- Members - lists.sigcis.org

SIGCIS listserv re-opens
by Irish, Sharon Lee 07 Sep '17

07 Sep '17

Dear listserv members, We are now re-opening the SIGCIS mailing list. The SIGCIS officers put in considerable time and substantial thought over the last few months to plan for the future of our community. We would like to acknowledge this care and labor—thank you! As Andy Russell, SIGCIS chair, noted on 25 August 2017, the officers wrote a Statement of Community Values http://www.sigcis.org/node/404 which is on the About page of the sigcis.org site. The officers updated the Acceptable Use Policy (AUP), which is also on the sigcis.org site http://www.sigcis.org/node/14 We, the volunteer moderators, will use this AUP as our guide to manage the listserv; any response to messages will be post-facto. If you, dear members, want to call our attention to a post, you may do so by emailing us at members-owner(a)lists.sigcis.org<mailto:members-owner@lists.sigcis.org>. On a semi-regular basis we will send the AUP to the list membership as a reminder of policies; we will also revisit these policies, as needed. A description of the Moderator Responsibilities and Guidelines, as well as contact information for each of us, is posted at http://www.sigcis.org/node/19 We would welcome more moderators, and invite you to send a note of interest or questions to any of us. We sincerely hope that this mailing list can function well again, for all of us. Sharon Irish Bill McMillan Janet Toland Barbara Walker The current moderators

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Announcing SIGCIS 2017 Conference Schedule | Mix, Model, Measure: Computer as Instrument
by Laine Nooney 06 Sep '17

06 Sep '17

Dear SIGCIS Community, The SIGCIS Conference Organizing Committee is pleased to *announce the schedule for our 2017 SIGCIS Conference, Mix, Model, Measure: Computer as Instrument*. Our keynote for the event is Joanna Radin, from the Department of History at Yale University. http://meetings.sigcis.org/conference-schedule.html *The SIGCIS Conference will take place October 29th at the Sheraton Society Hill Hotel in Philadelphia, PA*, after the conclusion of SHOT. *Attendees may register here <https://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/eventReg?oeidk=a07eebgb5gp6…>* as part of the overall SHOT Annual Meeting, or as a stand-alone event. *Please Note: *For SHOT attendees, SIGCIS can be registered for as an add-on at the cost of $35; this option is located at the bottom of the registration site. Non-SHOT attendees may register for the event independently under the "Fee" header on the registration page, at the cost of $60 until Sept 16, and $80 after. For those of you familiar with prior SIGCIS event, *please note that our format for the Works-in-Progress sessions have changed*. Works-in-Progress is now a closed-door session for SIGCIS participants receiving intensive feedback on pre-circulated written work from conference organizers and SIGCIS volunteers. If you would like to volunteer to provide constructive criticism for Works-in-Progress, please contact Joy Rankin [profjoy(a)msu.edu] and Con Diaz [condiaz(a)ucdavis.edu] We look forward to seeing many of you there! Please get in touch if you have any questions. All the best, The 2017 SIGCIS Conference Organizing Committee Laine Nooney, New York University (Vice-Chair of Meetings) Andrew Russell, SUNY Polytechnic Institute (SIGCIS Chair) Stephanie Dick, University of Pennsylvania Gerardo Con Diaz, University of California, Davis Joy Rankin, Michigan State University Kera Allen, Georgia Institute of Technology (Conference Assistant) Nabeel Siddiqui, College of William and Mary (Conference Assistant) -- Laine Nooney <http://www.lainenooney.com/> MCC <http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/mcc/> @ NYU <http://www.nyu.edu/> Assistant Professor

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Updates and changes to SIGCIS website and mailing list
by Andrew Russell 25 Aug '17

