- Members - lists.sigcis.org

A 3D-printed Curta!
by Brian Randell 08 Dec '16

08 Dec '16

Hi: See https://t.co/f8pSU9GUa5 Cheers Brian Randell — School of Computing Science, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU 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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Announcing NYCDH Week 2017
by Kimon Keramidas 05 Dec '16

05 Dec '16

NYCDH <http://nycdh.org/> is happy to announce the 2nd Annual NYCDH Week, February 6-10, 2017. Taking place at institutions throughout the city, NYCDH Week gives individuals across the region who are interested in digital humanities an opportunity to learn new techniques and skills, meet new people, and make new connections. Following last year’s highly successful inaugural event, NYCDH Week 2017 begins on February 6 with a kickoff gathering at the CUNY Graduate Center. The day-long event features speakers, round tables, lightning talks and networking sessions. The rest of the week will consist of a diverse selection of free workshops hosted at a wide range of institutions across the city, including: Bard Graduate Center, Columbia University, CUNY Graduate Center, Fordham University, New York Public Library, NYU, Pratt Institute, and Rhizome. Inaugural NYCDH Award We are also happy to announce the inaugural NYCDH Award. This award will be given to an individual who has made a significant contribution to digital humanities in the region. The NYCDH Award winner will make the keynote speech at the kickoff gathering. Nominations are open to all, with the final selection made by the NYCDH Steering Committee. All nominations must be made by end of day, on December 21. If you would like to make a nomination please submit your name on this form: Link <https://goo.gl/forms/cWf1akzGEL9VD7w32> Workshops NYCDH Week's series of wide-ranging workshops are open to everyone. They are FREE and offered across the city. Workshops are made possible by members of the NYCDH community who are willing to offer their time to teach and help organize each session. Volunteer to teach a workshop! Graduate students, librarians, faculty, museum workers, independent scholars, tech companies and others are welcome to become part of our programming. To sign up to teach a workshop please use this form: Link <https://goo.gl/forms/NVB4TrrBcqV6vuaJ2>. Last year NYCDH Week included 24 workshops with more than 400 attendees. For a list of the those workshops, see the DH Week website <http://dhweek.nycdh.org/>. For any questions regarding NYCDH Week please contact Kimon Keramidas: kimon.keramidas(a)nyu.edu <mailto:kimon.keramidas@nyu.edu> Cheers Kimon Keramidas Kimon Keramidas, Ph.D. Associate Director and Clinical Assistant Professor of Digital Humanities John W. Draper Interdisciplinary Master’s Program in Humanities and Social Thought New York University 14 University Place New York, NY 10003 E kimon.keramidas(a)nyu.edu <mailto:kimon.keramidas@nyu.edu> P 212-998-3691 T @kimonizer <http://twitter.com/kimonizer> W http://kimonkeramidas.com <http://kimonkeramidas.com/> The Interface Experience: Forty Years of Personal Computing Exhibition <http://www.bgc.bard.edu/gallery/gallery-at-bgc/past-exhibitions/the-interfa…> | Web <http://interface-experience.org/> The Interface Experience: A User’s Guide Winner of the 2016 Innovation in Print Design Award from the American Alliance of Museums <http://www.aam-us.org/> Buy Book <http://store.bgc.bard.edu/the-interface-experience-a-users-guide-by-kimon-k…>

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cfp "computers and futures"
by Dick van Lente 05 Dec '16

05 Dec '16

Computers and futures: expectations of a future with computers in X countries, 1945-1975 CfP for SHOT, 26-29 October 2017 v2 Dick van Lente After World War II, scientists, policy makers and intellectuals in many countries claimed that their societies were entering a new era, which would be shaped by technologies that had been developed during the war, especially digital computers. MIT, for example, devoted its 100th birthday symposium in 1962 to 'computers and the world of the future.' This session explores what kinds of future society were expected to emerge as a consequence of the application of computers in all kinds of activity; how such future expectations were explained to the general public; and to what extent such projections were similar and different in a number of countries. The period to be studied is that of mainframes, before the coming of the pc and the internet, because the cultural dimensions of the later period have already been studied much more than the mainframe era. The aim of the session is to explore, and begin to explain, to what extent a powerful new technology evoked similar expectations in countries with different political, economic, and cultural structures, and to what extent these expectations differed. The focus is on popular culture (illustrated magazines, newspapers, popular movies and so on), but since experts were important in shaping the public image of computers and of the future, the 'high culture'-part of the story (Wiener, C.P. Snow, Jungk, and so on) is important as well. Please send your proposal to vanlente(a)eur.nl by January 31. Appropriate proposals will be grouped into one or more sessions and submitted to the program committee for the SHOT conference, 26-29 October 2017 in Philadelphia.

