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FW: 2015-2016 Lemelson Center Fellowships/Travel Grants, Smithsonian Institution
by Thomas Haigh 12 Nov '14

12 Nov '14

[Forwarded from Eric Hintz at the Smithsonian's Lemelson Center -- hintze(a)si.edu. NMAH has a lot of material related to the history of computing, much of which is largely untapped. Tom] Research Opportunities at the Smithsonian's Lemelson Center Apps Due: 1 Dec 2014 The Lemelson Center Fellowship Program and Travel to Collections Award Program support projects that present creative approaches to the study of invention and innovation in American society. These include, but are not limited to, historical research and documentation projects resulting in dissertations, publications, exhibitions, educational initiatives, documentary films, or other multimedia products. The programs provide access to the expertise of the Institution's research staff and the vast invention and technology collections of the National Museum of American History (NMAH). The NMAH Archives Center documents both individuals and firms across a range of time periods and subject areas. Representative collections include the Western Union Telegraph Company Records, ca. 1840-1994 and the Earl S. Tupper Papers, documenting Tupper, and his invention, Tupperware. In addition, the NMAH Library offers long runs of historical technology serials like Scientific American and American Machinist, and the American Trade Literature collection, which includes 300,000 catalogs, technical manuals, and advertising brochures for some 30,000 firms, primarily from 1880-1945. For a comprehensive catalog of objects, manuscripts, images and research materials available at the NMAH (and other Smithsonian units), see http://www.collections.si.edu/. The Lemelson Center invites applications covering a broad spectrum of research topics that resonate with its mission to foster a greater understanding of invention and innovation, broadly defined. However, the Center especially encourages project proposals that will illuminate the role of women inventors; inventors with disabilities; inventors from diverse backgrounds; or any inventions and technologies associated with groups that are traditionally under-represented in the historical record. Pertinent NMAH collections include the papers of Victor L. Ochoa, a Mexican-American aeronautical inventor; the papers of Dr. Patricia Bath, an African-American inventor of a patented cataracts treatment; the Safko International papers, documenting assistive technologies built for the physically disabled; and the HIV/AIDS and LGBT Reference Collections, which document innovative public health programs and associated technologies. The Lemelson Center Fellowship Program annually awards 2 to 3 fellowships to pre-doctoral graduate students, post-doctoral scholars, and other professionals who have completed advanced training. Fellows are expected to reside in the Washington, D.C. area, to participate in the Center's activities, and to make a presentation of their work to colleagues at the museum. Fellowship tenure is based upon the applicants' stated needs (and available funding) up to a maximum of ten weeks. Stipends for 2015-2016 will be $630/week for pre-doctoral fellows and $925/week for post-doctoral and professional fellows. Applications are due December 1, 2014. For application procedures and additional information, see http://invention.smithsonian.org/resources/research_fellowships.aspx.** Researchers are encouraged to consult with the fellowship coordinator before submitting a proposal - contact historian Eric S. Hintz, Ph.D. at +1 202-633-3734 or hintze(a)si.edu. The Lemelson Center Travel to Collections Award Program annually awards 2 to 3 short-term travel grants to encourage the use of its invention-related collections. Awards are $150 per day for a maximum of 10 business days and may be used to cover transportation, living, and reproduction expenses; they are intended only for applicants who reside or attend school beyond commuting distance of the NMAH. Applications are due December 1, 2014. See http://invention.smithsonian.org/resources/research_travel.aspx** for application procedures and additional information. Researchers are encouraged to consult with the travel award coordinator before submitting a proposal - contact archivist Alison Oswald at +1 202-633-3726 or oswalda(a)si.edu. **Note: We are renovating our website! Please contact Eric or Alison if our URLs have changed!!

