June 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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A new book on writing computer and information history
by William Aspray 02 Oct '24

02 Oct '24

Some of you may be interested in a book that I edited, published by Rowman & Littlefield (as of last week, now part of Bloomsbury), entitled Writing Computer and Information History: Approaches, Reflections, and Connections. The e-book is already out, and the hardcover will launch June 14. The book includes chapters by 18 authors experienced in writing computer history or information history: Toni Weller, Thomas Haigh, James Cortada, Laura Skouvig, Geoffrey Bowker and John Leslie King, David Gugerli and Daniela Zetti, Shane Greenstein, Daniel Garcia Swartz and Martin Campbell-Kelly, Philip Doty and William Aspray, Valerie Schafer, Matthew Jones, Howard Rosenbaum, Greg Downey, and Liesbeth De Mol. Bill Aspray

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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 2024: registration codes and updated meeting website
by Babintseva, Ekaterina 26 Jun '24

26 Jun '24

Dear SIGCIS community, This is a reminder to please register for the SIGCIS meeting here<https://www.historyoftechnology.org/annual-meeting/2024-joint-icohtec-shot-…> if you are planning to attend in person or online. To attend the SIGCIS meeting virtually, please use the promo code "SIGCISSONLINE" (note the extra S at the end of SIGCIS) at the top of the registration form. This will make the option for "SIGCIS SUNDAY ONLY ONLINE Registration" appear ($30). Please note that only one of the SIGCIS conference rooms will be hybrid-enabled. If you are only attending SIGCIS in person and not SHOT, use the promo code "SIGCISSUNDAY" at the top of the registration form. This will make the option for "SIGCIS SUNDAY ONLY Registration" appear ($100). The meeting program, as well as information about the venue, transportation, and raffle books (please bring books or send them with the people attending the conference to help us fundraise!), is now available at the updated SIGCIS meeting website. <https://meetings.sigcis.org/registration--location.html> We look forward to seeing you virtually or in person on July 14! Best wishes, Katya Babintseva (Purdue) Morgan Ames (UC Berkeley) Xiaochang Li (Stanford) Gili Vidan (Cornell) Colette Perold (U-Colorado Boulder)

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Quick historical inquiry
by Susannah Glickman 19 Jun '24

19 Jun '24

Dear all, I am passing on a question I could not answer from my mentor Richard John: “Is there any reliable historical writing (in English or any other language—eg Japanese) on the influence of U. S. anti-trust policy on the adoption of the transistor by the Japanese computer electronics industry in the 1950s? Though Bell began to license its transistor patent before the 1956 U. S. Justice Department consent decree—recent legal scholars have attributed great significance to that ruling in shaping the future course of consumer electronics” Richard R. John, rrj2115(a)columbia.edu <mailto:rrj2115@columbia.edu> All the best, Susannah -- Susannah E. Glickman Assistant Professor Department of History Stony Brook University

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New book + book chapter
by Chaar Lopez, Ivan 17 Jun '24

17 Jun '24

Dear SIGCIS colleagues, Passing by to share two new publications with you. My first book is out now with Duke University Press, and you can get it 30% off through this link<https://t.co/ErdGjdbGko>. The Cybernetic Border: Drones, Technology, and Intrusion (abstract below) touches upon how cybernetic logics and data routines, since the mid-twentieth century, slowly became a dominant arrangement in the making of geopolitical borders and the management of populations. Lastly, my colleague and former Border Tech Lab researcher, Victoria Sánchez, and I wrote a book chapter on artificial intelligence, microwork, and the racial politics of care. Our chapter (open access here<https://uplopen.com/reader/chapters/pdf/10.1525/luminos.190.n>) tackles the emergence of Sama as a former nonprofit devoted to impact sourcing and the development of a labor supply chain for data annotation and platform moderation. Drawing on corporate plans, user configurations, and discourse analysis, we interrogate the tensions inherent in Sama's commitments and sociotechnical arrangements for ethical AI through an analytical lens (racial politics of care) that builds on critical race STS and feminist STS. The chapter is part of an edited volume on Feminist Cyberlaw<https://uplopen.com/books/e/10.1525/luminos.190> (open access) edited by Meg Leta Jones and Amanda Levendowski. Salud, Iván In The Cybernetic Border, Iván Chaar López argues that the settler US nation requires the production and targeting of a racialized enemy that threatens the empire. The cybernetic border is organized through practices of data capture, storage, processing, circulation, and communication that police bodies and constitute the nation as a bounded, territorial space. Chaar López historicizes the US government’s use of border enforcement technologies on Mexicans, Arabs, and Muslims from the mid-twentieth century to the present, showing how data systems are presented as solutions to unauthorized border crossing. Contrary to enduring fantasies of the purported neutrality of drones, smart walls, artificial intelligence, and biometric technologies, the cybernetic border represents the consolidation of calculation and automation in the exercise of racialized violence. Chaar López draws on corporate, military, and government records, promotional documents and films, technical reports, news reporting, surveillance footage, and activist and artist practices. These materials reveal how logics of enmity are embedded into information infrastructures that shape border control and modern sovereignty. -- Iván Chaar López Assistant Professor, Department of American Studies PI, Border Tech Lab University of Texas at Austin Author of The Cybernetic Border: Drones, Technology, and Intrusion<https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-cybernetic-border> (Duke University Press, 2024) [cid:9f2a691f-7df5-4675-b719-ac64f075f063] [cid:1526a7b6-cf1d-469e-a63c-e8a15a8a52ff]<https://outlook.office365.com/bookwithme/user/874259e3445b46e79161f6c9a78a0…> Book time to meet with me<https://outlook.office365.com/bookwithme/user/874259e3445b46e79161f6c9a78a0…>

