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Reminder: ACM History Fellowship Competition--Deadline Feb 15th, 2020
by Tracy, Kim 20 Jan '20

20 Jan '20

Dear Colleagues, The deadline for this call is rapidly approaching and is February 15, 2020. We look forward to your proposals. Thanks, --Kim From: Kim Tracy <tracy(a)rose-hulman.edu> Date: Saturday, November 30, 2019 at 12:07 PM To: "members(a)lists.sigcis.org" <members(a)lists.sigcis.org> Subject: ACM History Fellowship Competition--Deadline Feb 15th, 2020 Dear Colleagues, The link below provides an announcement to the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) 2020 fellowship competition for research projects on or centrally related to ACM history. The ACM History Committee runs this program, which has resulted in 30 fellowships awarded since the start of this fellowship program in 2009. Many of these awards have gone to scholars (graduate students to senior scholars) in the SHOT and SIGCIS communities. The submission deadline for applications is February 15, 2020. http://history.acm.org/public/public_documents/acm_history_fellowship_annou…<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fhistory.acm…> Thanks, --Kim Kim W. Tracy Visiting Asst. Professor of Computer Science and Software Engineering (pronouns: he, him) ROSE-HULMAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY 5500 Wabash Avenue | Terre Haute, IN 47803-3999 Room: Moench D216 | tracy(a)rose-hulman.edu<mailto:tracy@rose-hulman.edu> Phone: 812.877.8343 | Fax: 812.872.6060 www.rose-hulman.edu<http://www.rose-hulman.edu>

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ICOHTEC Symposium Eindhoven (Netherlands) July 2020
by Richard Vahrenkamp 16 Jan '20

16 Jan '20

Dear all, here is an announcement of ICOHTEC: Dear Colleagues and Friends, A reminder: the deadline of the call for papers of our *47^th Symposium in Eindhoven*, the Netherlands (13-18 July 2020), is *30^th January 2020*; please find the call and links concerning the symposium on our homepage: http://www.icohtec.org/w-annual-meeting/eindhoven-2020/ We will organize a Summer School in Eindhoven, scheduled just before the symposium, and we will give travel grants as we did in the last years. Please find announcements for the *Turriano ICOHTEC Prize* 2020 for books – *deadline 1^st February 2020* – here: http://www.icohtec.org/prizes/ Our *48^th Annual Symposium* will be held as a part of the 26^th International Congress of History of Science and Technology in *Prague*, Czech Republic (25 - 31 July 2021). Thus, the deadline of our call for papers has to be already*10^th February _2020_*. Please visit: http://www.icohtec.org/w-annual-meeting/prague-2021/ *Thus, it is necessary to submit proposals for both symposia within the next time.* -- ******************************************** Prof. Dr. Richard Vahrenkamp Logistik Consulting Berlin Phone 0177- 628 3325 E-Mail: Vahrenkamp2016(a)gmx.de Web: www.vahrenkamp.org Trendelenburgstr. 16 14057 Berlin *********************************************

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SHOT Open Session CfP: Crowd Control
by Scott Kushner 15 Jan '20

