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REMINDER: Summer School—Social Studies of Algorithms
by Francis Lee 15 Mar '16

15 Mar '16

*Call for Applicants: Summer School of the International Algorithm Studies Network* *Please disseminate widely* http://algorithmnetwork.org/summerschool/ Date: 4-8 July, 2016 Place: Stockholm, Sweden *The deadline for applications: Friday, 18 March 2016. * Participants will be notified no later than March 31. Algorithms are everywhere! This international summer school explores the increasing importance of algorithms in society and the socio-cultural transformations that this tendency implies. The point of departure is that algorithms become implicated in society and culture: for example in media narratives, in mundane artefacts, or in organizations. Through their output and functioning, algorithms come to classify, hierarchize, value and shape different social phenomena, often well beyond their initial purpose. The aim of this summer school is to address algorithms through a number of themes that shine light on different aspects of algorithms in society and culture: in big data, music, law, surveillance and medicine. The summer school takes place at a few thematically chosen venues in Stockholm: at some government agencies and private organizations. How do these organisations work with algorithms and how can we as scholars understand their omnipresence? *Where* The summer school will take place in beautiful summer Stockholm: the home town of Spotify, Dice, Paradox Interactive, Minecraft, the Pirate Bay, Candy Crush, and countless other digital actors and phenomena. The summer school will be held at Skeppsholmens Folkhögskola overlooking the sea in the very center of Stockholm, next to the Stockholm MOMA on Skeppsholmen. Find it on Google Maps <https://www.google.com/maps/place/Skeppsholmens+folkh%C3%B6gskola/@59.32605…> . The school is hosted by the Department of Thematic Studies: Technology and Social Change at Linköping University, Sweden. *Who should apply?* The summer school invites doctoral students from the social sciences and the humanities. *Application and Deadline* Deadline: Friday, 18 March 2016. Participants will be notified no later than March 31. Reading lists and more information will be sent out in the end of May. To apply send your CV as well as a 500 word motivation letter on how the issues adressed in this summer school is relevant for your research. In the application please note: full name, affiliation, address, dietary restrictions. Please also note if you are interested in staying with friendly Stockholmers. Send applications to: algorithmnetwork(a)gmail.com. The summer school is free to attend. Participants will pay for and arrange their own accomodation and most meals. Some accomodation with fellow participants will be available, but we welcome your own arrangements. The full summer school is worth 7,5 ECTS credits. Credits will be awarded after a course essay on a topic relevant to your dissertation and the topics of the summer school has been handed in and graded. -- - Helgesson, C.-F., Lee, F., & Lindén, L. (2015). Valuations of experimental designs in proteomic biomarker experiments and traditional randomised controlled trials <http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17530350.2015.1108215>. *Journal of Cultural Economy*, 1–16. http://doi.org/10.1080/17530350.2015.1108215 - Dussauge, C.-F. Helgesson, & F. Lee (Eds.), Value Practices in the Life Sciences and Medicine <http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199689583.do>. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (Podcast <http://newbooksinscitechsoc.com/2015/09/26/isabelle-dussauge-claes-fredrik-…> ) - *A Sociology of Treason* <http://sth.sagepub.com/content/39/1/154.abstract?etoc>. Galis, V., & Lee, F. (2014). Science, Technology & Human Values, 39(1), 154-179. (open access preprint <http://liu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:556667/FULLTEXT01.pdf> ). - Editorial board of Valuation Studies <http://valuationstudies.liu.se/> - Founder of The Algorithm Studies Network <http://algorithmnetwork.org/> Francis Lee, PhD, Researcher, Uppsala University Department of History of Science and Ideas francislee.org | francis.lee(a)idehist.uu.se | +46 734 41 42 19 | Skype: flea_se

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CHM News: New issue of CORE available now!
by Dag Spicer 15 Mar '16

15 Mar '16

Hello friends, Today we are releasing our 2016 issue of CORE, the Museum’s annual publication on computer history, exhibits and programs at CHM. This issue's theme is Women in Computing. Explore Core as contributors Ursula Martin (Oxford University), Marie Hicks (Illinois Institute of Technology), Dag Spicer (CHM), and Marguerite Gong Hancock (CHM) take a critical look at the significance and changing roles of women throughout computer history. Also highlighted in this issue is a remarkable, in-depth look at Cisco co-founder Sandy Lerner, featuring exclusive interviews from her Cisco co-workers and colleagues. And there’s more! Go behind the scenes of the Museum’s newest exhibit, Thinking Big: Ada, Countess of Lovelace; learn how the Cisco Archive is connecting Silicon Valley to history; get a first look at the Museum’s newest artifacts; and discover how CHM is empowering educators with Raspberry Pi. Pick up your copy here: http://s3.computerhistory.org/core/core-2016.pdf 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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How to send an 'E mail' - Database - 1984
by Joly MacFie 14 Mar '16

