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CFP: Imaginaries of Techno-Optimism (abstracts due March 1), special issue of Science as Culture
by Morgan G. Ames 31 Jan '18

31 Jan '18

All, We would love to see some submissions from these community to this special issue of Science as Culture on the "imaginaries of techno-optimism" - see details below. Apologies for cross-posting; please forward widely! Let me or Damien know if you have any questions. Warmly, Morgan Ames Center for Science, Technology, Medicine and Society University of California, Berkeley *Imaginaries of Techno-Optimism*: CfP for *Science as Culture* Guest Editors: Damien Droney, Morgan G. Ames, & Mark Gardiner Deadline for Abstracts: March 1st 2018 Techno-optimism — the expectation that science and technology will lead to economic, political, or social good — is a mainstay of business, government, and popular culture. Techno-optimistic attitudes range from the hope that technologies may have positive effects to the assumption that they necessarily will. For entrepreneurs or political leaders, promoting the promise of scientific and technological progress can lead to publicity and financial investment, draw the attention of development agencies, and attract enthusiastic employees and clients. While a charge of techno-utopianism is often taken as an insult, techno-optimism is embraced by some technology writers and activists. It is especially important to examine techno-optimism in the cynical contemporary moment, which is marked by an increased perception of the threat posed by technology (Richardson 2015). In recent years, the promises of new media have been tempered by fears of state-sponsored hacking and corporate data monopolies. While techno-pessimism is on the rise, an underlying expectation of technological progress continues to structure technological design and policy. In this proposed special issue, we explore the nature of the hope that science and technology will make the world a better place and consider its effects. Drawing on Jasanoff and Kim’s (2015) conceptual framework of sociotechnical imaginaries, the contributors to this special issue ask: H*ow is techno-optimism produced? and what are its consequences*? The concept of sociotechnical imaginaries provides an orienting framework for understanding the origins and consequences of these positive and future-focused dispositions toward technology. Jasanoff defines sociotechnical imaginaries as “collectively held, institutionally stabilized, and publicly performed visions of desirable futures, animated by shared understandings of forms of social life and social order attainable through, and supportive of, advances in science and technology” (2015:4). Sociotechnical imaginaries explicitly connect the production of imaginaries (see Anderson 1983, Taylor 2003, Appadurai 1996) to the production of sociotechnical systems (see Bijker, Hughes, and Pinch 1987). In this way, it foregrounds science and technology as co-produced with moral and political landscapes of social life (Jasanoff 2004), highlighting social, ethical, and political attachments that motivate technoscientific project. We focus in particular on optimistic sociotechnical imaginaries as these visions often motivate and direct the design and governance of technologies. By centering the performances of imaginaries within distributed sociotechnical systems, the framework of sociotechnical imaginaries draws attention to both the means and effects of articulating optimistic attitudes toward the sociotechnical future. Where does techno-optimism come from? We welcome contributions that consider the origins of particular optimistic imaginaries and the ways that those imaginaries are maintained. Submissions could focus on the power-laden sources of techno-optimism, including unequal capacities to shape or sustain sociotechnical imaginaries. What are the consequences of optimistic sociotechnical imaginaries? We seek contributions that examine the intended and unintended effects of techno-optimism. Papers may consider which groups are served by techno-optimistic imaginaries, or which problems are highlighted within optimistic discourses of the technological future. We especially welcome contributions that expand the geographic and thematic diversity of the special issue, including case studies from Europe or Asia on topics including medicine, finance, and computing. In addition, we are interested in contributions that employ critical social analysis that is not foregrounded in existing applications of the sociotechnical imaginaries framework. Submissions may, for example, employ the concept of ideology to analyze techno-optimism (see Masco 2004; Turner 2006; Barbrook and Cameron 1996), or consider examples of techno-optimism that are “cruel” (Berlant 2011) by working against the features that make technologies attractive in the first place. Please submit abstracts to Damien Droney (ddroney(a)uchicago.edu) by March 1st. Abstracts should follow the *Science as Culture* guidelines (200-250 words, see http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/authors/csac_edit_guidelines.pdf) but longer drafts or synopses are also welcome. If accepted, full 7000-word drafts would be due June 1st. *References* Anderson, B. (1991). *Imagined Communities* (2nd ed.). London: Verso. Appadurai, A. (1996). Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Barbrook, R. & Cameron, A. (1996). The Californian Ideology, *Science as Culture*, 6(1): 44-72. Berlant, L. G. (2011). *Cruel Optimism*. Durham: Duke University Press. Bijker, W., Hughes, T., & Pinch, T. (eds.) (1987). *The Social Construction of Technological Systems: New Directions in the Sociology and History of Technology*. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Jasanoff, S. (2004). *States of Knowledge: The Co-Production of Science and Social Order*. London: Routledge. Jasanoff, S., & Kim, S.-H. (Eds.) (2015). *Dreamscapes of Modernity: Sociotechnical Imaginaries and the Fabrication of Power*. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Mosco, V. (2004). *The Digital Sublime: Myth, Power, and Cyberspace*. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Richardson, K. (2015). *An Anthropology of Robots and AI: Annihilation Anxiety and Machines*. New York: Routledge. Taylor, C (2003). Modern Social Imaginaries. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Turner, F. (2006). *From Counterculture to Cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network, and the Rise of Digital Utopianism*. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Morgan G. Ames http://morganya.org