15 Jan '20

Dear SIGCISsians, I'm proposing an open session for SHOT 2020. I hope you'll consider submitting an abstract, and that you'll feel free to be in touch with any inquiries. See below or visit https://tinyurl.com/shot-crowd-control CROWD CONTROL Organizer: Scott Kushner, University of Rhode Island (scottkushner(a)uri.edu) Queues, gates, doorways, turnstiles, stanchions, guards, cages, pens, cells, anterooms, hallways, cameras, bottlenecks, streets, signage, velvet ropes, bouncers, bleachers, fences, barriers, ushers: the methods of crowd control are technological interventions. The ways that crowds have been constituted, apprehended, understood are historically, geographically, and culturally contingent. The discourses that differentiate crowds from (and conflate them with) adjacent categories of analysis, such as audiences, mobs, masses, multitudes, are similarly variable across different contexts. The purposes to which crowd control has been put have also changed over time and space, organizing the flows and stases of bodies in order to impose political, social, cultural, and economic logics specific to and co-constitutive of the contexts in which its various technologies are situated. This SHOT session seeks to develop an understanding of technologies used to control crowds of people over time. Participants will present research on historically-situated technological devices, protocols, systems, and infrastructures that modify built and natural environments in order to contain, channel, direct, arrange, expel, disperse, and otherwise direct the movements and stillnesses of human bodies. The significance of this work to the history of technology lies in concentrating discussion about the ways that technological interventions have shaped the spatial dispositions of groups of human bodies in order to sculpt the experiences of those spaces and of the crowds of people those spaces attract. Proposals engaging with any era and geographic context are welcome. The organizer is interested in placing in conversation scholars and audience members working with and curious about a range of materials and methodologies. Potential participants are therefore invited to imagine the notion of crowd control in adventurous manners. Procedure: Those interested in proposing presentations for potential inclusion in this session should kindly prepare a one-page abstract (500 words maximum) and a one-page short CV (300 words maximum) with current contact information. Please send these materials to Scott Kushner ( scottkushner(a)uri.edu) no later than February 15, 2020. Note: If you will be a first-time SHOT presenter and wish to be considered for the Robinson Prize, please indicate as much in your abstract and send a separate email to this effect to SHOT.Secretariaat(a)tue.nl. (Find information about the Robinson Prize at the SHOT website.) -- Scott Kushner Assistant Professor Department of Communication Studies Harrington School of Communication and Media University of Rhode Island 312 Davis Hall 10 Lippitt Rd. Kingston, R.I. 02881 +1 (401) 874-5223 scottkushner(a)uri.edu

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Swiss History and Computing Journal - Issues 20 + 21
by Enrico Natale 14 Jan '20

14 Jan '20

//Sorry for crosspostings// Dear colleagues, allow me to draw your attention to the two latest issues of the swiss Journal « Geschichte und Informatik / Histoire et Informatique ». Both volume are available in open access. Volume 20 (10.2019): Enjeux politiques du web - approches historiques // Das Web als politische Herausforderung - historische Perspektiven (Download volume <https://www.chronos-verlag.ch/public-download/2379>) Valérie Schafer:  Du grand secret à la «défaite de l’Internet». Enjeux, mobilisations et controverses autour du pouvoir des intermédiaires en France dans la décennie 1990  (download article <http://blog.ahc-ch.ch/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/1-Schafer.pdf>) Anaïs Theviot:  Interroger les processus de numérisation des partis politiques français. Etude comparative des trajectoires numériques du Parti socialiste et de l’Union pour un Mouvement Populaire  (download article <http://blog.ahc-ch.ch/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/2-Theviot.pdf>) Gianluigi Negro:  Limiting, Controlling and Supporting Digital Circulation. The Political and Economic Management of Online Rumours (yaoyan) on the Internet in the People’s Republic of China  (download article <http://blog.ahc-ch.ch/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/3-Negro.pdf>) Anna Jobin, Olivier Glassey, Stéfanie Prezioso, Frederic Kaplan:  La mémoire kaléidoscopique: l’histoire au prisme des algorithmes d’autocomplétion  (download article <http://blog.ahc-ch.ch/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/4-Jobin-Prezioso-Glassey-K…>) Theodore Lekkas and Aristotle Tympas:  “A club for all the Greeks”. Home Micros Computer Clubs between Magazines and Stores (download article <http://blog.ahc-ch.ch/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/5-Lekkas-Tympas.pdf>) Tobias Hodel:  READing Handwritten Documents. Projekt READ und das Staatsarchiv Zürich auf dem Weg zur automatischen Erkennung von handschriftlichen Dokumenten (download article <http://blog.ahc-ch.ch/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/6-Hodel.pdf>) Volume 21 (12.2019): Computer Network Histories. Hidden Streams from the Internet Past (Download volume <https://www.chronos-verlag.ch/node/27097>) Paolo Bory, Gianluigi Negro, Gabriele Balbi: Introduction: The Tributaries and Distributaries of Computer Network Histories (download article <http://blog.ahc-ch.ch/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/GundI-Vol21-0.1-intro.pdf>) Kevin Driscoll: Thou Shalt Love Thy BBS: Distributed Experimentation in Community Moderation (download article <http://blog.ahc-ch.ch/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/GundI-Vol21-1-Driscoll.pdf>) Félix Tréguer, Dominique Trudel: From Internet Access Provision to Digital Rights Activism: The History of the French Data Network (download article <http://blog.ahc-ch.ch/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/GundI-Vol21-2-Tr%C3%A9guer…>) Sophie Toupin: Hacking Apartheid: Revolutionary Communication and the South African National Liberation Movement (download article <http://blog.ahc-ch.ch/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/GundI-Vol21-3-Toupin.pdf>) Christian Henrich-Franke: Computer Networks on Copper Cables: From ‘Promises to the Public’ to ‘Profits for Providers’ (download article <http://blog.ahc-ch.ch/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/GundI-Vol21-4-Henrich-Fran…>) Marcelo Savio Carvalho, Henrique Luiz Cukierman: The Dawn of the Internet in Brazil (download article <http://blog.ahc-ch.ch/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/GundI-Vol21-5-Savio-Cukier…>) Benedetta Campanile: Robert Fano, an Italian Computer Scientist from Project Mac to the Internet (download article <http://blog.ahc-ch.ch/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/GundI-Vol21-6-Campanile.pdf>) Yong Hu, Benjamin Peters: A Conversation on Network Histories (download article <http://blog.ahc-ch.ch/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/GundI-Vol21-7-Hu-Peters.pdf>) Enrico Natale infoclio.ch Hirschengraben 11 Postfach 3001 Bern Tel: +41 31 311 75 72 Follow infoclio.ch on Twitter <https://twitter.com/infoclio> / Facebook <https://www.facebook.com/infoclio.ch>.

