January 2024 - 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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4S/EASST 2024 Amsterdam Open Panel - Historicizing State Quantification in Disciplinary and Control Societies
by Charles Luke Stark 08 Feb '24

08 Feb '24

Are you doing work on quantification and the state, past and/or present? If so, this 4S/EASST 2024 open panel might be for you! Join us in Amsterdam in July! Historicizing State Quantification in Disciplinary and Control Societies (P341) Convenors: Luke Stark (Western University), Melissa Adler (Western University), David Nemer (University of Virginia) Numerical techniques and technologies used to inscribe and circulate differences—racial, gendered, class, caste-based, and others—are everywhere in disciplinary and control societies. This panel interrogates the history of these quantitative mechanisms of power, and the ways they have been resisted. To propose a paper, go to https://nomadit.co.uk/conference/easst-4s2024/p/14425 Numerous thinkers (including Fanon, Foucault, Deleuze, Crenshaw, Hartman, Freire, and others) have theorized the ways in which the political arithmetic of the capitalist state and its agents has prompted the development of numerical techniques and technologies to inscribe and circulate differences—racial, gendered, class, caste-based, and others—about populations intended for exploitation and dispossession. In this panel, we aim to further interrogate the history of these quantitative, statistical, and inferential mechanisms of power. From the Enlightenment calculation of early American enslavers to the contemporary deep learning transformations of artificial intelligence (AI) practitioners, and even the human infrastructures that transmit disinformation through messaging apps, numbers have never been neutral nor free from narrative. This panel will focus on the continuities in thinking and practice around the use of numbers as a tool of oppression across both space and time, and the often-nuanced strategies of resistance and cooption that progressive social movements have deployed in response. Some of the questions we hope to see addressed by the panel include the following: • How have historical discourses and ideologies of inequality, oppression, and supremacy prompted, shaped, and refined quantitative or technical metrics and mechanisms of scientific or social differentiation? • How have the developers of these metrics and techniques drawn on transnational or global circuits of oppression? • What are examples of such technical metrics and mechanisms being developed in an overtly oppressive context and then laundered more general scientific practice? How have professional fields such as medicine, statistics, and psychology grappled with or ignored these historical genealogies? • How have people and communities targeted by such numerical mechanisms resisted, responded, refused, and coopted these technologies? What have been the results of such encounters, and what lessons can contemporary groups dedicated to opposing unfreedom take from these historical examples? All the best, Luke Luke Stark Assistant Professor Faculty of Information & Media Studies (FIMS) Western University, London ON he/him/his Meetings: https://calendly.com/lukestark Website: https://starkcontrast.co/ Western University is located on the traditional lands of the Chonnonton, Anishinaabek, Haudenosaunee and Lenaape Nations, connected through the London and Sombra Township Treaties, and to the Dish with One Spoon Covenant Wampum. I ask we pay respect to their Elders, past, present, and future, acknowledging the painful history of genocide and forced removal from this territory.

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UVa Human Computer Project
by Jonathan Coopersmith 01 Feb '24

01 Feb '24

https://news.virginia.edu/content/news-brief-looking-more-hidden-figures Looks exciting. 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) John Mather "Instrument Maker to the Stars," <https://aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org/departments/instrument-maker-to-the-stars/> *Aerospace America* November 2023 "Technological obsolescence, <https://www.nationalacademies.org/news/2023/05/technological-obsolescence>" National Academy of Engineering *Perspectives* May 23, 2023 Preserving space archives: https://www.toboldlypreserve.space/

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Coleman Prize 2024
by Bernardo Batiz-Lazo 31 Jan '24

31 Jan '24

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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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UK Collection of computer related button badges on eBay
by Joly MacFie 26 Jan '24

26 Jan '24

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/395160619270 -- -------------------------------------- Joly MacFie +12185659365 -------------------------------------- -

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SIGCIS 2024 CFP Reminder | System Update | Deadline for abstracts: Sunday, Jan 28
by Gili Vidan 22 Jan '24

