December 2023 - Members - lists.sigcis.org

American codebreaker exhibit - but you can't see it
by Jonathan Coopersmith 30 Dec '24

30 Dec '24

https://dcist.com/story/23/09/22/arlington-foreign-service-institute-recogn… Actually, I suspect we could probably arrange a tour. Stay sane, Jonathan Jonathan Coopersmith Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science Professor Emeritus Department of History Texas A&M University College Station, TX 77843-4236 979.739.4708 (cell) "Technological obsolescence, <https://www.nationalacademies.org/news/2023/05/technological-obsolescence>" National Academy of Engineering *Perspectives* May 23, 2023 It's taking longer to vote - especially if you are Black or Hispanic <https://theconversation.com/its-taking-more-time-to-cast-a-ballot-in-us-ele…> , theconversation.com Preserving space archives: https://www.toboldlypreserve.space/ *FAXED. The Rise and Fall of the Fax Machine* (Johns Hopkins University Press)

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The impact of computer patents
by Brian Randell 30 Dec '24

30 Dec '24

Hi: I would be grateful for recommendations on books and papers containing thoughtful well-justified discussion of the likely or actual practical impact of the outcomes of the various attempts to patent the concept of a programmable computer (whether granted, refused or invalidated) on the early development of the computer industry, in the US and elsewhere. I have in mind the ENIAC and especially the Konrad Zuse patent cases, but am also interested in any others. (My searches for good references have been hampered by the proliferation of articles on software patenting - a topic which I am not trying to cover.) Cheers Brian Randell Sent from my iPhone

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cfa: The Global Cochlear Implant
by Mara Mills 30 Dec '24

30 Dec '24

The Global Cochlear Implant: Provincializing “Brain Implants” through Disability Technocultures Michele Friedner (University of Chicago) and Mara Mills (New York University) have received funding from the US-based National Endowment for the Humanities <https://www.neh.gov/program/dangers-and-opportunities-technology-perspectiv…>for a conference, working group, and book project on “The Global Cochlear Implant” for the period Fall 2023-Fall 2025. We are seeking chapter contributors for our interdisciplinary edited volume that will focus on: -Historical and contemporary accounts of cochlear implant development and utilization in specific geographic contexts, including developing contexts -Pre-histories of cochlear implant development and use (especially in Russia, France, Austria) -Analysis of the ways that cochlear implantation is changing (or not) deaf and disability identities, socialities, solidarities, and life trajectories in specific geographic contexts - Ethics of cochlear implantation development, dissemination, and use in diverse contexts; an exploration of ethics can also include discussions of brain implants and biotechnology more broadly - Humanistic and aesthetic accounts and representations of cochlear implantation - Histories connecting cochlear implants to the broader category of brain implants Doctoral students are welcome and encouraged to apply. Contributors can be at any academic or non-academic rank and will be offered a stipend for their chapters as well as travel and lodging funds to attend the October 2024 conference in Chicago. Participants will also be invited to attend monthly zoom group meetings where they will receive support for writing their chapters. The deadlines are as follows: 1. Submit abstract and cv to michelefriedner(a)uchicago.edu and mmills(a)nyu.edu <mamills(a)nyu.edu> by December 1 2023; please email both with questions and/or concerns. 2. Decisions will be made by Jan 1, 2024. 3. Working group meetings in support of research and writing of papers will commence first week of February. 4. Conference will be held in October 2024 at the University of Chicago; Participants will present talks based on their chapters. 5. Versions of chapters will be sent to the selected press in April 2025. Project Abstract: Perhaps no medical device has sparked more popular discussion of the “dangers and opportunities of technology” than the cochlear implant (CI). The first true bionic device, CIs (re)produce an absent ‘normal’ human function (Blume 2009). Despite ongoing polarizing debates about the ramifications of CI technology, only a few book-length studies of the technology exist, and these have overwhelmingly emphasized U.S. and European perspectives. This collaborative humanities project will document the impacts of the technology itself (e.g. algorithmic bias), the influence of the global corporations that market it, and the range of ways implants have been domesticated, maintained, and re-interpreted. At this pivotal moment for the development and global dissemination of neuroprosthetics, with brain implants widely featured in the popular press, this multi-disciplinary, international project will serve both a documentary and a comparative function, as well as provide a platform, through our conference and published work, for alternative narratives of CI use. Mara Mills <http://maramills.org/> | Associate Professor | Media, Culture, and Communication | New York University Co-Director, NYU Center for Disability Studies <https://disabilitystudies.nyu.edu/> Crip Authorship: Disability as Method <https://nyupress.org/9781479819355/crip-authorship/>, eds. Mills and Sanchez (NYU 2023) Testing Hearing: The Making of Modern Aurality <https://academic.oup.com/book/36957>, eds. Tkaczyk, Mills, and Hui (Oxford 2020)

