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New evidence re von Neumann's view of Turing in 1945
by thomas.haigh＠gmail.com 02 Jul '20

02 Jul '20

Hello SIGCIS, ACM has turned off its free access to the digital library, but I did notice that my most recent Communications of the ACM column is still open access and that reminded me that I never sent out an alert when it was published back in January. Title: "Von Neumann Thought Turing's Universal Machine was 'Simple and Neat.': But That Didn't Tell Him How to Design a Computer" https://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2020/1/241712-von-neumann-thought-turings-uni versal-machine-was-simple-and-neat/fulltext It is written with Mark Priestley, based on a document that Mark found on a visit to the (newly catalogued) Herman Goldstine papers at the American Philosophical Society to gather material for his recent book, Routines of Substitution. Those of you who have been in the field for a while or tend to the computer science side may know that the question of whether von Neumann had read Turing's classic paper introducing Turing machines (1936) when he was writing "First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC" and initiating the design of the computer at the Institute for Advanced Studies (1945-6) has been much discussed, particularly by people trying to show that the fundamental idea of what is often called the "stored program computer" was somehow stolen from Turing. We always thought that discussion was a little off base, because I've never seen anyone identify an architectural features that appear in both the First Draft version of EDVAC and in Turing's paper that von Neumann wasn't independently exposed to in other contexts (his wide-ranging work in logic, the ENIAC project and the ideas of its members, the Harvard computer group, Bell Labs, etc.) (See my earlier column on this: http://www.tomandmaria.com/Tom/Writing/CACMActuallyTuringDidNotInventTheComp uter.pdf) Also there was no reason to doubt that von Neumann had read the paper back in the 1930s even though the earliest proof of his knowledge came from November 1946. There is an indirect link via a paper by McCullouch and Pitts which introduces the pseudo-neuron notation for what we'd now think of as logic gates, which von Neumann adapted for the First Draft. Providence and careful archival work delivered to Mark's a document headed "High Speed Computing" and written in the form of a lecture to a general audience or beginning of a primer on computer technology. We believe it comes from mid-1945 in which von Neumann discusses his thoughts on Turing's universal machine and on what the calls "The Logic of Pitts" and their usefulness for computer designers. This contains what may be the first discussion of the universal Turing machine by anyone other than Turing (Church's famous review synopsis named the "Turing machine" but does not focus on the universal machine - thanks to Andrew Hodges, who knows a lot more about Turing than we do, for highlighting this point to us). In fact von Neumann's summary is so similar to what you'd find in later textbooks that it takes an effort of historical will to remember how unusual this was in 1945. (For reasons we describe in the paper, we believe that this material was written just after the First Draft). On the other hand, the text also shows that while von Neumann was understandably impressed with Turing's work, he didn't think it a useful template for the construction of an actual machine: "Here the analogy to a high-speed computing machine breaks down, for one cannot wait for the machine to go all eternity for his answer." So he moved on to the Pitts neuron notation, showing how it could be used to describe the building blocks of digital logic. In an effort to figure out when this text was written and whether it was delivered, we found an article of Calvin Moores in Annals, and I followed up with a look at his diary and papers at CBI. This revealed a dated journal entry from October 28, 1945 in which von Neumann gave a similar ad-hoc lecture to visitors from the Naval Ordnance Lab's computer project, discussing Turing's paper, Pitts' neuron notation, and his ongoing work on instruction set design. As far as I know, this is the earliest dated reference by von Neumann to Turing's paper. How people interpret this new evidence will probably depend on their previous convictions. We point out that the fact that von Neumann could summarize Turing's paper so well but ignored it in other work of the period confirms that he compartmentalized it separately from his work on computer architecture, instead lumping it with his passionate but unfinished work on cellular automata in which context he freely acknowledge his debt to Turing. So we try and thread the needle by acknowledging the importance of the discovery without buying into the idea that this is the great unsolved mystery of early computing. Those who think that EDVAC was someone a slightly more practical Turing Machine will seize on von Neumann's suggestion that Turing's "system of logic could be used in building a computing machine" and that "The problem of developing a computing machine can be considered as a problem in logic." (Hmm, and then we can all argue about what "logic" means there - is it in the sense of "digital logic" or "switching logic," or the "logical control" von Neumann brings up in the next sentence, or does it privilege abstraction?) There's also the perplexing question of what the text was supposed to be. It is split into three very short "lectures", with the first two giving background and basic technologies and the third exploring Turing and Pitts. We suspect that the payoff would have come in later, unwritten lectures where von Neumann built on these lectures to introduce the new approach he'd taken in the First Draft and his ongoing work at IAS, just as he did in person when Moores called. If the lectures were supposed to be delivered at a specific venue we weren't able to identify it. The timeline doesn't seem to fit for the proto-cybernetic meetings going on around that time, and he is coy about things connected to ENIAC that were shared openly with that community. I could imagine him delivering them at some kind of Los Alamos colloquium. I even imagined him spending a train ride sketching out the first pages of what was supposed to be a popular science text on the emerging technology, following a similar impulse to his Los Alamos colleague George Gammow in One Two Three Infinity (published 1947) but Mark is not at all convinced by that idea. To me it explained the conceit of addressing the concerns of a computer designer while assuming none of the background knowledge a real computer designer would have. Best wishes, Tom