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some labor statistics questions about programmers
by Luke Fernandez 11 Nov '14

11 Nov '14

Folks, I realize the below questions might be more germane to "contemporary history of computing" than SIGSIS' focus on "history of computing" but nonetheless perhaps some of you could point me to the resources that could help me answer the below questions: 1) What percentage of American programmers are involved in start-ups versus working long term at an established firm? 2) What is the age distribution of programmers? 3) What are the political and/or partisan affiliation of programmers? 4) What percentage of programmers are introverts and extroverts? (A cursory review suggests some seeming contradictions: http://www.eng.uwo.ca/people/lcapretz/mbti-IJHCS-v2.pdf versus http://www.infoq.com/news/2013/02/Introverted-Intuitive-Logical ) 5) What (small) percentage of American programmers work in Silicon Valley? Cheers, Luke Fernandez Weber State University Manager of Program and Technology Development PS: By way of background context I'm trying to get answers to these questions to substantiate some assertions about programmers that my editor is questioning in a review I'm writing on Alice Marwick's book __Status Update__. You can read a draft of that review here: http://itintheuniversity.blogspot.com/2014/03/studying-up-review-of-alice-m… The paragraphs in question are the following: Second, Status Update portrays a world where everyone is on the make, where everyone has become outer directed, where the authentic self is eclipsed by the edited self, and where everyone has become so consumed by self-presentation that nothing is left but an edited self. This hyper edited self actually seems to be the subject that Marwick currently inhabits. She’s @alicetiara instead of @alicemarwick. She is circumspect in replying to tweets. Her “mentor,” “champion,” and “collaborator” (as she states in the acknowledgements) is Danah Boyd who actually goes by the overtly edited moniker danah boyd. Marwick “agonizes” over what to wear. To be fair to Marwick it’s possible that we’re actually all pretty outer directed and that we all seek acclaim from others. In the Discourse on Inequality Roussau postulates that this is simply a facet of becoming civilized. So even if we don’t subscribe to neoliberalism, maybe Status Update is a mirror that reflects all of us. And maybe Marwick is just being a little more honest then the rest of us about the fact that she’s outer directed. Still, it’s unlikely that we are outer-directed to the same degree. That seems pretty clear when I associate with my plainly dressed programming colleagues, a good portion of whom occupy the top introverted quadrants of the Myers Briggs test. It’s not like we don’t occasionally like to bask in the limelight. But programmers wouldn’t be programmers if they didn’t derive some of their most enjoyable experiences from talking to machines rather than performing in front of others. Pace Will.i.AM we don’t generally like to have “all eyes on us.” Third, part of the purpose of studying up is to examine how the colonizers have subjected (or reshaped) the colonized. Marwick does a pretty good job of showing how that has taken place in the Bay Area. But it’s an open question as to how much the ideology of the Valley has colonized the rest of us. I’m a programmer and I’ve programmed in Utah (sometime referred to as “Silicon Slopes”) for the last thirteen years. Before that I programmed in Kentucky. So I’ve met my share of people who live close to the Web and use the term “Web 2.0” in our daily working lives. Many of us are still earnestly laboring to embed Web 2.0 principles in software. But most of us aren’t involved in start-ups, or living anywhere near “the scene” (as Marwick describes the Valley), or subscribing in any conscious way to the tenets of neoliberalism. In particular, when Marwick suggests that neoliberal ideology is part and parcel of whatever people have adopted when they subscribe to Web 2.0 principles and Web 2.0 technologies she is making an association that probably doesn’t have that much traction outside her field site. The people who use the term most these days are programmers and designers who refer to it when they are trying to describe a rich user interface that is snappy and responsive. It has a discrete meaning and its principles are subscribed to by programmers and designers of many different political stripes. Some of them may be neoliberals but others of them are distinctly not. Status Update however glosses over this more common usage and piles onto the term a set of politics that are not in keeping with the way the term is most commonly employed. This isn’t to say that Marwick has invented her definition out of whole cloth. She gets it from the way Tim O’Reilly and other hoi poloi of the Valley have tried to spin the term. But the dissonance between her definition and the way it is used elsewhere illustrates the fact that her study cannot be easily scaled. Put another way, Status Update may be a faithful portrait of life in the Valley. But we should be careful not to let that portrait eclipse how technology is being produced and used in the hinterlands where social media may be being repurposed for other ends.

