March 2023 - Members - lists.sigcis.org

New Book: Digital Independence. India's Way Into the Computer Age – an International History
by Michael Homberg 30 Dec '24

30 Dec '24

Dear SIGCIS, please excuse the "self-promotion": I am excited to announce the publication of my new book: "Digital Independence. India's Way Into the Computer Age – an International History" ("Digitale Unabhängigkeit. Indiens Weg ins Computerzeitalter – eine Internationale Geschichte"). It has been published this week by Wallstein, and is largely based upon my habilitation thesis which I finished at the University of Potsdam, Germany, in 2021. The book is in German language only, but an English translation is already planned. I've shared the translated German blurb below. Many thanks for all the inspirations I received from the SIGCIS community, and I hope you all have a lovely weekend. Best regards from Berlin, Michael *** Digitale Unabhängigkeit. Indiens Weg ins Computerzeitalter – eine Internationale Geschichte, Göttingen: Wallstein 2022 (Geschichte der Gegenwart, Bd. 32). URL: https://www.wallstein-verlag.de/9783835352674-digitale-unabhaengigkeit.html. Blurb: The first electronic computers arrived in India in the 1950s. Today, Indian programmers embody our globalized world. This book examines the long and chequered history of India's journey into the digital age. It shows how the emergence of digital expertise in India was the result of both national efforts and international cooperations. From early on, the computer thus became a symbol of Indian nation-building at the end of the colonial era, a tool of technocratic planning in the high modern age, and an instrument of power politics, cultural controversies and economic interests. The book interweaves a national history perspective on the Indian republic, which celebrates its 75th anniversary this year, with an analysis of the country's global relations, analyzing the different speeds and intensities of the computerization of the living and working worlds in the Global North and the Global South. Thus, it reconstructs the highly international networks of computer specialists, technicians, managers and politicians, development experts and activists in India. Since the early days of the Indian republic, industrialized nations such as the USA and the USSR, but also the Federal Republic of Germany and Great Britain promoted the expansion of computer technology and education in India. This study explores the roots of these international technical assistance programs in the Cold War era and the development of its global geopolitics of expertise, the growing desire in the Indian computer industry for “digital independence” in the global IT market since the 1970s and the triumph of elite programmers in Silicon Valley in the early 21st century. It analyzes the preconditions, dynamics, and consequences of global exchange processes in India after 1947, and thus “decenters” the primarily Western perspective of computer history and its master narratives. Drawing on broad (archival) research in India, the USA, and Europe, the study's sources include governmental records, university archival collections, academic literary estates, parliamentary minutes, and contemporary media. _______________________________ PD Dr. Michael Homberg Senior Scientist/Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam Leibniz-Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung Potsdam (ZZF) e.V. Am Neuen Markt 1 14467 Potsdam

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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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SIGCIS: new co-chair & opportunities to get involved
by Melanie Swalwell 06 Apr '23