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ACM history of computing ebooks FREE until end of month
by thomas.haigh＠gmail.com 26 Jun '20

26 Jun '20

Hello SIGCIS, Tom Misa mentioned this earlier, but I thought a reminder was justified. The ACM opened up free access to its digital library for COVID. The virus hasn't gone anywhere, but AFAIK the access is still scheduled to expire at the end of June which is now just a few days away. As well as access to a mass of journal and conference publications going back to the 1950s this also includes the ACM Books series which is not always part of institutional bundles. So with just a few clicks you could be the proud owner of: Computing and the NSF, 1950-2016 by Freeman, Adrion & Aspray: https://dl.acm.org/doi/book/10.1145/3336323 Code Nation: Personal Computing and the Learn to Program Movement in America by Halvarson: https://dl.acm.org/doi/book/10.1145/3368274 Communities of Computing: Computer Science and Society in the ACM, Misa (ed): https://dl.acm.org/doi/book/10.1145/2973856 Ada's Legacy: Cultures of Computing from the Victorian to the Digital Age, Hemmerman & Russell (eds.): https://dl.acm.org/doi/book/10.1145/2809523 Edmund Berkeley and the Social Responsibility of Computer Professionals, Longo: https://dl.acm.org/doi/book/10.1145/2787754 The full list of books is at https://dl.acm.org/acmbooks/archive and includes some other items of possible interest, including the first few in what is eventually intended to be a full set of compendia celebrating the contributions of Turing Award winners. The volume on Stonebraker, for example (https://dl.acm.org/doi/book/10.1145/3226595) is packed with interesting material for students of DBMS history, though more as primary source than secondary. Best wishes, Tom

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Grace Hopper papers are online at the Smithsonian
by thomas.haigh＠gmail.com 26 Jun '20

26 Jun '20

Hello SIGCIS, It's not a great time for archival research, so I thought you might be interested in my recent discovery (checking the proper collection name for a footnote in the new History of Modern Computing) that what seems to be the full content of the Grace Murray Hopper Collection from the NMAH is now available online. Papers primarily from her time at Harvard with the electro-mechanical tape controlled computers and at what became Univac working on compilers. Overview: https://sova.si.edu/record/NMAH.AC.0324 Contents: https://sova.si.edu/details/NMAH.AC.0324?s=0 <https://sova.si.edu/details/NMAH.AC.0324?s=0&n=10&t=C&q=&i=0> &n=10&t=C&q=&i=0 While I am here, I should also mention the Computer Oral Histories Collection, which was the first major effort in the history of computing from 1969 into the early 1970s. The interviews are of mixed quality and not all of are online, but being so early gave them access to some people who were not around for later waves of interviews. A subset of the transcripts are now online, including those with Hopper, some of them digitized with the support the ACM. https://sova.si.edu/details/NMAH.AC.0196?s=0 <https://sova.si.edu/details/NMAH.AC.0196?s=0&n=10&t=C&q=&i=0> &n=10&t=C&q=&i=0 The ones with an icon of what seems to be a gift box. Best wishes, Tom

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WiderScreen 2-3/2020: "Home Computer Cultures and Society Before the Internet Age"
by Gleb J. Albert 18 Jun '20

