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Social Informatics Best Student Paper Award
by Medina, Eden 22 Jun '14

22 Jun '14

Student scholarship on the history of computing is eligible for prize consideration. -- Call for nomination for the 2013 Social Informatics Best Student Paper Award The Special Interest Group for Social Informatics (SIG-SI) and the Rob Kling Center for Social Informatics (RKCSI) are seeking nominations for an award for the best paper written by a doctoral student on a topic informed by social informatics. Nominations may include a published paper in a peer reviewed journal during 2013 or a conference paper presented in 2013. The author or authors will present their paper at the 10th Annual SIG-SI Symposium on Saturday, October 30, 2014<x-apple-data-detectors://9> and receive a $500 cash award at the 2014 Annual Meeting of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) in Seattle in October, 2014. Nominations letters should be sent to Howard Rosenbaum (hrosenba(a)indiana.edu<mailto:hrosenba@indiana.edu><mailto:hrosenba@indiana.edu>) or Pnina Fichman (fichman(a)indiana.edu<mailto:fichman@indiana.edu><mailto:shachaf@indiana.edu>) by August 15, 2014<x-apple-data-detectors://15> and must include a full citation, a brief explanation for the nomination, and a copy of the article. Self nominations are acceptable. Winners will be notified by August 30, 2014<x-apple-data-detectors://16>. For more information about the Special Interest Group for Social Informatics (SIG-SI): http://asistsigsi.wordpress.com<http://asistsigsi.wordpress.com/> For more information about the Rob Kling Center for Social Informatics (RKCSI): http://rkcsi.indiana.edu<http://rkcsi.indiana.edu/> -- Eden Medina Associate Professor of Informatics and Computing Director, Rob Kling Center for Social Informatics Adjunct Associate Professor of History School of Informatics and Computing Indiana University, Bloomington edenm(a)indiana.edu<mailto:edenm@indiana.edu> www.edenmedina.com<http://www.edenmedina.com> On leave 2013-2014 @ Yale Law School Sent from my iPad

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Honor thy Fathers Correctly
by Edgar Daylight 19 Jun '14

19 Jun '14

Dear All, Lipton's very popular blog contains a recent post on history: Honor Thy Fathers Correctly I think this discussion could be of some interest to some of us. best wishes, Edgar

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2014 CHM Fellows
by Dag Spicer 11 Jun '14

11 Jun '14

Dear friends, Here is a new blog out today on CHM’s Class of 2014 Fellows: http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/the-2014-computer-history-museum-fello… CHM Fellows are special people who have created new technologies and approaches to computing, from the dawn of the computer age to modern microprocessors. It’s really a remarkable group and I hope you enjoy hearing about their innovations in their own words. Whether you know it or not, they have shaped your world! Nominations for CHM’s 2015 Fellows open June 24. SIGCIS members are *especially* encouraged to apply. I will send out a reminder on that date. 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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Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Alan Turing as gay icon
by geoghegb＠cms.hu-berlin.de 06 Jun '14