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SIGICS update
by Andrew Russell 01 Jul '24

01 Jul '24

Dear SIGCIS friends - I’m writing to share the news that I’m stepping down as SIGCIS Co-Chair. I started as Chair back in 2014, and became Co-Chair when Melanie Swalwell joined me in this role in 2020. I’m really proud of what we’ve built and sustained together as a community! At the same time, I think it’s healthy for SIGCIS to have some rotation in leadership. The tipping point for me came a couple of months ago, when I was named as Officer-in-Charge (aka interim president) of my university, SUNY Polytechnic Institute. This assignment is as rewarding as it is time-consuming, and leaves me little choice but to pull back from some of my professional commitments, including SIGCIS. Fortunately, Melanie Swalwell has agreed to continue on as SIGCIS Chair. She will be writing to the list soon with an update about SIGCIS in 2023 and beyond. Thank you for your support and kindness over the years, and for making SIGCIS a welcoming and fun place to be :) All the best, Andy — — — — — — — — — — — Andrew L. Russell, Ph.D. Officer-in-Charge SUNY Polytechnic Institute 100 Seymour Road Utica, NY 13502 257 Fuller Road Albany, NY 12203 https://sunypoly.edu/ https://arussell.org/

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SIGCIS 2022 CFP: UNDER CONSTRUCTION | Due June 1
by Laine Nooney 30 Jan '24