18 Jun '20

Dear colleagues and list members, I am very happy to announce that a selection of papers on the history of home computer user- and subcultures in the 1980s and early 1990s, which had originally been presented at an international workshop at the University of Zurich in March 2017, are now available in a thematic issue of the Finnish media studies open-access journal "WiderScreen". The issue, edited by Julia Gül Erdogan, Markku Reunanen and myself, is available at: http://widerscreen.fi/ Here is the full table of contents: - Theodore Lekkas & Aristotle Tympas (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens): "Global Machines and Local Magazines in 1980s Greece: The Exemplary Case of the Pixel Magazine" - Patryk Wasiak (Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw): "The Polish Amiga Scene as a Brand Community" - Gleb J. Albert (Department of History, University of Zurich): "New Scenes, New Markets: The Global Expansion of the Cracking Scene, Late 1980s to Early 1990s" - Beatrice Tobler (Swiss Open-Air Museum Ballenberg): "BBS Worlds. Looking Back at the Swiss BBS Scene of the 1990s" - Petri Saarikoski (Digital Culture, University of Turku): "The Rise and Fall of BBS Culture in Finland, 1982–2002" - Ulf Sandqvist (Humlab, Umeå University): "Hobbyist and Entrepreneurs: A Study of the Interplay Between the Game Industry and the Demoscene" - Kevin Driscoll (Department of Media Studies, University of Virginia): "Demography and Decentralization: Measuring the Bulletin Board Systems of North America" - Julia Gül Erdogan (Institute of History, Department History of the Effects of Technology, University of Stuttgart): "West and East German Hackers from a Comparative Perspective" Best wishes, Gleb -- Dr. Gleb J. Albert Historisches Seminar, Universität Zürich Forschergruppe "Medien und Mimesis" Universität Zürich Historisches Seminar Culmannstr. 1 CH-8006 Zürich Switzerland Tel. +41-446346187 <http://uzh.academia.edu/GlebJAlbert> <http://www.fg-mimesis.de>

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Fwd: Invitation to HoAI Reading Group, Wed 17 June, on Hidden Labour
by Jonnie Penn 15 Jun '20