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Dave Walden / Podcast / Articles
by adam spring 11 Nov '14

11 Nov '14

Dear Sir or Madam, I contacted Dave Walden recently about an article I had written on Retrocomputing. Dave recommended I contact you. He thought you would be interested in knowing what I am up to. I must say I was glad to discover your group! I have attached some articles to give you a better idea of past work. I recently launched a podcast. Next week will feature Howard Rheingold: http://remotely-interested.com/category/podcasts/ Many thanks Adam PS. I also have a book chapter coming out this month through Left Cost press: http://www.lcoastpress.com/book.php?id=530 http://remotely-interested.com/category/computing/ -- Adam P. Spring Skype: adampspring

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Khruschev's visit to California
by Dag Spicer 11 Nov '14

11 Nov '14

Interesting piece today in Fast Company: http://www.fastcompany.com/3037598/khrushchev-visits-ibm-a-strange-tale-of-… 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 Twitter: @ComputerHistory

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Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Mary Eunice Amos
by Nathan Ensmenger 11 Nov '14

11 Nov '14

Bill — thanks for sharing that photo of your mother. If you are willing/interested, there is a blog called nobrocomputing (http://nobrocomputing.tumblr.com) that is collecting images of women in information technology (very broadly defined). It was started by Lilly Irani at UCSD but I am one of the editors. I am pretty sure that anyone can submit directly to the site. I would encourage everyone on the SIGCIS list to keep an eye out for such images and to share them when possible. Having them available and collected in a single place is important and useful. Also, thank you to our SIGCIS leaders Andy Russell and Tom Haigh for organizing a particularly excellent workshop in Dearborn this past weekend! -Nathan — Nathan Ensmenger Associate Professor of Informatics School of Informatics and Computing Indiana University, Bloomington homes.soic.indiana.edu/nensmeng/

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Joan Clarke, woman who cracked Enigma with Alan Turing
by Brian Randell 11 Nov '14

11 Nov '14

Hi: >From BBC News: > Joan Clarke, woman who cracked Enigma with Alan Turing > > Joan Clarke's ingenious work as a codebreaker during WW2 saved countless lives, and her talents were formidable enough to command the respect of some of the greatest minds of the 20th Century, despite the sexism of the time. > > But while Bletchley Park hero Alan Turing - who was punished by a post-war society where homosexuality was illegal and died at 41 - has been treated more kindly by history, the same cannot yet be said for Clarke. > > The only woman to work in the nerve centre of the quest to crack German Enigma ciphers, Clarke rose to deputy head of Hut 8, and would be its longest-serving member. > > She was also Turing's lifelong friend and confidante and, briefly, his fiancee. > > Her story has been immortalised by Keira Knightley in The Imitation Game, out in UK cinemas this week. <snip> Full story at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-29840653 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/staff/profile/brian.randell

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Low Power to the People: Pirates, Protest, and Politics in FM Radio Activism
by Lee Vinsel 10 Nov '14

10 Nov '14

Dear SIGCIS Members, Christina Dunbar-Hester has just published her book, _Low Power to the People: Pirates, Protest, and Politics in FM Radio Activism <http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/low-power-people>_, with MIT Press. It promises to be a fascinating and useful book for many people in our field. I realize that some people on this list will not consider the book to be "history of computing" in the strictest sense, but I also know that it lays close enough to many of your interests to be worth sharing. Here's the first paragraph of description from the publisher's webpage: The United States ushered in a new era of small-scale broadcasting in 2000 when it began issuing low-power FM (LPFM) licenses for noncommercial radio stations around the country. Over the next decade, several hundred of these newly created low-wattage stations took to the airwaves. In *Low Power to the People*, Christina Dunbar-Hester describes the practices of an activist organization focused on LPFM during this era. Despite its origins as a pirate broadcasting collective, the group eventually shifted toward building and expanding regulatory access to new, licensed stations. These radio activists consciously cast radio as an alternative to digital utopianism, promoting an understanding of electronic media that emphasizes the local community rather than a global audience of Internet users. Very best, Lee -- Assistant Professor Program on Science and Technology Studies College of Arts and Letters Stevens Institute of Technology Hoboken, NJ 07030 AmericanScience.Blogspot.com Twitter: @STS_News

