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New sources in Russian/Soviet-era semiconductor history
by Dag Spicer 18 Oct '13

18 Oct '13

Dear SIGCIS Friends, I'm delighted to report that CHM has today published a series of oral histories of Soviet-era semiconductor pioneers. The interviews were conducted by CHM staff and have been translated from the Russian and transcribed for maximum usefulness. The people interviewed represent the cream of the Soviet semiconductor establishment and include a Nobel Prize winner and a Lenin Prize winner. Here is the series description: These oral histories of Russian pioneers in microelectronics and computing technology offer a unique and fascinating insight into the development of these fields behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War and later. You can understand the mindset and outlook of those who helped lead these fields. For those in the west, it provides tremendous insight into the operations of the Soviet technical establishment, including how they viewed the west, and the US in particular, their dedication and allegiance to the Soviet system, the problems and challenges they had to deal with, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the Soviet “top down” system, vs. the free market system in the U.S. Included in their interviews is an in-depth view of how decisions were made, how the scientists regarded the US, and how they viewed their own country. These men worked extremely hard, were dedicated to serving their country above their careers, and made tremendous, often unappreciated, contributions to technology. There are even direct and personal comments about their knowledge of, and relationship with, two American defectors in the 1950s, Joel Barr and Alfred Sarant, who were known as Joseph Berg and Philip Staros, respectively within Russia. Beyond the Cold War, the interviews tell the tale of the wrenching changes induced by the fall of the Soviet Union, the resulting impact on the personal lives and technology development in Russia, and how they have slowly adapted to a totally different market and political reality. Together, these interviews confirm some commonly held views of the Soviet system, while turning others on their head. A must read for anyone interested in the true story of how Russian technology developed and evolved over the past 70 years. To access these oral histories, go here: http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102746740 Best wishes, Dag -- Dag Spicer Senior Curator Computer History Museum 1401 N. Shoreline Blvd Mountain View, CA 94043 650.810.1035 direct 650.810.1055 fax Follow Us: CHM Blog I Facebook I Twitter I YouTube

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opportunity to reach a wide audience
by Jonathan Coopersmith 18 Oct '13

18 Oct '13

The major problems with the Obamacare and, less reported (but no less anguished if you are a high school senior or parent of one)Common Application websites offer an opportunity for an op-ed via History News Service (http://historynewsservice.org/submission-guidelines/)or History News Network (http://hnn.us/submissions.html) to reach a wider audience than we normally find. What perspective could a historian of computing offer on these semi-failures (and possibly similar online fiascoes)? What guidance or commentary could help shape public and policy reactions? Take advantage of this post-shutdown opportunity. Jonathan -- Jonathan Coopersmith Associate Professor Department of History Texas A&M University College Station, TX 77843-4326 979.845.7151 979.862.4314 fax http://aggiegaijin.blogspot.com/

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CFP for "Why Things Matter" at Cal State Fullerton
by Thomas Haigh 18 Oct '13

18 Oct '13

[I just found this CFP posted as a comment on the SIGCIS.org web page describing our email list! Obviously some people don't understand how the archaic technology of the listserv works (or in our case, sometimes works) but fortunately the call is still timely. Tom] Dear all, Just a note to let you know that I am organizing a material culture confernece at California State University Fullerton March 6-8 2014. I wanted to draw this research community's attention to our call for papers. We would very much like some participation from historians of the computer. Why Things Matter 6-8 March 2014 California State University Fullerton Over the last twenty years the interest in things has increased. This material turn has explored the social life of things, the way things and society are co-produced and even the degree to which subject-object dualisms can be broken down entirely. More recently anthropologists and archeologists such as Ian Hodder, have criticized these studies for not going far enough, arguing that the approach to things across the academy is still too much concerned with what things can do for humans in society, their symbolism, their efficiency in performing a particular task, or its material links to actor networks. For the "Why Things Matter" conference we invite potential participants to propose short papers that will attempt to look even more closely at things themselves, to try and see the thing itself and its multiple connections. For example we are interested in papers that reflect on:. . The dependencies of things both on people and on other things . . Transformations of things and how these changes may impinge on human experience. The time scales of things particularly compared to human life; some things endure well beyond human experience, others are so transitory that we hardly notice them. . The way thingness can be hidden as when things like window panes or screens are invisible because we look through and not at them . . Different ways of conceptualizing things from Entanglement to ANT to SCOT. . Things in the formation and development of the human mind. Potential topics include:. The landscape. The extended mind. The artefact. Natural things. Intangible things . Abstracts of no more than 200 words should be submitted by 15 December 2013. Inquiries and submissions should be sent to the organizers. . Emily Miller Bonney Associate Professor Liberal Studies California State University Fullerton ebonney(a)fullerton.edu . Kevin Lambert Associate Professor Liberal Studies California State University Fullerton klambert(a)fullerton.edu

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Test - please ignore
by Subramanian, Ramesh Prof. 17 Oct '13

17 Oct '13

Hate to do this, but I have been unable to send mail to this group... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ramesh Subramanian, Ph.D. Gabriel Ferrucci Professor of Computer Information Systems Quinnipiac University Hamden, CT 06518. Phone: 203-582-5276 Email: ramesh.subramanian(a)quinnipiac.edu<mailto:ramesh.subramanian@quinnipiac.edu> Web: Ramesh Subramanian's web page<http://www.quinnipiac.edu/about/directory/faculty-detail?Dept=16&Person=233…> & Visiting Fellow, Information Society Project Yale Law School New Haven, CT 06511 Email: ramesh.subramanian(a)yale.edu<mailto:ramesh.subramanian@yale.edu> Web: http://www.law.yale.edu/intellectuallife/9841.htm "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated" Mahatma Gandhi

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Announcing my book
by Armand Van Dormael 17 Oct '13