15 Jun '20

Dear SIGCIS colleagues, I politely share the invitation below. The Cambridge University Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar “Histories of AI: A Genealogy of Power" <https://www.hps.cam.ac.uk/about/research-projects/histories-of-ai/about> convenes a multi-disciplinary community. This is our second Reading Group meeting. News about future events is available here <https://lists.cam.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/hps-hoai> via the HoAI listserv. All best, Jonnie — Jonnie Penn Affiliate, Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society | Harvard University Project Development Lead | History of AI | Leverhulme Center for the Future of Intelligence PhD Candidate | Department of the History and Philosophy of Science Pembroke College | University of Cambridge Cambridge, CB2 1RF jnp28(a)cam.ac.uk ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: HoAI Sawyer Seminar <hoai(a)hermes.cam.ac.uk> Date: Wed, Jun 10, 2020 at 5:39 PM Subject: Invitation to HoAI Reading Group, Wed 17 June, on Hidden Labour To: <hps-hoai(a)lists.cam.ac.uk> Dear all, We invite you to join the second Reading Group session for the Mellon Sawyer Seminar on Histories of AI: A Genealogy of Power <https://www.hps.cam.ac.uk/about/research-projects/histories-of-ai>. This will be the first of two sessions to explore the theme of Hidden Labour. A summary of that theme is available below. Part II will be held in September. A schedule of events for July and August will be distributed soon. This month's Reading Group will be co-facilitated by Matteo Pasquinelli (PhD), professor at the University of Arts and Design Karlsruhe. Prof. Pasquinelli coordinates the research group on media philosophy and artificial intelligence KIM. With Vladan Joler, he recently published the visual essay ‘The Nooscope Manifested: AI as Instrument of Knowledge Extractivism’ (nooscope.ai). For Verso, he is preparing a book titled *The Eye of the Master* on the history of AI as the automation of labour, of its vision and division. We hope you can join us. *Reading Group #2 on 'Introduction to Seminar Theme: Hidden Labour (Part I)'* Time: Wednesday 17th June @ 15:00-17:00 BST / 10:00am-12:00pm EST Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82131742765?pwd=T3ZRS29Sallvd21neXJzS0JUQlY3QT09 Password: histories Co-facilitator: Prof. Matteo Pasquinelli <http://matteopasquinelli.com/> (University of Arts and Design Karlsruhe) Discussants: Audrey Borowski <https://www.torch.ox.ac.uk/people/audrey-borowski> (University of Oxford), Cindy Lin <https://www.si.umich.edu/people/cindy-lin> (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor) Moderator: Prof. Matthew L. Jones <https://history.columbia.edu/faculty/jones-matthew-l/> (Columbia University) *Schedule (BST):* 15:00 - Seminar co-organizers introduce the session, co-facilitator and each discussant. Attendees are invited to share their name, affiliation and location in the chat. 15:05 - Prof. Pasquinelli introduces the two readings (below) in respect to the Seminar theme. 15:20 - Discussants briefly summarize their own research and offer provocations for discussion. 15:30 - Discussion proceeds, with a Seminar co-organizer moderating. 17:00 - End. *Readings*: - Daston, Lorraine (2018). ‘Calculation and the Division of Labor, 1750-1950’. Bulletin of the German Historical Institute, 62 (Spring), 9-30. - Pasquinelli, Matteo (forthcoming). ‘The Material Tools of Algorithmic Thinking’, chapter 1. *The Eye of the Master*. London: Verso. Please email us here (hoai(a)hermes.cam.ac.uk) if you need help accessing texts. *Summary:* Prof. Pasquinelli shares this overview. *The Hidden Intelligence of Labour: For a Social History of Algorithms* Different genealogies of artificial intelligence can be read on the shoulders of workers, merchants, bureaucrats and spies. AI emerged as the project to automate tasks that, since WWII, have ranged from image recognition and object manipulation, to stock price negotiation, and the analysis of public and military datasets. This overview retraces a canonical genealogy of AI from within the milieu of the industrial revolution and early political economy. Daston (1994, 2017), Schaffer (1994), and Jones (2016) have shown that the project of machine intelligence emerged from the industrial automation of mental labour as hand calculation (Babbage, 1832) rather than the mere dream to forge ‘thinking automata.’ The design of intelligent algorithms imitated, then, the ‘analytical intelligence’ (Daston, 2018) of the division of labour. This intuition can be expanded, today, to interrogate in which way the algorithms of machine learning automate sophisticated forms of manual, mental and visual labour by encoding an extended division of space, time and social behaviours. In order to understand the relation between AI and labour, it would be useful to clarify first the relation between the algorithm form and the division of labour. From the point of view of invention and knowledge production, which one comes first? Knuth (1972) attempted a historicisation of the algorithm in the essay ‘Ancient Babylonian Algorithms.’ At the time, Knuth aimed at systematising the new field of computer science and to make it into a respectable academic and industrial discipline (Ensmerger, 2010). The idea of the ancient algorithm was mobilised to stress that the new field of computer science was not about obscure machinery but part of a long tradition of cultural techniques of symbolic manipulation. On their side, historians of mathematics such as Chabert (1999), Damerow and Lefèvre (1981) have clarified the genesis of mathematical abstractions in the relation of labour with material tools. Also these approaches can be used to interrogate computation and AI as a solution to the problem of the management of labour, or, from another angle, to recognize the hidden intelligence of labour building the algorithm from within. *References:* Babbage, Charles (1832). *On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures*. London: Charles Knight. Chabert, Jean-Luc, ed. (1999). *A History of Algorithms: From the Pebble to the Microchip*. Berlin/New York: Springer. Damerow, Peter, and Wolfgang Lefèvre, eds. (1981). *Rechenstein, Experiment, Sprache: Historische Fallstudien Zur Entstehung Der Exakten Wissenschaften*. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta. Daston, Lorraine (1994). 'Enlightenment Calculations'. *Critical Inquiry* 21, no. 1: 182-202. Daston, Lorraine (2018). ‘Calculation and the Division of Labor, 1750-1950’. Bulletin of the German Historical Institute, 62 (Spring), 9-30. Ensmenger, Nathan (2010). *The Computer Boys Take Over: Computers, Programmers, and the Politics of Technical Expertise*. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Jones, Matthew L. (2016). *Reckoning with Matter: Calculating Machines, Innovation, and Thinking About Thinking from Pascal to Babbage*. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press. Knuth, Donald E. (1972). 'Ancient Babylonian Algorithms'. Commun. ACM 15, no. 7: 671–77. Schaffer, Simon. (1994). 'Babbage's Intelligence: Calculating Engines and the Factory System'. *Critical Inquiry *21, no. 1: 203-27. We look forward to seeing you. With best wishes, Jonnie Penn On behalf of the Mellon Sawyer Seminar team: Syed Mustafa Ali, The Open University Stephanie Dick, University of Pennsylvania Sarah Dillon, University of Cambridge Matthew Jones, Columbia University Jonnie Penn, University of Cambridge Richard Staley, University of Cambridge *Hidden Labour* The introduction of forms of mechanisation – of labour and knowledge equally – is usually described as saving labour; but in reality shifts it. Examining how the boundaries between human and machine have been changed over time we must track status, and ask what is being hidden: how have autonomous systems redistributed tasks in ways that burden and mask the contributions of marginalised people? In Ghost Work (2019), Mary L. Gray demonstrates how the history of labour laws in the United States, manifested in a shift from piecework to outsourcing, hollowed out the decency of many entry level jobs in the digital economy while simultaneously powering the AI revolution through low-pay click-work. Gray credits today's MTurk workforce as 'the AI revolution's unsung heroes' (Gray 2019). In her own scholarship and advocacy work, such as with TurkOpticon, Lilly Irani has sought to illuminate additional hidden layers of human data work (Irani 2016). In the Seminar, we will bring a comparative historical perspective to bear on contemporary conversations about which human faculties can be 'automated' and explore how AI and its implementation serve to value and devalue certain forms of cognitive labour and systems of recognition. As the previous work of Jones (2016) and Dick (forthcoming) has shown, as well as that of Lorraine Daston (1994), such an equivocation of value has long been central to the human history of mathematical calculation, and critically from the nineteenth century onwards. It is in that moment when 'calculation' is debased from genius to the 'merely mechanical' that it becomes the domain of human computing, to be executed by low paid labourers and regendered as women's work (Hicks 2017). Click here for Works Cited <https://www.hps.cam.ac.uk/about/research-projects/histories-of-ai/about/wor…> .

