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SIGCIS Book Auction - Friday, October 12
by Andrew Russell 12 Sep '18

12 Sep '18

Hello everyone! With SHOT annual meeting just a month away, it's time to remind you of one of the most important activities we do—the Friday book auction. In addition to providing a nice panorama of new books and old favorites, the purpose of the auction is to raise money for the SIGCIS Travel Grants that are awarded to some individuals who are presenting their work at the Sunday SIGCIS Conference. We’re lucky once again this year to have the peerless Tom Haigh as our auctioneer. The auction will take place during our annual lunch on Friday from 12:30-2 pm. When you register(ed) for SHOT, there was a box to check to register for the lunch. As usual, our agenda for the lunch, beyond eating, will be (1) introductions, especially to highlight the first-time attendees; and (2) the SIGCIS book auction. Regarding the latter, I have two reminders: a. Please bring books you would like to donate for the cause. It would help our accounting and record-keeping system if you can tell me ahead of time what book you plan to bring. And, if you have books to donate but don’t plan to travel to St. Louis, please let me know and I’ll relay instructions. b. Please bring cash to pay for books, or to otherwise donate to SIGCIS. We are lucky to have so many generous members in SIGCIS, since your donations allow us to award travel grants to students and others who need travel support. This year we are awarding over $2500 in travel support; to make this sustainable, we need to raise an equal or greater amount. If you’d rather donate to SIGCIS online or by check, we would be happy to facilitate that as well. Thank you as always for your generosity! Andy Russell SIGCIS Chair

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Doctoral opportunity
by Bernardo Batiz-Lazo 10 Sep '18

10 Sep '18

Colegues We will appreciate if you circulate this doctoral bursary opportunity on the history of computers in banking Best wishes Bernardo Dear Bernardo, I hope you had a great summer. We have an open position for a doctoral student that could maybe be of interest for some students in your academic network ? Please feel free to publicize it : https://recruitment.uni.lu/fr/details.html?id=QMUFK026203F3VBQB7V7VV4S8&nPo… Best regards, Valérie SCHAFER Professor in Contemporary European History Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C²DH) University of Luxembourg Belval Campus Maison des Sciences Humaines 11, Porte des Sciences L-4366 Esch-sur-Alzette https://www.c2dh.uni.lu/people/valerie-schafer -- ================== Twitter @BatizLazo Cash and Dash: How ATMs and Computers Changed Banking By Bernardon Batiz-Lazo (Oxford University Press, 2018) https://global.oup.com/academic/product/cash-and-dash-9780198782810?cc=gb&l… The Book of Payments: Historical and Contemporary Views on the Cashless Society Edited by Bernardo Batiz-Lazo and Leonidas Efthymiou (Palgrave, 2016) http://www.palgrave.com/de/book/9781137602305 Technological Innovation in Retail Finance: International Historical Perspectives Edited by Bernardo Batiz-Lazo, J. Carles Maixé-Altés, and Paul Thomes (Routledge, 2011) http://www.taylorandfrancis.com/books/details/9780415880671 Home page: http://www.bangor.ac.uk/business/staff/bernardo_batiz-lazo.en.php Working papers: http://ideas.repec.org/e/pba14.html

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Company archives of 1980s-1990s computer game companies?
by Gleb J. Albert 10 Sep '18

10 Sep '18

Dear colleagues and list members, This is a question that has kept me busy for quite some time, yet I am afraid I might have missed some crucial bit of information, and this is why I would like to address it to you. Are there any preservation institutions (archives, museums etc., apart from The Strong Museum / National Museum of Play in Rochester/NY) that host either company archives of computer game companies or personal papers of people involved in the production and marketing of home computer games in the 1980s and early 1990s? As I already mentioned on this list back in February, I am doing a post-doc research project on the transnational history of (non-commercial, low scale) home computer games piracy before the mass availability of the Internet, and, of course, the perspective of the back-then games industry is crucial in this question. Of course, the industry back then was extremely volatile - when companies went bankrupt, the last thing they thought about was preserving their archives (in the case of Psygnosis, for example, as far as I know everything was simply dumped). And those very few 1980s companies which are still active are very seclusive about their archives (which is sort-of understandable, given the retromania of today and their possible hopes of reviving/porting old titles). Nevertheless, the papers of Broderbund, Sierra On-Line, and a couple of other companies luckily ended up at The Strong - and to my knowledge, this is the only public institution that hosts materials like these. But maybe I missed some essential info? Are there any other holdings I am not aware of, particularly concerning the European games industry? I would be very thankful for any hints (as well as for contacts to former game studio and/or publisher/distributor folks who still might have kept their business papers). 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> Review editor: H-Soz-Kult, review team "History of Knowledge" - <http://www.hsozkult.de>