06 Apr '23

Dear SIGCIS, Further to Andrew Russell's notification that he has now stepped down as co-chair of SIGCIS, I would also like to pay tribute to him for his leadership of and service to the community. Working with Andy (and the rest of the Executive team) for the past 2 years has been a delight; a definite highlight of my involvement with the SIG. Andy has been a generous and gracious collaborator, not only showing me the ropes, but also tolerating late night zoom calls to accommodate the time differences. I am writing to give a quick refresher of the structure of the SIGCIS leadership team and let you know of some opportunities to get involved in the running of the SIG that are the result of some other changes. Much of this is behind the scenes so I thought it would be useful to lay it out explicitly. First, the refresher. For the last couple of years, Andy and I have shared the Chair role. Sharing the role has worked very well. It has provided continuity, organisational memory, and helped to set up a sort of rotation, with the potential benefits that renewal brings. We have been working with a newish structure for the past 2 years, with Vice Chairs for Finance, Meetings, Operations and Communications. The incumbents are listed at the top of this page: https://www.sigcis.org/officers. This brings me to my second point, regarding a couple of other imminent changes. In the interests of setting up continuity and rotation, I asked Elizabeth Petrick if she'd consider joining me as co-chair and I'm very happy that she's agreed to. Liz has been serving as the Communications Vice-chair since late 2020 as well as on the Mahoney Prize committee, so she has a good grasp of the SIG and its rhythms and organisation throughout the year. Jason Gallo has also indicated that he would like to start transitioning out of the Operations role. Jason has been a fabulous manager of the SIG's operations for many years. We have all benefited from his efforts both behind the scenes -- on listserv and website logistics -- and the more public facing tasks he's taken care of at the annual meetings. As such, we are now calling for two new Vice Chairs, for Communications and for Operations. While we need to update the list of responsibilities (the overlaps are fairly glaring), here's a rough list for the 2 positions, to give you an idea: Vice Chair, Communications: 1. Administer the SIGCIS email list, recruit and oversee volunteer list moderators, and enforce the Acceptable Use Policy with volunteer list moderators. 2. Update the SIGCIS website with regular (conference and prize announcements) and ad hoc content, as needed. 3. Regularly monitor the website for new account applications, approve legitimate account applications, delete spam accounts, and create email accounts for legitimate applicants. 4. Maintain the SIGCIS online membership directory, reviewing and editing entries as needed. 5. Oversee SIGCIS presence on social media (including Twitter coverage of the SIGCIS conference) 6. Recruit and manage a team of volunteers to help accomplish the above tasks. 7. Deputize the Chair, as needed. Vice Chair, Operations 1. Attend and help to run all SIGCIS events at the SHOT annual meeting, including the business lunch and SIG workshop. 2. Administer the SIGCIS email lists (including maintain and enforcing the acceptable use policy). 3. Edit material and policy documents on the SIGCIS website dealing with the SIG and its activities. 4. Maintain the SIG's online membership directory, reviewing and editing entries as needed and prompting members when entries are in need of update or clarification. 5. Welcome new members to the SIG and create accounts as needed. 6. Organize Executive Committee meetings. While this might seem like a long list of jobs, these are not onerous roles. There is scope to recruit others to help with both, as needed. Ideally, these teams can then become a pool for future promotion to Vice Chair, and eventually Chair. I would encourage anyone who is interested in getting more involved in the running of the SIG to consider nominating. If now is not the right time for you to volunteer for one of these roles, then please consider it in the future. It's a great way to get involved in the running of the SIG and have a different level of interaction with some wonderful scholars! To nominate yourself, please send a brief email to mswalwell(a)swin.edu.au<mailto:mswalwell@swin.edu.au> and elizabeth.petrick(a)gmail.com<mailto:elizabeth.petrick@gmail.com> with an introduction and what you think you can bring to the role of either Vice Chair Communications or Operations, by April 15. Please don't hesitate to reach out with any questions you might have. Regards, Melanie -- Melanie Swalwell Professor of Digital Media Heritage Co-Chair, SIGCIS<http://www.sigcis.org/> Acting Deputy Director Centre for Transformative Media Technologies School of Social Sciences, Media, Film and Education Swinburne University PO Box 218, Hawthorn Vic 3122 Australia http://transformativemedia.swinburne.edu.au/ Tel +61 3 9214 3911 AS426 mswalwell(a)swin.edu.au @melswal Homebrew Gaming and the Beginnings of Vernacular Digitality<https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/homebrew-gaming-and-beginnings-vernacular-di…> Game History and the Local<https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-66422-0>

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Data (Re)Makes the World schedule & registration
by Aaron Mendon-Plasek 28 Mar '23