22 Jan '24

Dear all, A reminder that abstracts for our 2024 SIGCIS meeting, *SYSTEM UPDATE*, (July 14, 2024 in Viña del Mar, Chile, on the Sunday of the SHOT meeting) are due *this Sunday, Jan 28, 2024*. Our keynote for the event is *Anita Say Chan <https://ischool.illinois.edu/people/anita-say-chan>*, Associate Professor in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Below you can find the full CFP for this year's conference. The CFP can also be viewed as a Google doc here <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wrXsJaSuQnK1NKaZKTSY5mJLy7I5d90qgj6obBb…>, or at our conference website: https://meetings.sigcis.org. Please circulate widely, and we hope to see you at SIGCIS! -Morgan G. Ames, Xiaochang Li, Gili Vidan, Katya Babintseva, and Colette Perold ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *System Update:Patches, Tactics, Responses* Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Viña del Mar, Chile | July 14, 2024 The Special Interest Group in Computing, Information, and Society [SIGCIS] welcomes submissions to their 15th Annual Conference meetings.sigcis.org Proposal Due Date: January 28, 2024 <https://forms.gle/87jx9wSrpUs8i4ZM7> KEYNOTE SPEAKER Anita Say Chan <https://ischool.illinois.edu/people/anita-say-chan>Associate Professor, School of Information Sciences Director, Community Data Clinic Provost Fellow, International Relations & Global Strategies University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign THEME Patches, central to functioning computer systems, may improve performance, mend security flaws, or debug code. Like a patch on torn clothing, these updates are by design tactical and temporary, a response to immediate vulnerabilities. Patchwork can be an important tool for resilience and repair when a system overhaul would be protracted and disruptive. Still, patchwork also presumes that problems are ‘bugs’ or ‘glitches,’ isolated issues that could and would be fixed on the go (Benjamin 2019, Kidwell 1998). As patches accumulate, their stitches and seams can themselves be a vulnerability, and their presence may distract from more transformative change. The history of computing is permeated with patchwork. While many have critiqued an overreliance on quick technical fixes, patchwork can also be understood as a targeted resistance, a vital stopgap that directly addresses local failures and externalities within political, social, and economic systems when systemic forms of recourse are limited or unresponsive to the specific needs of local communities. As we gather for our first SIGCIS meeting in Latin America, Chile provides important historical lessons for how to think about architectures for technology and power, ones that move beyond surface-level responses to deeply revolutionary visions (Medina 2011). This history also reminds us of the constraints faced by historical actors who must work within a system even when seeking to update it. “System Update: Patches, Tactics, Responses” invites scholars, museum and archive professionals, journalists, IT practitioners, artists, and independent researchers across the disciplinary spectrum to consider how the history of computing and information technology is entangled with political and economic histories in a variety of contexts, and especially to consider patchwork. In spaces of uneven infrastructural investment, environmental restoration, or resistance and reparations, what are the uses and limitations of quick fixes? How have patches been used as tactical responses to large-scale, deeply historical injustices? Who carries the burden of patchwork and who is left out of the update? How can historical analyses help us respond to colonial and environmentally-fraught computing practices in and beyond the Global South? What strategies might allow for system rebuilding rather than mere patching? 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://www.historyoftechnology.org/annual-meeting/2024-joint-icohtec-shot-… SUBMISSION FORMAT AND PROCEDURES SIGCIS welcomes proposals for individual 15-minute papers, 3-4 paper panel proposals, and non-traditional proposals such as roundtables, software demonstrations, art and music performances, hands-on workshops, etc. Submissions are due January 28, 2024 via Google Form https://forms.gle/87jx9wSrpUs8i4ZM7. 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. 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. Questions about the submission process should be sent to: sigcis.conference(a)gmail.com. REGISTRATION COSTS 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 the 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 Continuing our 2022 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 will reach out to presenters after acceptances have been sent out with further information and instructions for applying. 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 strongly to meet the accessibility needs of our participants. SIGCIS MEETINGS ORGANIZING COMMITTEE Morgan G. Ames <http://morganya.org/>, University of California, Berkeley (SIGCIS Vice-Chair of Meetings) Xiaochang Li <https://comm.stanford.edu/faculty-li/>, Stanford University Katya Babintseva <https://www.cla.purdue.edu/directory/profiles/ekaterina-babintseva.html>, Purdue University Gili Vidan <https://infosci.cornell.edu/content/vidan>, Cornell University Colette Perold <https://www.colorado.edu/cmci/people/media-studies/colette-perold>, University of Colorado --- Gili Vidan Assistant Professor | Information Science | Cornell University Pronouns: she/her

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