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digitalization of banking and payment innovations
by Juan Carlos Maixé Altés 09 Sep '18

09 Sep '18

May be of interest to SIGCIS-Members: two recent articles on banking digitalisation and payment innovations: Maixé-Altés, J. Carles (2018): "The Digitalisation of Banking: A New Perspective from the European Savings Banks Industry before the Internet," Enterprise and Society<https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/enterprise-and-society/article/digi…> (online 4 Sep) [DOI: 10.1017/eso.2018.18]. Maixé-Altés, J. Carles (2018): "Retail trade and payment innovations in the digital era: a cross-industry and multi-country approach", Business History<https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00076791.2018.1471062> (online 19 Jul) [DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2018.1471062] Best, Carles Maixé Facultad de Economía y Empresa Universidad de A Coruña Spain http://ecoapli1.udc.es/maixe

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"Paths into digital society" / "Wege in die Digitale Gesellschaft" - New edited volume
by Martin Schmitt 08 Sep '18

08 Sep '18

Dear all, I’m happy to announce that our new edited volume "Paths into digital society. Computer usage in West Germany. 1955-1990" / "Wege in die Digitale Gesellschaft. Computernutzung in der Bundesrepublik 1955-1990“ was published in German this months. It makes available the results of our research projects on the history of computing in East and West Germany. You’ll find paper on the use of computer technology in German security services (Rüdiger Bergien), military (Janine Funke), pension system (Thomas Kasper), industrial production at Volkswagen (Frank Bösch) hacking (Julia Erdogan) and banking sector (me). Furthermore, we managed to find excellent researchers contributing chapters on such diverse topics as employment in the German IT-industry (Homberg), printing industry (Priemel), chess computers (Heßler) or software for home computers (Albert). The volume fills a big gap in German history of computing. Unfortunately, it is in German only so far. I could help to get in contact with any of the researches if you’re interested in a special topic or help to summarize some basic results in English for you if you want to know more about a special approach. Martin Research fellow | Ph.D student | digital enthusiast ZENTRUM FÜR ZEITHISTORISCHE FORSCHUNG | POTSDAM Mail: schmitt(a)zzf-potsdam.de <mailto:schmitt@zzf-pdm.de> Tel: +49 331 - 74510-119 http://www.zzf-pdm.de/site/991/Default.aspx BLOG - www.computerisierung.com Vice Chair of IFIP WG 9.7 „History of computing" Neu erschienen: Martin Schmitt - Internet im Kalten Krieg. http://www.transcript-verlag.de/detail/index/sArticle/3569

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Book announcement
by Mark Priestley 08 Sep '18

08 Sep '18

My new book *Routines of Substitution: John von Neumann's work on software development, 1945-1948 <https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-91671-2> *has been published in the new SpringerBriefs in History of Computing series edited by Gerard Alberts. More here: http://markpriestley.net/archives/99 Cheers, Mark

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Program available for STORED IN MEMORY: 10th Annual SIGCIS Conference
by Andrew Russell 07 Sep '18

07 Sep '18

Dear colleagues - We're very happy to announce the Conference Schedule <http://meetings.sigcis.org/conference-schedule.html> for STORED IN MEMORY, the 10th Annual SIGCIS Conference to be held in St. Louis, Missouri on October 14, 2018. This conference will once again take place on the final day of the annual meeting of the Society for the History of Technology <https://www.historyoftechnology.org/annual-meeting/2018-shot-annual-meeting…>. STORED IN MEMORY will begin with a keynote address by Prof. Eden Medina, Associate Professor of Informatics and Computing at Indiana University, Bloomington. The conference features 31 papers by scholars from North America, South America, and Europe. To register, please visit the SHOT Annual Meeting Registration <https://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/eventReg?oeidk=a07efg4d91d7…> website, where you have the option to register for the entire SHOT conference or the Sunday SIGCIS conference only. Please take a look at the program for the SHOT Annual Meeting <https://www.historyoftechnology.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Program-St.-…> itself, where you will see well over a dozen papers on computing and information history, as well as the traditional Friday SIGCIS lunch meeting. I hope to see you there! Andy On behalf of the program committee: Laine Nooney, New York University (SIGCIS Vice-Chair of Meetings) Andrew Russell, SUNY Polytechnic Institute (SIGCIS Chair) Stephanie Dick, University of Pennsylvania Gerardo Con Diaz, University of California, Davis Kera Allen, Georgia Institute of Technology (Conference Assistant) Nabeel Siddiqui, College of William & Mary (Conference Assistant)