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Annals of the History of Computing -- Call for EIC
by Dag Spicer 31 Jan '18

31 Jan '18

Dear SIGCIS Friends, The IEEE Computer Society is seeking applicants for the position of editor in chief of the IEEE Annals of the History of Computing magazine, serving a three-year term. The current EIC Nathan Ensmenger, has done a wonderful job in his two terms (thanks Nathan!!) but with term limits in effect it’s now time to choose a new EIC. Prospective candidates are asked to provide (as PDF files), by 1 March 2018, a complete curriculum vitae, a brief plan for the publication's future, and a letter of support from their institution or employer. Brief letters or expressions of support from peers, community leaders, and organizations in the magazine's coverage area would be a definite asset. For more information on this new magazine and its scope, please visit www.computer.org/annals<http://www.computer.org/annals>. For more information and to submit application materials, please contact Bonnie Wylie at b.wylie(a)computer.org<mailto:b.wylie@computer.org>. Candidates for any IEEE editor in chief position should possess a good understanding of industry, academic, and government aspects of the specific publication's field. Candidates must demonstrate community leadership in the publication's coverage area as well as the managerial skills necessary to process manuscripts through the editorial cycle in a timely fashion. The candidate must be able to meet hard publication deadlines and dedicate the necessary time to meet the operational and strategic demands of the publication. An editor in chief must be able to attract respected experts to his or her editorial and advisory boards and be able to promote the publication to both new audiences and within established communities. Major responsibilities include: * actively soliciting high-quality manuscripts from potential authors and, with support from publication staff, helping these authors get their manuscripts published; * identifying and appointing editorial board members, with the concurrence of the Steering Committee; * selecting competent manuscript reviewers, with the help of editorial board members, and managing timely reviews of manuscripts; * directing editorial board members to seek special-issue proposals and manuscripts in specific areas; * providing a clear, broad focus through promotion of personal vision and guidance where appropriate; and * resolving conflicts or problems as necessary. IEEE Annals of the History of Computing covers the breadth of computer history through scholarly articles by leading computer scientists and historians, as well as firsthand accounts by computing pioneers. Annals is the authoritative archival journal for the history of computing. Applicants should be able to show involvement in the computer history community, and must have clear employer support. About IEEE Computer Society IEEE Computer Society<http://www.computer.org/> is the world’s leading membership organization for professionals in all aspects of modern computing – from cloud to big data, security to mobile, robotics to software defined systems, wearables to IoT. A true community for technology leaders, Computer Society provides resources to keep its members current in technology and moving forward in their professions – publications<http://www.computer.org/web/publications>, a renowned digital library<http://www.computer.org/web/csdl/>, a vast program of conferences<http://www.computer.org/web/conferences/>, technical committees<http://www.computer.org/web/tandc>, and much more. The Computer Society also serves the profession at large through establishment of standards, professional qualifications and certifications<http://www.computer.org/web/education/>, training and education programs<http://www.computer.org/web/corporate-programs/t2p2/>, events on leading-edge technologies<http://www.computer.org/web/rock-stars/>, conference publishing<http://www.computer.org/web/cs-cps/>, and a wealth of other services and programs focused on advancing the science and art of computing. More information on IEEE Computer Society can be found at www.computer.org<http://www.computer.org/>. — Dag Spicer Senior Curator Computer History Museum 1401 N Shoreline Blvd Mountain View, CA 94043