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[CfA EASST/4S Prague] [CfA EASST/4S Prague - Open Panel] Performative Futures: Fighting Reification Inertias through Open Anticipations
by Sergio Urueña López 13 Jan '20

13 Jan '20

Dear list members, Apologies for cross-posting. We are pleased to invite you to submit a paper proposal to our Open Panel “Performative Futures: Fighting Reification Inertias through Open Anticipations” to be held in the EASST/4S conference[1] (Prague, August 18th-21st 2020). More information is included below. Please feel free to circulate this call to anyone who might be interested and do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or doubts. Thanks! Best regards, Sergio Urueña, Hannot Rodríguez & Andoni Ibarra *** OPEN PANEL - “PERFORMATIVE FUTURES: FIGHTING REIFICATION INERTIAS THROUGH OPEN ANTICIPATIONS” (EASST/4S) ABSTRACT Science and technology practices are crucially shaped by representations of “the future”. Expectations, socio-technical imaginaries and techno-visions are constitutive elements in the de facto epistemic-political governance of research and innovation. Some scholars (e.g., van Lente, 2006; Jasanoff and Kim, 2015; Konrad and Palavicino, 2017; Lösch, 2017) as well as certain research policy frameworks (e.g., technology assessment, anticipatory governance, RRI) have emphasized this performative character of futures by approaching it as an object of responsibility. This intellectual endeavor has been especially fruitful in relation to the visualization and critique of existing reification inertias. That is to say, the frames, regulations, commitments, feelings and so on, orienting and constraining (i.e., reifying, or closing-down) the processes, outcomes and ends of research and innovation practices. This panel aims to explore the theoretical and practical possibilities of developing interventive anticipatory resources capable of instrumentalizing “the future” in more open, inclusive and reflexive ways. Some POTENTIAL QUESTIONS include: * To what extent are anticipatory narratives and practices within research and innovation policy systems open, inclusive and reflexive? * What constraining/enabling roles do socio-technical expectations, imaginaries and techno-visions of “the future” play in research and innovation practices? * What potentials and limits do anticipatory methods (e.g., scenario-building, science-fiction prototyping, technology roadmapping, etc.) display with regard to reflexivity and de-reifying dynamics? * How is/should the epistemic-political quality of open anticipatory practices be enacted and/or assessed? * What role and relevance does anticipatory governance display in relation to more recent policy frameworks such as RRI and “Open Science”? SUBMISSION The panel is open to all disciplines, approaches and methods. We welcome researchers, practitioners and students. If you are interested in participating in our Open Panel, please submit your proposal for an oral presentation (max. 250 words abstract, including the paper’s main arguments, methods and contribution) by logging into the Programme website (https://admin.allacademic.com/one/ssss/ssss20/) with your 4S credentials, selecting “Papers for Open Panels” and clicking in the Open Panel No. 132. _Deadline_: FEBRUARY 29TH, 2020. Vínculos: --------- [1] https://www.easst4s2020prague.org/