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Call for volunteers: SIGCIS Internet Infrastructure
by Andrew Russell 06 Sep '18

06 Sep '18

Hi everyone - SIGCIS is looking for one or more volunteers to help us manage the technologies that support our website and mailing lists. Tasks are occasional - maintenance, periodic version upgrades, and working with the SIGCIS leadership to ensure that things are working well and meeting the needs of our members. We know there’s a lot of expertise in our community, so we’re hoping to tap into that. As you probably know, Brent Jesiek at Purdue has been working wonders in this role for many years. Our website runs on the Drupal CMS platform, so it’s essential that volunteer(s) for this role be familiar with Drupal - or be willing to learn. Familiarity with other tools, including the Mailman listserv application, HTML/CSS, and/or Unix and SQL, also would be handy. If you have any interest, or know of someone who might, please let me know. And, feel free to send Brent or me any questions about the specific tools and tasks involved. Thank you very much! Andy Russell SIGCIS Chair

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Submissions open for The Web that Was (June 2019, Amsterdam)
by Alberts, Gerard 06 Sep '18

06 Sep '18

The Web that Was: Archives, Traces, Reflections A three-day conference, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, June 19-21, 2019. The third biennial RESAW (Research Infrastructure for the Study of Archived Web Materials) conference. Organized by the University of Amsterdam. *** Submissions Open *** Submissions are now open for The Web that Was (RESAW19) and you can upload your submission here: https://easychair.org/my/conference.cgi?conf=resaw19. Please read the conference-specific instructions linked at the top of the submission form. Help with the conference tool can be found here: https://easychair.org/help/how_to_submit. The deadline for submissions is October 19, 2018. *** Keynote speakers *** Megan Ankerson, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies, University of Michigan Wendy Chun, Canada 150 Research Chair, Simon Fraser University Florian Cramer, Professor of Applied Research, Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences Olia Lialina, Professor of New Media, Merz Akademie Fred Turner, Harry and Norman Chandler Professor and Chair of the Department of Communication, Stanford University *** Special event *** The conference will host a lecture-performance by Geert Lovink (Institute of Network Cultures, Hogeschool van Amsterdam) and guests on the history and preservation of Amsterdam’s early internet culture. *** Call for contributions *** As the first generation of web users goes grey, it’s clear that the internet they remember is no longer around. The early web is now simply another object of nostalgia. Tech anniversaries are a dime a dozen, while once cool digital aesthetics have made several ironic comebacks. All of this reinforces a sense that we’ve left behind a digital history that was as clunky and slow as it was idealistic and naïve. How can we rethink this relationship to the web’s past and the past web? This question is crucial today as the open web continues to lose ground to platforms and apps. How can this history be reconstructed and re-evaluated, and how are web archives and web histories impacted by technological change? What do traditional problems of preservation and historiography look like at scale? And what stories capture the diverse transformations and continuities that mark nearly 30 years of web history? There is of course no single web history, materially or conceptually speaking. There is instead a politics of archives, technologies and discourses that needs to be uncovered. How can we expand our view of web history beyond Silicon Valley and celebrated cases? And how can we reveal the technological, social and economic contexts that have shaped not just the present web, but how we access its past? What role do archives play in uncovering the histories of the web, platforms and apps, as well as their production and usage contexts? This conference aims to bring together scholars, archivists and artists interested in preserving, portraying and otherwise engaging with the web that was. In addition to paper submissions, we invite proposals for audiovisual installations, posters, software demos, or other media that connects to the conference themes. Submissions in the form of an abstract may relate to, but are not limited by, the following topics: * Web and internet histories * Historicizing the web and digital culture * Web 1.0, Web 2.0 and critiquing periodizations * Past futures and paths not taken * Platformization and the changing structure of the web * Social imaginaries of the early web * Archives and access * Research methods for studying the archived web * Methods for platform and app histories * Ethics of (studying) web archives * Technicity of web archives * Software histories * Archived audiences and histories of internet use * Identity, intersectionality and web history * Digital activism and web history * Histories of net criticism * Media industries and their online histories * Web histories elsewhere: forgotten and marginalized web cultures * Realtime, time travel and other web temporalities * Future histories and the archive of tomorrow *** Submissions *** Submissions are welcomed from all fields and disciplines, and we would particularly encourage postgraduate students and early career researchers to participate. * Individual papers of 20 minutes length (750-word abstract and a short author bio of 100-150 words). * Panel sessions consisting of three individual papers, introduced by a chair (750-word abstract for each paper, a brief description of 300 words of the purpose of the panel, and a short author bio of 100-150 words for each speaker). * Posters, demonstrations, and audio/video/interactive installations (short abstract of no more than 500 words, a list of A/V or other requirements, and a short author bio of 100-150 words) * Workshops (a 500-word rationale for the workshop, including discussion of why the topic lends itself to a workshop format, and a short author bio of 100-150 words for the workshop organiser(s)). Acceptance will be on the basis of double-blind peer review. *** Timetable *** May 2018 – dates out June 2018 – first call for papers July 2018 – second call for papers August 2018 – third call for papers September 2018 – final call for papers and submissions open 19 October 2018 – deadline submission of abstracts December 2018 – notification of acceptance 19–21 June 2019 – conference *** Organizing Committee *** Anne Helmond, University of Amsterdam, NL Michael Stevenson, University of Amsterdam, NL In collaboration with the RESAW Conference Committee: Niels Brügger, Aarhus University, DK (organiser 2015) Jane Winters, University of London, UK (organiser 2017) Valérie Schafer, University of Luxembourg, LU (coming organiser 2021) *** Program Committee *** Susan Aasman, University of Groningen, NL Gerard Alberts, University of Amsterdam, NL Megan Ankerson, University of Michigan, USA Anat Ben-David, The Open University of Israel, IL Josephine Bosma, independent art critic and theorist, NL Sally Chambers, Ghent University, BE Frédéric Clavert, C2DH Luxembourg Annet Dekker, University of Amsterdam, NL Matthew Fuller, Goldsmiths, UK Sophie Gebeil, Aix-Marseille University, FR Robert W. Gehl, University of Utah, USA Daniel Gomes, arquivo.pt, PT Stefania Milan, University of Amsterdam, NL Ian Milligan, University of Waterloo, CA Francesca Musiani, CNRS, FR Claude Mussou, Ina, FR Janne Nielsen, Aarhus University, DK Camille Paloque-Berges, CNAM, FR Thomas Poell, University of Amsterdam, NL Bernhard Rieder, University of Amsterdam, NL Marta Severo, University of Paris Nanterre, FR Kees Teszelszky, Koninklijke Bibliotheek/Royal Library, NL Fred Turner, Stanford University, USA Peter Webster, Webster Research & Consulting, UK Katrin Weller, GESIS Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, DE *** Sponsors *** The conference is financed in part by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) as part of the research program Innovational Research Incentives Scheme Veni in connection with the projects “The Web that Was” (275-45-006) and “App ecosystems: A critical history of apps” (275-45-009). *** Contact *** Website: https://www.thewebthatwas.net Email: organizers(a)thewebthatwas.net _______________________________________________ resaw.dac mailing list

