May 2025 - Members - lists.sigcis.org

available now for pre-order: Other Networks / A Radical Technology Sourcebook
by Lori Emerson 21 Nov '25

21 Nov '25

Dear all, At long last, my beloved book, Other Networks:A Radical Technology Sourcebook, is officially available from Anthology Editions for pre-order here<https://shop.mexicansummer.com/merch/495898-lori-emerson-other-networks-a-r…>! Sadly, despite publishing many beautifully designed art books, the publisher won’t be around for much longer which means there are only 1000 copies available of Other Networks. If you think you’d like a copy, consider pre-ordering as soon as you can manage it. With deep gratitude to my editor Mark Iosifescu<https://iosifescu.biz/>, book cover designer Robert Beatty<https://robertbeattyart.com/>, and interior book designer Ella Gold<https://ellagold.com/>, Other Networks catalogs 80+ networks that preceded or existed outside of the internet. It is also an educational project that comes out of my belief that we are all capable both of understanding networks from the past and of building alternative networks for the future; a love letter to experimental art and technology; and a liberatory guide for escaping the corporate present. The design brilliantly both recalls the long history of telecommunications networks (exemplified by late 19th century/early 20th century telegraph and telephone manuals) and rewrites that same history to have a more global perspective and to include more women; Black, Indigenous, and People of Color; and artist experiments with/on these pre-internet networks. Below is the table of contents. I have also posted on my blog excerpts from or expanded versions of entries on microbroadcasting<https://loriemerson.net/2024/09/21/the-history-of-microbroadcasting-and-how…>, barbed wire fence phones<https://loriemerson.net/2024/08/31/a-brief-history-of-barbed-wire-fence-tel…>, and imaginary networks<https://loriemerson.net/2025/01/04/brief-notes-toward-activating-the-potent…>. Sincerely, Lori (Emerson) *** Chronological List of Networks<https://loriemerson.net/2024/03/15/chronological-list-of-networks-in-other-…> Chronological List of Network Experiments<https://loriemerson.net/2024/03/15/chronological-list-of-network-experiment…> Acknowledgements Foreword Introduction Wireless Networks: Sound Networks [1] Drums [2] Whistling Air Networks [3] Fire or Smoke Signals [4] Pneumatic Tubes [5] Skywriting Water Networks [6] Hydraulic Semaphore Optical Networks [7] Flag Signaling [8] Optical Telegraph [9] Infrared Communication [10] Signal Lamp [11] Heliograph [12] Photophone [13] Ultraviolet Communication [14] Laser Communication [15] Visible Light Communication Radio Networks [16] Amateur Radio [16.1] Radiotelegraphy [16.2] Radioteletype [16.3] Amateur Television [16.4] Hellschreiber [16.5] Earth-Moon-Earth Communication [16.6] Amateur Radio Satellite [16.7] Amateur Packet Radio [17] Radio Broadcast [18] Pirate Radio [19] Radiofax [20] Two-Way Radio [21] Pager [22] Meteor Burst Communication [23] Slow Scan Television [24] Project West Ford [25] Pirate Television [26] Packet Radio Network [27] Microbroadcast [28] Software Defined Radio [29] Wi-Fi [30] Bluetooth Microwave Networks [31] Microwave Radio-Relay [32] Communications Satellite Wired Networks: Electrical Wire Networks [33] Electrical telegraph [33.1] Electrical Printing Telegraph [33.2] Image Telegraph [33.3] Fire Alarm Telegraph [33.4] Pantelegraph [33.5] Telephonic Telegraph [34] Telephone [35] Wired Radio [36] Telautograph [37] Telefacsimile [38] Videophone [39] Telex Barbed Wire Networks [40] Barbed Wire Telegraph [41] Fence Phones Hybrid Networks: [42] Library [43] Book [44] Postal System [44.1] Pigeon Post [44.2] Projectile Post [44.3] Balloon Mail [44.4] Pony Express [44.5] Airgraph and V-Mail [44.6] Email Letter [45] Sneakernet [46] Radio Broadcast Network [47] Broadcast Television [48] Cable Television [48.1] NABU [49] Cellular Network [50] Time-Sharing Network [51] Teletext [52] Videotex Imaginary Networks: [53] Necromancy [54] Pasilalinic-Sympathetic Compass [55] Telephonoscope [56] Telepathy [57] Ley Lines [58] Mundaneum [59] World Brain [60] Memex [61] Faster-Than-Light Communication Networks [62] Project Xanadu [63] Metaverse [64] The Clacks [65] Pandoran Neural Network [66] Cosmic Internet -- “I use technology in order to hate it properly.” — Nam June Paik Lori Emerson | KF0LCB | she/her/they/them Associate Professor | Associate Chair Graduate Studies | Director, Media Archaeology Lab Media Studies Department | University Colorado Boulder Traditional territories of the Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Ute Nations Other Networks: A Radical Technology Sourcebook<https://shop.mexicansummer.com/merch/495898-lori-emerson-other-networks-a-r…> Mastodon<https://post.lurk.org/@loriemerson> | Bluesky<https://bsky.app/profile/loriemerson.net> | loriemerson.net<http://loriemerson.net/> | mediaarchaeologylab.com<http://mediaarchaeologylab.com/>