06 Jun '14

Hi Sigcis, I concur with Paul. Turing's fear of being thought of as a gay man is alluded to in the letter below, which I've copied and pasted from http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/06/yours-in-distress-alan.html . It suggests his fear that his professional credibility would collapse if his sexual identity became public knowledge. As an aside, I think I read something in archival correspondences -- maybe among Norbert Wiener and Warren McCulloch? -- suggesting that suspicions about Walter Pitts' sexual orientation (among other issues) likewise threatened his employability. In case I'm confabulating, don't quote me on that though... Best, Bernard Turing wrote the following letter in 1952 to his friend and fellow mathematician, Norman Routledge, shortly before pleading guilty. (Source: Alan Turing: The Enigma - The Centenary Edition; Image: Alan Turing, via.) My dear Norman, I don't think I really do know much about jobs, except the one I had during the war, and that certainly did not involve any travelling. I think they do take on conscripts. It certainly involved a good deal of hard thinking, but whether you'd be interested I don't know. Philip Hall was in the same racket and on the whole, I should say, he didn't care for it. However I am not at present in a state in which I am able to concentrate well, for reasons explained in the next paragraph. I've now got myself into the kind of trouble that I have always considered to be quite a possibility for me, though I have usually rated it at about 10:1 against. I shall shortly be pleading guilty to a charge of sexual offences with a young man. The story of how it all came to be found out is a long and fascinating one, which I shall have to make into a short story one day, but haven't the time to tell you now. No doubt I shall emerge from it all a different man, but quite who I've not found out. Glad you enjoyed broadcast. Jefferson certainly was rather disappointing though. I'm afraid that the following syllogism may be used by some in the future. Turing believes machines think Turing lies with men Therefore machines do not think Yours in distress, Alan Dr. Bernard Dionysius Geoghegan Institut für Kulturwissenschaft Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin www.bernardg.com On Jun 5, 2014, at 4:01 PM, Paul N. Edwards wrote: I expect “openly gay,” with all the implications that phrase carries today, is an anachronistic label -- not an accurate description of Turing’s public persona, nor truly of his private one either. Paul On Jun 5, 2014, at 0:36 , Thomas Haigh <thaigh(a)computer.org> wrote: My initial guess was that this was an anachronism. Hodge's book Alan Turing: The Enigma appeared in hardcover late 1983, and one might expect it to have taken a while to spread far into popular awareness or to have its rather complex narrative reduced to "won World War II." The Turing play "Breaking the Code" was not written until 1986. That did a huge amount to boost Turing's public profile, at least in the UK. However, the Amazon "search inside the book" finds a line of this kind in a recent reissue of The Normal Heart script and a 2000 volume combining it with the sequel. It is of course possible that the play was revised from its original 1985 version, which is not searchable online. So apparently Kramer was a pioneer in taking the complex portrait of Turing given in the Hodges biography, which I believe was widely reviewed on its initial release, and turning it into the slogan that "it was an openly gay Englishman who was as responsible as any man for winning he Second World War." Kramer continues, "His name was Alan Turing and he cracked the Germans' Enigma code so the Allies knew in advance what the Nazis were going to do--and when the war was over he committed suicide he was so hounded for being gay." That would be an important passage in a history of Turing in popular memory, which would be a great dissertation topic for someone. Tom -----Original Message----- From: members-bounces(a)sigcis.org [mailto:members-bounces@sigcis.org] On Behalf Of Janet Abbate Sent: Wednesday, June 04, 2014 4:42 PM To: sigcis Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Alan Turing as gay icon Did anyone catch the shout-out to Alan Turing in the HBO AIDS-themed movie "The Normal Heart"? The main character rants, "A gay man won World War II! They should teach that in schools." I wonder if that was actually the image of Turing in 1985 (when the original play was written) or something they added later for the movie? (I mean that he won WWII, not that he was gay.) Dr. Janet Abbate Associate Professor, Science & Technology in Society Co-director, National Capital Region STS program Virginia Tech www.sts.vt.edu/ncr www.linkedin.com/groups/STS-Virginia-Tech-4565055 www.facebook.com/VirginiaTechSTS _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members(a)sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ and you can change your subscription options at http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members(a)sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ and you can change your subscription options at http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members ___________________________ Paul N. Edwards Professor of Information and History, University of Michigan A Vast Machine: Computer Models, Climate Data, and the Politics of Global Warming (MIT Press, 2010) Terse replies are deliberate (and better than nothing) University of Michigan School of Information 3439 North Quad 105 S. State Street Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1285 (734) 764-2617 (office) (206) 337-1523 (fax) pne.people.si.umich.edu _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members(a)sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ and you can change your subscription options at http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members

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Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Members Digest, Vol 48, Issue 3
by Dag Spicer 05 Jun '14