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Internet Histories, Volume 8, Issue 1-2, March - June 2024 is online
by Asger Harlung 10 Jun '24

10 Jun '24

To whom it may concern, The Editorial Staff of Internet Histories is pleased to announce that Internet Histories, Volume 8, Issue 1-2, March - June 2024 is now available online. This is a special issue: "Museums on the Web" Five articles are open access, and one is free for a limited time. The double issue may be accessed here: https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rint20/8/1-2 Kind regards on behalf of the editors, Asger Harlung Editorial Assistant, Internet Histories - - - In this issue: Editorial Editorial: Museums on the Web | Open Access Karin de Wild & Nadezhda Povroznik Research Article Early virtual science museums: when the technology is not mature Jonathan P. Bowen, Ann Borda, Giuliano Gaia & Stefania Boiano5 Interview Preserving the international museum of women: an interview with Marie Williams Chant Ismini Kyritsis & Karin de Wild Research Articles Accessing the artwork in covid-19: loss, recovery and reimagination | Open Access Amanda J. Tinker An analysis of the role of digital technology in the online exhibition of the art museum in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area during the COVID-19 pandemic Minying Zhang & Peng Liu Header/footer gallery: creating and sustaining an online only art gallery Rene Alberto G. Cepeda, Ph.D. & Constanza Salazar, Ph.D. Interview Digital Pierrot Museum from Pristina to the Moon: an interview with Willred Dallto Erik Da Silva Research Articles Rethinking openness: a social constructivist approach to the promises of the new museology | Free for a limited time Tiancheng Leo Cao How “open” are Australian museums? A review through the lens of copyright governance | Open Access Paul Longley Arthur, Lydia Hearn, Isabel Smith & Nikos Koutras Museums’ digital identity: key components | Open Access Nadezhda Povroznik Framing digital identities through social media in museums Maria Paula Arias A diachronic cluster analysis of Danish museum websites | Open Access Mette Skov & Tanja Svarre Book Reviews The Modem World: A Pre-History of Social Media By Kevin Driscoll, Yale University Press, 2022, Hardcover, 328 pp., ISBN: 9780300248142 $28.00 Katie Mackinnon Concealing for Freedom: The Making of Encryption, Secure Messaging and Digital Liberties By Ksenia Ermoshina and Francesca Musiani, Manchester, UK: Mattering Press, 2022, 272 pp., ISBN 9781912729227, £16.00 Alice Whelan

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Information & Culture seeking book reviews
by james.hodges＠rutgers.edu 05 Jun '24

05 Jun '24

Greetings! Please excuse my cross-posting. I am the Book Reviews Editor for Information & Culture (https://www.infoculturejournal.org/) I’m writing because we are currently looking for new book reviewers. Reviews are generally around 1,000 words in length, written for a broad academic audience. *If you’re interested, please email reviews(a)ischool.utexas.edu <reviews(a)ischool.utexas.edu>* with your area of expertise and any other relevant information. You are free to pitch any book within the areas of information, media, and communication (published within the last year), or to express interest in one of the titles below. Please note that we often receive quite a large response when we make these solicitations, so I can't guarantee that you will be matched with your top choice-- but I am always looking for new reviewers, and I am very happy to record your areas of expertise so that we can reach out with other potential books of interest. Here is a partial list of books we're currently looking to review, with an emphasis on books that I think may be of interest to this community: "Averting the Digital Dark Age: How Archivists, Librarians, and Technologists Built the Web a Memory" by Ian Milligan https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/53671/averting-digital-dark-age "The Intimate Life of Computers: Digitizing Domesticity in the 1980s" by Reem Hilu https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/the-intimate-life-of-compute… "Cyberlibertarianism: The Right-Wing Politics of Digital Technology" by David Golumbia https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/cyberlibertarianism "A History of Fake Things on the Internet" by Walter J. Scheirer https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=35460 "Inside IBM: Lessons of a Corporate Culture in Action" by James Cortada https://cup.columbia.edu/book/inside-ibm/9780231213004 I look forward to working with you! Sincerely, James A. Hodges

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