July 2026 - Members - lists.sigcis.org

FW: A referral question on Soviet humanities-computing archives
by thomas.haigh＠gmail.com 02 Aug '26

02 Aug '26

Received this query, but do not recall seeing anything about the history of Soviet humanities computing. If you have any leads, please respond directly to Василий Глущенко <admiral.vasily(a)gmail.com> Tom Thomas Haigh Professor & Chair, UWM History Department Chair, IEEE Computer Society History Committee Director, ACM History Committee Turing Awards Project See more at www.tomandmaria.com/Tom -----Original Message----- From: Василий Глущенко <admiral.vasily(a)gmail.com> Sent: Monday, July 27, 2026 4:37 PM To: thomas.haigh(a)gmail.com Subject: A referral question on Soviet humanities-computing archives Dear Professor Haigh, My name is Vasiliy Glushchenko. I am a historian completing a Candidate of Sciences dissertation at the Institute of World History of the Russian Academy of Sciences on the history of the digitisation of ancient Greek and Latin texts from the 1940s to the present. I also work as a programmer at the Ivannikov Institute for System Programming of the Russian Academy of Sciences. I am trying to locate archival or oral-history evidence for a narrow but persistent gap in the history of computing: Soviet and Eastern European computing centres and information projects that supported libraries, bibliographic retrieval, linguistics, text corpora, or humanities institutes. The existing literature has given me a strong starting point for general Soviet computing and projects such as OGAS. What remains difficult to identify are the people and records documenting the institutional space between Academy of Sciences computing centres, scientific-information organisations such as VINITI or INION, and early work with machine-readable texts. Could you recommend one or two historians, oral-history collections, or archival fonds in which this overlap has been studied or documented? A single person or collection would be enough. I am not looking for a general introduction to Soviet computing, but for a concrete route into the history of text-oriented and humanities-related applications. If this question falls outside your immediate work, a referral to someone within the SIGCIS, IEEE history, or Computer History Museum communities would already be extremely valuable. Best wishes, Vasiliy Glushchenko Institute of World History, Russian Academy of Sciences Ivannikov Institute for System Programming, Russian Academy of Sciences

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Fwd: Open curator position at Computer History Museum
by DCBROCK 29 Jul '26

29 Jul '26

> > >> Begin forwarded message: >> >> From: DCBROCK <dcb(a)dcbrock.net> >> Subject: Open curator position at Computer History Museum >> Date: July 29, 2026 at 11:36:18 AM EDT >> To: members(a)sigcis.org >> >> We have an open position for a curator at the Computer History Museum. >> >> I hope that people from our SIGCIS community will consider applying. >> >> Please do share with anyone who you think might be a great fit! >> >> https://computerhistory.org/jobs/curator/ >> >> Application instructions in the listing. >> >> Best wishes, >> >> David >> >> +++++++++++++++ >> David C. Brock >> dcb(a)dcbrock.net >> 40 Russell Street, Greenfield, MA 01301 >> Mobile: 413-522-3578 >> Pronouns: he, him, his >> >> >> >> >> >

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Mailing List Migration Completed
by Gregor Zurowski 21 Jul '26

21 Jul '26

Hi Everyone: The mailing list migration is complete now, and you can continue to post messages as usual. I have also updated the menu entries to the subscription options [1] and the archive [2] on the SIGCIS website with the new links. We have put redirect rules in place to prevent old archive links from breaking. Some of the old links should already redirect to the new archive (for example, links to the first message in a thread [3]), but we found an issue with links to reply messages, and expect to resolve this shortly. Now that the mailing list software has been upgraded and the list has been rehosted, we will look into the issues around new user signups and send out an update in the coming days. Thanks, Gregor [1] https://lists.sigcis.org/mailman3/lists/members@lists.sigcis.org/ [2] https://lists.sigcis.org/archives/list/members@lists.sigcis.org/ [3] http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/2026-July/009120.html

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Mailing List Migration Scheduled
by Gregor Zurowski 16 Jul '26

16 Jul '26

Hi Everyone: As previously announced, we will migrate the existing mailing list to a new service provider and upgrade the mailing list software to a newer version (from Mailman 2 to Mailman 3). The migration is scheduled for: Sunday, July 19, 2026, at 6am UTC (2am EDT). We will take a snapshot of the current mailing list data on Saturday, July 18, the day before. The snapshot will be the source for the migration. To ensure no messages are lost, please don't post over the weekend (starting on Saturday) until we confirm the process is complete. We have also been working on not breaking existing links to messages in the archive. The new provider offered to host a list of redirects on their server, mapping from the old to the new URL scheme. We expect that the majority of links will be preserved this way, but this will be implemented after the migration. Thanks, Gregor

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Job opening//Senior Digital Producer//Computer History Museum
by DCBROCK 09 Jul '26