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Internet Histories, Volume 4, Issue 2, June 2020 is now available online
by Asger Harlung 15 Jun '20

15 Jun '20

To whom it may concern, The Editorial Staff of Internet Histories is pleased to announce that; Internet Histories, Volume 4, Issue 2, June 2020 is now available online. This special issue is titled: "The Internet and the EU Market". The new issue may be accessed at this URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rint20/4/2 List of content: Editorials Editorial: the internet and the EU market Andreas Fickers & Valérie Schafer Articles EC competition law and the idea of “open networks” (1950s–1980s) Christian Henrich-Franke Practicing privacy on other networks: network structures, economic arrangements, and identity strategies before cookies Meg Leta Jones & Kevin Ackermann Mobile paradoxes: European emergence of mobile internet, users, and markets Gerard Goggin Network neutrality in the European Union: A communications policy process analysis Stefan Gadringer Taxing intangible assets: issues and challenges for a digital Europe Elena Danescu Interviews “The internet and the European market” from a multidisciplinary perspective: a “round-doc” discussion Valérie Schafer, Andreas Fickers, David Howarth, Francesca Musiani, Julia Pohle & Dwayne Winseck Viviane Reding on her action in the field of the information society and media (2004-2010) Interview by Elena Danescu Elena Danescu Book Reviews The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power Shoshana Zuboff. 2019, New York: Public Affairs. Jillet Sarah Sam Miscellany A history of place in the digital age by Stuart Dunn. London, Routledge, 2019, ix + 161 pp., ISBN: 978-1-138-22357-8 Peter Webster Kind regards on behalf of the editors, Asger Harlung Editorial Assistant, Internet Histories

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SHOT member in the news
by Ceruzzi, Paul 12 Jun '20

12 Jun '20

Nice to see Andrew McGee quoted in today's Washington Post, Metro section, in John Kelly's Washington column about "signatures" in email (p. B3). I am one of the hold-outs who gets the print version. My subscription give me access to the on-line version, but I never go there. Paul Ceruzzi (no signature this time)

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Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Regarding summer school in Ethnographic Methods in New York City
by Renzo Taddei 07 Jun '20