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Design patterns in software
by McMillan, William W 09 Nov '14

09 Nov '14

Apropos my mention today of (pseudo?) architectural design patterns in software, here's the book that started the movement: http://www.amazon.com/Design-Patterns-Object-Oriented-Professional-Computin… Bill

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Fwd: News - The winners of the 2014 Tony Sale Award for computer conservation
by Brian Randell 08 Nov '14

08 Nov '14

Hi: I thought this news release might be of interest to SIGCIS members. Cheers Brian Randell Begin forwarded message: NEWS RELEASE from the Computer Conservation Society The winners of the 2014 Tony Sale Award for computer conservation are … a virtual 1930’s mechanical computer and a restored industry-changing computer. 7 November 2014 The 2014 Tony Sale Award for computer conservation has been jointly awarded to two outstanding and contrasting entries representing computing in the 1930s and the late 1950s. The winners are the IBM 1401 Demo Lab, a restoration of one of the most significant machines in computer history by the Computer History Museum in California, and Z1 Architecture and Algorithms, a virtual reconstruction of the 1930’s Konrad Zuse mechanical computer, by the Free University of Berlin. Run by the Computer Conservation Society and sponsored by Google UK, this is the second Tony Sale Award for computer conservation. The first was won in 2012 by Dr David Link for LoveLetters, a computer art installation that continues to tour the world. In announcing the 2014 winners, Martin Campbell-Kelly, computer historian and head of the judging panel, said: “The eight excellent entries for the 2014 Tony Sale Award from four different countries clearly demonstrates how computer conservation is flourishing more than 20 years after Tony Sale embarked on his pioneering and awe-inspiring reconstruction of a Colossus Mk II, a world-famous exhibit at The National Museum of Computing on Bletchley Park.” The IBM 1401 Demo Lab is a classic reconstruction of a 50-year old commercial computer. It marked the transition of IBM as a supplier of accounting machines to it becoming the dominant supplier of the mainframe era. Announced in 1959, the IBM 1401’s success took everyone by surprise. The company had expected to sell or lease about 1,000, but went on to deliver 15,000 and by the mid-1960s they amounted to half of the computers in the world. Its high-speed chain printer was a key to its success -- punched card machines were eagerly traded in for the IBM 1401 and business computing took a huge stride forward. In a project involving 20 volunteers over ten years, two 1401s have been restored at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. The computers and the ancillary equipment including the famous 1403 chain printer are on permanent display and the working system is demonstrated twice a week. Seehttp://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/restoring-the-ibm-1401/ for more information about the project. The judging panel said: “The IBM Demo Lab is a flawless restoration of a machine that signalled a turning point in the computer industry and the use of computers in business.” Z1 Architecture and Algorithms, the other joint-winner, is a virtual reconstruction of one of the world’s earliest computers, the Z1. Originally built in 1936-38, the Z1 was destroyed in a bombing raid in 1943. In the 1980s and then in his 70s, Konrad Zuse embarked on a reconstruction of the Z1 which is now a remarkable but static exhibit at the Technology Museum in Berlin. However, with 30,000 parts the reconstruction of the mechanical computer was unlikely to be robust or reliable enough for regular operation, so a team led by Professor Raul Rojas began a virtual reconstruction with a technical description. Through the meticulous research of Professor Rojas, a team of his students was able to construct a 3D visual simulation of the arithmetic unit for deployment on the web. In addition, hundreds of high resolution photos of the Z1 enable web users to explore the machine from any angle at very high resolution. See http://zuse-z1.zib.de/ for the virtual reconstruction. The judging panel said “Z1 Architecture and Algorithms is a remarkable vision of how such complex artefacts might be delivered to a worldwide audience. It is a project that will undoubtedly give museum curators pause for thought.” Rachel Burnett, Chair of the CCS, said “The late Tony Sale would have been delighted with the entries that we have had in the year of the silver jubilee of our Society that he co-founded with Doron Swade. “The computer conservation movement is dynamic and growing apace. Through the Tony Sale Award, we salute the computing pioneers of the past and the dedication of those today who breathe vibrant life into our incredible computing heritage.” Notes to Editors 1 The Computer Conservation Society Established in 1989, the Computer Conservation Society (CCS) started as a joint venture between BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, the Science Museum and later the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester. In recent years The National Museum of Computing has become a key partner. 2 The CCS Judging panel Martin Campbell-Kelly, computer historian, was joined in the 2014 panel of judges by Chris Burton, engineer and computer conservationist , Nigel Sale, computer scientist and son of Tony Sale, and Doron Swade MBE, museum curator and author. 3 Links to other nominated entries for the 2014 Tony Sale Award The Analogue Computing Museum collection in Schwalbach, Germany. www.analogmuseum.org<http://www.analogmuseum.org/> The Jim Austin Computer Collection in York, England. www.computermuseum.org.uk<http://www.computermuseum.org.uk/> The restoration of 1970s DEC PDP computers at The Rhode Island Computer Museum (RICM), Rhode Island, USA. www.ricomputermuseum.org<http://www.ricomputermuseum.org/> The PRS 4, a restoration of a 1973 Polish micro-computer at the Muzem Historii Komputerow i Informatyki (MHKI) in Katowice, Poland. www.muzeumkomputerow.edu.pl<http://www.muzeumkomputerow.edu.pl/> The Technikum29 Computer History Museum collection in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. www.technikum29.de<http://www.technikum29.de/> The WITCH-E project, a trans-Atlantic educational project, by David Anders. www.elinux.org/WITCH<http://www.elinux.org/WITCH> 4 About Tony Sale Tony Sale (1931-2011), in whose honour the computer conservation award has been established, is perhaps best known for leading the team that rebuilt Colossus, the world's first electronic computer. He was also a key figure in starting the campaign to save Bletchley Park in the early 1990s, he co-founded The National Museum of Computing and jointly established the Computer Conservation Society. Media Contact Stephen Fleming, Palam Communications, for the Computer Conservation Society +44 1635 299116 s.fleming(a)palam.co.uk<mailto:s.fleming@palam.co.uk> School of Computing Science, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU EMAIL = Brian.Randell(a)ncl.ac.uk<mailto:Brian.Randell@ncl.ac.uk> PHONE = +44 191 208 7923 URL = http://www.ncl.ac.uk/computing/staff/profile/brian.randell