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Re: [SIGCIS-Members] history of history of computing courses
by Brian L. Stuart 30 Jan '18

30 Jan '18

I can speak to the Rhodes College course since that one was mine. We only ran it once, but I thought it was a lot of fun. I can probably find my old syllabus if it would help, but there wasn't a huge amount of detail in it. Like the Purdue course I mentioned in another message, I used Williams book as my primary text. More recently, I've run a similar course here at Drexel University. I'm hoping to eventually make that one a regular offering. In both cases, the the primary focus was on the hardware, architecture, and similar technical factors. Software got about 10-20% of the time, and a similar amount of time was devoted to the development of theory. The cultural/ societal aspects only really appeared in the context of my lectures as background to the technical developments. For the more recent version, the assignments that I found the most fun to assign were writing a little bit of PDP-8 machine code (and I let them run it on an 8/M I've restored), "writing" a simple task on the ENIAC which they ran on my simulator, and writing a simulator for some early machine, with the Manchester Baby probably being the most popular choice. BLS -------------------------------------------- On Mon, 1/29/18, Janet Abbate <abbate(a)vt.edu> wrote: Also, he has a website last updated in 1998 (http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/courses.html) that lists these courses at various universities: - University of Warwick CS330: History of Computing - University of Calgary, CPSC 509 - American University, CSIS 64.550 History of Computing - Stanford University STS 161 -- History of Computers. - Virginia Tech, CS 3604 Professionalism in Computing (contains a section on history). [J.A.N.’s own course] - Rhodes College, CS 465: Topics in Computer Science Computer History

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history of history of computing courses
by Chris Leslie 29 Jan '18

29 Jan '18

Dear Colleagues, I am working on an article and I would like to learn about history of computing classes, particularly at the undergraduate level. Does anyone have details on when and where these kinds of courses were first offered? Are there any that are particularly well-known for whatever reason? If you have a syllabus from a particular course, especially before 2005, I would greatly appreciate a copy. On- or off-list replies are welcome. Chris Leslie Fulbright Lecturer. South China University of Technology Chair, IFIP Working Group 9.7: History of Computing (http://ifipwg97.org)

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Re: [SIGCIS-Members] history of history of computing courses
by Brian L. Stuart 29 Jan '18

29 Jan '18

The earliest course I was involved with was done by Saul Rosen at Purdue somewhere around 1990. He taught it as an undergrad topics course, but allowed me to audit even though I was a grad student. If I do some digging I might be able to find some of the notes, but I don't think I have a syllabus per se. He used Michael Williams book as the primary text for the course, but most of the lectures were driven more by his own perspective. BLS -------------------------------------------- On Sun, 1/28/18, Chris Leslie <chrisleslienyc(a)hotmail.com> wrote: Dear Colleagues, I am working on an article and I would like to learn about history of computing classes, particularly at the undergraduate level. Does anyone have details on when and where these kinds of courses were first offered? Are there any that are particularly well-known for whatever reason? If you have a syllabus from a particular course, especially before 2005, I would greatly appreciate a copy.

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Re: [SIGCIS-Members] history of history of computing courses
by David Walden 29 Jan '18

29 Jan '18

Peter Denning has been involved in studies of CS curricula, at great length. There are ACM reports. On January 29, 2018, at 10:37 AM, Janet Abbate <abbate(a)vt.edu> wrote: J.A.N. Lee was teaching history of computing fairly early at Virginia Tech. He included history as part of a “professionalism” course for CS undergraduates that also had a heavy dose of ethics. See website: http://courses.cs.vt.edu/~cs3604/CWRU.html Also, he has a website last updated in 1998 (http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/courses.html) that lists these courses at various universities: University of Warwick CS330: History of Computing University of Calgary, CPSC 509 American University, CSIS 64.550 History of Computing Stanford University STS 161 -- History of Computers. Virginia Tech, CS 3604 Professionalism in Computing (contains a section on history). [J.A.N.’s own course]Rhodes College, CS 465: Topics in Computer Science Computer History I doubt the links are still working, but you could probably track down some of the instructors. best, Janet Dr. Janet Abbate Associate Professor, Science, Technology and Society Virginia Tech Co-director, VT National Capital Region STS program www.sts.vt.edu/ncr www.linkedin.com/groups/STS-Virginia-Tech-4565055 www.facebook.com/VirginiaTechSTS On Jan 28, 2018, at 10:11 PM, Chris Leslie <chrisleslienyc(a)hotmail.com> wrote: Dear Colleagues, I am working on an article and I would like to learn about history of computing classes, particularly at the undergraduate level. Does anyone have details on when and where these kinds of courses were first offered? Are there any that are particularly well-known for whatever reason? If you have a syllabus from a particular course, especially before 2005, I would greatly appreciate a copy. On- or off-list replies are welcome. Chris Leslie Fulbright Lecturer. South China University of Technology Chair, IFIP Working Group 9.7: History of Computing (http://ifipwg97.org) _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org