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Call for papers: HaPoC 2017, Brno, 4-7 October 2017 (deadline: 15 May 2017)
by Helena Durnová 02 Dec '16

02 Dec '16

Dear colleagues, below please find the Call for papers for the 4th international conference on the history and philosophy of computing. Please, feel free to spread the call. Kind regards, Helena link to the announcement: http://hapoc.org/node/199 -------------------------------- The DHST/DLMPS commission for the History and Philosophy of Computing www.hapoc.org invites all interested researchers to the 4th International Conference on History and Philosophy of Computing (HaPoC) Brno, 4-7 October 2017 In their societal impact, computers have grown way beyond their roots in mathematics and logic. Their ubiquity since the late 20th century has increased the number and impact of several of the original questions raised by early computer scientists and practitioners: questions about their expected and intended behaviour, as Alan Turing did when asking whether machines can think; questions about their ontology, as John von Neumann did when asking what the computer and the human brain have in common; questions about their role in performing human tasks, as Norbert Wiener did when asking whether automatic translation is possible. With new technologies, the need for rethinking formal and technological issues is crucial. The computerisation of our lives can hardly leave anyone without opinion. HaPoC’s appeal to historical and philosophical reflection is an invitation to all: designers and manufacturers, computer practitioners, users and artists, logicians and mathematicians, and with the increasing ubiquity of the machine every citizen, with her own experience of the computer. HaPoC conferences aim to bring together researchers exploring the various aspects of the computer from historical or philosophical standpoint. With Nathan Ensmenger we may say that facts do not change, but our understanding of them does. The series aims at an interdisciplinary focus on computing, rooted in historical and philosophical viewpoints. The conference brings together researchers interested in the historical developments of computing, as well as those reflecting on the sociological and philosophical issues springing from the rise and ubiquity of computing machines in the contemporary landscape. Past editions of the conference have successfully presented a variety of voices, resulting in fruitful dialogue between researchers of different backgrounds and characteristics. Celebrating the revolutionary exhibition Computer Graphic held in Brno in the spring of 1968, HaPoC emphatically extends the invitation to its fourth international conference to reflections on computers and art. For HaPoC 2017 we welcome contributions from logicians, philosophers and historians of computing as well as from philosophically aware computer scientists and mathematicians. We also invite contributions on the use of computers in art. As HaPoC conferences aim to provide a platform for interdisciplinary discussions among researchers, contributions stimulating such discussions are preferable. Topics include but are not limited to: - History of computation (computational systems, machines, mechanized reasoning, algorithms and programs, communities of computing and their paradigms,...) - Foundational issues in computer science and computability (models of computability, Church-Turing thesis, formal systems for distributed, cloud and secure computing, semantic theories of programming languages, ...) - Philosophy of computing (computer as brain / mind, epistemological issues, ...) - Computation in the sciences (computer experiments and simulations, computer-aided systems for teaching and research, ...) - Computer and the arts (temporality in digital art; narration in interactive art work, speculative software, programming as a deferred action, computing and affect, performativity of code, eristic of HCI, ...) We cordially invite researchers working in a field relevant to the main topics of the conference to submit a short abstract of approximately 200 words and an extended abstract of at most a 1000 words (references included) through EasyChair at https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=hapoc2017 Accepted papers will be presented in 30 minute slots including discussion. Abstracts must be written in English. Please note that the format of uploaded files must be in .pdf. Submissions without extended abstract will not be considered. Deadline for paper submission: 15 May 2017 Notification of acceptance: 15 July 2017 Conference fee: EUR 150 A limited number of grants will be available. The conference will be preceded by a special workshop on the reception of Hilbert's axiomatic method in Eastern Europe on 3 October (Tuesday) – organized by Mate Szabó Accompanying cultural programme will include the remake of the 1968 Brno exhibition Computer Graphic (featuring Frieder Nake and others), the first computer art exhibition in Eastern Europe, preceding Cybernetic Serendipity by several months, Live coding performance (inspired by the Exhibition Computer Graphic), the concert Exposition of New Music (contemporary music), and field recordings of Brno (student project).

