February 2019 - Members - lists.sigcis.org

Re: [SIGCIS-Members] History of Rome. How did they calculate?
by Cliff Jones 21 Feb '19

21 Feb '19

Over many years, I asked several people about this but never got a satisfactory answer. My puzzlement comes from the fact that *modern* Latin writes/pronounces numbers in essentially decimal/positional ways. I think it was Tony Hoare (who read “Greats” at Oxford) who wondered whether the “normal” Roman numerals used a lot of straight lines because they were carved into stone!? I’d be very interested if you get a solid explanation of how calculations were done cliff jones On 2019-02-20, at 20:36, herbert.bruderer(a)bluewin.ch<mailto:herbert.bruderer@bluewin.ch> wrote: How did the Romans calculate? https://cacm.acm.org/blogs/blog-cacm/234881-how-did-the-romans-calculate/fu… Hi all: Does anyone know how the Romans calculated with the Roman numeral system? What is the meaning of the right-most slot of the Roman hand abacus? Do you have Roman hand abaci (original devices or replicas) in your collection? Thank you very much for your help. Best wishes, Herbert Bruderer _______________________________________________ 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

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CFP for Urban Games/Urban Play
by Corinna Kirsch 21 Feb '19

21 Feb '19

>From a friend of mine -- feel free to share the CFP. *Urban Games in the Smart, Creative and Sustainable City *(Tentative Title) Edited by Dale Leorke and Marcus Owens This proposed edited collection seeks papers that examine intersections between game studies, play studies, urban geography and other related disciplines. We seek contributions from scholars, artists, urbanists and commentators that explore the ways urban games, play and playfulness can connect with contemporary urban policy discourses that often ignore or overlook them. These discourses include the economic exigencies of the "creative city"; the environmental strategies of "the sustainable city"; and the technological optimization envisioned by the "smart city." Contributions may include comparative case studies, such as those that examine how specific urban games complicate, contradict, or complement visions of the near-future city as seamless, responsive, and adaptable to the challenges of urban life and infrastructural management. Other contributions might also include genealogies of urban games that reveal intersections between the gamification of the city and smart, creative and sustainability discourses. And lastly, contributions might include provocative yet cogent and critical examinations of play and playfulness in the city more broadly – how play as a concept, practice and discourse itself might disrupt or reinforce existing uses of urban space. Through these contributions, we seek to address the following key questions: - What is the historical relationship between games and urban discourses surrounding sustainability, creativity and "smartness?" - How are games both assimilated within urban governance – through investment in game development and startups, civic games, and gamification tools – and mobilised as a counter to it? - How might urban games reflect broader transformations of labour within the digital era, and how can game studies contribute to a better understanding of contemporary processes of urbanization? We have tentatively proposed this collection to Routledge, who have expressed interest and requested a full proposal. Our proposed timeline is: • March 2019 – send proposal (with contributors’ abstracts) to Routledge • July 2019 – full chapters due (approx. 6,000 words) • Early 2020 – publication of final volume The book will be divided into three sections, examining the “smart”, “creative” and “sustainable” discourses mentioned above, respectively. We ask that contributors specify which of these three sections their paper most strongly addresses. For more information and to submit your abstract, please contact Dale Leorke: dleorke(a)gmail.com Dale Leorke is a postdoctoral researcher in the Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies at Tampere University, Finland. Marcus Owens is Lecturer in Architecture + Environmental Design at the College of Environmental Design at UC Berkeley. Corinna J. Kirsch PhD Candidate in Modern Art History, Criticism, and Theory <http://art.stonybrook.edu/person/corinna-kirsch-mcdonald/> Stony Brook University, State University of New York Phone: +1 (936) 697-1902 [image: Stony Brook University logo] **************************************************************************************************************** This e-mail message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. *****************************************************************************************************************

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Job Opening: Museum Director
by Ceruzzi, Paul 19 Feb '19