28 Mar '23

Dear colleagues and friends, I am pleased to announce Data (Re)Makes the World <https://law.yale.edu/isp/events/data-remakes-world>, a conference hosted by the Information Society Project at Yale Law School on March 31st & April 1st, 2023. The conference schedule is provided below. You can register to attend the conference in person or online till March 30th via the conference webpage. Questions? Please email me. Hope you can join us! Best, Aaron *Data (Re)Makes the World* <https://law.yale.edu/isp/events/data-remakes-world> *March 31 & April 1, 2023* *Information Society Project, Yale Law School* *Day 1: Friday, March 31, 2023* *Breakfast & Registration, 8:30 am – 9:00 am* *Opening Remarks, 8:45 am – 9:00 am* Conference Convener: Aaron Mendon-Plasek, Yale Law *Panel 1: Justice, 9:00 am – 10:40 am* Chair: Meg Leta Jones, Georgetown University Andrew Meade McGee, Smithsonian Institution, “Quantifying a Rights Revolution Fifty Years On: Predictive Modeling, Algorithmic Rulemaking, and the 1973 Databank Debates Over Mainframe Computers in Urban Policy and Social Welfare Policy” Simone Zhang, Norte Dame, “The Asymmetrical Effects of Pretrial Risk Assessment Algorithms in the Courtroom” Katrina Geddes, New York University, “Will you have autonomy in the Metaverse?” A. Feder Cooper (Cornell), Madiha Zahrah Choski (Cornell Tech), Solon Barocas (Cornell), Christopher De Sa (Cornell), James Grimmelmann (Cornell Law & Cornell Tech), Siddhartha Sen (Microsoft), “On Machine Learning Uncertainty, Arbitrariness, and Due Process” *Coffee Break, 10:40 am – 11:00 am* *Panel 2: Trusting Sources, 11:00 am – 12:40 pm* Chair: Matthew Jones, Columbia University Gabriel Grill, University of Michigan, “Constructing Certainty in Machine Learning: On the performativity of testing and its hold on the Future” Kadija Ferryman & Odia Kane, John Hopkins, “Identifying and Interrogating Algorithmic Accounts in Medical AI” Kushang Mishra, IIIT Bangalore, “Data-driven ‘precision’ vs Farmer’s guesswork: How Data is (Re)Making Agriculture in India” Alexander Campolo (Duham U) & Katia Schwerzmann (Ruhr-Universität Bochum), “From ‘Is’ to ‘Ought’: Data as Example in Machine Learning” *Lunch, 12:40 pm – 1:40 pm* *Panel 3: Calculated Environments, 1:40 pm – 3:20 pm [Parallel Session 1 of 2]* Chair: TBA James Clinton Francis (Columbia Law), Adeline Chum (Columbia), & Guangyu Wu (Columbia), “Clucked Up: Active Machine Learning of Aerial Imagery and the Undercounting-Underfunding Problem in North Carolina’s Poultry Industry” Matt P. Lukacz, Harvard, “Environmental Technocracy or Science-Based Policy? Critiques of Quantification in Political Ecology and the History of Debates About Algorithmic Decision Making in Conservation Biology” Theodora Dryer, New York University, “Colorado River Water Policy and ADS Regulation” *Panel 4: Computed Worlds, 1:40 pm – 3:20 pm [Parallel Session 2 of 2]* Chair: TBA Pariroo Rattan, Harvard University, “Dueling Economists and Discriminating Models: Causal Regression Analysis in 21st Century American Courts” Ekaterina Babintseva, Purdue University, “Rules for Creative Thinking: Algorithms, Heuristics, and Soviet Cybernetic Psychology” Jonathan Weinberg, Wayne State University, “Everything old is new again: credit rating and alternative data” Catherine Powell, Fordham Law, “Race, Place, and Cyberspace” *Coffee Break, 3:20 pm – 3:40 pm* *Panel 5: Data Work, 3:40 pm – 5:20 pm* Chair: TBA Karen Levy, Cornell University, “Rules, Loopholes, and Autonomous Systems” Ira Anjali Anwar, University of Michigan, “Seeing Like a Gig Company: Algorithmic Classification and the (Re)Valuation of Labor” Devin Kennedy, University of Wisconsin-Madison, “Factory Work and Database Management: Industrial Origins of the Computer Database, 1958-67” Jordan Ali and Gili Vidan, Cornell University, “The Economization of Play: Collapsing Value and Liberatory Promises on the Axie Infinity Platform” *Day 2: Saturday, April 1, 2023* *Breakfast, 9:00 am – 9:30 am* *Panel 6: Enacting Futures, 9:30 am – 11:10 am* Chair: Valère Ndior, Université de Bretagne occidentale Angelina Wang (Princeton), Sayash Kapoor (Princeton), Solon Barocas (Cornell), Arvind Narayanan (Princeton), “Against Predictive Optimization: On the Legitimacy of Decision-Making Algorithms that Optimize Predictive Accuracy” Jonnie Penn, University of Cambridge, “Decomputerization as Détente” Burcu Baykurt, University of Massachusetts—Amherst, “Extracting Value” Hannah Zeavin, Indiana University, “Screening Mother, Coding Baby: Predictive Control, Incarcerated Mothers, and Attachment Theory in the Prison” *Coffee Break & Lunch Pickup, 11:10 am – 11:30 am* *Panel 7: Mediating Identities, 11:30 am – 1:10 pm [lunch panel]* Chair: Lisa Messeri, Yale University Pieter Vanden Broeck & David Stark, Columbia University, “Class, Code and Control: Algorithmic Management in the Classroom” Amina Abdu (UMichigan), Lauren Chambers (Berkeley), Abigail Jacobs (UMichigan), Deirdre Mulligan (Berkeley), “The Limits of (Algorithmic) Transparency: Lessons Learned from the US Census’ Implementation of Differential Privacy” Alicia Boyd, New York University, “Should they? Gender Recognition, Privacy, and Accelerometers” Nina Toft Djanegara, Stanford University, “Face the Nation” *Closing Remarks, 1:10 pm – 1:20 pm*