25 Aug '17

Dear colleagues - As you know, the SIGCIS email list has been in an “emergency moderation” mode since late May. Since then the SIGCIS Officers have reflected on the problems that occurred on and beyond the list, and we have been working on ways to address these problems and make positive changes for our community. I’m writing today with an update about what we have done, and what our next steps are. 1. Statement of Community Values The Officers decided that a good first step would be to articulate the foundational values that we, as a community, aspire to embody and uphold. This statement is posted at http://www.sigcis.org/node/404 <http://www.sigcis.org/node/404> (the page name was system-generated, in case you’re wondering), and I’m pasting it here as well. It can be found under the “About SIGCIS” heading on the left-sided menu at sigcis.org <http://sigcis.org/>. We study the past: SIGCIS is a community dedicated to studying the past of information technology. We tackle this common task using many disciplinary perspectives and analytical methods. We embrace SHOT’s call for openness and pluralism: SIGCIS welcomes SHOT’s description of SIGs as groups aimed at “bringing together scholars and professionals with interests in specific fields of the history of technology.” We aim to bring people and institutions together: SIGCIS values our community’s ability to bring together people from a broad range of institutions—which include universities, museums, libraries, clubs, corporations, and professional associations. We are strengthened by our community’s diversity: SIGCIS recognizes that our members’ social diversity and breadth of disciplinary approaches constitute our core strengths as a scholarly community. We are committed to supporting our community’s diversity: SIGCIS does not tolerate oppressive behavior. This includes, but is not limited to, objectification, online or off-line harassment, and stereotyping or discriminating based on gender, race, class, national origin, religion, or professional affiliation and background. 2. Revised Acceptable Use Policy for members(a)SIGCIS.org <mailto:members@SIGCIS.org> The Officers also agreed that we should update our old Acceptable Use Policy, and we worked hard to find a consensus about what it should say. The revised AUP can be found at http://www.sigcis.org/node/14 <http://www.sigcis.org/node/14>, available from the “Email List” heading on the left-sided menu. I won’t paste it here, since it’s somewhat lengthy, but it will be posted to the list regularly (at least twice per year). It consists of four sections: History and Function; Community Standards and Expectations; Acceptable Topics; and Restricted Topics. 3. Moderation of members(a)SIGCIS.org The Officers discussed many options for the future of our main email list, members(a)SIGCIS.org. I can’t say we achieved unanimity, but I think we feel comfortable with our solution. We have decided to keep the list open, with one significant change: a group of volunteer moderators who will keep a close eye on the list and promptly address any questions or violation of list policies that come up. The moderators will work with SIGCIS Officers to take action on posts that they determine to be marginally inappropriate, inappropriate, or clearly offensive. We have already taken action regarding some specific past postings. Our overarching goal in moving to a model of list moderation is simple: to devote more care to guiding discussion in respectful and productive ways, and to avoid problems we have encountered in the past when discussions have veered off the rails. A description of the Moderator Responsibilities and Guidelines, as well as contact information for our (heroic!) moderators, is posted at http://www.sigcis.org/node/19 <http://www.sigcis.org/node/19>. With these steps in place, we plan to open up the list to regular postings in the coming weeks. If you have comments or questions in the meantime, please feel free to reach out to me or any of the Officers or Moderators. Thank you for your patience as we have worked through this challenging time for our community. We are trying our best to strengthen our community, to demonstrate our unwavering support for our community’s diversity and collegiality, and to restore the mailing list so that it can function again as a productive space for all of us who are passionate about computer and information history. Sincerely, Andy Russell SIGCIS Chair

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New issue of the journal Internet Histories
by Niels Brügger 17 Aug '17