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CFP: Open Panel on Universities at 4s/EASST 2020 at Prague 18-21 August
by Sharon Traweek 13 Jan '20

13 Jan '20

Call for Abstracts to participate in Open Panel 97: Locating & Timing Governance in STS and Universities to be held in Prague, 18-21 August 2020, at the joint conference https://www.easst4s2020prague.org/ of the European Association for Studies of Science & Technology (EASST) https://easst.net/ and the Society for the Social Studies of Science (4S) http://www.4sonline.org/ EASST/4s 2020 Conference theme: Locating and Timing Matters: Significance and Agency of STS in Emerging Worlds https://www.easst4s2020prague.org/focus-and-themes/ There are various ways to participate in the 4s/EASST 2020 meeting: Open Panel Papers, Closed Panel Proposals, and Making/Doing Sessions https://www.easst4s2020prague.org/call-for-papers-and-panels/ For example, 217 open panels now are seeking paper submissions. See panel descriptions and search for key words at https://www.easst4s2020prague.org/accepted-open-panels-all-abstracts/ Call for abstracts to participate in Open Panel 97: Locating & Timing Governance in STS and Universities Organizers Knut H. Sørensen (NTNU) and Sharon Traweek (UCLA) For many generations universities have been institutions of higher education and research. Now they are expected to contribute to local and global economies by commercializing research and spurring innovation, while addressing grand social challenges like climate mitigation and social disparities. They also must engage successfully in mass higher education and outreach with a variety of publics. This means that universities now occupy a strategic place in re/shaping society by circulating research and knowledge through teaching and professional expertise. Meanwhile, universities have become subject to increased auditing practices and austerity policies, locally and globally. Many universities turn to experts in branding and commodification for strategies in defining and representing their work as successful. STS provides resources for understanding such dis/continuities in the making and circulation of knowledge while the study of universities in dynamic ecologies is vital to addressing unexamined assumptions in STS about the relationship between research, teaching, and society, as well as the governance of that relationship. We invite papers that address how universities engage with the changing: - fragility and resilience of university cultures. - demands for rapid intellectual, social, and economic contributions to society; - work life and agency of academics - relationship between teaching, research, innovation, and outreach; - use of social media and branding practices by universities; - intersectional issues in knowledge making, teaching, outreach, funding, and society; - political economies of research, teaching, funding, and outreach; - campus infrastructures from software & budgets to buildings & transportation; - increasingly complex webs of relationships among universities glocally through rankings, MOUs, satellite campuses, academic mobilities, etc. The organizers are co-authors of Questing Excellence: Tales of Two Universities (under contract with Routledge). Abstract Requirements: Give your main arguments, methods, and contributions to specific aspects of the panel topic in in 250 words or less. Deadline for abstract submissions is 29 February 2020 Submission information https://www.easst4s2020prague.org/call-for-papers-and-panels/ For more information contact: Knut H Sørensen, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) knut.sorensen(a)ntnu.no<mailto:knut.sorensen@ntnu.no> https://www.ntnu.edu/employees/knut.sorensen Sharon Traweek, University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) traweek(a)history.ucla.edu<mailto:traweek@history.ucla.edu> https://ucla.academia.edu/STraweek http://genderstudies.ss.ucla.edu/faculty/sharon-traweek

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Fwd: SHOT Call for Proposals NoLa 2020
by Andrew Russell 10 Jan '20

