September 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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Steve Shirley obit
by Jonathan Coopersmith 03 Oct '25

03 Oct '25

another change agent https://www.economist.com/obituary/2025/09/04/steve-shirley-countered-sexis… 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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New Lecture: 2024 CHM Book Prize Winner -- Balkan Cyberia: Cold War Computing. -- with Professor Victor Petrov.
by Dag Spicer 23 Sep '25

23 Sep '25

Hello SIGCIS! I’m delighted to report that last Thursday (the 18th), the Computer History Museum hosted a wonderful lecture by the 2024 CHM Book Prize Winner, Victor Petrov, discussing his latest book, Balkan Cyberia: Cold War Computing, Bulgarian Modernization, and the Information Age behind the Iron Curtain. Sep 22, 2025 [Recorded September 18, 2025] Summary: Behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War lies a high-stakes tale of secret espionage networks, utopian visions of a cybernetic future, and remarkable technocratic reform. Balkan Cyberia, by CHM Book Prize winner Victor Petrov, explores how Soviet-era Bulgaria was a center of innovation in electronics and computing. In an age defined by Silicon Valley and Western narratives of progress, Petrov upends Western assumptions about computing in the Eastern bloc. This presentation by Petrov crafts a narrative of coded ambition, hidden trade tunnels, and a cyber-elite that reshaped Cold War geopolitics. Revelations about how Bulgaria became an electronics powerhouse, capturing a staggering 45% market share of electronics exports within the Eastern Bloc. He also draws contemporary parallels between socialist-era tech diplomacy and today's geopolitical and global supply chain tensions. Victor Petrov is an associate professor of European History at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, focusing on the history of the modern Balkans and Europe more broadly. His book Balkan Cyberia: Cold War Computing is the winner of the 2024 Computer History Museum Book Prize as well as the Barbara Jelavich Prize, the Marshal D. Shulman Prize, and the John D. Bell Memorial Book Prize. He received his PhD from Columbia University, and his MA and BA from Oxford University. +++++++ Enjoy: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaAjOloGycY> [maxresdefault.jpg] CHM Live | Cold War Computing: Balkan Cyberia<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaAjOloGycY> youtube.com<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaAjOloGycY> Dag ----- Dag Spicer Senior Curator Computer History Museum Editorial Board, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing ACM History Committee 1401 N. Shoreline Blvd. Mountain View CA 94043 “History is a vast early warning system.” — Norman Cousins, American journalist (1915-1990). Join our Mailing List here: https://info.computerhistory.org/subscribe

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{SoHistInfo} October 10 Kevin Driscoll - "Small AI: Amateur participation in artificial intelligence of the 1980s"
by Camille Paloque-Bergès 23 Sep '25

23 Sep '25

Dear colleagues, This message is to inform you of the resumption of our seminar on the socio-history of computing, organized by the HT2S laboratory at CNAM (Paris), with two inaugural sessions in English. October 8th 2025 15h-17h - Kevin Driscoll, University of Virginia - Small AI: Amateur participation in artificial intelligence of the 1980s October 13th 2025 15h-17h - Lennart Vincent Schmidt et Michael Homberg, Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam - Digital Inequalities. Divides, Hierarchies, and Boundaries in Germany Inscriptions: https://framaforms.org/inscription-seminaire-de-socio-histoire-de-linformat… Informations on our seminar: https://sohistinfo.github.io/ Localisation: 2 rue Conté 75003 Paris et en visio ----- Next session's summary: Small AI: Amateur participation in artificial intelligence of the 1980s Kevin Driscoll is the author of The Modem World (2022), co-author of Minitel: Welcome to the Internet, and head of et Minitel Research Lab, USA with Julien Mailland. He is associate professor in Media studies at the University of Virginia. Today, artificial intelligence systems are portrayed as massive, remote, costly, and obscure. But there is nothing natural or inevitable about these characteristics. This talk will consider how microcomputer enthusiasts made sense of the 1980s artificial intelligence boom (and bust) through an exploration of hobbyist print media of the period. Beginning in the mid-1970s, an international literature of how-to books, magazine articles, and “type-in” programs promised to teach new computer owners the fundamental principles of AI through hands-on engagement with BASIC code. Recovering and re-running these materials with the help of software emulation reveals a different set of beliefs about technology and expertise than those that have come to dominate today’s AI discourse. Glimpses of a “micro” AI invite us to imagine an alternative future in which AI is imminent, affordable, accessible, and comprehensible to expert and non-expert computer users alike. -- Institutional email address : camille.paloque_berges(a)cnam.fr *Laboratory for the History of Techno-Sciences (HT2S), Conservatoire national des arts et métiers, 2 rue Conté, 75003 Paris, France

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McConlogue and Simmons 1965, first NLP machine learning parser?
by Hansen Hsu 11 Sep '25