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ACM History Committee --> 2017 research in ACM history
by Thomas J. Misa 01 Dec '16

01 Dec '16

Hi all, Please note this year's call for proposals, with a deadline of 15 February 2017, for support of research projects in ACM history. This year is an open call, not connected specifically to a workshop or other special event. Best, Tom Misa =============================================== ACM History Committee 2017 Program for Research in ACM History The Association for Computing Machinery, founded in 1947, is the oldest and largest educational and scientific society dedicated to the computing profession, and today has more than 100,000 members around the world. The ACM History Committee will support research projects related to ACM’s professional and educational activities and/or to ACM’s rich institutional history including its organization, publications, SIG activities, and conferences. We will support up to four projects with awards of up to $4,000 each. Successful candidates may be of any rank, from graduate students through senior researchers. To Apply: Applicants should send a 2-page CV as well as a 500-word project description that [a] describes the proposed research; [b] identifies the importance of specific ACM historical materials, whether traditional archival collections or online historical materials (oral histories, digitized conference papers, ACM organizational records, et al.); [c] discusses project outcomes (e.g. journal article, book or dissertation chapter, teaching resource, museum exhibit, website); [d] outlines a timeline for completing the project; [e] expresses willingness to write a one-page blog entry during the project and, on completion, to promptly report project results. In preparing a proposal, applicants should examine the document “ACM Research Materials” posted at <history.acm.org/content.php?do=links> as well as “Sources for ACM History,” CACM 50 #5 (May 2007): 36-41 <doi.acm.org/10.1145/1230819.1230836>. Other research materials relating to ACM history may also be used. Applicants should include a short letter of endorsement from their institution or an external scholarly reference. Proposals are due by 15 February 2017. Proposals should be submitted as a single pdf-format document to <history-webmaster(a)acm.org>. Notification of awards will be made within six weeks. Since 2009 ACM HC has supported 22 research projects. Results include the recent edited volume Communities of Computing: Computer Science and Society in the ACM (ACM Books 2016; DOI 10.1145/2973856 <http://books.acm.org/titles#tab227> and https://www.amazon.com/Communities-Computing-Computer-Science-Society/dp/19…) ACM HC also sponsors workshops in oral history methods and archiving practices.

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12/14 "The Process" at Computer History Museum w/ Kirschenbaum and David Gerrold
by Matthew Kirschenbaum 30 Nov '16

30 Nov '16

Hi all, For those in the Bay Area I will be speaking about my book, Track Changes: A Literary History of Word Processing, alongside acclaimed science fiction author David Gerrold at the Computer History Museum on Dec. 14. (If Tom Haigh left anything standing, that is.) We expect to cover a lot of ground, from David's memories of early computing to larger questions about the relationship between technology and the creative process as well as new information I've come across now that the book is out. Details here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-process-in-conversation-with-track-changes… Best, Matt -- Matthew Kirschenbaum Professor of English Director, Graduate Certificate in Digital Studies University of Maryland mkirschenbaum.net

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Tom Haigh's ENIAC talk - now online!
by Dag Spicer 28 Nov '16

28 Nov '16

Hello friends, I’m delighted to inform you that Thomas Haigh’s great ENIAC lecture at the Computer History Museum on November 18 is now live and online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Z8XrC3kLJM Enjoy! Dag -- Dag Spicer Senior Curator Computer History Museum Editorial Board, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 1401 North Shoreline Boulevard Mountain View, CA 94043-1311 Tel: +1 650 810 1035 Fax: +1 650 810 1055

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Maintainers II CFP - deadline extended to Dec 15
by Andrew Russell 28 Nov '16