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Fwd: Join us on April 4 for Following the Computer Industry through the State - A CBI Virtual Lecture
by Jeffrey Yost 28 Mar '23

28 Mar '23

*Dear Colleagues,* *Please join us for what is now the 3rd in our annual Tomash Fellow virtual lectures, where the current Tomash Fellow presents from their dissertation research. Our current, 2022-2023 academic year Tomash Fellow Sam Schirvar, ABD from Penn's History and Sociology of Science, will present on his important and insightful research on the social (African American and Native American) history of Control Data Corporation, its programs and manufacturing. Information and the link to register is below. It is 3pm Central on April 4th. Again, I hope you will join us on April 4th for this engaging lecture!* *Best, Jeff* The event will begin at 3 p.m. CST. <https://us18.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcse.umn.edu%2F&xid…> <https://us18.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcse.umn.edu%2Fcbi&…> *A CBI Tomash (Virtual) Lecture on Control Data's late 20th century ventures* Join CBI on Tuesday, April 4 at 3 p.m. CST as our 2022-2023 Tomash Fellow Sam Schirvar, University of Pennsylvania, History and Sociology of Science ABD presents his paper *"Following the Computer Industry through the State."* *This virtual event is free and open to the public but registration is required. * Register <https://us18.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fumn.zoom.us%2Fmeet…> *Brief Abstract: *William C. Norris, founder and CEO of Control Data Corporation, was notorious in the business world. From assembly plants in the so-called "inner city," to a mobile health clinic on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, to computer programming and assembly at the Minnesota State Prison in Stillwater—many of Control Data's ventures in the late twentieth century appeared to be unconventional. While the business community alleged that these programs were a distraction that hurt Control Data's bottom line, Norris insisted that the supercomputer firm could do good — and make a profit. Read the full abstract. <https://us18.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcse.umn.edu%2Fcbi%…> *About the Tomash Fellowship* Each year the Adelle and Erwin Tomash Graduate Fellowship is awarded to a standout ABD graduate student for doctoral dissertation research in the History of Computing, Information, and Culture. [image: Website] <https://us18.mailchimp.com/mctx/clicks?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcse.umn.edu%2Fcbi&…> [image: Email] <cbi(a)umn.edu> *Copyright © 2023 Charles Babbage Institute, All rights reserved.* You are receiving this email because you opted in via our website. *Our mailing address is:* Charles Babbage Institute 222 - 21st Avenue South 211 Andersen Library Minneapolis, MN 55455 Add us to your address book <https://umn.us18.list-manage.com/vcard?u=80984d777802d03dadcf962a8&id=8d35c…> Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences <https://umn.us18.list-manage.com/profile?u=80984d777802d03dadcf962a8&id=8d3…> or unsubscribe from this list <https://umn.us18.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=80984d777802d03dadcf962a8&id…> . [image: Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp] <http://www.mailchimp.com/email-referral/?utm_source=freemium_newsletter&utm…>

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SHOT session seeking submissions soonest: “It will happen here”: Fears of new technologies and efforts to shape their evolution
by Jonathan Coopersmith 28 Mar '23