14 Mar '16

>From UK Thames TV - an archived clip from their Database program. The 'E mail' demo is messaging on the Prestel system. The program concludes with an audio "software transmission" over the end titles. "The least successful method is just to place a microphone in front of the television set". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szdbKz5CyhA -- --------------------------------------------------------------- Joly MacFie 218 565 9365 Skype:punkcast -------------------------------------------------------------- -

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literature sources
by Dave Walden 10 Mar '16

10 Mar '16

Hi, I am interested in sources on the history of computer technology coming into newspapers and newsrooms. I am less interested in the aspects of digital type (as that is broader than newspapers). I am interested digital typesetting, layout, and intra-institution communication in newspapers and in the companies that provided this technology to newspapers if it was not home grown. I would be happy to read an treatment of the whole spectrum all the way to printing the actual newspaper sheets, if such a thing exists. I have some bits of material already, and will shortly be heading out to Boston area libraries (BPL, MIT, Athenaeum, ...), if someone happens to know that one such institution is strong in the newspaper technology history area. I will also take a look at the library Printing Museum near Boston and the history of printing collection at the public library in Providence. Thanks, Dave

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Fwd: Call for Participation: Archives Unleashed 2.0 - Web Archive Hackathon
by Joly MacFie 08 Mar '16

08 Mar '16

Apropos recent Berlin discussion, a perhaps more legit exercise in web archive activity, albeit from a sociological angle. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- ***Call for Participation*** Archives Unleashed 2.0: Web Archive Data t hon Library of Congress, Washington DC 14 – 15 June 2016 Travel grants available for US-based graduate students; additional funding may be available for international participants Applications due 15 March 2016 http://www.archivesunleashed.com **This event is a follow-up to the Archives Unleashed datathon held in March at the University of Toronto Library. With generous funding from the National Science Foundation and the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (Canada), we’ve been able to extend the datathon program, and are excited to bring this program to the Library of Congress.** The World Wide Web has a profound impact on how we research and understand the past. The sheer amount of cultural information that is generated and, crucially, preserved every day in electronic form, presents exciting new opportunities for researchers. Much of this information is captured within web archives. Web archives often contain hundreds of billions of web pages, ranging from individual homepages and social media posts, to institutional websites. These archives offer tremendous potential for social scientists and humanists, and the questions research may pose stretch across a multitude of fields. Scholars broaching topics dating back to the mid-1990s will find their projects enhanced by web data. Moreover, scholars hoping to study the evolution of cultural and societal phenomena will find a treasure trove of data in web archives. In short, web archives offer the ability to reconstruct large-scale traces of the relatively recent past. While there has been considerable discussion about web archive tools and datasets, few forums or mechanisms for coordinated, mutually informing development efforts have been created. This hackathon presents an opportunity to collaboratively unleash our web collections, exploring cutting-edge research tools while fostering a broad-based consensus on future directions in web archive analysis. This hackathon will bring together a small group of 20-30 participants to collaboratively develop new open-source tools and approaches to hackathon, and to kick-off collaboratively inspired research projects. Researchers should be comfortable with command line interactions, and knowledge of a scripting language such as Python strongly desired. By bringing together a group of like-minded scholars and programmers, we hope to begin building unified analytic production effort and to continue coalescing this nascent research community. At this event, we hope to converge on a shared vision of future directions in the use of web archives for inquiry in the humanities and social sciences in order to build a community of practice around various web archive analytics platforms and tools. Thanks to the generous support of the National Science Foundation, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the University of Waterloo’s Department of History, the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science and the University of Waterloo, and the School of Communication and Information at Rutgers University, we will cover all meals and refreshments for attendees. We are also providing sample datasets for people to work on during the hackathon, or they are happy to use their own. Included datasets are: • the .gov web archive covering the American government domain • Canadian Political Parties and Political Interest Groups collection Those interested in participating should send a 250-word expression of interest and a CV to Matthew Weber (matthew.weber(a)rutgers.edu <mailto: matthew.weber(a)rutgers.edu>) by 15 March 2016 with “Archives Unleashed” in the subject line. This expression of interest should address the scholarly questions that you will be bringing to the hackathon, and what datasets you might be interested in either working with or bringing to the event. Applicants will be notified by 25 March 2016. We have a limited number of travel grants available for graduate students; preference will be given to those who have not participated in the Archives Unleashed program in the past, although we welcome returning participants. These grants can cover up to $750 in expenses. If you are in an eligible position, please indicate in your statement of interest that you would like to be considered for the travel grant. A letter of support from your graduate supervisor will also strengthen your application. On behalf of the organizers, Matthew Weber (Rutgers University), Ian Milligan (University of Waterloo), Jimmy Lin (University of Waterloo) Matthew S. Weber Assistant Professor School of Communication and Information http://www.matthewsweber.com <http://www.matthewsweber.com/> Co-Director NetSci Network Science Lab http://netsci.rutgers.edu <http://netsci.rutgers.edu/> Rutgers University (ph): 848-932-8718 -- --------------------------------------------------------------- Joly MacFie 218 565 9365 Skype:punkcast -------------------------------------------------------------- -