28 Nov '16

Dear colleagues - I’m writing to let you know about a deadline extension for “Maintainers II: Labor, Technology, and Social Orders,” a conference that will be held on April 6-8 2017 at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ. We previously posted a deadline of December 1, but in this season of deadline extensions, we decided to move the proposal deadline to Thursday December 15. The CFP is posted here: http://themaintainers.org/maintainers-ii-cfp/. It reads, in part, "Recent scholarship on technology has too often fetishized material things and their thinginess, and excluded any consideration of the humans who make those things work. The purpose of Maintainers II is to write humans back into stories of technology, as a way to highlight social inequalities, racial and ethnic disparities, and the structural maldistribution of the fruits of technological progress.” I am sure people on this list will recognize themes here that connect to our collective work in the histories of computers & computerization, networks, automation, and so on. Several SIGCIS members made terrific contributions to last year’s conference on the subjects of software/OS maintenance, PC repair, the Internet, and so on. If you have questions, suggestions, etc., please contact me or lee.vinsel(a)gmail.com. All the best, Andy — — — — — — — — — — — Andrew L. Russell, Ph.D. Professor and Dean, College of Arts & Sciences SUNY Polytechnic Institute Donovan Hall - 2123B 100 Seymour Road Utica, NY 13502 t. 315-792-7317 w. https://sunypoly.edu/ e. arussell(a)arussell.org

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CfP: Computer Networks Histories: Local, National and Transnational Perspectives
by Enrico Natale 22 Nov '16

22 Nov '16

//Sorry for cross-postings// International Conference - Computer Networks Histories: Local, National and Transnational Perspectives 14-15 December 2017 Lugano, Switzerland Aims and scope Recently several works in the fields of Internet Studies, Science and Technology Studies, and Media Studies have stressed the importance of early local, national and transnational computer networks histories for a deeper understanding of technological and social change in contemporary societies. This two-day conference has a triple aim. First, gathering scholars and researchers from a variety of disciplines working on theoretical and empirical analysis of computer network histories. Second, providing a wide perspective on these histories, including case studies from Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Oceania as well as international organizations dealing with the control and management of networks: this interdisciplinary and international debate could be useful to compare worldwide experiences and to provide new frames on this topic. Third, the conference aims to develop new frameworks and a space of discussion on the historical role of computer networks, representing the starting point of an international community of scholars. Potential topics may include, but are in no way limited to, the following: - The origins and development of computer networks under a local, national, international, or transnational perspective; - Political, economic, and cultural representations of computer networks in Western and Eastern cultures; - Comparative analysis of early and late networks; - Physical infrastructures and materiality of computer networks; - The political economy of national digital infrastructures; - Histories of the digitalization of analogic networks; - The history of failed and forgotten computer networks projects; - The influence of early computer networks on the development of the Internet and of the World Wide Web; - The cultural and social history of computer networks communities (e.g. communitarian networks, academic networks, professional networks, civic networks). All the authors are invited to send an abstract of a max 500 words and a short bio by February 28, 2017 to nethistories(a)gmail.com <mailto:nethistories@gmail.com>. All invited speakers interested in publish their papers in the journal revue Histoire et Informatique will be asked to send a paper of max 5000 words by October 31, 2017. Conference venue The two-day conference will take place in Lugano, Switzerland, hosted by the Faculty of Communication Sciences of USI – Università della Svizzera italiana. The organizing committee comes from a collaboration between the Institute of Media and Journalism (IMeG) of USI and the Association Histoire & Informatique Suisse of Bern. Travel grants A limited number of travel grants may be available for participants without access to other financial resources. To request travel funding, please add to your proposal the motivation of your request and an estimate of the needed budget. Deadlines 28 February 2017 Deadline for abstract submission 31 March 2017 Notification of acceptance 31 October 2017 Short papers (max 5000 words) to be delivered 14-15 December 2017 2-days conference Organizers Association Histoire & Informatique Suisse – Bern <http://blog.ahc-ch.ch/> IMeG Institute of Media and Journalism, Università della Svizzera italiana – Lugano <http://www.imeg.com.usi.ch/> For further information please contact the organizational secretariat Prof. Gabriele Balbi <http://search.usi.ch/en/people/9fca22404467d1801cfd4213b9fb7e7e/Balbi-Gabri…> Paolo Bory <http://search.usi.ch/en/people/707f4dc7632673d2a6b44a4281bb5874/bory-paolo> Gianluigi Negro <http://search.usi.ch/en/people/2166df9d09fa4387be828efc6a84441d/Negro-Gianl…> <http://www.chinamediaobs.org/credits> Keynote speakers Hu Yong is a professor at Peking University’s School of Journalism and Communication, and a well-known new media critic and Chinese Internet pioneer. Hu Yong is a founding director for Communication Association of China (CAC) and China New Media Communication Association (CNMCA). His publications include Internet: The King Who Rules, the first book introducing the Internet to Chinese readers, and The Rising Cacophony: Personal Expression and Public Discussion in the Internet Age, documenting major transformations in the Chinese cyberspace. http://sjc.pku.edu.cn/English.aspx <http://sjc.pku.edu.cn/English.aspx> // Tweet @huyong Benjamin Peters is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Tulsa and affiliated fellow at the Information Society Project at Yale Law School. His research focuses on the cultural history and social theory of digital media, with emphases on the former Soviet Union and the West. Professor Peters has recently published two books: Digital Keywords: A Vocabulary of Information Society & Culture (Princeton University Press) and How Not to Network a Nation: The Uneasy History of the Soviet Internet (MIT Press) in which he offers an account of the Soviet Union’s failed attempts to construct their own national computer networks for civilians during the height of the Cold War tech race. https://petersbenjamin.wordpress.com/ <https://petersbenjamin.wordpress.com/> Enrico Natale infoclio.ch Hirschengraben 11 Postfach 6811 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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Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Fwd: CCS News - 2016 Tony Sale Award winner
by Schmudde 20 Nov '16