10 Jan '20

Hi everyone - See below for the CFP for the SHOT 2020 meeting, which will be held jointly with History of Science Society in New Orleans. Deadlines are Feb 28, 2020. As usual, SIGCIS plans to hold a Sunday SIGCIS conference, with details and deadlines to be announced later on. Best regards, Andy > Begin forwarded message: > > From: Society for the History of Technology <shot.secretariaat(a)tue.nl> > Subject: SHOT Call for Proposals NoLa 2020 > Date: January 9, 2020 at 1:15:45 PM EST > To: arussell(a)arussell.org > Reply-To: shot.secretariaat(a)tue.nl > > > > Call For Proposals, Papers, and Sessions for SHOT 2020 now open > > SHOT Annual Meeting > New Orleans, 7-11 October 2020 > > > Dear SHOT Members, > 7 October, 2019 in Milan, Italy. > > The SHOT Program Committee is pleased to issue the Call for Papers and Sessions for the SHOT 2020 Annual Meeting, to be held 7-11 October, 2020 in New Orleans, USA > > > Link to CfP: CfP SHOT Annual Meeting New Orleans 2020 <http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001RXQvwPRWyBtNhpd20MoAElk2J_b6l89QaCNrZsKv5dAa…> > > > SHOT and the Program Committee look forward to a vigorous, enthusiastic, and intellectually stimulating annual meeting in New Orleans! > > Please see the full text of the CfP below, or through this link <http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001RXQvwPRWyBtNhpd20MoAElk2J_b6l89QaCNrZsKv5dAa…>, here we give you just a few headlines of the contents: > - Theme of this years CfP/Meeting "Environment, Infrastructure, and Social Justice." > - The 2020 SHOT Annual Meeting will be held jointly with the History of Science Society. > - For joint SHOT/HSS panel proposals, please submit proposals to both SHOT and HSS. > - For details about HSS panel submission, please visit the HSS webpage (https://hssonline.org/ <http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001RXQvwPRWyBtNhpd20MoAElk2J_b6l89QaCNrZsKv5dAa…>). > - The Program Committee welcomes proposals of different types. > - The Program Committee will prioritize proposals that make a conscious effort to increase diversity > - Find Basic guidelines addressed > - Specific instructions related to submission details will appear on the SHOT webpage <http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001RXQvwPRWyBtNhpd20MoAElk2J_b6l89QaCNrZsKv5dAa…>. > > > Annual Meeting Society for the History of Technology (SHOT): New Orleans, 7-11 October, 2020 - Call for Proposals FULL TEXT > > Dear Colleagues, > > The SHOT Program Committee is pleased to issue the Call for Papers and Sessions for the SHOT 2020 Annual Meeting to be held 7-11 October, 2020 in New Orleans. The 2020 SHOT Annual Meeting will be held jointly with the History of Science Society. > > SHOT is an interdisciplinary and international organization concerned with the history of technological devices, systems, and processes as well as with technology in history, culture, and society. We explore the production, circulation, appropriation, maintenance, and abandonment of technology under specific historical conditions. And we scrutinize these epistemic, economic, social, cultural, and political conditions. Our approaches are informed by a broad concept of technology, encompassing knowledge resources, practices, artifacts, and biofacts (artifacts in the realm of the living). Accordingly, the Committee invites paper and session proposals on any topic in a broadly defined history of technology, including topics that push the boundaries of the field. > > SHOT is committed to diversity. In addition to intellectual quality, we warmly welcome proposals that reflect diversity in their line-up of speakers, in particular with regard to career level, gender, and geography. The Program Committee will prioritize proposals that make a conscious effort to increase diversity: for example, proposals that are diverse in terms of temporal or geographic foci, proposals that include one or more female speakers, speakers at different professional stages, with different institutional affiliations, and/or different nationalities and geographies. > > > SHOT Annual Meeting 2020: > New Orleans: Environment, Infrastructure, and Social Justice > > New Orleans. The name alone conjures a host of images: exotic food, magnificent architecture, distinct music and dialects, and devastating hurricanes. Playwright Tennessee Williams famously labeled it the last frontier of Bohemia. For some, it is the most European of American cities. For others, it is the northern most Caribbean port. > > Nicknamed the Crescent City because of its rather unique geography-the Mississippi River curves deeply around its urbanized core-New Orleans is a vital commercial center for both domestic and global trade and consistently ranks as a top destination for national and international tourists. Located near the mouth of the continent's largest river, its port provides access to thirty-plus major inland hubs via 14,000 miles of waterways, six Class 1 railroads, and interstate roads. One third of all seafood consumed in the United States originates from Louisiana, with much of it harvested and processed near