05 Jun '14

>From Hodges and other sources, I would say that AT was open about being gay. Texts from his co-workers (usually women) are quite clear many people knew he was gay… there’s a wonderful line in the movie Breaking the Code in which AT’s boss, Dilly Knox, asks Turing to tone down his relations with a particular young man at Blecthley. Knox himself was gay: "Alan, such things [gay relations] are best kept as a dimly-remembered memory.” One is struck, as with a hammer, at the emotional pain and resignation of being gay during this time… winked at among close friends, but career-ending at a higher level. 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 On Jun 5, 2014, at 11:47 AM, members-request(a)sigcis.org<mailto:members-request@sigcis.org> wrote: Send Members mailing list submissions to members(a)sigcis.org<mailto:members@sigcis.org> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to members-request(a)sigcis.org You can reach the person managing the list at members-owner(a)sigcis.org When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Members digest..." Today's Topics: 1. Re: Alan Turing as gay icon (Ceruzzi, Paul) 2. Re: Alan Turing as gay icon (geoghegb(a)cms.hu-berlin.de) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Thu, 5 Jun 2014 15:20:39 +0000 From: "Ceruzzi, Paul" <CeruzziP(a)si.edu> To: "'Paul N. Edwards'" <pne(a)umich.edu>, sigcis <members(a)sigcis.org> Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Alan Turing as gay icon Message-ID: <447612405A15694BAA260AEC80EB05392C13616B(a)SI-MSEDAG01.US.SINET.SI.EDU> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" My question was: if Turing lived to the modern era, what would he have thought about decrypting Angela Merkel's phone conversations? What do we think of modern-day disciples of Turing who do this? The late Thomas Hughes spoke of "technological momentum": that an organization learns to do things a certain way, and they continue to do that. GCHQ had this tradition of intercepting German telecommunications that endured through many changes of government, boundaries, hot and cold wars, peace, etc. It even goes back to the Zimmermann telegram of 1917. http://hnn.us/article/155699 I know that this is not on the topic of Turing's sexual orientation, but to me this is an equally-significant topic that we ought to be examining. Paul Ceruzzi From: members-bounces(a)sigcis.org [mailto:members-bounces@sigcis.org] On Behalf Of Paul N. Edwards Sent: Thursday, June 05, 2014 10:01 AM To: sigcis Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Alan Turing as gay icon I expect "openly gay," with all the implications that phrase carries today, is an anachronistic label -- not an accurate description of Turing's public persona, nor truly of his private one either. Paul On Jun 5, 2014, at 0:36 , Thomas Haigh <thaigh(a)computer.org<mailto:thaigh@computer.org>> wrote: My initial guess was that this was an anachronism. Hodge's book Alan Turing: The Enigma appeared in hardcover late 1983, and one might expect it to have taken a while to spread far into popular awareness or to have its rather complex narrative reduced to "won World War II." The Turing play "Breaking the Code" was not written until 1986. That did a huge amount to boost Turing's public profile, at least in the UK. However, the Amazon "search inside the book" finds a line of this kind in a recent reissue of The Normal Heart script and a 2000 volume combining it with the sequel. It is of course possible that the play was revised from its original 1985 version, which is not searchable online. So apparently Kramer was a pioneer in taking the complex portrait of Turing given in the Hodges biography, which I believe was widely reviewed on its initial release, and turning it into the slogan that "it was an openly gay Englishman who was as responsible as any man for winning he Second World War." Kramer continues, "His name was Alan Turing and he cracked the Germans' Enigma code so the Allies knew in advance what the Nazis were going to do--and when the war was over he committed suicide he was so hounded for being gay." That would be an important passage in a history of Turing in popular memory, which would be a great dissertation topic for someone. Tom -----Original Message----- From: members-bounces(a)sigcis.org<mailto:members-bounces@sigcis.org> [mailto:members-bounces@sigcis.org] On Behalf Of Janet Abbate Sent: Wednesday, June 04, 2014 4:42 PM To: sigcis Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Alan Turing as gay icon Did anyone catch the shout-out to Alan Turing in the HBO AIDS-themed movie "The Normal Heart"? The main character rants, "A gay man won World War II! They should teach that in schools." I wonder if that was actually the image of Turing in 1985 (when the original play was written) or something they added later for the movie? (I mean that he won WWII, not that he was gay.) Dr. Janet Abbate Associate Professor, Science & Technology in Society Co-director, National Capital Region STS program Virginia Tech www.sts.vt.edu/ncr<http://www.sts.vt.edu/ncr> www.linkedin.com/groups/STS-Virginia-Tech-4565055<http://www.linkedin.com/groups/STS-Virginia-Tech-4565055> www.facebook.com/VirginiaTechSTS<http://www.facebook.com/VirginiaTechSTS> _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members(a)sigcis.org<mailto:members@sigcis.org>, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ and you can change your subscription options at http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members _______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members(a)sigcis.org<mailto:members@sigcis.org>, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ and you can change your subscription options at http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members ___________________________ Paul N. Edwards Professor of Information<http://www.si.umich.edu/> and History<http://www.lsa.umich.edu/history/>, University of Michigan A Vast Machine: Computer Models, Climate Data, and the Politics of Global Warming<http://pne.people.si.umich.edu/vastmachine/index.html> (MIT Press, 2010) Terse replies are deliberate<http://five.sentenc.es/> (and better than nothing) University of Michigan School of Information<http://www.si.umich.edu/> 3439 North Quad 105 S. State Street Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1285 (734) 764-2617 (office) (206) 337-1523 (fax) pne.people.si.umich.edu<http://pne.people.si.umich.edu>

