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2025 SIGCIS retrospective
by Elizabeth Petrick 08 Dec '25

08 Dec '25

Hello SIGCIS! A lot has happened in 2025. Here is a recap: - Melanie Swalwell stepped down as Co-Chair of SIGCIS after 5 years of service, and has been replaced by Morgan Ames. - In September we held our 2025 SIGCIS Virtual Meeting: Power Surge. Our keynote speaker was Lily Geismer, who spoke on "Democrats and Tech: Past, Present, and Future." - The 2025 Computer History Museum Prize was awarded to Avery Dame Griff for *The Two Revolutions: A History of the Transgender Internet* (NYU Press, 2023). - The 2025 Mahoney Prize was awarded to Theodora Dryer for "Settler Computing: Water Algorithms and the Equitable Apportionment Doctrine on the Colorado River, 1950–1990" *Osiris *38 (2023): 265-285. - In October, SIGCIS met together in person at the SHOT meeting in Luxembourg. The following link takes you to a collection of photos taken during the lunch by Troy Astarte: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/6wd840ojdqpxuoehautz2/AKgTN0cV4Ci7QPqlqAjI6j… Troy adds “I did my best to get a photo of everyone who introduced themselves and a few group photos too. There’s two of Kevin because I liked the silhouette effect! Please let me know on t.k.astarte(a)swansea.ac.uk if you would not like your image to be included in this collection. Licensing is CC BY (more info in a document in that folder if needed).” [Thank you, Troy!] - We're about to start a revamp of the SIGCIS website, where hopefully we'll be able to include photos like this more easily in the future. If you would like to join our volunteer team to help with this process, please let us know. - Mark your calendars: on June 17-18 2026, SIGCIS will host a hybrid meeting at the School of Information at U.C. Berkeley and online. The CFP will be available soon. See more information here: https://meetings.sigcis.org/ All the best, Liz Petrick and Morgan Ames _________________ Elizabeth Petrick Associate Professor Director of Graduate Studies Department of History Rice University

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Internet Histories, Volume 9, Issue 4, December 2025 is now online
by Asger Harlung 08 Dec '25

08 Dec '25

To whom it may concern, The Editorial Staff of Internet Histories is pleased to announce that Internet Histories, Volume 9, Issue 4, December 2025 is now online. Two articles are open access, one is free access for a limited time. The full issue may be accessed at this URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rint20/9/4 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 Managing Editor Niels Brügger nb(a)cc.au.dk With kind regards on behalf of the editorial team, Asger Harlung, editorial assistant, Internet Histories - - - - - - - - - - List of articles in Vol. 9(4): Articles: Controversial interpretations in the early years of the web: an analysis of the correspondence of CERN collaborators and the community of Web developer# | Open Access Martin Fomasi Survival networks: lay expertise and digital knowledge production in the early years of HIV/AIDS | Open Access Claire McDonald Indermaur & Marika Cifor The hidden architects of the internet: Rebecca Newton and the making of online community management | Free Access Venessa Paech Book Reviews: Twitch, by Mark R. Johnson Polity, 2024 Reviewer: Christine H. Tran Histories of Digital Journalism: The Interplay of Technology, Society and Culture, edited by Tamas Tofalvy and Igor Vobič, 2024 Reviewer: Matthew Weber

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Postdoc in the history of computational technology, Brown University
by Lachlan Kermode 04 Dec '25

04 Dec '25

Hi folks, A postdoc position just opened up at Brown in the history of computational technology: https://networks.h-net.org/59/brown-university-mellon-postdoctoral-research… More about the lab here: https://humanities.brown.edu/programs/chi/ailab Ngā mihi, Lachlan Kermode PhD Candidate in Modern Culture and Media ScM in Computer Science

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IBM Publications at Hagley, Courtesy of James Cortada
by Erik Rau 03 Dec '25

03 Dec '25

Hagley was blessed with a substantial second donation of materials from James Cortada in 2024 (thanks, Jim!). We are making headway on cataloging the publications in that donation. Although we are not finished with it yet, you can read more about the collection and our work on it in a recent blog post: <https://www.hagley.org/librarynews/IBM-cortada-2025> [Cortada_1_112425.jpg] New Collection! James W. Cortada IBM Collection<https://www.hagley.org/librarynews/IBM-cortada-2025> hagley.org<https://www.hagley.org/librarynews/IBM-cortada-2025> I hope to welcome you soon to Hagley, where our team will be delighted to share this material with you! Cheers! -- Erik P. Rau, PhD Director, Library Services Hagley Museum & Library P.O. Box 3630, 298 Buck Road Wilmington, DE 19807 302.658.2400, ext. 344 erau(a)hagley.org www.hagley.org<https://www.hagley.org> www.hagleyheritage.com<https://www.hagleyheritage.com> Sign up for Hagley Library’s monthly newsletter<https://hagley.us13.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=e3f033f6a8aff23df4ebe8649&i…> to receive the latest research news, collection updates, upcoming events, and more. You can unsubscribe at any time.