17 Aug '17

New issue of the journal Internet Histories is now out! In issue 1(3) you'll find the following articles: What is “internet”? The case for the proper noun and why it is important Morten Bay When search engines stopped being human: menu interfaces and the rise of the ideological nature of algorithmic search Niels Kerssens--OPEN ACCESS Towards a nonlinear, material history of digital swarms Alberto Micali Infonie: a forced conversion to the Internet (1995–2000) Stéphanie Le Gallic Conversations with a pioneer: Paul Baran in his own words Morten Bay You can find more information about all the articles here http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rint20/1/3?nav=tocList Please also consider submitting an article to the journal, more information about submission can be found here http://www.tandfonline.com/action/authorSubmission?journalCode=rint20&page=…. We are already now planning issue 2(1) and we would very much like to have more submissions for this issue within the next 1-2 months. -Niels Brügger —————————————————————————————— NEW JOURNAL: Internet Histories—Digital Technology, Culture and Society, inaugural issue (1(3)) OUT NOW, http://tandfonline.com/loi/rint20<http://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Ftandfonline.com%2Floi%2Frint20&h…> LATEST PUBLICATIONS AND PAPERS The Web as History: Using Web Archives to Understand the Past and the Present (eds. N. Brügger, R. Schroeder). London: UCL Press, 2017 Download FREE copy: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ucl-press/browse-books/the-web-as-history Probing a nation’s web domain: A new approach to web history and a new kind of historical source. In G. Goggin, M. McLelland (Eds.), The Routledge Companion to Global Internet Histories (pp. 61-73). New York/Abingdon: Routledge 2017. Webraries and Web Archives: The Web between public and private. In D. Baker, W. Ewans (Eds.), The End of Wisdom?: The Future of Libraries in a Digital Age (pp. 185–190). Oxford: Chandos Publishing, 2017. Pre-pub versions: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312006853_Webraries_and_Web_Archiv… https://www.academia.edu/30729119/Webraries_and_Web_Archives_The_Web_betwee… Digital Humanities. In K.B. Jensen, R.T. Craig, J. Pooley, E. Rothenbuhler (Eds.), The International Encyclopedia of Communication Theory and Philosophy (vol. 1, pp. 548-556). Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell/The International Communication Association (ICA), 2016 Digital Humanities in the 21st Century: Digital Material as a Driving Force, Digital Humanities Quarterly, 10(3), 2016 Read article: http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/10/3/000256/000256.html The Web’s first 25 years (guest editor and Introduction), New Media & Society, 18(7), 2016 Read more: http://nms.sagepub.com/content/18/7 A brief history of Facebook as a media text: The development of an empty structure, First Monday, 20(5), 2015 Read article: http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/5423 NIELS BRÜGGER, Professor (MSO, with special responsibilities), PhD Head of the Centre for Internet Studies, and of NetLab School of Communication and Culture Aarhus University Helsingforsgade 14, building 5347, room 236 8200 Aarhus N Denmark Phone (switchboard) +45 8715 0000 Phone (direct) +45 8716 1971 Phone (mobile) +45 2945 3231 E-mail nb(a)cc.au.dk<mailto:nb@dac.au.dk> Webpage http://imv.au.dk/~nb Profile at LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/1/50a/555 Skype name: niels_bruegger Orcid.org/0000-0003-1787-1980<http://Orcid.org/0000-0003-1787-1980> The Centre for Internet Studies, http://cfi.au.dk NetLab, http://netlab.dk RESAW, a Research Infrastructure for the Study of Archived Web Material, http://resaw.eu

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Minitel: Welcome to the Internet
by Kevin Driscoll 15 Aug '17

15 Aug '17

Dear colleagues, We are happy to announce the publication of our new book, Minitel: Welcome to the Internet. Minitel: Welcome to the Internet Julien Mailland & Kevin Driscoll The MIT Press, June 2017 https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/minitel In the 1980s, the French Minitel network was the first online system to reach mass-market penetration at the level of a country. With its unusual balance of public and private control, Minitel offers an alternative model for thinking about platforms, policy, and public culture. For a taste of our argument and approach, check out this recent article in the IEEE Spectrum, "The Online World France Built Before the Web": http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/networks/minitel-the-online-world-france… And for a deeper dive, visit the Minitel Research Lab, an independent digital archive featuring hundreds of Minitel artifacts, from terminal hardware to synthpop records: http://minitel.us/ Sincerely, Kevin Driscoll and Julien Mailland