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Tomlinson's quote on email invention - authenticated
by Thomas Haigh 08 Mar '16

08 Mar '16

I wouldn't call Ray Tomlinson, or anyone else, THE inventor of email. As you can see below, in 2012 I got Tomlinson to confirm the authenticity of the nice quote floating around the internet with his name on it: "Any single development is stepping on the heels of the previous one and is so closely followed by the next that most advances are obscured. I think that few individuals will be remembered." That is not false modesty on his part, but Tomlinson's own 1971 contribution was certainly one of the most significant of the many steps leading towards the Internet mediated standards-based email infrastructure over which you are receiving this message. Tom -----Original Message----- From: Ray Tomlinson [mailto:RTomlinson@bbn.com] Sent: Monday, March 05, 2012 3:29 PM To: Dave Crocker Cc: Thomas Haigh <thaigh(a)computer.org> Subject: Re: Pre-release draft of email history article to the Washington Post. >> I do have a question for Ray. I am planning to use the quote from >> http://www.nethistory.info/History%20of%20the%20Internet/email.html >> that "Any single development is stepping on the heels of the previous >> one and is so closely followed by the next that most advances are >> obscured. I think that few individuals will be remembered." > >> Did he really say this? Is it being quoted from an earlier source. > > Yeah. Great quotation. > > Ray? Fess up! Yes. I did say something like this. I believe it was in the context of comparing internet advances with earlier advances like Bell's telephone. I don't remember to whom I said it and I can't find any email record. It may have been by telephone.

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"Inventor of Email" campaign targets Ray Tomlinson, "racist" journalists, reality
by Thomas Haigh 08 Mar '16

08 Mar '16

Hello SIGCIS, Perhaps predictably, Ray Tomlinson's recent death has prompted a new publicity push by Shiva Ayyadurai, the self-proclaimed "inventor of email." (Backstory at http://www.sigcis.org/ayyadurai) Here are some recent tweets from his wife Fran Drescher, best known as "The Nanny": "Thank you. Raytheon are plagiarists and liars. Big biz w/o integrity! The worst of the worst! Low roadsters," and "PO'd! Ray Tomlinson WRONGLY credited 4 email whn EVERY1 honest knos Shiva Ayyadurai <https://twitter.com/va_shiva> @va_shiva invented, has copyright &is a victim of racism." Also "Th larger issue is the oppression of people of color. There is a narrative in America that white washes innovation. That's the real issue!" Ayyadurai himself has tweeted "White journalists since 2012 have joined in the lynching and whitewashing of facts on <https://twitter.com/hashtag/email?src=hash> #email. I challenge all and any to a f2f debate !!" The new push is reported in a Fortune blog piece, http://fortune.com/2016/03/07/who-really-invented-email/, which quotes SIGCIS at length. (I like its description of us as "an organization comprised of many prominent Internet historians and college professors" rather more than the "internet cabal" description used by Boston Magazine). Ayyadurai seems to be getting almost entirely uncritical coverage in leading Indian publications, including * http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/technology/who-invented-email-ray-tomlinson -or-shiva-ayyadurai/article8323987.ece * http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/On-Mahashivaratri-email-pioneer- Shiva-Ayyadurai-prays-for-recognition/articleshow/51297305.cms * http://indianexpress.com/article/technology/tech-news-technology/the-invento r-of-email-is-still-alive-says-india-born-scientist/ There's a somewhat more nuanced, but still not entirely accurate, report (quoting SIGCIS) at http://thewire.in/2016/03/08/did-shiva-ayyadurai-invent-email-it-isnt-simple -and-youre-probably-missing-the-point-24149 <http://thewire.in/2016/03/08/did-shiva-ayyadurai-invent-email-it-isnt-simpl e-and-youre-probably-missing-the-point-24149/#disqus_thread> . So there's fascinating story of historical techno nationalism developing here, in that Ayyadurai's new focus on alleged racism as the only reason for disputing his claim to have invented email seems to be enough to win him widespread acceptance in India despite the obvious reality-based problems with claiming to have invented something that was already in widespread use. Best wishes, Tom