28 Mar '23

Dear SIGCIS members, Would you like to join this session proposal? In the spirit of Kranzberg’s First Law, “Technology is neither good nor bad; nor is it neutral,” this session examines discussions and attempted governance of emerging technologies that promised great benefits – and potentially equally great dangers. While the current attention to AI <https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/24/opinion/yuval-harari-ai-chatgpt.html> is the most prominent current example, drones over public spaces <https://news.bloomberglaw.com/tech-and-telecom-law/nfl-fears-nefarious-dron…>, biohacking <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7004414/>, and Big Data <https://www.imperial.ac.uk/business-school/ib-knowledge/finance/why-big-dat…> are other areas where future policy might benefit from better understanding and analysis of earlier iterations of those and other technologies. This session is looking for papers examining how proponents, critics, think tanks, non-profits, technical societies, governments and citizens responded to concerns about the negative potential of new technologies. Did these concerns shape the evolution of the technology and its control and regulation? Were the concerns justified? What types of arguments and evidence did participants use? Any guidance for current discussions? If you are interested, please let me know ASAP – the session proposal deadline is April 1. Initially, just a title and a few sentences will do. By March 31, a 150-250 word abstract and any suggested improvements to the session overview and title. Stay sane, Jonathan Jonathan Coopersmith Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science Professor (retired) Department of History Texas A&M University College Station, TX 77843-4236 979.739.4708 (cell) "A Chief Skunk Looks Back," <https://aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org/departments/a-chief-skunk-looks-back/> (interview with Sherm Mullin) *Aerospace America* March 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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SHOT open session: Researching gender in the history of the Internet and the Web
by Janet Abbate 23 Mar '23

23 Mar '23

Dear SIGCIS folks, We are proposing an unconventional session (roundtable) on "Researching gender in the history of the Internet and the Web.” An edited version of the roundtable may become part of a special issue (in progress) of the journal Internet Histories on Gender and Internet/Web History. The roundtable aims to discuss research experiences, methods, sources, corpora, and challenges such as: * Discussing the meaning of the Internet for women and the historical transformations of the relationship between women and the Internet, including structural/cultural obstacles and varying national patterns * Approaching the construction of gender, including its intersectionality with race, on the Internet, including feminism on the web, gender activism and social movements; masculine cultures and the Internet/Web, etc. * Filling gaps in the knowledge of women’s expertise as Internet builders, managers, hackers, influencers, bloggers, content moderators, coders, etc. * Finding relevant sources to better grasp gender and imaginaries of the Internet, such as taking full advantage of oral histories * Mapping and discussing innovative methods to retrace gendered controversies and anti-woman movements online (e.g., trolling, gamergate, #metoo, etc.) * Understanding how the Internet has exploited relational/affective labor * Working on silences and invisibility * Communicating on these findings and disseminating them beyond audiences that are already interested and convinced. To participate, send a CV and short description of the topics you are particularly interested in addressing and your interest and experience in these areas. Junior scholars with work in progress are especially encouraged to participate. Please submit it to valerie.schafer(a)uni.lu <mailto:valerie.schafer@uni.lu> by March, 26, 2023. You can find the open panels here: https://www.historyoftechnology.org/annual-meeting/2023-shot-annual-meeting… Dr. Janet Abbate Professor, Science, Technology and Society Virginia Tech Co-director, VT National Capital Region STS program Author, Inventing the Internet and Recoding Gender

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SHOT open session: Researching gender in the history of the Internet and the Web
by Janet Abbate 23 Mar '23

23 Mar '23

Dear SIGCIS folks, We are proposing an unconventional session (roundtable) on "Researching gender in the history of the Internet and the Web.” An edited version of the roundtable may become part of a special issue (in progress) of the journal Internet Histories on Gender and Internet/Web History. The roundtable aims to discuss research experiences, methods, sources, corpora, and challenges such as: * Discussing the meaning of the Internet for women and the historical transformations of the relationship between women and the Internet, including structural/cultural obstacles and varying national patterns * Approaching the construction of gender, including its intersectionality with race, on the Internet, including feminism on the web, gender activism and social movements; masculine cultures and the Internet/Web, etc. * Filling gaps in the knowledge of women’s expertise as Internet builders, managers, hackers, influencers, bloggers, content moderators, coders, etc. * Finding relevant sources to better grasp gender and imaginaries of the Internet, such as taking full advantage of oral histories * Mapping and discussing innovative methods to retrace gendered controversies and anti-woman movements online (e.g., trolling, gamergate, #metoo, etc.) * Understanding how the Internet has exploited relational/affective labor * Working on silences and invisibility * Communicating on these findings and disseminating them beyond audiences that are already interested and convinced. To participate, send a CV and short description of the topics you are particularly interested in addressing and your interest and experience in these areas. Junior scholars with work in progress are especially encouraged to participate. Please submit it to valerie.schafer(a)uni.lu by March, 26, 2023. You can find the open panels here: https://www.historyoftechnology.org/annual-meeting/2023-shot-annual-meeting… Dr. Janet Abbate Professor, Science, Technology and Society Virginia Tech Co-director, VT National Capital Region STS program Author, Inventing the Internet and Recoding Gender