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Call for Applications: ACM History and Archiving Fellowship program, due 28th February 2026
by Jeffrey Yost 01 Dec '25

01 Dec '25

Dear Colleagues, Please find below a brief statement with a link to the full one-page Call for our ACM History Committee History and Archiving Fellowship Program (The one-page call includes a description of the program, requirements, resources for applicants, and an email address if you have questions). Full Call PDF is at this link (and also linked below) ACM-HC-fellowship-CFP-2026-v2 <https://history.acm.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/ACM-HC-fellowship-CFP-20…> Best, Jeff Member, ACM History Committee (HC) Chair, ACM HC Fellowship Subcommittee Call for Applications: ACM History and Archiving Fellowship program, due 28th February 2026 The Association for Computing Machinery, founded in 1947, is the oldest and largest educational and scientific society dedicated to the computing profession, and today has 100,000 members around the world. To encourage historical research, the ACM History Committee plans to support up to five research projects with awards of up to $4,000 each. Successful candidates may be of any rank, from graduate students through senior researchers. The current and past winners of the fellowship can be found here <https://history.acm.org/projects-and-initiatives/fellowships/>. <https://history.acm.org/projects-and-initiatives/fellowships/> The full call for projects is here <https://history.acm.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/ACM-HC-fellowship-CFP-20…> . ** * * * * ** *Jeffrey Yost, Ph.D. * *Director, Charles Babbage Institute for Computing, Information & Culture* *Research Professor, History of Sci., Tech., Med., University of Minnesota* *Just Code: Power, Inequality and the Political Economy of IT (Johns Hopkins U. Press out in Nov. 2025 co-edited w/ Gerardo Con Diaz) <https://press.jhu.edu/books/title/12804/just-code> * *Making IT Work: A History of the Computer Services Industry (MIT Press) <https://amzn.to/3gqe4R6>* *Studies in Computing and Culture book series, Johns Hopkins U. Press <https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/series/studies-computing-and-culture> *Co-Editor (w/ Con Diaz) *PI, NSF-funded CBI project "Mining a Useable Past: Perspectives, Paradoxes, and Possibilities with Security and Privacy."* *Blockchain & Society* <https://www.blockchainandsociety.com>* (crit. inq. essays & resources)* (Founder/Leader) *Interfaces: Essays and Reviews in Computing and Culture <https://cse.umn.edu/cbi/interfaces> *Co-Editor-in-Chief (w/ Amanda Wick)

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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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TOMORROW: Nov 21 @ 2PM ET // ROMchip Presents: TreaAndrea M. Russworm on "Utopian Funk: Playing and Breaking The Sims in Dark Times"
by Laine Nooney 21 Nov '25