30 Jan '24

Dear SIGCIS Community, The SIGCIS Conference Organizing Committee is pleased to *announce the CFP for our 2022 SIGCIS Conference, **UNDER CONSTRUCTION*. Our keynote for the event is Lilly Irani <https://quote.ucsd.edu/lirani/>, Associate Professor in the Department of Communication & Science Studies at the University of California, San Diego. The SIGCIS Conference will take place *November 13th, 2022 in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, *on the Sunday of the SHOT conference. *Abstracts are due June 1.* Below you can find the full CFP for this year's conference. The CFP can also be viewed as a Google doc here <https://bit.ly/388L3Zk>, or at our conference website: meetings.sigcis.org. Please circulate widely, and we hope to see you at SIGCIS! -Laine Nooney, Morgan G. Ames, Stephanie Dick, and Xiaochang Li -------------------------------------------------------------- *UNDER CONSTRUCTION* *New Orleans, LA, US | November 13, 2022* The Special Interest Group in Computing, Information, and Society [SIGCIS] welcomes submissions to their annual conference meetings.sigcis.org Proposal Due Date: June 1, 2022 KEYNOTE SPEAKER Lilly Irani Associate Professor of Communication & Science Studies University of California, San Diego THEME A shovel strikes dirt in one country, and the Internet goes out in another. Data centers are cooled by local water supplies, fiber-optic cable follows the sightlines left by railroads and telegraph, global hardware semiconductor supplies depend on the labor of rare earth mineral miners: somehow computing always needs more. The past ten years, in particular, have exhibited a perilous turn in the political economy of computing, as software became service, programming became agile, and storage became cloud. This new regime is driven by an accelerated mode of iterative software development that increasingly relies on post-sales bug fixes, security patches, and performance upgrades, producing a litany of products and services whose endless failures aid some and threaten others. From the communities subject to such “innovation” to the shadow workers paid to “be” artificial intelligence to the coders pushing ambient updates by the millions, risk hums through it all. Computation today is locked in a state of perpetual beta testing, forever promising “improved” features—just don’t ask when it will end, and don’t ask who’s doing the work. In the meantime, these new standards of practice generate new labor and resource demands, new forms of risk, and new challenges for accountability and intervention alike. Yet the patched and partial nature of computing isn’t new. Computing is infrastructure, requiring its own forms of construction and maintenance throughout its history, whether tearing up roads, detangling spaghetti code, or hastily soldering circuits. These are metaphors for history too: what better encapsulates the sentiment of doing history, than the feeling that it will never be done? For historians of information and computing itself, such anxieties are particularly acute due to the objects under examination: constant upgrades, absent documentation, planned obsolescence, the failure of historic hardware. For every line of code we save, hundreds, thousands, disappear. As we work to make sense of our contemporary conditions, how does the undone quality of history affect our ability to tell it? The 2022 SIGCIS Conference, convening in-person in New Orleans on November 13 following the SHOT Annual Meeting, invites scholars, museum and archive professionals, journalists, IT practitioners, artists, and independent researchers across the disciplinary spectrum to submit abstracts related to the historical conditions of computing. We are especially interested in (but not limited to) work that relates to the theme of construction, maintenance, and labor, broadly and imaginatively construed. Areas of engagement may include: - Maintenance and infrastructure in the history of computing and information tech - Historically-oriented approaches to the platform and gig economies - Computing as a site of labor struggle - Networks, borders, boundaries - Computational models of resistance: obfuscation, open-source, hacking, going “off grid” - Government’s historic role in the construction of computing industries and infrastructure - Communitarian and utopian applications of computing - Updates, upgrades, failures, and bugs - Modding, re-using, recycling, afterlives - Archival and curatorial practices and methods - Oral history, memory, forgetting - The limits of historical representation SIGCIS is especially welcoming of new directions in scholarship. We maintain an inclusive atmosphere for scholarly inquiry, supporting disciplinary interventions from beyond the traditional history of technology and promoting diversity in STEM. We welcome submissions from: the histories of technology, computing, information, and science; science and technology studies; oral history and archival studies; critical studies of big data and machine learning; studies of women, gender, and sexuality; studies of race, ethnicity, and postcoloniality; film, media, and game studies; software and code studies; network and internet histories; music, sound studies, and art history; and all other applicable domains. The annual SIGCIS Conference begins immediately after the regular annual meeting of our parent organization, the Society for the History of Technology [SHOT]. Information about the annual SHOT conference can be found at: https://bit.ly/3Nswik2 SUBMISSION FORMATS SIGCIS welcomes proposals for individual 15-20 minute papers, 3-4 paper panel proposals, and non-traditional proposals such as roundtables, software demonstrations, art and music performances, hands-on workshops, etc. SUBMISSION PROCEDURES Submissions are due June 1, 2022 via Google form: <https://forms.gle/C8ixar9s3JsCXq8d9>https://forms.gle/sLRowEDz6QitKCfv9. Submissions require: - 300-350 word abstract, summary, or prospectus (as appropriate for the submission type). Full panel proposals should additionally include 200-250 word abstracts for each paper that will be part of the panel. - 100-150 word bios for each participant If you are submitting a co-presented paper, pre-constituted panel, or other submission involving multiple participants, please only have one person submit for the group; contact and professional information for other participants can be included in the Bio submission section. Questions about the submission process should be sent to: xiaochang.li(a)stanford.edu. COSTS/REGISTRATION While last year’s online conference was pay-what-you-can, hosting an in-person event incurs costs related to room and A/V rental, catering, etc. These costs are subsidized in part by our parent organization, SHOT, but participants should expect registration fees in the range of $45-50 for SHOT attendees and $90-120 for those only attending Sunday SIGCIS Conference (we list these rates in good faith, but they are subject to change). Attending SHOT has its own registration costs. TRAVEL AND CARE GRANTS As a new initiative, SIGCIS will be offering grants to support travel expenses and/or expenses related to child, elder, and other forms of care for presenters whose responsibilities at home may present a barrier to in-person participation. The top financial priority of SIGCIS is support for graduate students, visiting faculty without institutional travel support, and others who would be unable to attend the meeting without travel assistance. We understand that for some, participation is more contingent on childcare or elder care, and as such we are opening up these grants to provide that form of support as well. There is no separate application form, though depending on the volume of requests and available resources we may need to contact you for further information before making a decision. Any award offered is contingent on registering for and attending the SIGCIS Conference. Please note that SHOT does not classify the SIGCIS Conference as participation in the SHOT annual meeting, so acceptance by SIGCIS does not imply eligibility for the SHOT travel grant program. ACCESSIBILITY ACCOMMODATIONS REQUESTS The submission Google form will include a field where individuals may make requests for accessibility accommodations. Since our event is coordinated by our parent organization, SHOT, we cannot guarantee our ability to meet all accommodation requests. However, our intent will always be to advocate to meet the accessibility needs of our participants. SIGCIS MEETINGS ORGANIZING COMMITTEE Laine Nooney, New York University (SIGCIS Vice-Chair of Meetings) Morgan Ames, University of California, Berkeley Stephanie Dick, Simon Fraser University Xiaochang Li, Stanford University ---- Laine Nooney <http://www.lainenooney.com/> MCC <http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/mcc/> @ NYU <http://www.nyu.edu/> Assistant Professor -Need to make an appt? Click, don't email: https://bit.ly/2GIHuK0 -Probably typed by voice recognition, so please cherish typos

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CFP: 2024 ACM History and Archiving Fellowship call for proposals - Due Feb 15
by Tracy, Kim 14 Jan '24