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Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Alan Turing as gay icon
by Andrew Meade McGee 05 Jun '14

05 Jun '14

This is a thought-provoking thread, in both of its directions: changing perceptions of Turing as individual (sexuality, wartime significance, the resurgence of popular awareness of him in recent years) and contested meanings of his legacy as a figure in modem information history (a phenomenon inextricably tied to surveillance). I'd add to Paul C.'s mention of Hughes' thought; when it comes to information technology in organizations, especially those in the public sector, you also have to consider the ways "technological momentum" and frequently ill-defined policy agendas reinforce one another in a feedback loop. Government agencies accumulate and process information not just because it's what they've always done, but because doing so frequently seems to fulfill the nebulous policy directives of agency higher-ups, elected officials, and even the populace at large. You have a mandate to "get the Terrorists/Communists/Anarchists" and no one closely questions how you do it in time of panic or popular outrage, when outcome matters more than process. By the time anyone asks questions, the expanded prerogative practices have embedded themselves and it takes considerable effort to root them out. It doesn't even require national security conditions -- you get a call for increased efficiency in government operations (say from a President desperate to squeeze spending margins, like in the late '60s, or an insurgent Congress, in the mid '90s) and you get vague policy goals merging with entrenched information technologies. Anyways, all of these topics are compelling and I'm glad to see the list discussing them. Off on a tangent, Andrew On Thu, Jun 5, 2014 at 11:20 AM, Ceruzzi, Paul <CeruzziP(a)si.edu> wrote: > My question was: if Turing lived to the modern era, what would he have > thought about decrypting Angela Merkel’s phone conversations? What do we > think of modern-day disciples of Turing who do this? The late Thomas Hughes > spoke of “technological momentum”: that an organization learns to do things > a certain way, and they continue to do that. GCHQ had this tradition of > intercepting German telecommunications that endured through many changes of > government, boundaries, hot and cold wars, peace, etc. It even goes back to > the Zimmermann telegram of 1917. > > http://hnn.us/article/155699 > > > > I know that this is not on the topic of Turing’s sexual orientation, but > to me this is an equally-significant topic that we ought to be examining. > > > > Paul Ceruzzi > > > > *From:* members-bounces(a)sigcis.org [mailto:members-bounces@sigcis.org] *On > Behalf Of *Paul N. Edwards > *Sent:* Thursday, June 05, 2014 10:01 AM > *To:* sigcis > *Subject:* Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Alan Turing as gay icon > > > > I expect “openly gay,” with all the implications that phrase carries > today, is an anachronistic label -- not an accurate description of Turing’s > public persona, nor truly of his private one either. > > > > Paul > > > > > > On Jun 5, 2014, at 0:36 , Thomas Haigh <thaigh(a)computer.org> wrote: > > > > My initial guess was that this was an anachronism. Hodge's book Alan > Turing: > The Enigma appeared in hardcover late 1983, and one might expect it to have > taken a while to spread far into popular awareness or to have its rather > complex narrative reduced to "won World War II." The Turing play "Breaking > the Code" was not written until 1986. That did a huge amount to boost > Turing's public profile, at least in the UK. > > However, the Amazon "search inside the book" finds a line of this kind in a > recent reissue of The Normal Heart script and a 2000 volume combining it > with the sequel. It is of course possible that the play was revised from > its > original 1985 version, which is not searchable online. > > So apparently Kramer was a pioneer in taking the complex portrait of Turing > given in the Hodges biography, which I believe was widely reviewed on its > initial release, and turning it into the slogan that "it was an openly gay > Englishman who was as responsible as any man for winning he Second World > War." Kramer continues, "His name was Alan Turing and he cracked the > Germans' Enigma code so the Allies knew in advance what the Nazis were > going > to do--and when the war was over he committed suicide he was so hounded for > being gay." > > That would be an important passage in a history of Turing in popular > memory, > which would be a great dissertation topic for someone. > > Tom > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: members-bounces(a)sigcis.org [mailto:members-bounces@sigcis.org > <members-bounces(a)sigcis.org>] On > Behalf Of Janet Abbate > Sent: Wednesday, June 04, 2014 4:42 PM > To: sigcis > Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Alan Turing as gay icon > > Did anyone catch the shout-out to Alan Turing in the HBO AIDS-themed movie > "The Normal Heart"? The main character rants, "A gay man won World War II! > They should teach that in schools." > > I wonder if that was actually the image of Turing in 1985 (when the > original > play was written) or something they added later for the movie? (I mean that > he won WWII, not that he was gay.) > > > Dr. Janet Abbate > Associate Professor, Science & Technology in Society Co-director, National > Capital Region STS program Virginia Tech www.sts.vt.edu/ncr > www.linkedin.com/groups/STS-Virginia-Tech-4565055 > www.facebook.com/VirginiaTechSTS > > > > _______________________________________________ > This email is relayed from members(a)sigcis.org, the email discussion list > of > SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ > and you can change your subscription options at > http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members > > _______________________________________________ > This email is relayed from members(a)sigcis.org, the email discussion list > of SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at > http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ and you can change your subscription > options at http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members > > > > ___________________________ > > > > Paul N. Edwards > > Professor of Information <http://www.si.umich.edu/> and History > <http://www.lsa.umich.edu/history/>, University of Michigan > > A Vast Machine: Computer Models, Climate Data, and the Politics of Global > Warming <http://pne.people.si.umich.edu/vastmachine/index.html> (MIT > Press, 2010) > > > > Terse replies are deliberate <http://five.sentenc.es/> (and better than > nothing) > > University of Michigan School of Information <http://www.si.umich.edu/> > > 3439 North Quad > > 105 S. State Street > Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1285 > > (734) 764-2617 (office) > > (206) 337-1523 (fax) > > pne.people.si.umich.edu > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > This email is relayed from members(a)sigcis.org, the email discussion list > of SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at > http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ and you can change your subscription > options at http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members >