New Orleans. Additionally, with 88 percent of the country's offshore oil and gas rigs located off Louisiana's shore, the Greater New Orleans region is one of the world's leading markets for energy and petrochemical production, processing, and transportation. > > The city's substantial cultural and economic presence belies its precarious environmental and social realities, however. Founded as a French colonial capital in 1718 on a deltaic lobe formed nearly two thousand years after the great pyramids of Giza were built, its residents have waged a constant battle to hold the surrounding water at bay. Today, nearly half of New Orleans exists below sea level. Indeed, the channelization of the Mississippi River, coupled with the vast pumping system constructed to drain storm water from the interior bowl created by the levees, has deprived the landscape of the sediment that a naturally overflowing river provides. The result is an actively sinking city, despite the injection of billions in federal post-Hurricane Katrina recovery aid. And with nearly twenty percent of its citizens, 60 percent of whom are people of color, living at or below the poverty line, New Orleans remains one of the nation's poorest metropolitan areas, a grim reminder of its past status as the largest slave market in North America. Moreover, the 85-mile corridor of petrochemical and plastic refineries and plants above New Orleans, many of which are located on former sugar plantations, is widely reported to have some of America's highest levels of cancer-causing chemicals in the air. > > To assert that New Orleans has a troubled, dichotomous history is to state the obvious. And yet she persists, a fabled, hemispheric crossroads with an unmatched joie de vivre. That SHOT and the Society for the History of Science in New Orleans have chosen to co-locate in New Orleans in 2020, the 15thanniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the 10th anniversary of the Deep Horizon oil spill, is no small matter. This co-mingling of associations offers scholars a splendid opportunity to reflect on the relationship between the environment, infrastructure, and social justice and how these elements contribute to the ongoing story of New Orleans and to the maintenance of our modern world. To pay tribute to the location of the meeting, we encourage proposals that relate to a broadly interpreted theme of "Environment, Infrastructure, and Social Justice." > > Infrastructure is an inherently social mode of modification of natural environments. It is the most basic form of technological collaboration; it is fundamental for society's functioning; and it is indispensable to other technological developments. Infrastructure requires vision, planning, engineering, management, and maintenance. It also necessitates considerations of risk and an anticipation of environmental events with potential to seriously impact human lives. Colloquially described as "natural disasters," these events become "disasters" for humans only when infrastructure fails. > > At the same time, infrastructure is also a symbol of nationhood and civilization. It is often cited as a justification for conflict, imperialism, and displacement. The benefits that it offers and harm that it causes are not distributed equally. Those who are displaced or otherwise affected by new infrastructure projects too often do not experience their benefits. And when infrastructure fails, the harm often falls disproportionally on those who are already socially and economically disadvantaged. > We invite SHOT participants to reflect on these themes from an historical as well as a contemporary perspective, and with respect to a variety of socio-cultural environments. Among the aspects which deserve discussion are how infrastructure modifies human and natural environments; how risk assessment influences infrastructure planning; how different societies approach infrastructure vis-à-vis other forms of technological development; and how climate change brings about reassessments of infrastructural needs. > > > For the 2020 meeting the Program Committee welcomes proposals of these types: > > Joint SHOT/HSS sessions: since this meeting will be held in conjunction with HSS, it is possible to submit a proposal that speaks to both SHOT and HSS communities, and which would appear on both programs. When submitting a joint proposal, indicate this fact in the abstract and make sure to submit an identical proposal through the HSS website. The program committees of both societies will evaluate these joint proposals. Deadline: February 28, 2020. > > Traditional sessions: sessions of 3 or 4 papers, with a chair listed in the session proposal. It is not necessary to have a commentator. However, if a commentator has a central role in the panel, they will be counted as an additional speaker. Deadline: February 28, 2020. > > Unconventional sessions: sessions with formats that diverge in useful ways from traditional sessions. These can include (but are not limited to) round-table sessions, workshop-style sessions with pre-circulated papers, "you write, I present" sessions, and poster