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Historical Conference Proceedings
by Eric Kaltman 12 Jun '25

12 Jun '25

Greetings all, The CS department at UAlberta is moving buildings and clearing out a lot of older texts. I found out rather late and am looking through their discards. I'm wondering if anyone can confirm / affirm that major conference proceedings are generally available? I'm looking at a near complete stack of proceedings (ACM SIGMOD, VLDB, etc.) and it appears that the official scans are missing front matter and such in some cases. Just wanted to get any thoughts on whether I should have any concern about the proceedings or try to keep them somewhere. Best, Eric -- Dr. Eric Kaltman, Assistant Professor Software History Futures and Technologies (SHFT) Group https://www.shft.group Media and Technology Studies / History University of Alberta

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SIGCIS 2025 CFP: proposals due June 30
by Morgan G. Ames 30 May '25

30 May '25

We are excited to announce our Call for Participation for the 16th Annual Conference of the Special Interest Group for Computing, Information, and Society, "Power Surge," which will take place online September 25-27. Proposals for papers, panels, graduate student WIP papers (new this year!), or other forms of participation are due June 30 (11:59pm AoE) at https://forms.gle/R63W9xYzAepkCwB98. See below or follow this link <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1plGw7dI_bUWUxNW295A0IrdeBMggoZ-qRI2hPAK…> for the full CFP. Please reach out if you have any questions, and please spread the word! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SIGCIS 2025: power surge September 25-27 2025 | Online via Zoom The Special Interest Group for Computing, Information, and Society (SIGCIS) welcomes submissions to their 16th Annual Conference meetings.sigcis.org Proposal Due Date: June 30, 2025 | Submit Here <https://forms.gle/R63W9xYzAepkCwB98> Keynote Speaker Lily Geismer <https://www.cmc.edu/academic/faculty/profile/lily-geismer>Professor of History, Claremont McKenna College call for participation >From the rapid uptake of commercial AI tools in the workplace to the increasingly dominant role the tech industry is playing in politics, the combustible confluence of technology, power, money, and politics is moving fast and things are breaking. Scholars and practitioners know to be wary of cycles of hype and fear around new technologies. But to many, what’s happening today feels like a definitive break from the past, akin to an unexpected power spike that exceeds the normal operating voltage of a circuit. For SIGCIS 2025, we ask: What are the stakes of studying the history of computing at a time when technology's perceived excesses are unraveling political institutions, legal doctrines, and professional norms? When technology works as intended for some and "glitches" for others (Benjamin 2019), when political agency is superseded by the technologists' visions of autonomy (Marx 2010), and when labor is devalued in the name of machine productivity (Bix 2000), we assert that locating this moment within the longer history of computing can help us grapple with the contemporary politics of power. The 16th annual conference of the Special Interest Group for Computing, Information, and Society (SIGCIS) employs a broad definition of the history of the politics of computing to facilitate a timely discussion of the relationship between political power and digital technologies. What role does the tech industry play in engineering political, cultural, and economic orders? How do the changes in systems of government funding and patronage steer the goals, tasks, and values of professional and research communities in computer science and engineering? How do political and economic ideologies create demand for certain technologies and shape their adoption? Whether one sees this moment as a breaking point or as a fundamental continuity, this year's theme "Power Surge" also connotes the potential for resistance and response to excesses of computing’s technologies, institutions, corporate actors, and legal doctrines. What modes of effective push-back does the history of computing present to us? "SIGCIS 2025: Power Surge" 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 can offer fresh perspectives on tech policy and regulation, the institutional contexts in which computing technology is developed and deployed, and how computing technologies mediate the politics of everyday life. SIGCIS is welcoming of new directions in scholarship. We are particularly interested in submissions that bridge and engage with adjacent but often siloed fields that center the study of power, politics, and policy such as American Political Development (APD), global political economy, political theory, technology policy, and related fields; as well as broader analyses 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; or other adjacent domains. We maintain an inclusive atmosphere for scholarly inquiry supporting disciplinary interventions from beyond the traditional history of technology and promoting diversity in STEM. 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. Participants are limited to one presenting role, but may take on additional roles as moderator, discussant, graduate student workshop mentor, or similar. NEW THIS YEAR: WIP Workshops for graduate students! In addition to the open SIGCIS program, we invite graduate students to submit an abstract, following the submission guidelines below, for a closed works-in-progress (WIP) workshop, where accepted participants will receive feedback on their drafts from established scholars in the history of computing and adjacent fields. Workshops will take place on Saturday, September 27, the final day of the conference. Students who are accepted to the WIP Workshop must submit a full or excerpted draft of their paper/chapter (4000-8000 words, excluding references) by August 31, 2025 in order to be included in the final program. Drafts will be circulated to mentors in the weeks before the conference. We also invite mentor nominations (including self-nominations), and graduate students submitting WIP papers are especially encouraged to submit nominations. Submissions are due June 30, 2025 here: https://forms.gle/R63W9xYzAepkCwB98. Submissions must include: - An anonymized 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. If you are proposing a virtual performance, skill share, social activity, or other non-traditional event, please also tell us how much time you anticipate needing. Please do not include names or other identifying information in this file. - A separate file of 100-150 word biographies with full name, affiliation, email, and presentation title for you and each other participant in your submission (if applicable). 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. Questions about the submission process should be sent to sigcis.conference(a)gmail.com. virtual logistics and accessibility In order to make SIGCIS as accessible as possible within the means of an all-volunteer organization, the SIGCIS Conference Committee has implemented these measures: - SIGCIS is hosted online every other year, starting in 2021. - Virtual SIGCIS conferences are not co-located or co-timed with our parent organization, SHOT, so as not to conflict with SHOT’s in-person conference. - While our typical in-person format is a one-day, 3-stream conference, our virtual format is a multi-day, single stream event with time-zone-sensitive scheduling. - The virtual conference has a sliding-scale registration fee, and membership in SHOT is not required to register. - The submission form includes a field where you can list your time zone(s) and a field where you may make requests for accessibility accommodations. 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, Boulder

