More examples of the same thing can be found in other fields of empirical investigation and suit this panel. What we will examine under the label of "outlaw innovation" is how conflict breeds innovation. Related to this is an awareness of the tenuous relation between legislation and innovation. The "outlaw" is just another word for an innovator. Concurrently, however, capitalism strives relentlessly to subsume and integrate its own outside, turning this unknown into innovation and new markets. >From this observation follows that the purported outsider position ascribed to various grassroots innovators, users, etc., must be scrutinized. States, capital and academic actors work in conjunction with these outlawed/independent researchers to produce a shared language of common concerns around risks and opportunities inherent in technological innovation, such as in the Tor project. The legal grey zone thus emerges as an incubator of innovation for legal businesses. We encourage paper submissions utilizing diverse theoretical approaches and a wide range of case studies to explore the concept of the "outlaw innovator". -- Maxigas, kiberpunk FA00 8129 13E9 2617 C614 0901 7879 63BC 287E D166 Lecturer in Critical Digital Media Practice Center for Science Studies Department of Sociology Lancaster University https://relay70.metatron.ai/ Go, go, go, said the bird: human kind Cannot bear very much reality. ~ Yeats: Burnt Norton

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CFP: Imaginaries of Techno-Optimism (abstracts due March 1), special issue of Science as Culture
by Morgan G. Ames 01 Feb '18

01 Feb '18

All, We would love to see some submissions from these community to this special issue of Science as Culture on the "imaginaries of techno-optimism" - see details below. Apologies for cross-posting; please forward widely! Let me or Damien know if you have any questions. Warmly, Morgan Ames Center for Science, Technology, Medicine and Society University of California, Berkeley *Imaginaries of Techno-Optimism*: CfP for *Science as Culture* Guest Editors: Damien Droney, Morgan G. Ames, & Mark Gardiner Deadline for Abstracts: March 1st 2018 Techno-optimism — the expectation that science and technology will lead to economic, political, or social good — is a mainstay of business, government, and popular culture. Techno-optimistic attitudes range from the hope that technologies may have positive effects to the assumption that they necessarily will. For entrepreneurs or political leaders, promoting the promise of scientific and technological progress can lead to publicity and financial investment, draw the attention of development agencies, and attract enthusiastic employees and clients. While a charge of techno-utopianism is often taken as an insult, techno-optimism is embraced by some technology writers and activists. It is especially important to examine techno-optimism in the cynical contemporary moment, which is marked by an increased perception of the threat posed by technology (Richardson 2015). In recent years, the promises of new media have been tempered by fears of state-sponsored hacking and corporate data monopolies. While techno-pessimism is on the rise, an underlying expectation of technological progress continues to structure technological design and policy. In this proposed special issue, we explore the nature of the hope that science and technology will make the world a better place and consider its effects. Drawing on Jasanoff and Kim’s (2015) conceptual framework of sociotechnical imaginaries, the contributors to this special issue ask: H*ow is techno-optimism produced? and what are its consequences*? The concept of sociotechnical imaginaries provides an orienting framework for understanding the origins and consequences of these positive and future-focused dispositions toward technology. Jasanoff defines sociotechnical imaginaries as “collectively held, institutionally stabilized, and publicly performed visions of desirable futures, animated by shared understandings of forms of social life and social order attainable through, and supportive of, advances in science and technology” (2015:4). Sociotechnical imaginaries explicitly connect the production of imaginaries (see Anderson 1983, Taylor 2003, Appadurai 1996) to the production of sociotechnical systems (see Bijker, Hughes, and Pinch 1987). In this way, it foregrounds science and technology as co-produced with moral and political landscapes of social life (Jasanoff 2004), highlighting social, ethical, and political attachments that motivate technoscientific project. We focus in particular on optimistic sociotechnical imaginaries as these visions often motivate and direct the design and governance of technologies. By centering the performances of imaginaries within distributed sociotechnical systems, the framework of sociotechnical imaginaries draws attention to both the means and effects of articulating optimistic attitudes toward the sociotechnical future. Where does techno-optimism come from? We welcome contributions that consider the origins of particular optimistic imaginaries and the ways that those imaginaries are maintained. Submissions could focus on the power-laden sources of techno-optimism, including unequal capacities to shape or sustain sociotechnical imaginaries. What are the consequences of optimistic sociotechnical imaginaries? We seek contributions that examine the intended and unintended effects of techno-optimism. Papers may consider which groups are served by techno-optimistic imaginaries, or which problems are highlighted within optimistic discourses of the technological future. We especially welcome contributions that expand the geographic and thematic diversity of the special issue, including case studies from Europe or Asia on topics including medicine, finance, and computing. In addition, we are interested in contributions that employ critical social analysis that is not foregrounded in existing applications of the sociotechnical imaginaries framework. Submissions may, for example, employ the concept of ideology to analyze techno-optimism (see Masco 2004; Turner 2006; Barbrook and Cameron 1996), or consider examples of techno-optimism that are “cruel” (Berlant 2011) by working against the features that make technologies attractive in the first place. Please submit abstracts to Damien Droney (ddroney(a)uchicago.edu) by March 1st. Abstracts should follow the *Science as Culture* guidelines (200-250 words, see http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/authors/csac_edit_guidelines.pdf) but longer drafts or synopses are also welcome. If accepted, full 7000-word drafts would be due June 1st. *References* Anderson, B. (1991). *Imagined Communities* (2nd ed.). London: Verso. Appadurai, A. (1996). Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Barbrook, R. & Cameron, A. (1996). The Californian Ideology, *Science as Culture*, 6(1): 44-72. Berlant, L. G. (2011). *Cruel Optimism*. Durham: Duke University Press. Bijker, W., Hughes, T., & Pinch, T. (eds.) (1987). *The Social Construction of Technological Systems: New Directions in the Sociology and History of Technology*. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Jasanoff, S. (2004). *States of Knowledge: The Co-Production of Science and Social Order*. London: Routledge. Jasanoff, S., & Kim, S.-H. (Eds.) (2015). *Dreamscapes of Modernity: Sociotechnical Imaginaries and the Fabrication of Power*. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Mosco, V. (2004). *The Digital Sublime: Myth, Power, and Cyberspace*. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Richardson, K. (2015). *An Anthropology of Robots and AI: Annihilation Anxiety and Machines*. New York: Routledge. Taylor, C (2003). Modern Social Imaginaries. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Turner, F. (2006). *From Counterculture to Cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network, and the Rise of Digital Utopianism*. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Morgan G. Ames http://morganya.org

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