sessions. Poster proposals should describe the content and the visual material to be used in the poster. Individuals whose posters are accepted must be available to talk about them in a lunch/evening slot to be decided by the program committee. The Program Committee encourages other creative formats to facilitate communication, dialogue, and audience involvement. The program committee will look favorably on formats that make sessions less hierarchical and reduce the 'distance' between audience and author and between author and commentator. Deadline: February 28, 2020. > > Open sessions: Individuals interested in finding others to join panel sessions may propose Open Sessions, starting January 1, with a final deadline of February 15. Open Session descriptions, along with the organizer's contact information, will appear on the SHOT website (the earlier the proposal is sent to SHOT, the earlier it can be posted to the website.) For individuals who want to join a proposed panel from the Open Sessions list, please contact the organizer for that panel, not the Program Committee. In order to give the session organizer sufficient time to select proposals and assemble the final panel, the deadline for submitting your paper proposal to the organizer is February 15, 2020. Open Session organizers will then assemble full panels and submit them through SHOT's online system by February 28, 2019. > > Individual papers: Proposals for individual papers will be considered, but the Program Committee will give preference to pre-organized sessions (traditional, unconventional, or completed open sessions). Scholars who might ordinarily propose an individual paper are encouraged to propose Open Sessions themselves or to join an Open Session. Deadline: February 28, 2020. > > > Other basic guidelines: > > SHOT allows the same speaker to present papers at consecutive meetings but turns down papers that are substantially the same as previously accepted ones. Any submission on the same topic should explain how the new paper differs from the prior presentation. > > Most pre-organized panels, if accepted, will remain as proposed. In select cases, depending on the quality and coherence of the individual papers, part of a panel may be turned down, merged into another panel, or combined with individual papers to form a new panel. If the panel can only work as one single unit, please specify "all or none" in the abstract. In this case, the Program Committee may reject the whole panel despite the presence of qualified individual papers. > > Individuals are permitted to take on multiple roles at SHOT, as well as additional roles at HSS. However, no individual is to give more than one titled paper or commentary for both societies. Additional presentations in SIGs, participation in roundtables, poster sessions, and other activities for which no title is listed in the SHOT meeting program are allowed; however, a paper at a graduate student workshop does count as a paper for this purpose. The SHOT Program Committee ensures there are no schedule conflicts between individual's various roles on the SHOT program. However, SHOT and HSS cannot resolve conflicts between papers/commentaries and other roles across societies. In cases when an individual's presentation or commentary would conflict with additional roles on the other society's program, the individual will be asked to forgo the additional role. > > Each panel proposal should be accompanied by a panel abstract that details: 1 the overall theme; 2 each individual panelist's contribution; 3 the role of a commentator (if any); 4 diversity statement (see above); 5 whether a given proposal desires "all or none"; and 6 whether any of the panelists is a candidate for SHOT's Robinson Prize. Individual paper proposals should indicate whether the presenter is a Robinson Prize candidate. > > Specific instructions related to submission details appear on the SHOT webpage (http://www.historyoftechnology.org <http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001RXQvwPRWyBtNhpd20MoAElk2J_b6l89QaCNrZsKv5dAa…>). For joint SHOT/HSS panel proposals, please submit proposals to both SHOT and HSS. For details about HSS panel submission, please visit the HSS webpage (https://hssonline.org/ <http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001RXQvwPRWyBtNhpd20MoAElk2J_b6l89QaCNrZsKv5dAa…>). > > > Society for the History of Technology, Sonja Beekers,Foundation for the History of Technology, POBox 513, IPO Building 2.31, Eindhoven, 5600 MB Netherlands > SafeUnsubscribe™ arussell(a)arussell.org <https://visitor.constantcontact.com/do?p=un&m=001Xz26gWD0CDOi01mES8w44A%3D%…> > Forward this email <http://ui.constantcontact.com/sa/fwtf.jsp?llr=ieifeldab&m=1103106318472&ea=…> | About our service provider <http://www.constantcontact.com/legal/service-provider?cc=about-service-prov…> > Sent by shot.secretariaat(a)tue.nl <mailto:shot.secretariaat@tue.nl> in collaboration with > <http://www.constantcontact.com/index.jsp?cc=TEM_BusLet_003&rmc=VF19_V8> > Try email marketing for free today! <http://www.constantcontact.com/index.jsp?cc=TEM_BusLet_003&rmc=VF19_V8>