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Perplexity
by Brian Randell 26 May '25

26 May '25

Hi: A while ago I and colleagues published a short critique in the Annals of the History of Computing of ChatGPT, based on its performance on some questions about Percy Ludgate. I’ve recently been trying (the free version of) Perplexity, the AI search (or more exactly question-answering) system. Perplexity itself claims: Here's what makes Perplexity different Answers that are accurate and always cited We continuously search the internet and identify the best sources, from academic research to Reddit threads, to provide the perfect answer to any question. Citations in every response Every answer uses cited sources to provide a more accurate and comprehensive answer. If you want to dig deeper, just click the link to the source. See its brilliant answer to the question “Did Percy Ludgate's work have any impact?”: https://www.perplexity.ai/search/did-percy-ludgate-s-work-have-2esemV.BRuCo… The web version limits the number of questions per day – so far the iPhone App hasn’t. I assume I’m not alone here in trying Perplexity, but I don’t recall any previous comment about it in SIGCIS. However, the Wikipedia article about it https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perplexity_AI is a little sobering, regarding its alleged copyright violations, and failure to respect the robots.txt web-crawling standards. Cheers Brian

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Lost Alan Turing papers set for auction • The Register
by Brian E Carpenter 24 May '25

24 May '25

https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/24/turing_papers_auction/

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Workshop: Paths to “Informatik”: Values, Machines, Sciences 23–25 October 2025 Deutsches Museum, Munich
by Helena Durnová 12 May '25