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on the nature of analog computing
by Paul Fishwick 08 Nov '14

08 Nov '14

I recently had a discussion about analog computing with someone who works actively on hybrid analog-digital systems at the integrated circuit level. My proposal was that there seems to be, based on historical accounts and reflection, two differing views on “analog”: 1) analog reflecting the continuous or discrete character of magnitude of a variable, and 2) isomorphism indicated by construing analog to be associated closely with analogy. To take one example which can serve for discussion: Are Minecraft circuits analog, digital, or both? It depends on how we define “analog” and where we focus (on the issue of representation or magnitude). For example, redstone circuits could be viewed as analog computing in the sense that the circuits are analogous to electronic circuits containing gates such as and, or, xor, etc. And yet, at the bottom of the vast hierarchy of translation, we have Minecraft servers and clients working on top of a digital substrate. In the mid 90s, I bought a Nord Lead for my synthesizer collection, and Nord uses “virtual analog” to characterize their lineup (an analog front end and a digital back end): http://www.nordkeyboards.com/products/nord-lead-2x My view is that the issue of magnitude is a side-effect of “analog as analogy and, thus, isomorphism", and thus not primary. Tangible objects when juxtaposed and configured together to form physical analogies happen to be continuous simply because reality and our physiology is continuous, and we employ real objects (at least in the mind) when forming analogies. This view may need tweaking, but it seems as though the knowledge of such things is present in this forum. What are the thoughts on this? Is this an ongoing point of debate among historians? -paul Paul Fishwick, PhD Chair, ACM SIGSIM Distinguished University Chair of Arts & Technology and Professor of Computer Science Director, Creative Automata Laboratory The University of Texas at Dallas Arts & Technology 800 West Campbell Road, AT10 Richardson, TX 75080-3021 Home: utdallas.edu/atec/fishwick Blog: creative-automata.com

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