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CfP: Workshop on the History of Expressive Systems at ICIDS 2017
by Mark J. Nelson 07 Aug '17

07 Aug '17

Call for Papers: First Workshop on the History of Expressive Systems === Website: http://www.expressive-systems.org/hex/01/ Held November 14, 2017, in conjunction with the International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling (ICIDS) in Funchal, Madeira, Portugal. We invite researchers interested in the history of expressive systems to participate in the first Workshop on the History of Expressive Systems (HEX1), to be held at ICIDS 2017 in beautiful Funchal, Madeira, on November 14, 2017. The purpose of this workshop is to improve the historical understanding of our field, both to ensure an accurate historical record for its own sake, but also to bring the history 'into the present' by understanding lines of research and their implications for current work in this rapidly expanding area. By 'expressive systems', we broadly mean computer systems (or predigital procedural methods) that were developed with expressive or creative aims; this is meant to be a superset of the areas called creative AI, expressive AI, videogame AI, computational creativity, interactive storytelling, computational narrative, procedural music, computer poetry, generative art, and more. Important Dates === * September 15, 2017: All submissions due. * September 29, 2017: Submission notifications sent. * November 1, 2017: Camera-ready copies due. * November 14, 2017: Workshop held. Submission Types === HEX1 will be accepting submissions of the following kinds: * Abstracts: Papers up to two pages in length, with unlimited additional space for references and appendices (e.g., supporting visual materials). Accepted abstracts will be invited for oral presentation at the workshop. * Papers: Papers of any length. Accepted papers will be invited for oral presentation at the workshop. Additionally, accepted papers will be invited for publication in the workshop proceedings, which will be made freely available online. Scope === For this first iteration of the workshop held at ICIDS, we prefer a focus on systems within the usual scope of ICIDS, i.e. historical computational narrative systems, videogame narrative, story generation, expressive natural language generation, text bots, e-literature, story understanding, computational narratology, etc. Additionally, histories of the field itself (or specific eras, approaches, etc.) would be a great fit for HEX. Here are some examples of potential contributions: * Portraits of forgotten or relatively unknown expressive systems. * Histories of specific research labs, such as the Yale AI Project led by Roger Schank in the 1970s. * Overviews of the careers of unheralded researchers or practitioners. * Reimplementations of early expressive systems, such as Montfort's reimplementation of Strachey's 1952 love-letter generator. * Rational reconstructions and rethinkings of historical expressive systems, such as Skald or Wide Ruled. * Reappraisals of conventionally disregarded systems, such as Wardrip-Fruin's extensive overview of Tale-Spin's underlying processes. * Reframings of known historical systems as expressive systems, or specifically as narrative systems — for example, mainframe war simulations of the 1950s. * Discussion of obscure computer games as early examples of interactive storytelling, such as Don Daglow's 1973 Star Trek game that extensively featured character dialogue. * Bringing history into the present: borrowing old techniques for new settings and architectures. * Bringing the present into history: applying new techniques to old settings and architectures. * Many more. Not sure if your project is a good fit? Reach out and ask us! -- Mark J. Nelson The MetaMakers Institute Falmouth University http://www.kmjn.org

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CFP: All Things in Moderation: The People, Practices and Politics of Online Content Review – Human and Machine Dec 6-7 2017, UCLA
by Sarah T. Roberts 31 Jul '17