09 Jul '26

Dear List, The Computer History Museum is hiring a Senior Digital Producer. I hope that this might appeal to someone in SIGCIS, or aligned with it. https://computerhistory.org/jobs/senior-digital-producer/ Here’s part of the job description that I would think would most appear to this community: Develop and produce digital features and storytelling projects that highlight CHM's collections, exhibitions, programs, research, and technology initiatives. Combine text, images, video, collection materials, interactive elements, and other media to create engaging online experiences. Translate complex technology, historical, and institutional content into clear and compelling stories for broad public audiences. As with the other job listings that I’ve been sharing, I’m not directly involved with the hiring for this role, but would be happy to chat with anyone from this list who might be interested. You could reach out to me at dbrock(a)computerhistory.org <mailto:dbrock@computerhistory.org> Best wishes, David

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History
by Dag Spicer 06 Jul '26

06 Jul '26

Bold mine. Dag [lonnieb.jpg] On the Fourth of July, the White House released a 162-page report attacking the Smithsonian for how it tells the story of America: a "radical, activist ideology.” The museum’s secretary, in contrast, gave a measured and sobering response. As reported by The Hill and confirmed by CNN, the White House Domestic Policy Council published the document on the 250th anniversary of this country's founding. It accuses the leadership of the National Museum of American History of treating the American story "as a political instrument to divide, dispirit, and discourage our citizens." The findings it hangs this on include too little attention to the founders, educational materials on gender, and, in the report's words, a crusade against "whiteness.” Here is the thing the report leaves out. The Smithsonian is not the president's to command. Congress created it in 1846 as a trust, not an executive agency, and by long legal precedent it does not answer to White House directives or executive orders. Trump has been pressuring it for a year anyway, because the federal government funds two-thirds of its budget, and money is the lever he actually has. Lonnie Bunch is the historian who runs it, the first Black American to lead the Smithsonian in its 180-year history. He did not issue a careful non-response. He went on CNN and made the case for exactly the kind of history the report wants gone. "History is really about ambiguity, complexity, nuance, debate," he said. "In many ways, history is as much about today and tomorrow as it is about yesterday. And this is one of those moments to use yesterday to help shape today.” Consider what the report actually is. An administration that spent all week insisting it loves America more than anyone instructing a museum on which parts of America it is allowed to show the public. They called complexity divisive. A museum's job is to tell the whole story. Bunch just told them he intends to keep doing it. +++++++ 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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Job opening at the Computer History Museum: Programming Director
by DCBROCK 06 Jul '26

06 Jul '26

Dear All, We have a job opening at the Computer History Museum for our Programming Director: https://computerhistory.org/jobs/director-programming/ I would be thrilled if someone from the SIGCIS community or a related community could take on this role. It is equal parts creative work and project management, and is the lead role for our “CHM Live” series of events. See: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQsxaNhYv8dZMhpT8-934UPMdtho7G2_W&si=1J5… The creative aspect of determining topics and selecting speakers for this series would really benefit from someone with an expertise in the history of computing/STS. I’m not directly in the decision-making for hiring, but if you are interested (or know someone who might be interested) and want to talk about this, reach out to me at dbrock(a)computerhistory.org <mailto:dbrock@computerhistory.org> All the best, David C. Brock Robert and Bette Finnigan Fellow Computer History Museum

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Internet Histories, Volume 10, Issue 1-2, March - June 2026 is now online
by Asger Harlung 02 Jul '26

02 Jul '26

To whom it may concern, The Editorial Staff of Internet Histories is pleased to announce, that Internet Histories, Volume 10, Issue 1-2, March - June 2026 is now online. Five articles are open access. The full issue may be accessed at this URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rint20/10/1-2 A list of the content is included below. If you have an interesting piece on web or Internet history, please submit @InternetHistor http://www.tandfonline.com/rint20, or email Mg Ed Jane Winters jane.winters(a)sas.ac.uk With kind regards on behalf of the editorial team, Asger Harlung, Editorial Assistant, Internet Histories - - - - - - - - - - List of contents in Vol. 10(1-2): Editorial Introduction: histories and legacies of digital infrastructures in Eastern and Central Europe: from Soviet cybernetics to regional internet histories Miglė Bareikytė, Svitlana Matviyenko & Taras Nazaruk Articles: De-centring the history of the internet in the Soviet Union: computers, networks and the infrastructural politics of digitality in Lithuania - Open Access Eglė Rindzevičiūtė No digital networks without computers. The shortcomings of the Soviet computer industry - Open Access Felix Herrmann Database politics: informational infrastructure and network utopias in Soviet and post-Soviet Estonia Aro Velmet Networked isolation: Albania’s computer network history during the cold war and the transition Erik Da Silva Exporting obsolescence: Canada’s Nortel Networks in Eastern and Central Europe Kayla Hilstob The Great Game. How video games servers map Ukraine in wartime Françoise Daucé Constructing the (in)security: sociotechnical imaginaries of cybersecurity in Ukraine before and after Russia’s full-scale invasion - Open Access Mykola Makhortykh Assemblages of occupation: the politics of internet resource transfers in wartime Ukraine Vu Thuy Anh Phan Hybrid frontiers: resilient investigative data and media practices and tactical avoidance in the Baltics Miglė Bareikytė & Johanna Hiebl Interview: UaNetHistory project: documenting the first decades of Ukraine’s internet. An interview with Olexa Baliura and Maryna Malchenyuk Bohdan Shumylovych, Taras Nazaruk, Oleksa Baliura & Maryna Malchenyuk

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