19 Feb '19

Opportunity in Bozeman, Montana The American Computer & Robotics Museum (ACRM) in Bozeman, Montana is seeking an Executive Director. The ACRM is a unique and important institution with one of the finest collections ever amassed on the history of technology and is the oldest continuously operating museum of its kind. Its mission is to collect, preserve, interpret, and display the artifacts and history of the information age. The museum has received glowing reviews from luminaries like E.O. Wilson of Harvard (“Inch for inch the best museum in the world”), been voted one of the 10 Best Free Museums in the US by USA Today, and is the #1 thing to do in Bozeman according to TripAdvisor. Locally, the Museum has become an important resource for school visits and the involvement of Montana State University students. The ACRM is located in beautiful Bozeman, Montana. Located 90 minutes from Yellowstone National Park, Bozeman frequently secures top ranking as one of the best places to live in the nation due to its proximity to year round outdoor recreational opportunities, vibrant culture, thriving economy as a high tech hub, and the home to Montana State University which is highly renowned for its engineering and research focus The ACRM is now about to undertake a major campaign to evolve into a significantly larger and more established institution. The new Executive Director, in conjunction with a newly expanded Board of Directors, will be central to developing a Strategic Plan, growing the staff and scale of the institution, major fundraising, and overall operations. The ACRM is currently a fairly small organization with a minimal staff. The Board feels that this is the time to grow the museum into its next form which will include a new location and facility, increased staffing and programming, and an endowment to aid in sustainable operations. The Executive Director will have a broad range of responsibilities and authorities to help the ACRM realize its goals. Some of the key functions are: * Oversees all aspects of Museum operations including administration, budget, and staff. * Oversees exhibition planning and delivery * Oversees handling, conservation, insurance, and loans of collections * Ensures the Museum has proper security and facility maintenance * Leads outreach and public programs including educational programs with local schools * Oversees advertising and social media programs * Oversees the transition to, and future maintenance of, an updated collections management system * Leads the overhaul of the Museum digital and web presence, including the provision of open access catalogues and high-resolution images of the Museum collections * Engages with local stakeholders to ensure the Museum is meeting local needs * Coordinates with Montana State University on all joint interests * Leads the Strategic Planning effort to push the ACRM into the next level of operational effectiveness and social impact * Grows the staff from a few volunteers to a small professional team * Leads fundraising activities for annual operations and capital projects * Ensures proper communication with the Board of Directors and coordinates policy decisions for the Board Required Qualifications: * Experience or demonstrated interest in the history of technology * Minimum three (3) years of experience in Museum management * Administrative experience with non-profit organizations * Experience growing an institution or staff * Excellent communication skills * Self-starter: able to conceive of tasks and see them through with little to no guidance * Supervisory experience of three (3) or more employees Desired Qualifications: * Fundraising experience for capital and operational support * Previous experience in a technical or scientific museum * Connections to the Museum field, tech industries, and corporate sponsors Salary Range: $55,000 - $80,000 For current information on the ACRM, see www.compustory.com For updates to the position, see www.acrmuseum.org/employment To Apply: Send Letter of Interest, Resume/C.V., and the names of three (3) References with contact information to: ACRM.jobs(a)gmail.com. Note, references will not be contacted without prior applicant notification. Deadline: March 2

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Seeking Interviewees: Queer and Trans CIS/Prodigy/GEnie Users
by Dame, Avery 19 Feb '19

19 Feb '19

All, (Apologizes if you’ve seen this cross-posted on different lists.) Please forward this along, or feel free to get in contact off-list if you have suggestions! I'm looking to conduct informal background interviews with queer and/or transgender-identified folks who, during the mid 1980s into the 1990s, were active on any of these forums: * Compuserve's (aka CIS) GenderLine forum (also known as HSX-200) * Prodigy (pre or post the closure of the "Frank Discussions" forum) * GEnie (such as members of the GEnie Girls). I'm hoping to learn more about the structure of these groups/spaces, their culture, and just how folks used them. If anyone is either interested in or might know someone who would be interested in participating in a short (one hour) interview, please let me know at avery.dame AT gmail.com<http://gmail.com/>. Thanks in advance, Avery Dame-Griff --- Avery Dame-Griff Fixed-Term Assistant Professor, Mass Communication Winona State University averydame.net<http://www.averydame.net/> avery.dame(a)gmail.com<mailto:avery.dame@gmail.com> 507-457-5228

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NYT article by Andrew Russell and Lee Vinsel
by Barbara B Walker 17 Feb '19

17 Feb '19

Check it out, fellow SIGCIS listervers! Our own Andrew Russell and Lee Vinsel in the NYT! https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/16/opinion/sunday/standardization.html?acti… Barbara Walker Associate Professor Department of History/308 University of Nevada, Reno Reno NV 89557 Office phone: 775-784-4303 Website: https://www.unr.edu/history/history-people/barbara-walker