11 Sep '25

Hi all, A woman in San Francisco recently reached out to CHM asking if a paper her mother, Keren McConlogue, co-published in CACM in 1965 is the first use of machine learning in a natural language parser, and what place it has in the history of machine learning and NLP. Analyzing English Syntax with a Pattern-Learning Parser <https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/365660.365683> Analyzing English syntax with a pattern-learning parser | Communications of the ACM<https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/365660.365683> dl.acm.org<https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/365660.365683> [365660.cover.jpg]<https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/365660.365683> I can’t find anything earlier than this. Has anyone looked into the earliest uses of what would have been called “pattern recognition” in building a parser that could construct a syntactic grammar by learning from example sentences? ......................................................... Hansen Hsu, Ph.D. Curator, Software History Center Computer History Museum he/him 1401 N. Shoreline Blvd. Mountain View, CA 94043 (650) 810-1880 direct (650) 810-1010 main (650) 284-6254 mobile (650) 810-1055 fax hhsu(a)computerhistory.org<mailto:hhsu@computerhistory.org> Follow Us: CHM.org<https://computerhistory.org/> I Facebook<http://www.facebook.com/computerhistory> I Twitter<http://www.twitter.com/computerhistory> I YouTube<http://www.youtube.com/computerhistory> I Subscribe to Our Newsletter<https://www.computerhistory.org/subscribe>

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New Cortada Book
by James Cortada 09 Sep '25

09 Sep '25

I wanted to share with my colleagues that Bloomsbury Publishing has just published my new book about information. This one is about tacit knowledge. I have completed another book, *Beyond the Facts. *This one is about tacit knowledge—what we learn through experience that remains in our subconscious until we need to use it. People know more tacit knowledge (wisdom) than explicit knowledge (facts, data, etc.). Tacit knowledge is difficult to explain and now with AI consuming so much explicit information, we need to better understand tacit forms so that we can appreciate its relationship to AI and explicit knowledge. I integrated findings of brain scientists and the thinking of philosophers into a short book that describes tacit knowledge and how it is normally applied. I want to increase awareness of the vast amount of information and wisdom that we stockpile between our ears. Attached is a coupon for a discounted price for the book, if ordered directly from the publisher. If you read the book, please give me some feedback, because this is a really hard topic to understand and I will probably have to keep working on it. Jim Cortada [image: Screenshot 2025-09-08 at 8.12.43 AM.png] -- James W. Cortada Senior Research Fellow Charles Babbage Institute University of Minnesota jcortada(a)umn.edu 608-274-6382

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The Limiting Principle: How Privacy Became a Public Issue
by Martin Eiermann 09 Sep '25

09 Sep '25

I wanted to share news of my recently published book, The Limiting Principle: How Privacy Became a Public Issue (Columbia University Press). I hope that some SIGCIS members will find it interesting and relevant. The book explores how privacy evolved from a set of informal cultural norms about domestic life into a broad and salient "limiting principle" of the Information Age that now seems everywhere under threat but also functions as a touchstone for myriad debates about the rights of citizens and consumers—and it chronicles how this transformation has shaped the functioning of American society and the governance of personal data. If you are interested in ordering the book directly from the publisher (https://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-limiting-principle/9780231218887/) use code CUP20 for 20% off. Warmly, Martin Eiermann Assistant Professor UW-Madison Department of Sociology Read my book (The Limiting Principle: How Privacy Became a Public Issue<https://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-limiting-principle/9780231218887/>), reserve time to meet with me<https://outlook.office.com/bookwithme/user/e104de0b9a714d2bbacf4a39bdb6a7e8…>, or learn more<https://www.martineiermann.com/> about my work.

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JPEG history
by Jonathan Coopersmith 08 Sep '25

08 Sep '25

And another example of reaching out to a wider community: https://spectrum.ieee.org/jpeg-image-format-history 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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electronic health records
by Jonathan Coopersmith 06 Sep '25

06 Sep '25

>From IEEE Spectrum - interesting in itself but also an example of writing for a wider audience https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11120349 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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Job: Assistant Professor in Emerging Technologies
by Tilton, Lauren 05 Sep '25

05 Sep '25

I thought the following position would be of interest, and I hope you can help spread the word. Let me know if you have any questions! Best, Lauren We are hiring an Assistant Professor who specializes in emerging technologies! Areas of focus might include, but are not limited to, algorithms, AI, infrastructure, extended reality, information science, platform studies, and game studies. It is an exciting moment at UR! We are expanding our offering in media studies to support the interests of our excellent students, who we learn with in a small liberal arts college setting. Transdisciplinary approaches to research and teaching are highly valued. UR centers a teacher-scholar model that emphasizes academic excellence, belonging and community, access and affordability, well-being, and experiential learning and community engagement. For more information, visit https://richmond.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/staff_faculty/job/UR-Main-Camp… Please help spread the word! And I am happy to answer any questions! Best, Lauren Tilton Search Chair and E. Claiborne Robins Professor of Digital Humanities, University of Richmond

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