07 Jun '20

Apologies for cross-posting. Please disseminate to potentially interested parties. Thank you. 13th CIFAS Summer School in Ethnographic Research Methods Session 1: July 20 to 31, 2020 (daily meetings, morning) Session 2: August 4 to September 3, 2020 (Tuesdays and Thursdays, evening) The Comitas Institute for Anthropological Study (CIFAS) is pleased to announce the 13th CIFAS Summer School in Ethnographic Research Methods. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this edition of the summer school will take place online. The goal of the summer school is to offer training in the foundations and practice of ethnographic methods. The faculty works closely with participants to identify the required field methods needed to address their academic or professional needs. The summer school is suitable for graduate and undergraduate students in social sciences and other fields of study that use qualitative approaches (such as education, communication, cultural studies, health, social work, human ecology, development studies, consumer behavior, among others), applied social scientists, professionals, and researchers who have an interest in learning more about ethnographic methods and their applications. The social isolation measures adopted across the planet due to the current pandemic made digital ethnography, in all its variations, an option of choice for researchers who previously did not considered it. The program of this edition of the summer school was reformulated, dedicating more time to the discussion of digital methods and the interface of ethnography with the field of digital humanities. Program (session1/session2): topics - Class 1 (Jul 20/Aug 4): Foundations of ethnographic research - Class 2 (Jul 21/Aug 6): Theory and practice: social theories in the field - Class 3 (Jul 22/Aug 11): Research design; ethics - Class 4 (Jul 23/Aug 13): Data generation techniques - Class 5 (Jul 24/Aug 18): Planning the logistics of field research - Class 6 (Jul 27/Aug 20): Digital ethnography - Class 7 (Jul 28/Aug 25): Ethnography in interface with Social Network Analysis and other trends in the digital humanities - Class 8 (Jul 29/Aug 27): Visual ethnography; ethnography in specific fields of activity (applied social sciences, health, social service, environmental studies, public policy design, business, and others) - Class 9 (Jul 30/Sep 1): Principles of organization and indexation of field data - Class 10 (Jul 31/Sep 3): Analyzing field data; qualitative analysis software packages: basic principles Session 1: classes will run from 9 AM to 12 PM (US EST time) Session 2: classes will run from 6 PM to 9 PM (US EST time) In this edition of the summer school the option of earning credits is not available. [NEW] Online platforms: Zoom and Google Classroom. Coordinators: - Renzo Taddei (Assistant Professor, Federal University of São Paulo/Affiliated Researcher, Columbia University). - Lambros Comitas (in memoriam - Gardner Cowles Professor of Anthropology and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University). [NEW] Registration and other costs: places are limited. The tuition fee is US$ 600. Applications should be completed online here: http://cifas.us/field-school-registration-form/ For more information, please write to Renzo Taddei at rrt20(a)columbia.edu

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Bits & Bytes: News from the Charles Babbage Institute
by cbi Charles Babbage Institute 01 Jun '20