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Call for Tutorials: ACM FAT* 2019 (Conference in Fairness, Accountability & Transparency)
by Michael Ekstrand 06 Sep '18

06 Sep '18

Could you deliver a session that would further practice and knowledge around societal implication and risks of algorithmic systems? The second ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (ACM FAT* 2019) is soliciting a wide variety of tutorials to be delivered on January 29, 2019 in Atlanta, Georgia. - *Hands-on Tutorials* (90 or 180 mins) should give ACM FAT*’s broad audience the chance to experiment with new software packages to deal with the issues of the conference. - *Translation Tutorials* (45 or 90 mins) aim to "translate" between disciplines; for instance, by explaining computer science concepts in a way that will be practically useful for lawyers, policy makers, and other practitioners, or by explaining legal, policy, or social science concepts in a way that will guide computer scientists in their future technical explorations. - *Implications Tutorials* (45 or 90 mins) should cover known legal, policy, medical, or socio-economic effects of unfair algorithmic systems, lack of interpretability of machine learning models, biases in the data, or other ACM FAT* related issues. We particularly encourage submissions by civil rights lawyers, policy advocates, civil society representatives, and others who work closely with individuals and communities affected by algorithmic systems. 3 page tutorial descriptions (+1 page for Hands-On Tutorials), are due September 13, 23:59 AoE Time, and those successful will be notified on October 15. More information, including more detailed information about formats and types of session, is available here: https://fatconference.org/2019/cftutorials.html Best wishes, Michael and Michael Publicity Co-Chairs, ACM FAT* 2019 -- Michael D. Ekstrand — michaelekstrand(a)boisestate.edu — https://md.ekstrandom.net Assistant Professor, Dept. of Computer Science, Boise State University People and Information Research Team (PIReT) — http://coen.boisestate.edu/piret/

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