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Early Computing in Britain
by Brian Randell 08 Jan '20

08 Jan '20

Hi: I’ve now seen and started to read Simon Lavington’s new book “Early Computing in Britain: Ferranti Ltd. and Government Funding, 1948 - 1958” (Springer, 2019) ISBN-13: 978-3030151027, 410 pages. I don’t think it has been mentioned yet on SIGCIS, though it certainly deserves to be! From the Preface: There is a tendency to view computer history either from a top-down or a bottom-up. perspective. Enthroned at the top of the historical landscape are the policymakers: government mandarins and board-level industrialists who view each new generation of computers through their shifting requirements of economics, politics: and national defence. Far below these policymakers, and secure at the foundational. level, are the technology researchers and developers: the creators of theories and laboratory prototypes, whose motivation is the satisfaction of responding to challenges issued by their fellow academics. In between these two extremes is a largely unsung and heterogeneous collection of engineers, programmers and marketing staff who turn ideas into products, features into benefits and problems into solutions. Theirs is the song that you'll hear throughout this book. The focus of the story is particularly on those who worked for one manufacturing company, Ferranti Ltd., and for the nine end-user organisations who purchased the first Ferranti computers in the period 1951-1957. It is a story grounded in technology but brought alive by personal experiences and practical compromise. Here you’ll read of short-term social impacts and longer-term evolutionary adaptations, as new and untried equipment began to have an impact. Why is this story of relevance to the emergence of modern computers? The 10-year period 1948-1958 was of great significance. The first Ferranti computer, which was prosaically called the Mark I, was the first production machine to have been delivered anywhere. A copy of this and improved versions called the Mark I* (Mark One Star) were the first substantial computers to have been delivered in Canada, Holland and Italy. And whilst American companies such as UNIVAC and IBM were selling tens of computers to their home market during the early 1950s, Ferranti seemingly had the rest of the world to itself. <snip> Cheers Brian Randell School of Computing, Newcastle University, 1 Science Square, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE4 5TG EMAIL = Brian.Randell(a)ncl.ac.uk PHONE = +44 191 208 7923 URL = http://www.ncl.ac.uk/computing/people/profile/brianrandell.html

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Invention of LSFR random number algorithm
by Dr. Stefan Höltgen 08 Jan '20

08 Jan '20

Dear all, I am searching for the earliest implementation or mention of an LSFR for random number generation. The earliest mention of LSFR (found with Google Scholar) seems to be 1958: https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/3614/bab2531.0001.0… Does anybody of you have further informations about the invention of that method? best, Stefan Höltgen --- Dienstadresse: Dr. Stefan Höltgen Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin Institut für Musikwissenschaft und Medienwissenschaft Fachbereich Medienwissenschaft Georgenstraße 47 Raum 2.26 (Signallabor) D-10117 Berlin Fon: ++49 (0)30 2093-66185 Fax: ++49 (0)30 2093-66181 E-Mail: stefan.hoeltgen(a)hu-berlin.de <mailto:stefan.hoeltgen@hu-berlin.de> Web: http://u.hu-berlin.de/hoeltgen <http://u.hu-berlin.de/hoeltgen> Sprechstunde: Mittwochs 17-18 Uhr (ohne Anmeldung)

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Good news
by Mar Hicks 08 Jan '20

08 Jan '20

Hi all, Given that we could all probably use some right about now, I thought I would share a roundup of recent good news involving several of our members. Each shows the impact studies of computing are having not just within our field but on the broader public discourse. 1) Safiya Noble’s Algorithms of Oppression, about the development of “digital redlining” and other racist online practices, was NYU’s bestselling book of the year and their top pick of all the books they’ve published this past decade. 2) Sarah Roberts’s recent book Behind the Screen, on the past, present, and future of commercial content moderation, was ranked one of the top 8 books of 2019 on privacy by BookAuthority. 3) Meryl Alper’s work on AI, bias, and disability discrimination was cited in Elizabeth Warren’s disability plan. You can read the coauthored paper, published by the AI Now Institute, here: https://ainowinstitute.org/disabilitybiasai-2019.pdf 4) Some good news of my own: Programmed Inequality received the 2019 Herbert Baxter Adams Prize in European History from the American Historical Association this weekend. 5) In job news: Whitney Pow, who works on queer and trans video game studies and computing history has accepted a full time job at NYU. Congrats Whitney! 5) Lastly, several books have recently added to the important, swiftly-growing body of work on Blackness and digital technologies, including André Brock’s Distributed Blackness, Ruha Benjamin’s Race After Technology, Charlton McIlwain’s Black Software, and Clyde Ford’s Think Black (about his and his father’s time at IBM). Feel free to add your own or others’ good news to the list. Best, Mar ______________________ Mar Hicks Associate Professor History of Technology Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago, IL USA mhicks1(a)iit.edu | marhicks.com | @histoftech Programmed Inequality: How Britain Discarded Women Technologists and Lost Its Edge in Computing www.programmedinequality.com

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