12 May '25

Dear colleagues, you are coridally invited to the workshop Paths to “Informatik”: Values, Machines, Sciences to be held 23–25 October 2025 at Deutsches Museum, Munich The Research Institute for the History of Science and Technology Seminar room “Forschung 1” Application deadline (title and abstract): 30 June 2025 URL: http://www.deutsches-museum.de/forschung/aktuelles/tagungen/2025/wege-in-di… informatik E-mail: wege-in-die-informatik(a)deutsches-museum.de Organisation: Ulf Hashagen (Deutsches Museum / LMU München) Rudolf Seising (Deutsches Museum / LMU München) Andrea Reichenberger (TU München) Helena Durnová, (Masaryk University, Brno) Call for Papers: The 1950s and 1960s saw the birth of the new discipline “Informatik” in the German- speaking scientific landscape. It emerged as a direct challenge to and in contrast to “Computer Science”, which was evolving simultaneously in the American scientific system. The historical roots of this new scientific discipline can be found in Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Logic, and to a lesser extent also in other disciplines such as Philosophy, Brain Research and Psychology. As is often the case in the early stages of a new discipline, there was a clash of values, which resulted in disputes between representatives of different scientific milieus. These controversies have since been largely forgotten in the sciences as well as in the collective memory of our society due to the great success that “Informatik” (and Computer Science) enjoyed as a new “leading science” in the 20th century. The main objective of the conference is to facilitate critical reflection on these pasts in all their complexity, and to investigate whether disciplinary value competitions and newly emerging value formation processes had an influence on the genesis of “Informatik” in the 1950s and 1960s. Furthermore, the conference aims to ascertain the extent to which these developments were specific to the German-speaking world in comparison to other European countries. By analysing these transformation processes of value systems in the emerging field of “Informatik” as well as their feedback effects on classical scientific disciplines, in particular Mathematics, Physics and Electrical Engineering, we hope to contribute to the questioning and shedding of new light on the scientific self-image and value system of “Informatik” in the 21st century. The conference will trace the different paths that either led to the development of “Informatik” in the 1950s and 1960s or remained in their original disciplines. Methodologically, these approaches can be examined in a biographical context, in terms of institutional history, the history of ideas or analytically, to name just a few examples. The underlying assumption of the conference discussion is that the advent of the “computer” as a new artefact has precipitated profound shifts in the prevailing value systems within the scientific disciplines that have given rise to “Informatik”, namely Mathematics, Physics, Electrical Engineering and Logic. Concurrently, it has also engendered the establishment of a novel disciplinary canon of values within the very subject of “Informatik” itself in the German scientific system, which is largely shaped by Mathematics. Furthermore, the extent to which this development was specific to the German-speaking world and how this was the case in other European countries will be discussed. Finally, the workshop will cover the question of how some of the “Informatiker/Informatikerinnen” (computer scientists) who were active in the 1960s developed historical narratives and interpretations for their own discipline’s history, and also used narratives of digital objects and implemented some of these in museum exhibitions. One theory is that historical artefacts served to define a scientific discipline of “Informatik” that is increasingly operating in a media-digital environment. The main language of the workshop will be German, but contributions in English are also welcome. Discussions, in particular, can be held in either language. A subsidy towards travel and accommodation costs can be granted on application. Please send presentation proposals to: wege-in-die-informatik(a)deutsches-museum.de

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Fwd: article of interest
by Jonathan Coopersmith 06 May '25

06 May '25

Jim, A belated thanks to you and Patryk Babirack for your Chronicle piece on the ROI of a college education -- Arthur Daemmrich and I cited it in our recent piece: “The Road Not (Yet) Taken. Historians As Policy Professionals*,” AHA Perspectives* May 2025, 18-20 https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/the-road-not-yet-taken/ 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) with Arthur Daemmrich, “The Road Not (Yet) Taken. Historians As Policy Professionals*,” AHA Perspectives* May 2025, 18-20. "'What Were We Thinking?' Space Commercialization, 1960-1990," in Brian C. Odom, ed., *The Rise of the Commercial Space Industry. Early Space Age to Present* (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024). ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Jonathan Coopersmith <j-coopersmith(a)tamu.edu> Date: Sun, May 4, 2025 at 11:43 PM Subject: article of interest To: Michael Geselowitz <m.geselowitz(a)ieee.org> Or at least I hope it's of interest to you. Jonathan Coopersmith and Arthur Daemmrich, “The Road Not (Yet) Taken. Historians As Policy Professionals*,” AHA Perspectives* May 2025, 18-20 https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/the-road-not-yet-taken/ 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) with Arthur Daemmrich, “The Road Not (Yet) Taken. Historians As Policy Professionals*,” AHA Perspectives* May 2025, 18-20. "'What Were We Thinking?' Space Commercialization, 1960-1990," in Brian C. Odom, ed., *The Rise of the Commercial Space Industry. Early Space Age to Present* (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024).