14 Jan '24

SIGCIS members, The ACM History Committee’s call for proposals for the history and archiving fellowship program is now open. We’d appreciate your sharing this call with anyone who may be interested. The full call can be found in the link https://history.acm.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/ACM-fellowship_CFP_2024.… or on the ACM History Committee Website (history.acm.org) The deadline for submissions is February 15th, 2024. The ACM History Committee’s 2024 fellowship competition is for research and archiving projects on or centrally-related to ACM history. The History Committee plans to support up to four projects with awards up to $4,000. The History Committee has awarded over 40 fellowships<https://history.acm.org/projects-and-initiatives/fellowship-for-the-advance…> since the start of this fellowship program in 2009. Thanks for any help in getting the word out, --Kim On behalf of the ACM History Committee Kim W. Tracy Asst. Professor of Practice in Computer Science and Software Engineering (he/him/his) ROSE-HULMAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY 5500 Wabash Avenue | Terre Haute, IN 47803-3999 Room: Moench D216 | tracy(a)rose-hulman.edu<mailto:tracy@rose-hulman.edu> Phone: 812.877.8343 | Fax: 812.877.8343 www.rose-hulman.edu<http://www.rose-hulman.edu>

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AIT Forum on Histories of the internet - last minute booking
by tom＠abram.co 22 Dec '23

22 Dec '23

Last few places remaining in London - good availability for online https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/archives-of-it-forum-on-the-histories-of-the- internet-tickets-691738758247 Tom Abram Director - Archives of IT <mailto:research@archivesit.org.uk> research(a)archivesit.org.uk <http://www.archivesit.org.uk/> www.archivesit.org.uk > <https://archivesit.org.uk/sign-up/> Subscribe to our e-newsletter > Follow us on Twitter <https://twitter.com/ArchivesIT> @ArchivesIT > Please support us at <https://archivesit.org.uk/get-involved-4/make-a-difference/> https://archivesit.org.uk/get-involved-4/make-a-difference/ Registered Charity No: 1164198 This e-mail is confidential and may be privileged. It may be read, copied and used only by the intended recipient. If you have received it in error, please contact the sender immediately by return e-mail. Please then delete the e-mail and do not disclose its contents to any person.

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updates on SHOT/SIGCIS in Chile
by Elizabeth Petrick 21 Dec '23

21 Dec '23

Dear SIGCIS, Melanie and I met with SHOT leadership this week and wanted to share some additional information with you on the conference in Chile in July. https://www.historyoftechnology.org/annual-meeting/2024-joint-icohtec-shot-… First, we are planning to have our usual Friday SIGCIS lunch (with book auction!) and Sunday SIGCIS workshop. Stay tuned for the CfP, coming soon. Second, for the SHOT portion of the conference, they are planning to run two tracks of remote/hybrid sessions. So feel welcome to submit proposals for talks even if you can't be there in person. Proposals for full panels or individual papers due January 10th. Finally, while SHOT is still working on all the logistics, we're told that SHOT is planning to have people at the Santiago airport to direct attendees to transit to Viña del Mar where the conference will be held. There will also soon be information about different nearby hotels, within close distance of the conference. Best, Liz ------------- Elizabeth Petrick Co-Director, STS Program Associate Professor Department of History Rice University http://elizabethpetrick.com/

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Books on Women in Computing
by Brian Randell 19 Dec '23