01 Jun '20

Latest news & updates from CBI View this email in your browser <https://mailchi.mp/769379b67c4d/cbi-bits-and-bytes-6840404?e=acaf4eb1d3> <https://umn.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ac86934aa6cefdac2c4dcaa2e&id=…> *Bits & Bytes: News from CBI* *Help us build a brighter tomorrow for the study of computing and culture. * Give today! <https://umn.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ac86934aa6cefdac2c4dcaa2e&id=…> *Director's Desk* As of April 2020, our new name (or rather revised full name) is the Charles Babbage Institute for Computing, Information, and Culture. “What is in a name?” Why the change? Read more <https://umn.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ac86934aa6cefdac2c4dcaa2e&id=…> . *Launching Interfaces eJournal* CBI just launched a new electronic journal entitled *Interfaces: Essays and Reviews in Computing* and Culture <https://umn.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ac86934aa6cefdac2c4dcaa2e&id=…>. Jeffrey Yost and Amanda Wick are the co-editors. *Interfaces* publishes short essays and essay reviews in history of computing/IT studies that connect in whole or part to contemporary societal issues—cultural, political, social, economic, environmental. Read more <https://umn.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ac86934aa6cefdac2c4dcaa2e&id=…> . * Interfaces: General Call for Submissions* CBI is excited to announce it is seeking submissions for its new eJournal, Interfaces: Essays and Reviews in Computing and Culture. This eJournal will have a continuous publication model with publication date for each essay/article and push email to subscribers. Read more. <https://umn.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ac86934aa6cefdac2c4dcaa2e&id=…> *Just Code Awarded Sloan Grant* With the global spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, CBI’s Symposium: “Just Code Power, Inequality and the Global Political Economy of IT,” has been rescheduled. It will be held, Friday and Saturday, October 23 and 24, 2020. Read more <https://umn.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ac86934aa6cefdac2c4dcaa2e&id=…> . <https://umn.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ac86934aa6cefdac2c4dcaa2e&id=…> *Plasek Awarded Tomash Fellowship* Columbia University History Department ABD Aaron Plasek is the 2020-2021 Adelle and Erwin Tomash Fellow at CBI. At Drake University, Plasek earned a BS in Physics and Astronomy, prior to completing a Master’s of Fine Arts at the Art Institute of Chicago and a MA in Humanities and Social Thought at New York University. Read more <https://umn.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ac86934aa6cefdac2c4dcaa2e&id=…> . *Schlombs and Coon are 2020 Norberg Travel Grant Recipients* We are pleased to announce that the 2020 awardees of CBI Norberg Travel Grants are Associate Professor of History, Rochester Institute of Technology Corinna Schlombs and Columbia University Department of History graduate student Ella Coon. Read more <https://umn.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ac86934aa6cefdac2c4dcaa2e&id=…> . More News <https://umn.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ac86934aa6cefdac2c4dcaa2e&id=…> Subscribe <cbi@umn.edu?subject=I%20would%20like%20to%20receive%20Bits%20%26%20Bytes%20from%20CBI> Charles Babbage Institute COMPUTING, INFORMATION & CULTURE [image: Facebook] <https://umn.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ac86934aa6cefdac2c4dcaa2e&id=…> [image: Website] <https://umn.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ac86934aa6cefdac2c4dcaa2e&id=…> [image: Twitter] <https://umn.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ac86934aa6cefdac2c4dcaa2e&id=…> [image: Email] <cbi(a)umn.edu> *Copyright © 2020 Charles Babbage Institute, All rights reserved.* You are receiving this email because you opted in via our website. *Our mailing address is:* Charles Babbage Institute 222 21st Ave S Ste 211 Charles Babbage Institute University Of Minnesota Minneapolis, MN 55455-4400 Add us to your address book <https://umn.us4.list-manage.com/vcard?u=ac86934aa6cefdac2c4dcaa2e&id=776253…> Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences <https://umn.us4.list-manage.com/profile?u=ac86934aa6cefdac2c4dcaa2e&id=7762…> or unsubscribe from this list <https://umn.us4.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=ac86934aa6cefdac2c4dcaa2e&id=…> . [image: Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp] <http://www.mailchimp.com/email-referral/?utm_source=freemium_newsletter&utm…>

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New book: Code Nation: Personal Computing and the Learn to Program Movement in America
by Thomas Misa 31 May '20

31 May '20

Pleased to announce Michael Halvorson, Code Nation: Personal Computing and the Learn to Program Movement in America (ACM Books 2020). Available in hard/paper at Amazon.com <http://amazon.com/>, BN.com <http://bn.com/>, Bookshop.org <http://bookshop.org/> and (through end of June) available for **gratis download** at https://doi.org/10.1145/3368274 <https://doi.org/10.1145/3368274> either PDF or EPUB. Halvorson covers some familiar terrain in the rise of personal-computing programming in the 1960-70s — lots on BASIC, counterculture, software engineering — but also entirely new material on FORTRAN, Logo, MS Visual Basic, MS-DOS, MS Windows, Mac applications, “C” — commercial and application program development. Michael worked at Microsoft Press for years, and attends to the many varied publications from personal computing. Background for learn-to-program movement today! Check out the many color illustrations: pretty much a first for the history titles from ACM Books. In months to come, look for these ACM Books history titles going into production — Dick van Lente on Prophets of Computing: Visions of Society Transformed by Computing. . . Kim Tracy on software history . . . Jim Pelkey and Andy Russell on early networking industry . . . . Best regards, Tom Misa (ACM Books http://books.acm.org/board#tab17 <https://t.co/sZWSEcgMkP?amp=1>) ==========================

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