20 Nov '16

All - I was at the HNF in early 2015 for research. The staff and the space are both fantastic. This exhibit wasn't running at that time, but it looks to be part of their life-sized ENIAC "model." They have enough floor space set aside so a visitor can walk inside the machine as one might have in the 1940s. Although there are very few artifacts or interactive panels, it does help one appreciate the actual magnitude of the computer. I assume this reconstruction helps fill out the rest of the picture. To directly address Mark's question, RE: exhibiting the essence machine programming, I felt that many of the HNF exhibits focused on tackling the encoding of information through history - ancient record keeping, Morse code, Jacquard loom - which leads up to the ENIAC installation. That's likely the through line here. I like the thought of conveying more abstract concepts like conditional branching and functional programming /Schmüdde On 11/18/16 11:36 AM, members-request(a)lists.sigcis.org wrote: > Date: Fri, 18 Nov 2016 16:36:12 +0000 > From: Mark Priestley <m.priestley(a)gmail.com> > To: Sigcis <members(a)sigcis.org> > Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Fwd: CCS News - 2016 Tony Sale Award > winner > Message-ID: > <CAHWAic2n0bpEqicTrpUFibXQM3RWumDZ6zHWn0HA4AJrwG0Cqw(a)mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" > > Hello list, > > That looks like a nice exhibit, but I must admit that the video leaves me > wondering just what insight it gives into programming ENIAC, as opposed to > operating it. It looks like the demonstrator is setting up operations on > the exhibit one at a time, and then executing them by hand. Actual ENIAC > usage, of course, involved setting up a whole series of instructions at > once (including loops, conditional branches etc) and then letting them > execute automatically. > > ENIAC "programmers" - more properly, perhaps, the machine's developers, the > scientists who used it, and the operators who helped them - used a variety > of graphical notations to plan these set-ups. An simple example is at > http://markpriestley.net/akg.pdf - this diagram shows exactly how to set > the switches and plug the wires to calculate n, n^2 and n^3, stopping > before an overflow happens. Even with a simulator, this is quite hard to > follow ... > > The same goes for other reconstructions, in my experience. For example, > watching the Colossus rebuild working at Bletchley Park is a wonderful > experience, but gives little insight into many aspects of what the machine > was doing, or what it was capable of. Does anyone know of museum exhibits > that successfully convey something about programming, or it is just too > abstract an activity? > > Cheers, > Mark -- w: http://schmud.de t: @dschmudde p: 312.451.5952 e: d(a)schmud.de

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