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SHOT 2019 Annual Meeting: Panel notion
by David C. Brock 15 Feb '19

15 Feb '19

Dear All, I had a notion for a panel at the upcoming SHOT meeting -- “The Architecture of Text: Form and Function” — at which I would present some early work either on an important data structure that went into most of the early WYSIWYG word processors or on the late 1950 work by Jack Gilmore at MIT on the “Lincoln Writer,” a editor for technical documents combining graphical input by light pen and by keyboard. If anyone has something they think might fit well with this rubric and/or pair nicely with the above, you could drop me a line at dbrock(a)computerhistory.org Best wishes, David +++++++++++++++ David C. Brock dcb(a)dcbrock.net 40 Russell Street, Greenfield, MA 01301 Mobile: 413-522-3578 Skype: dcbrock Twitter: @dcbrock

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NY TImes - "Secret History of Women in Coding"
by Thomas Haigh 15 Feb '19

15 Feb '19

Hello SIGCIS, I notice that the NY Times has published a lengthy piece, upcoming in the magazine, by Clive Thompson (journalist and husband of New Yorker critic Emily Nussbaum) called "The Secret History of Women in Coding". https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/13/magazine/women-coding-computer-programmin g.html It is compressed from an upcoming trade book. Compared to the many other popular pieces going over the same ground, I thought it was very strong. There are some nice bits of human interest. He has dug into the literature a bit and draws on work by several members of the SIGCIS community like Hicks, Ensmenger, and Abbate. Notably, he mentions them in the text, rather than just stealing their ideas. Likewise there are references to Fisher & Margolis and more recent developments, running all the way up to the Google memo. The Times even labels the well-known 1960s picture of women holding storage circuits from four generations of BRL computers correctly (it's often misrepresented as a picture of "the women of ENIAC"). Someone look for an article to assign for a class could do a lot worse. Even as crochety academic I must admit there is a lot less wrong here than with Walter Isaacson's take on the same subject, for example. There are, however, three things that jumped out at me to grumble about. First, the treatment of ENIAC. Thompson says that the famous first six women were hired "to write instructions for ENIAC" which is wrong. They were hired to operate the machine, and their role in designing configurations for it, while considerable, emerged as work progressed. Also in ENIAC's original control mode (used 1945-48) it's misleading to talk about "writing instructions" - the women were diagramming wiring and switch configurations and then setting them up on the machine. The term "coding" isn't really applicable to this activity either. Secondly, and much more importantly, the exclusive focus on programming (here "coding") at the expense of all the other computer-related occupations including key punch, operator, systems analyst, manger, supervisor, etc. in the 1960s and more recently jobs like sysadmin, DBA, network technician, user support, etc. In the later part of the article there's also a focus on CS enrollments, in a way that implies most people doing coding come from such programs. That's not accurate, at least historically. Finally the title, which is both cliched and misleading. Probably not his choice. Still, with all the work we've been doing as a community to spread awareness of this, and with many articles, documentaries, etc. on the topic, why is this still a "secret" history? It makes it sound as though we've all been working hard to hide it and he had to break into a locked vault in the bowels of the Vatican to liberate the truth. I also feel that the article gives an unrealistically sunny picture of gender equality in computing during the 1950s and 60s, and I'm not convinced by the idea that an occupational hierarchy of "hardware high, software low" existed early on in computer-using companies and was later inverted. ("At the same time, the old hierarchy of hardware and software became inverted. Software was becoming a critical, and lucrative, sector of corporate America.") But I have seen related claims made in the scholarly literature, and it's not unreasonable for Thompson to repeat them. Best wishes, Tom

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Governance of Emerging Technologies and Sciences Conference cfp
by Jonathan Coopersmith 12 Feb '19