21 Nov '25

Join us TOMORROW, Nov 21, as *ROMchip: A Journal of Game Histories <https://romchip.org/index.php/romchip-journal> *hosts scholar TreaAndrea M. Russworm for a talk titled "Utopian Funk: Playing and Breaking The Sims in Dark Times." The event will be at 2PM ET on the ROMchip Twitch channel <https://www.twitch.tv/romchipjournal>. Sign up for our newsletter <https://romchip.us13.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=27c1594af9abf2dc80455091b&…> to never miss an update. Head to https://www.twitch.tv/romchipjournal join the talk @ 2PM. *About the Talk* This talk explores how Black arts traditions—like funk music, speculative fiction, and televisual forms—intersect with video game histories and player practices to chart what Russworm frames as “utopian funk.” Focusing on The Sims and Black player communities, the talk will examine how games become sites of both speculative possibility and structural failure, revealing how utopian impulses and broken systems coexist as generative spaces for cultural production and critique. *About the Speaker* TreaAndrea M. Russworm, Ph.D. (she/her/hers) is a Professor in the Interactive Media & Games Division at the University of Southern California and a Series Editor of *Power Play: Games, Politics, Culture *(Duke University Press). She teaches courses on video games, digital culture, and popular media like film, television, and streaming platforms. She is also the director of the Radical Play Game Design Lab, an Associate Editor for Outreach and Equity for the *Journal of Cinema and Media Studies*, and she has appeared in popular media venues like CNN. A prolific writer and editor on film, television, games, and other media, Professor Russworm has published widely, including the books *Gaming Representation: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Video Games*; *Blackness is Burning: Civil Rights, Popular Culture, and the Problem of Recognition*; and *From Madea to Media Mogul: Theorizing Tyler Perry. *She is currently working on three new books on race and gaming cultures. *About **ROMchip* *ROMchip: A Journal of Game Histories <https://www.romchip.org/>* is a free, online scholarly journal for game history. *ROMchip *develops, edits, and publishes ad-free, open access game history research for a range of audiences. It supports any discipline of work enlivening the history of games in local and global contexts, and embraces diversity in how game history is studied, documented, collected, preserved, and practiced. *ROMchip* is a donation-based organization fiscally sponsored by The Hack Foundation <https://hackclub.com/fiscal-sponsorship/> (d.b.a. Hack Club), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit (EIN: 81-2908499). --- Laine Nooney <http://www.lainenooney.com/> Associate Professor | MCC <http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/mcc/> @ NYU <http://www.nyu.edu/> | they/them Managing Editor | ROMchip: A Journal of Game Histories <https://romchip.org/index.php/romchip-journal> | Join our Newsletter <http://eepurl.com/crCul1> -Need to make an appt? Click, don't email: https://calendar.app.google/V9ZuMRWEKnnUBdQ56 -Probably typed by voice recognition, so please cherish typos

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Call for applications · The Craft of Science with AI (online, Mar 19–20, 2026)
by Michelle Spektor 19 Nov '25

19 Nov '25

Please see below for a workshop hosted by Data & Society that may interest many in SIGCIS: --- Data & Society is organizing The Craft of Science with AI: Evidence, Judgment, and Practice (online, March 19–20, 2026), an academic workshop organized around the concrete ways that AI tools are reshaping questions, shifting what counts as evidence, and altering practices of interpretation, verification, and collaboration. The format centers on small-group sessions, each anchored by pre-read drafts and discussants who help sharpen the analysis and surface points of friction. Drafts remain with authors; confidentiality is the default, and anonymization is supported where needed. We welcome scientists, STS and social science researchers, research-software engineers, librarians, policy and legal scholars, lab managers, and others working at the intersection of scientific reasoning and computational practice. Whether you bring a project-in-progress (~75% complete) or plan to contribute as a participant offering rigorous feedback, we invite you to apply by December 8, 2025 (Anywhere on Earth) What: The Craft of Science with AI: Evidence, Judgment, and Practice (online) When: Thu–Fri, March 19–20, 2026 Focus: How AI tools reshape questions, evidence, interpretation, verification, writing, and lab coordination. Format: Small-group feedback sessions with pre-reads and discussants. Drafts remain with authors; confidentiality by default. Who: Scientists; STS/anthropology/sociology/philosophy of science/HCI; research-software engineers; librarians and data stewards; policy/legal researchers; lab managers; applied R&D. Apply by: Mon, Dec 8, 2025 (AoE). Authors (~75% draft) or Participants (prepared feedback). Details: https://datasociety.net/announcements/2025/11/05/the-craft-of-science-with-…

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Kaypro
by Jonathan Coopersmith 18 Nov '25

18 Nov '25

Anyone interested in a Kaypro? Comes with manual, not sure about original packaging. 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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Save the Date: [SIGCIS 2026]: June 17-18, Berkeley, CA
by Gili Vidan 17 Nov '25

17 Nov '25

Dear all, The SIGCIS Meeting Organizing Committee is excited to share the details for our upcoming SIGCIS 2026 Annual Meeting, which will be held in person at UC Berkeley and via Zoom, *June 17-18, 2026*. Since our parent conference, SHOT, will be held virtually this coming year, we're taking advantage of the opportunity to expand our hybrid meeting to take place over 2 days. A full CFP will be shared in coming weeks and the deadline for submitting paper and panel abstracts is *February 16*, 2026, 11:59pm Pacific time. Please see the SIGCIS Meeting website <https://meetings.sigcis.org/> for more details and additional key dates <https://meetings.sigcis.org/key-dates-sigcis-2026.html>. We hope many of you will be able to join us in person or online for this two-day meeting. Please feel free to share the announcement with colleagues and relevant listservs. The SIGCIS Meetings Organizing Committee, Morgan Ames, Katya Babintseva, Colette Perold, and Gili Vidan --- Gili Vidan Assistant Professor | Information Science | Cornell University Pronouns: she/her

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