31 Jul '17

Greetings, SIGCIS - It’s my great pleasure to announce the following event and related CFP. On December 6-7 2017, UCLA’s Department of Information Studies, part of the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, welcomes participants to a two-day conference on commercial content moderation (CCM) of user-generated social media material. At All Things in Moderation: The People, Practices and Politics of Online Content Review – Human and Machine we will offer a new forum bringing together those interested in the multiple challenges related to CCM, and to content moderation of all kinds. The goal of this foundational event is to map the current landscape from a number of perspectives. During these two days, scholars, students, journalists, policy makers and CCM workers will share their insights in order to generate a discussion about the challenges, methodologies and frameworks that are necessary to integrate a comprehensive, academic study of commercial content moderation, other kinds of online moderation, and its outcomes and implications into existing paradigms in labor studies, information studies, computing and internet history, public policy, internet governance and media studies, to name but a few. Beyond analyzing the contemporary case of CCM across the social media and other digital industries, we anticipate that All Things in Moderation will require a look to the past and to other media sectors, as well as a gaze into the future, to anticipate the problems related to CCM and to our social media-reliant world, and to collectively think about solutions. We anticipate a fruitful gathering. *** Of special note to SIGCIS members, we have opened a history of moderation track and invite you to submit with this in mind. Please join us on the beautiful UCLA campus this December. The conference is _free_ for participants, but space is limited. Please register early (https://atm-ucla2017.net/registration/) and visit the call for participation (https://atm-ucla2017.net/about/) to submit your proposals for papers, sessions and other interventions. We look forward to hosting you at UCLA! Sarah T. Roberts, Ph.D., Conference Convener Patricia Ciccone, Conference Coordinator --- S a r a h T. R o b e r t s, P h. D. Assistant Professor University of California, Los Angeles Department of Information Studies Graduate School of Education & Information Studies https://is.gseis.ucla.edu/ Blogging periodically at http://illusionofvolition.com

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Announcement: Small Grants from SHOT
by Andrew Russell 07 Jul '17

07 Jul '17

Dear colleagues - Please see below for an announcement of a new initiative from SHOT. You can direct any questions to Honghong Tinn. All the best, Andy > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: Honghong Tinn <hhtinn(a)gmail.com <mailto:hhtinn@gmail.com>> > Date: Fri, Jul 7, 2017 at 3:40 PM > Subject: Announcement: Small Grants from SHOT > > > > Dear SIG chairs, > > I am writing to share with you SHOT's new initiatives-- Small Grants, and would like to ask for your kind help in circulating the news with your SIG members. SHOT is pleased to announce its Small Grants, which aims to support events (such as workshops) relevant to SHOT’s mission, including advancing the historical study of technology and its relations with politics, economics, labor, business, the environment, public policy, science, and the arts. SHOT will consider unfunded endorsements as well as proposals for funded endorsements no greater than $3000. As the budget of the Small Grants is limited, the Small Grants Committee will consider applications for and make recommendations to the President. Deadlines for submitting proposals for funded endorsements are March 15 and September 15 of each year, and should be sent by email directly to each member of the Small Grants Committee. The 2017 Small Grants Committee members include Mara Mills (mmills [at] nyu.edu <http://nyu.edu/>), Jenny L. Smith (jenny.smith [at] ust.hk <http://ust.hk/>), and Honghong Tinn (chair) (tinnho [at] earlham.edu <http://earlham.edu/>). Applications for non-funded SHOT endorsements will be considered all year round, independent of the specific deadlines. > > For more information, please kindly see the following links: > http://www.historyoftechnology.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Small-Grants-… <http://www.historyoftechnology.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Small-Grants-…> > Or > https://www.historyoftechnology.org/shot-small-grants-announcement/ <https://www.historyoftechnology.org/shot-small-grants-announcement/> > > Please feel free to let me know if you have any questions. Thank you! > > Sincerely, > Honghong > >

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IEEE Spectrum's Chip Hall of Fame
by Stephen Cass 06 Jul '17

