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April 2025

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[So-Hist-Info] Socio-History of Informatics Seminar 04/14/25 - Hardware and software bricolage on the periphery
by FICHEN Mathilde 02 Apr '25

02 Apr '25

Dear Colleagues, This message is to announce the fifth session of our socio-history of informatics seminar<https://sohistinfo.github.io/english/>, which will take place at the Cnam in Paris and online on Monday, April 14, 2025, from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM (Paris time), with Jaroslav Švelch<http://svelch.com/> (Charles University, Prague). Kévin Limonier (Université Paris 8) is invited as a discussant. To attend the seminar, please register here.<https://framaforms.org/inscription-seminaire-de-socio-histoire-de-linformat…> The presentation will be in English. Power to the clones: Hardware and software bricolage on the periphery This talk will address the specifics of computing practices (both amateur and professional) in peripheral contexts. Its aim is to lift “clones”, “ports” and other “bastard” hardware and software artifacts from relative obscurity and derision up to the focus of the history of computing. I will approach the topic revisiting the classic concept of bricoleur, introduced by Lévi-Strauss as a counterpoint to engineer. Bricoleur makes do with the resources that are at hand, and that is one of the reasons why hobby computing and homebrew programming have played such important roles in peripheral contexts with limited access to resources and components, such as in the 1980s Soviet bloc. The chapter will use examples from 1980s Czechoslovakia, specifically the local efforts to design and build first mainframes and then microcomputers without using any unavailable Western-manufactured components, or the clones and conversions of Western games for domestic or domestically available hardware. I will argue that clones required considerable ingenuity and effort to make, and that they have made important contributions to the proliferation of computer technology and literacy in regions like Eastern Europe. The talk is based on Švelch’s chapter from the book Abstractions and Embodiments: New Histories of Computing and Society, edited by Janet Abbate and Stephanie Dick. --- The Socio-History of Informatics Seminar is a research seminar organized by the research center of the HT2S laboratory at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers in Paris. The goal of this seminar is to explore new narratives in the long-term history of informatics, emphasizing how computing and informatics intertwines with social, economic, political, and cultural issues. Every two months, we invite a researcher in history and/or anthropology and sociology (with a historical or diachronic perspective) of computing and informatics to present their work. Seminar website: https://sohistinfo.github.io/english/ We look forward to seeing you there. Best regards, Mathilde Fichen (PhD candidate, HT2S), Adrien Tournier (PhD candidate, HT2S), and Camille Paloque-Bergès (Researcher, HT2S), on behalf of the seminar organizers. Mathilde Fichen Ph.D Candidate CNAM - HT2S<https://technique-societe.cnam.fr/histoire-des-technosciences-en-societe-ht…> Personal page: mathfichen.github.io<https://mathfichen.github.io/>

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The Hunting of the Babbages
by Brian E Carpenter 02 Apr '25

02 Apr '25

Colleagues, For the past month I have been delving into a box labelled “Babbage” left behind by the late Garry Tee. (The email subject refers to one of the many threads running through the box, i.e., claimed allusions to Babbage and Ada in “The Hunting of the Snark.”) Basically the box is the history of Garry's work on Babbage family and relics in New Zealand and Australia, but his correspondents range from a large number of people called Babbage, through Andrew Booth, Allan Bromley, Donald Davies, Benoit Mandelbrot, Donald Sadler and Dorothy Stein, to extensive communication with Maurice Wilkes. In total there are more than 200 correspondents. I've written up a summary of what I've found, which isn't a finished or publishable piece of work, but I have the family's OK to share it with any Babbage scholars who'd like to know more. The final destination of the archive box is unknown, but I'm anxious that it should not be a recycling bin. Regards Brian E. Carpenter Honorary Professor School of Computer Science The University of Auckland https://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~brian/ brian(a)cs.auckland.ac.nz

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