12 Feb '19

Governance of Emerging Technologies & Science (GETS) May 22 & 23, 2019 Click Here to Submit Abstract – Deadline extended to Feb. 15 <https://forms.law.asu.edu/view.php?id=520098> Venue Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law in the Beus Center for Law and Society 111 E. Taylor St., Phoenix, AZ 85004About the Conference This unique and innovative conference, now in its seventh year, addresses the ethical, legal, regulatory, and policy issues that surround the emergence of new technologies and scientific advances. Drawing on the combined expertise of leaders in academia, industry, and government, this conference focuses on finding governance solutions for rapidly changing technologies. The dual challenge of any governance system is to encourage research, investment, and development while guarding against potential risks to health, safety, environment, and society. We confront this challenge by creating a forum for radically cross-disciplinary discussion involving experts in law, engineering, science, business, medicine, ethics, and other fields. In recent years, these discussions have covered the broadest possible range of technologies and scientific study, including nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, robotics, autonomous vehicles, the internet of things, human-machine interfaces, neuroscience, synthetic biology, genomics, personalized medicine, telemedicine, human enhancement, gene editing, surveillance, national security, virtual and augmented reality, blockchain, autonomous weapon systems, and so on. The value we have uncovered in combining such a variety of subjects is that governance strategies and lessons learned in one field can often be applied to others in ways that generate new breakthroughs. This conference has thus become a go-to event for forward-looking policy makers, technologists, and business leaders who are at the forefront of a changing world. Call for Abstracts The co-sponsors invite submission of abstracts for proposed presentations. Written papers are not required, although provision will be made for posting and possible post-conference publication of papers for those who are interested. Abstracts are invited for any aspect or topic relating to the governance of emerging technologies, including but not limited to any of the technologies listed above. Abstracts should not exceed 500 words and must contain *your name* and *email address*. Abstract due date has been extended to February 15, 2019 The sponsors will pay for the conference registration (including all conference meals and events) for *one* presenter for each accepted abstract. In addition, we will have limited funds available for travel subsidies (application included in submission form). For more information contact Executive Director Josh Abbott at Josh.Abbott(a)asu.edu website: http://events.asucollegeoflaw.com/gets/ Jonathan Coopersmith Visiting Professor School for the Future of Innovation in Society Arizona State University Tempe, Arizona Professor Department of History Texas A&M University College Station, TX 77843-4236 979.739.4708 (cell) 979.862.4314 (fax) Latest article: http://theconversation .com/why-do-people-still-use-fax-machines-109064 <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__theconversation.com_why…> *FAXED. The Rise and Fall of the Fax Machine* (Johns Hopkins University Press) is the co-recipient of the 2016 Business History Conference Hagley Prize for best book in business history.

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The Photograph of two Wrens operating Colossus
by Brian Randell 08 Feb '19

08 Feb '19

Hi: The now very well-known photograph of two Wrens operating Colossus at Bletchley Park, one of the small set of photographs that were released by the UK Government in October 1975 after pressure from me (and no doubt others) is the subject of a very interesting, indeed delightful, news release from The National Museum of Computing, at: http://www.tnmoc.org/news/notes-museum/wrens-meet-70-years Cheers Brian Randell — School of Computing, Newcastle University, 1 Science Square, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE4 5TG EMAIL = Brian.Randell(a)ncl.ac.uk<mailto:Brian.Randell@ncl.ac.uk> PHONE = +44 191 208 7923 URL = http://www.ncl.ac.uk/computing/people/profile/brianrandell.html

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Call for Papers: Information & Culture
by Forrest, Kathleen 07 Feb '19

07 Feb '19

Information & Culture: A Journal of History<https://infoculturejournal.org/> is actively soliciting articles for publication. The journal publishes high quality, peer reviewed articles on the history of information. The social and cultural context of information and information technology, viewed from an historical perspective, is at the heart of the journal’s interests. Typical papers might focus, for example, on the histories of information institutions, agencies, domains, or businesses; the history of information work and workers; the history of information in everyday life; the history of information and communication practices; the history of information artifacts (ranging from books to computers, information infrastructures and networks); the history of the organization and classification of information; the history of concepts and theories in the information domain; and intellectual and theoretical approaches for writing information history. The intention is to juxtapose papers on a wide variety of topics related to the history of information to stimulate connections between the research of library historians, information science historians, historians of print culture, historians of computing, historians of media and communication, labor historians, gender historians, economic historians, business historians, political and diplomatic historians, cultural studies scholars, critical theorists, and science and technology scholars. Instructions for contributors are available at http://www.infoculturejournal.org/submissions Interested authors should contact the editor: Ciaran B. Trace School of Information University of Texas – Austin Email: cbtrace(a)austin.utexas.edu

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