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CSIRAC commemoration event in Melbourne, June 14-17 2015
by Justin Zobel 07 Mar '16

07 Mar '16

Are you interested in visiting CSIRAC before attending SHOT in Singapore? The Department of Computer Science at the University of Melbourne, in conjunction with the Melbourne Museum, is hosting an event to celebrate 60 years of computing in Victoria, which – not coincidentally – also marks 60 years of computing in Australian universities. The details of the event are still being finalised, but will include public lectures on Tuesday June 14 and a ‘history day’ at the Melbourne Museum on Friday June 17. The event marks 60 years since CSIRAC commenced service in Victoria, on June 14 1956. Constructed as the CSIR Mk 1 in 1948-50 and one of the first computers to be operational, it is the world’s oldest intact stored-program computer and is on permanent display at the Melbourne Museum. CSIRAC has been extensively documented by the Department (http://www.cis.unimelb.edu.au/about/csirac/) and the Museum (https://museumvictoria.com.au/csirac/) SHOT is being held just a few days later (June 22-26), nearby (at just six hours away, Singapore is one of our closest neighbours), and in more or less the same time zone (we’re two hours ahead at that time of year). If you are considering participating in our event on the way to SHOT, please contact Julie Ireland (julie.ireland(a)unimelb.edu.au) to be added to our mailing list. Justin Zobel

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CHM Curatorial Update: Unique recording of Lee Boysel, Early Microprocessor Pioneer, now on CHM YouTube channel
by Dag Spicer 07 Mar '16

07 Mar '16

Dear SGICIS colleagues, Lee Boysel is one of the unsung fathers of the microprocessor who has a genuine claim to making the earliest one. Pace TI, Intel, Faggin, Hoff, et al. and 99% of ’standard histories’ of the microprocessor. He was the only expert witness in the famous TI microprocessor patent case retained by all sides and the presentation of his notes from 1969 and working model effectively ended the case. If you are interested in semiconductor history and the early development of the uP, this is a must-watch. It is now part of CHM’s permanent archive, thanks to a special arrangement with the University of Michigan, where this presentation initially took place (in 2007). The lecture is entitled, “Making your first million: Tips for Aspiring Entrepreneurs,” which doesn’t quite get the idea across but, rest assured, it’s microprocessor history and also the only known recording of Boysel explaining his contributions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtGxI7yqau4 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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MIDAC Project
by Salem Elzway 05 Mar '16

05 Mar '16

Greetings everyone! This is my first communication to the SIGCIS listserv, so I thought I'd introduce myself quickly before getting to the topic at hand. I'm a first year PhD student in the history department at the University of Michigan studying the history and political economy of technological development (particularly in the US). Generally speaking, I'm interested in how "the State" has played a pivotal role in the development of technology and, more specifically, how the "national security state" affected the computer's development in the early Cold War and after. Canned introductions aside, I'm currently working on a history of the Michigan Digital Automatic Computer (or MIDAC) that was built and in-use at the Willow Run Laboratories between 1951-1958. MIDAC was originally commissioned to process air-guidance data for the BOMARC missile as part of the Air Defense Integrated System (ADIS) and later the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) system. Unfortunately, there seems to be a paucity of documentation about MIDAC as my initial foray into the archives here at Michigan have not uncovered much. Is anyone familiar with MIDAC and/or aware of where I may find more documentation about it? I greatly appreciate any help you can provide and I look forward to interacting with the SIGCIS community in the future! Best, Salem -- *Salem Elzway* PhD Student Department of History University of Michigan (402)730-4775 salem.elzway(a)gmail.com

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