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Alan Turing as gay icon
by Janet Abbate 05 Jun '14

05 Jun '14

Did anyone catch the shout-out to Alan Turing in the HBO AIDS-themed movie "The Normal Heart"? The main character rants, "A gay man won World War II! They should teach that in schools." I wonder if that was actually the image of Turing in 1985 (when the original play was written) or something they added later for the movie? (I mean that he won WWII, not that he was gay.) Dr. Janet Abbate Associate Professor, Science & Technology in Society Co-director, National Capital Region STS program Virginia Tech www.sts.vt.edu/ncr www.linkedin.com/groups/STS-Virginia-Tech-4565055 www.facebook.com/VirginiaTechSTS

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Conf. on History of Computing in Central & Eastern Europe
by Petri Paju 05 Jun '14

05 Jun '14

Hello all, Below you can find information of a forthcoming meeting and related network in what used to be called Eastern Europe (by the West at least), so probably something not too well known. I haven't been to the previous conferences (this one is 8th!) but the venue in Szeged, Hungary is their relatively new IT history museum there. Best wishes, Petri Subject: [IT STAR-WS 8] History of Computing IT STAR Information Release The Program Committee of the forthcoming 8th WS on History of Computing (19 September 2014 in Szeged, Hungary) is pleased to announce its advanced program at http://www.starbus.org/ws8 with accepted presentations and links to abstracts and profiles of the authors and speakers. We look forward to an exceptional event focusing on ICT developments in Central, Eastern and Southern Europe, starting in the 1940s. Among our speakers are computer pioneers who will share personal remembrances of the early days of computing. The function of ICT museums will be considered and an overview of IBM's role in Central and Eastern Europe will be discussed. The post-conference book will be published within the IT STAR Series. Check http://www.starbus.org/ws8 for details and for our regular updates. In this vein, the Summer issue of IT STAR's Newsletter is coming up shortly at http://nl.starbus.org<http://nl.starbus.org/> with an article on ICT developments in the Soviet Union, and references to the accomplishment of such iconic personalities as Bruk, Lebedev, Rameev, Keldysh, Kitov and Dorodnitsyn! Keep this on your radar screen, and join us for this Journey! Plamen Nedkov Moderator of the 8th WS on History of Computing & Chief Executive, IT STAR - http://www.itstar.eu <http://www.itstar.eu/>Email: nedkov(a)utanet.at<mailto:nedkov@utanet.at> Tel. +43 2252 254004

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Research Studentship
by Blyth Tilly 02 Jun '14