19 Dec '23

Hi: We are planning to provide a permanent display in our School of Computing, in a prominent location that will be readily visible to our undergraduate students in particular, of published books on Women in Computing. The hope is that this might help to redress the imbalance in the students’ popular perception of computing pioneers as being an almost entirely male crew. I attach below a first list of contenders (other than Ada Lovelace) for space in this display – comments, both positive and negative, on this list will be welcome. (Ada Lovelace will of course be well-represented – however I’ve already had detailed advice on which of the plethora of works on Ada to include, so I’m keen to make sure that other worthy contenders for display space are not accidently omitted. At present it is undecided whether to include, and if so whether to have a separate set of books on, Women in Code-Breaking – see the presently-separate second list below, on which comments are also sought.) I’m looking for biographies, autobiographies, and good scholarly accounts on the contribution of women to the computing world, not books aimed at young school pupils. The plan is that copies of all the books on display will also be available for borrowing from the University Library. My apologies, especially to the authors, for any accidental egregious omissions from these lists! Season’s Greetings Brian Randell Books on Women in Computing (other than Ada Lovelace) Janet Abbate. Recoding Gender: Women's Changing Participation in Computing. (2017). https://www.amazon.co.uk/Recoding-Gender-History-Computing-Abbate/dp/026253… Crystal Bennes, Klara and the Bomb (2022). https://www.amazon.co.uk/Klara-Bomb-Crystal-Bennes/dp/9492051826 Kurt W. W. Beyer. Grace Hopper and the Invention of the Information Age, (2012). https://www.amazon.co.uk/Invention-Information-Lemelson-Studies-Innovation/… Claire L. Evans. Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet, (2020). https://www.amazon.co.uk/Broad-Band-Untold-Story-Internet/dp/0593329449/ David Alan Grier. When Computers Were Human. (2007) https://www.amazon.co.uk/When-Computers-Human-David-Grier/dp/0691133824 Kathy Kleiman. Proving Ground: The Untold Story of the Six Women Who Programmed the World’s First Modern Computer, (2022). https://www.amazon.co.uk/Proving-Ground-Untold-Programmed-Computer/dp/17873… Mark Jones Lorenzo. Everlasting Code: The Education of Grace Hopper and the History of COBOL, (2021). https://www.amazon.co.uk/Everlasting-Code-Education-Business-Oriented-Langu… Richard Rhodes . Hedy's Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, the Most Beautiful Woman in the World. (@012) https://www.amazon.com/Hedys-Folly-Breakthrough-Inventions-Beautiful/dp/030… Jon T Rickman and Kim D Todd. Pioneer Programmer: Jean Jennings Bartik & the Computer That Changed the World. (2013) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pioneer-Programmer-Jennings-Computer-Changed/dp/16… Carl J Schneider. Grace Murray Hopper: Working to create the future. (1998). https://www.amazon.co.uk/Title-Murray-Hopper-Working-create/dp/1571636064 Dame Stephanie Shirley. Let It Go: My Extraordinary Story - From Refugee to Entrepreneur to Philanthropist. (2019). https://www.amazon.co.uk/Let-Go-Extraordinary-Entrepreneur-Philanthropist/d… Kathleen Broom Williams. Grace Hopper: Admiral of the Cyber Sea, (2013). https://www.amazon.co.uk/Grace-Hopper-Admiral-Cyber-Sea/dp/1591149789 Books on Women in Code-Breaking Jason Fagone. The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine Who Outwitted America's Enemies (2017). https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0062430483/ Peter Hore. Bletchley Park's Secret Source: Churchill's Wrens and the Y Service in World War II, (2021). https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bletchleys-Secret-Source-Wrens-Y-Service/dp/178438… Liza Mundy. Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II. (2018). https://www.amazon.co.uk/Code-Girls-Untold-American-Breakers/dp/0316352543 Patricia Owtram and Jean Owtram. Codebreaking Sisters: Our Secret War. (2020). https://www.amazon.co.uk/Codebreaking-Sisters-Our-Secret-War/dp/1913406059 Mair Russell-Jones and Gethin Russell-Jones. My Secret Life in Hut Six: One Woman's Experiences At Bletchley Park, (2014). https://www.amazon.co.uk/Secret-Life-Hut-Six-Experiences/dp/0745956645 Jan Slimming. Codebreaker Girls: A Secret Life at Bletchley Park. (2021) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Codebreaker-Girls-Secret-Life-Bletchley/dp/1526784… Jan Slimming. The Secret Life of an American Codebreaker: Codebreaker Girls. (2022) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Secret-Life-American-Codebreaker-Girls-ebook/dp/B0… Michael Smith. The Debs of Bletchley Park. (2015). https://www.amazon.co.uk/Debs-Bletchley-Park-Michael-Smith/dp/1781313881 Betty Webb and Kerry Howard. No More Secrets: My Part in Codebreaking at Bletchley Park and the Pentagon. (2023). https://www.amazon.co.uk/No-More-Secrets-Codebreaking-Bletchley/dp/B0C43L3M… — School of Computing, Newcastle University, 1 Science Square, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE4 5TG EMAIL = Brian.Randell(a)ncl.ac.uk PHONE = +44 191 208 7923 URL = https://www.ncl.ac.uk/computing/staff/profile/brianrandell.html

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SHOT 2024 Session Proposal: Embodiment and Computing
by Elizabeth Petrick 15 Dec '23

15 Dec '23

Hello SIGCIS, This is super last-minute, but Andrew McGee and I are attempting to assemble a session proposal for SHOT in July next year on histories of Embodiment and Computing. My paper will concern proposed technologies at Xerox PARC in the 1970s-1980s and how bodies of users were imagined to interact with them. The deadline for proposals is Dec 18, so if anyone is interested in joining us please contact me ASAP. Also, if you're not interested in giving a paper but might like to chair such a session, please let me know as well. Best, Liz ------------- Elizabeth Petrick Co-Director, STS Program Associate Professor Department of History Rice University http://elizabethpetrick.com/

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