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Honoring Computer Graphics at Utah
by Brian Berg 23 Mar '23

23 Mar '23

Hello, A big celebration is taking place in Salt Lake City, Utah on Thursday and Friday of this week to celebrate the computer graphics techniques invented by a group of PhD students and others who studied at the Univ. of Utah from the late 60s to the late 70s. An IEEE Milestone <https://ieeemilestones.ethw.org/Milestone-Proposal:Computer_Graphics_Develo…> will be dedicated on Friday morning, and that will be the big event of this 2-day celebration. The title and citation of the bronze plaque that will be unveiled sums up what will be celebrated: *Development of Computer Graphics and Visualization Techniques, 1965-1978**In 1965, the University of Utah established a Center of Excellence for computer graphics research with Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) funding. In 1968, two professors founded the pioneering graphics hardware company Evans & Sutherland; by 1978, fundamental rendering and visualization techniques disclosed in doctoral dissertations included the Warnock algorithm, Gouraud shading, the Catmull-Rom spline, and the Blinn-Phong reflection model. Alumni-founded companies include Atari, Silicon Graphics, Adobe, Pixar, and Netscape.* *Overall details of the events:* https://www.price.utah.edu/ieee-milestone-events *An overview of the people being celebrated:* https://attheu.utah.edu/facultystaff/utahs-graphics-pioneers/ *Live Stream Links (and for later viewing)*Thursday, 23 March: *Univ. of Utah CS Dept. 50th Anniv. Celebration* (9am-4pm PDT / 10am-5pm MDT / 16:00-23:00 UTC): https://youtube.com/live/LUFp6sjKbkE?feature=share (concludes with keynote by Ivan Sutherland at 3pm PDT / 4pm MDT / 22:00 UTC) Friday, 24 March: *IEEE Milestone Dedication Event* (9-11am PDT / 10am-Noon MDT / 16:00-18:00 UTC): https://youtube.com/live/VzEaM6QAy-4?feature=share Friday, 24 March: *Graphics Symposium* (12:45-4pm PDT / 1:45-5pm MDT / 19:45-23:00 UTC): https://youtube.com/live/ui3R1Dlmsk0?feature=share See attached for the program for Friday's events. *The Remarkable Ivan Sutherland* The Computer History Museum recently set up a website to celebrate Ivan Sutherland, who will participate in this week's events: https://computerhistory.org/blog/the-remarkable-ivan-sutherland/ Ivan's PhD thesis on Sketchpad <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sketchpad> was required reading for those early Utah students: https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102726907 and note that his Acknowledgements include his thesis supervisor Claude Shannon, and that he was assisted by Marvin Minsky, Steven Coons, and Larry Roberts. Enjoy! _________________________ Brian A. Berg / bberg(a)StanfordAlumni.org Berg Software Design - LinkedIn Profile <https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianaberg/> 180 Lithia Way, Suite 201, Ashland, OR 97520 USA 14500 Big Basin Way, Suite J, Saratoga, CA 95070 USA Voice: 408.741.5010 / Cell: 408.568.2505 Consulting: Flash Memory/USB/Storage/Patents visit the Storage Cornucopia: www.bswd.com FMS Technical Chair: www.FlashMemorySummit.com <http://www.flashmemorysummit.com/> IEEE Milestone <http://www.siliconvalleymilestones.com/> Coordinator & Historian - Region 6 <http://www.ieee-region6.org/> IEEE History Committee <https://www.ieee.org/about/history-center/history-committee.html> Member IEEE SCV Section <http://www.ieee.org/scv/> Past Chair / IEEE-CNSV <http://www.californiaconsultants.org/> Board Director IEEE Silicon Valley Tech History Committee <http://www.siliconvalleyhistory.com/> Vice-Chair

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