02 Jun '14

*****Apologies for cross posting****** An AHRC-funded Collaborative PhD Award with the University of Manchester and the Science Museum/BT Archives 'Research is the Door to Tomorrow': The Post Office Research Station, Dollis Hill, c.1935-1970 ** Re-advertisement: closing date 20 June 2014 ** Have you completed or are you close to completing a Master's degree in History of Science and Technology, Modern History or a related field? Are you interested in twentieth century history and the role that technological R&D played in it? Do you enjoy investigating the personal stories and histories behind major developments? Would you relish the opportunity to work within a national museum? Then this could be the project for you! Applications are invited for an AHRC-funded PhD studentship on the mid-twentieth century history of the UK's Post Office Research Station at Dollis Hill, London. The studentship will commence in September 2014, and is tenable for three years' full-time study. Owned and managed by the General Post Office, the UK's largest state bureaucracy in the twentieth century, Dollis Hill was one of the government's most important research establishments in electrical engineering, telecommunications and computing. By the late 1930s, it had an international reputation in an extensive network of telecommunications research, testing and manufacturing facilities encompassing other state civil and military establishments, research associations and industry. With privileged access to the rich collections of the Science Museum and BT Archives this project will explore the institution's organisational development, its technical work and its changing relationship with the state and other institutions from the mid-1930s through WW2, the post-war years and the Cold War up to the 1960s.It will also consider the social history of the station, exploring the hierarchies within the organisation, informal and formal methods for building and sharing knowledge and the day-to-day experiences of life at Dollis Hill. There is significant scope for the student undertaking this project to develop their own thematic and empirical interests, but among the relevant topics that might be covered are: the mobilisation of Dollis Hill for war work on radio and electronic computers for codebreaking during WW2; the development of submarine cable and repeater technology, culminating in the transatlantic submarine telephone cable in 1956; the development of microwave radio relay transmitters and the establishment's work on the Goonhilly satellite ground station; and the beginnings of fibre optics. Cutting across all these topics, the project will analyse Dollis Hill as a deep reservoir of skilled practice: its labs and workshops maintained huge expertise on materials and production processes - initially valves and crystals, later semiconductors and transistors. It will also explore the ways in which Dollis Hill was central to the British state's role as a provider of communications infrastructure both for public use, for governmental and national security purposes and as international interests came into play. The rich sources for the project include the BT Archives with their extensive Post Office records, the telecommunications collections of the Science Museum and the National Archives at Kew. There is also significant scope for oral history work with former Dollis Hill employees. This PhD studentship will be held at the University of Manchester's Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine, which is internationally recognised for its work on the history of modern and contemporary science, technology and medicine (see http://www.chstm.manchester.ac.uk/) It will cover university fees at UK/EU rates, and provide a living allowance subject to the AHRC's residency requirements. The supervisors are Dr Jeff Hughes (CHSTM, Manchester) and Dr Tilly Blyth (Science Museum, London). The studentship is the second of three linked PhDs mapping Post Office research in the twentieth century under the overall title '"Research is the door to tomorrow": the networks and culture of the Post Office Research Stations, Dollis Hill and Martlesham, c. 1910-1983'. The first (on early 20th century Post Office research, based at the University of Leeds) commenced in September 2013. This, and the third (on Dollis Hill's later career and that of its successor institution, Martlesham Heath, based at UCL) will commence in September 2014. The project is supported by the Science Museum's Collaborative Doctoral Partnership scheme, in conjunction with BT Archives. Candidates should have a strong Master's degree in History of Science, Technology and Medicine, Science Studies or a related subject. Application is by sending 1) a CV 2) a sample of writing and 3) a covering letter outlining reasons for application to jeff.hughes(a)manchester.ac.uk by 20 June 2014. Potential applicants may contact Dr Jeff Hughes (jeff.hughes(a)manchester.ac.uk) for further information and informal discussion. Dr Tilly Blyth Keeper of Technologies and Engineering Science Museum Exhibition Road London SW7 2DD This e-mail and attachments are intended for the named addressee only and are confidential. If you have received this e-mail in error please notify the sender immediately, delete the message from your computer system and destroy any copies. Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender and may not reflect the views of the Science Museum Group. This email has been scanned for all viruses by the MessageLabs Email Security System.

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Donald Knuth's 7 May 2014 lecture
by Len Shustek 01 Jun '14

01 Jun '14

The video of Knuth's 2014 Kailath Lecture, which has been much discussed here, is now online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAXdDEQveKw -- Len

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