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Re: [SIGCIS-Members] history of history of computing courses
by David Walden 29 Jan '18

29 Jan '18

Sorry: Gordon Welchman, not Welch. On January 28, 2018, at 10:11 PM, Chris Leslie <chrisleslienyc(a)hotmail.com> wrote: Dear Colleagues, I am working on an article and I would like to learn about history of computing classes, particularly at the undergraduate level. Does anyone have details on when and where these kinds of courses were first offered? Are there any that are particularly well-known for whatever reason? If you have a syllabus from a particular course, especially before 2005, I would greatly appreciate a copy. On- or off-list replies are welcome. Chris Leslie Fulbright Lecturer. South China University of Technology Chair, IFIP Working Group 9.7: History of Computing (http://ifipwg97.org)

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Re: [SIGCIS-Members] history of history of computing courses
by David Walden 29 Jan '18

29 Jan '18

There was an article in the Annals by Bill Aspray about (early?) courses at MIT, if I remember correctly. The MIT archive has the class-by-class course notes for the first course on digital computing at MIT, taught by Gordon Welsh. On January 28, 2018, at 10:11 PM, Chris Leslie <chrisleslienyc(a)hotmail.com> wrote: Dear Colleagues, I am working on an article and I would like to learn about history of computing classes, particularly at the undergraduate level. Does anyone have details on when and where these kinds of courses were first offered? Are there any that are particularly well-known for whatever reason? If you have a syllabus from a particular course, especially before 2005, I would greatly appreciate a copy. On- or off-list replies are welcome. Chris Leslie Fulbright Lecturer. South China University of Technology Chair, IFIP Working Group 9.7: History of Computing (http://ifipwg97.org)

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Mary Lee Berners-Lee, 1924-2017
by James Sumner 23 Jan '18

23 Jan '18

Dear all The first obituaries have begun to appear for Mary Lee Berners-Lee, formerly Mary Lee Woods, one of the earliest Ferranti programmers, who died on 29 November of last year: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jan/23/mary-lee-berners-lee-obi… https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/mary-berners-lee-d9wzqvhm7 (paywalled) She is the subject of (to my knowledge) two valuable oral history interviews, Janet Abbate's of 2001, and Tom Lean's of 2010 alongside her husband Conway Berners-Lee: http://ethw.org/Oral-History:Mary_Lee_Berners-Lee http://cadensa.bl.uk/uhtbin/cgisirsi/x/0/0/5?searchdata1=CKEY7336183&librar… Best James

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From the Hagley Digital Archives: _Sperry Univac’s An Introduction to Digital Computers_ (1969)
by Erik Rau 23 Jan '18

23 Jan '18

My apologies for cross-posting (and, potentially, earlier posts). We’ve recently digitized a ca. 25-minute film from Sperry Rand Corporation’s Univac Division, _An Introduction to Digital Computers_ (1969). You can read about it and view it on our Collections and Research News blog at: https://www.hagley.org/librarynews/introduction-digital-computers Enjoy! We have the Sperry Rand Univac Division archives<http://findingaids.hagley.org/xtf/view?docId=ead/1825.xml> , additional archives of Sperry-Univac administrative and legal records<http://findingaids.hagley.org/xtf/view?docId=ead/1825_II.xml>; and an enormous AV archive<http://findingaids.hagley.org/xtf/view?docId=ead/1985_261.xml>, a portion of which can be found in our digital archives<http://digital.hagley.org/islandora/object/islandora:2159974>. -- 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<mailto:erau@hagley.org> www.hagley.org<http://www.hagley.org>

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