06 Jul '17

Members of this list may appreciate the launch of IEEE Spectrum's Chip Hall of Fame, which grew out of an article originally published in 2009 about the "25 Microchips That Shook The World." (I helped put it together in my role as a senior editor at Spectrum). The goal is for the Chip Hall of Fame to induct a new class of three to four integrated circuits each year, and we are always open to suggestions! Most of the initial inductees are drawn from the earlier article, but with updated information where needed, and there are several new chips, including, for example, the TMS9900. The TMS9900 is best known for being the heart of the TI/99-4 and TI/99-4A home computers, which briefly enjoyed high sales volumes. We have an accompanying feature article by one of the TI managers of that chip, detailing how the TMS9900 was conceived with great vision, but was hobbled during implementation. The Chip Hall of Fame may be found here: http://spectrum.ieee.org/static/chip-hall-of-fame Best, Stephen

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Fwd: Call for Papers: Stanford Conference on Non-Latin Type Design and Human-Computer Interaction
by M. Hicks 30 Jun '17

30 Jun '17

Please see below for a fascinating CFP from Tom Mullaney at Stanford ______________________ Marie Hicks, Ph.D. Asst. Professor, History of Technology Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago, IL USA mhicks1(a)iit.edu | mariehicks.net | @histoftech Programmed Inequality: How Britain Discarded Women Technologists and Lost Its Edge in Computing (MIT Press, 2017) www.programmedinequality.com Begin forwarded message: From: "Thomas S. Mullaney" <tsm1978(a)stanford.edu> Date: June 30, 2017 at 1:53:21 PM EDT To: Tom Mullaney <tsmullaney(a)stanford.edu> Subject: Call for Papers: Stanford Conference on Non-Latin Type Design and Human-Computer Interaction FACE/INTERFACE Type Design and Human-Computer Interaction Beyond the Western World December 1-2, 2017 Stanford University In connection with the Fall 2017 Stanford University Libraries exhibition, “Facing the World: Non-Latin Type Design, 1450 to Now,” we will be holding an international conference bringing together scholars, designers, engineers, and technologists to explore Non-Latin type design, book design, interface design, and human-computer interaction beyond the Latin alphabetic world. We are now seeking paper proposals. PLEASE CIRCULATE TO ANY/ALL POTENTIALLY INTERESTED PARTIES. DATES & LOCATION Face/Interface will take place December 1-2, 2017 on the campus of Stanford University. ELIGIBILITY Scholars, Designers, Artists, Engineers, and Technologists working in all disciplines and time periods are welcome to apply. We are particularly eager to identify early-career candidates. All ranks are eligible and encouraged to apply, however. CONFIRMED SPEAKERS Confirmed Speakers for the Face/Interface conference include: * Fiona Ross (Associate Professor, University of Reading | Non-Latin Typeface Design Director | Foundational figure in South Asian script typeface design) * Gerry Leonidas (Associate Professor, University of Reading | Typeface Design Programme Director | World-leading Greek typeface designer) * Lara Captan (leading contemporary Arabic type designer & researcher + co-founder of Arabic Type Design-Beirut program) * Liron Lavi Turkenich (leading contemporary Hebrew type designer & researcher + regional director of ATypI) * Ken Lunde (Senior Computer Scientist, Type Development in Chinese/Japanese/Korean/Vietnamese scripts at Adobe) * Ramsey Nasser (NY-based Arabic-language computer science theorist/artist) * Scott Klemmer (HCI specialist & Associate Professor of Cognitive Science and Computer Science & Engineering at UC San Diego + Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Design Lab, UC Irvine) APPLICATION & DEADLINE The deadline for applications is AUGUST 4, 2017. Materials should be submitted via email/attachments to Tom Mullaney (tsmullaney(a)stanford.edu) with the subject header “FACE/INTERFACE APPLICATION.” (This subject header is REQUIRED.) Applications should include: I. Cover letter summarizing applicant’s field of study, research, and/or design practice in connection with the themes of the conference II. Title, 250-word Abstract of Proposed Conference Paper III. CV (3-page) IV. Two references including contact information (please do NOT request or provide letters of recommendation – but references may be contacted as part of application review process) FINANCIAL SUPPORT A limited number of partial travel stipends will be offered to help offset cost of travel to Stanford. This support will not cover the full cost of attendance, and so successful applicants should plan accordingly.

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