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History of technology: The Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) suppresses a falsification scandal for years
by herbert.bruderer＠bluewin.ch 05 May '25

05 May '25

Dear colleagues: For years, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung has been trying by all means to cover up an extremely embarrassing, frightening forgery scandal, including threats. This is about the history of technology. The work was financially supported by well-known donors, and well-known university professors contributed as authors. Detailed information can be found on the publication platform Zenodo of CERN (Geneva). Bruderer, H. (2025). The Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) suppresses a falsification scandal for years. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15273691 Bruderer, H. (2025). Die Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) vertuscht seit Jahren einen Fälschungsskandal (Version 2). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15273812 Best wishes, Herbert Bruderer Bruderer Informatik Seehaldenstraße 26 Postfach 47 CH-9401 Rorschach Schweiz/Switzerland Telefon +41 71 855 77 11

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Looking for info on Bell Labs "Special Systems" team
by Cassius Adair 01 May '25

01 May '25

Hi all, I'm looking for any additional information about a team at Bell Labs called "Special Systems Exploratory Development" or sometimes just "Special Systems Development." Team was definitely in operation in the mid-1950s, but maybe lasted into the 1970s. I have a few documents from the *Bell Laboratories Record *that mention it, but I can't work out what its actual scope / mission is, and the archivist at Nokia Bell Labs said they "don't have more to add." Anyone heard of this team, or teams with titles like this from this era? Any clue if this mystery indicates important Cold War secrecy or just boring corporate vagueness? Cheers, Cass Adair -- Cassius Adair Assistant Professor of Media Studies The New School

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SHOT Kranzberg Dissertation Fellowship deadline May 15
by Michelle Spektor 01 May '25

01 May '25

Dear all, I'm sure many on this list are up to date with the SHOT prize deadlines, but I wanted to send out a quick reminder in case you, or any of your students, colleagues, and peers, might be interested in submitting an application for the Kranzberg Fellowship. The fellowship awards 4000 USD annually to a doctoral student preparing a dissertation on the history of technology, broadly defined. The deadline is coming up soon on May 15th. Please see the call copied below and feel free to reach out to me with any questions. Many thanks, Michelle Spektor (2025 Kranzberg Committee) spektor(a)mit.edu ---- Melvin Kranzberg Dissertation Fellowship <https://www.historyoftechnology.org/about-us/awards-prizes-and-grants/the-k…> The deadline for applications is *May 15th, 2025*. The Melvin Kranzberg Dissertation Fellowship is presented annually to a doctoral student engaged in the preparation of a dissertation on the history of technology, broadly defined. This award is in memory of the co-founder of the Society and honors Melvin Kranzberg’s many contributions to developing the history of technology as a field of scholarly endeavor and SHOT as a professional organization. The $4,000 award is unrestricted and may be used in any way that the winner chooses to advance the research and writing of his or her dissertation. Possible uses include underwriting the costs of travel to archival collections; photocopying or microfilming; translation of documents; and so on. The award may not be used for university tuition or fees. Students from institutions of higher learning anywhere in the world who are working on projects in the history of technology are eligible to apply; doctoral candidates from outside the United States are especially encouraged to submit application materials. Applicants must have completed all requirements for their doctorate except for the dissertation by September 1 of the year the award is made. (Students from outside the United States, whose programs of study may follow a different pattern, are encouraged to contact the committee chair to review their standing and discuss their eligibility for the Kranzberg Fellowship.) The Kranzberg Fellowship will be announced annually during the Awards Event at the SHOT Annual Meeting. An application <https://www.historyoftechnology.org/about-us/awards-prizes-and-grants/the-k…> should include the following 1. A curriculum vitae. 2. A 3-5 page (750-1250 word) summary or abstract of the proposed dissertation. In this summary, applicants should describe how their research contributes to the history of technology. 3. A 1-2 page (250-500 word) description of how the applicant intends to use the funds. 4. A letter of recommendation from the student’s dissertation director. This letter should also attest that the student is currently enrolled and in good standing at a recognized university graduate program, and will complete all requirements for the doctorate except the dissertation by 1 September. (It is possible to submit the letter of recommendation separately, see below.) Submission Guidelines - Please submit your application via our online submission form <https://www.historyoftechnology.org/about-us/awards-prizes-and-grants/the-k…> . - If preferred the required letter of recommendation of the dissertation director may also be submitted separately. - Please note that all applications should be in English

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