17 Oct '13

Hello, My book Europe A 2000-Year Chronicle is now available on Amazon. Best regards, Armand Van Dormael

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Fwd: [with] Berkshire Women's History Conference 2014
by Marie Hicks 15 Oct '13

15 Oct '13

Hi all-- Great to see so many of you at SHOT. I wanted to pass along the following (time-sensitive!) info just in case it hadn't been posted to the list yet, or if there are folks with a last-minute interest in submitting proposals: There is a great conference at Virginia Tech on Gender and Technology that's been going on since 2007 (I think). It happens May 1-3, 2013: http://www.cpe.vt.edu/gbt/proposals.html Unfortunately, the deadline for proposals is TODAY. I am planning to submit and would be happy to give a nod to other related paper proposals in my proposal for possible agglomeration into a panel--it doesn't look like there's a way to submit whole panels. My paper will look at media technologies and building infrastructure technologies to talk about discourse and embodiment. I am interested in unpacking how technologies of infrastructure historically construct gendered, sexualized bodies through looking at transgender bathroom projects and discussing how these can be put in historical context and used as teaching tools to get at a variety of other issues. Here's a little bit of background: http://mariehicks.net/blog/?p=321 I've pasted the CFP below. Best, Marie ______________________ Marie Hicks, Ph.D. Asst. Professor, History of Technology Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago, IL USA mhicks1(a)iit.edu | mariehicks.net | @histoftech ______________________________________________________ Call for Proposals Proposals are invited for the third biannual interdisciplinary conference: "Gender, Bodies & Technology: Performing the Human," May 1-3, 2014 The Inn at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia Sponsored by the Women's and Gender Studies Program at Virginia Tech Proposal Deadline: October 15, 2013 Gender, Bodies, & Technology is an initiative within Women’s and Gender Studies at Virginia Tech that aims to creatively and intellectually explore the multiple, proliferating, and gendered dimensions of technologized bodies and embodied technologies. Through our initiative and biannual conference, we seek to demonstrate, theorize, and perform the discursive and material nodes around which gender, bodies, and technology both cohere and fracture: how, for example, do the specter and reality of transvaginal ultrasounds index a historically specific female body? What is the relationship between expanded combat roles for female soldiers and the U.S. military’s escalating use of “unmanned” drone warcraft? How should we interpret airport body scanners and restroom architecture that threaten and displace transgender persons? We invite proposals from scholars in the humanities, social and natural sciences, feminist science studies, visual and performing arts, life sciences, and STEM fields for papers, panels, workshops, new media, art, and performance pieces that explore the intersections of gender, bodies & technology in contexts ranging from classrooms to the military, and from health care to the media. Our confirmed keynote speakers include: Dr. Jennifer Robertson, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Michigan Micha Cardenas, performance artist and media theorist based at the University of Southern California Dr. Shaowen Bardzell, Assistant Professor of Informatics at Indiana University We invite papers, workshops, and panel proposals that address the Gender/Bodies/Technology interface. Though not limited to the following, topics and themes might include: Gender and the technologies of institutions; the reconfiguration of public and private spheres Disability and technologies of expression/representation; enabling and constricting roles of technology The intersectional dimensions of online and digital space; visibility and invisibility issues Feminist appropriations of technology; technology as liberating vs. reifying social force GLBT and queer media Technology and evolution – post- and trans-humanism; bio-cultural change and the gendered dimensions of human plasticity Gender, bodies, and artificial intelligence Gendered technologies of the self; bodies and gender as objects of technological intervention Technological aspects of reproduction and personhood; maternal capacity; neo-eugenics Social and other new media and their relationship to gendered bodies; social media and sexual violence Genetic and other biological imaginaries made available by biotechnology; gender and nanotechnology The GBT configuration in popular media Avatars, augmented and virtual realities, and the promise of genderless bodies Gender as code; gender, bodies, and computation New feminist materialisms; the technological materiality of gender Technological failures; technophobia and gender The (bio)technology of transgender, intersex, and other forms of gender variance Race, ability, class and the politics of visibility in virtual bodies Gender and digital literacy; the gendered natures of technicity, technophilia, and expertise Neuroscience, genomics, and the production of sexual difference Performance, new media and other creative expressions: engaging/enacting/destabilizing conventions of embodiment and technology Gendered innovations in technological design: gendered objects and design Technological production and control of classed, racialized, aged, disabled and gendered bodies New media, digital representation and virtual gendered environments How technology links (embodied) individuals and enacts (gendered) worlds Technologically-mediated warfare, gender, and combat Gender and the “non-human”; robots, animals and environmental expressions of gendered worlds Technologies of development and sustainability; eco- and environmental feminism Activism, participatory decision-making and issues of technological citizenship Our conference theme, “Performing the Human,” is an invitation for embodied creative and intellectual effort. We are committed to complementing traditional paper presentations from the social sciences, STEM, and humanities fields with scholarship and performance from the creative arts. We encourage innovative uses of technology and creative session formats and we welcome early contact by email if space and/or technology requirements might present logistical challenges. Proposals will be reviewed and notification of the outcome will be made by November 15, 2013. For more information or questions please contact: Christine Labuski/GBT Coordinator and Conference Co-Director Women's and Gender Studies Program Department of Sociology Virginia Tech McBryde Hall (0137) Blacksburg, VA, 24061 USA chrislab(a)vt.edu

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Fwd: Understanding technology’s future: Norbert Wiener’s impact today – IEEE conference Call for Papers
by Jonathan Coopersmith 15 Oct '13

15 Oct '13

FYI ----- Forwarded Message ----- From: conference-services(a)ieee.org To: j-coopersmith(a)tamu.edu Sent: Mon, 14 Oct 2013 12:36:24 -0500 (CDT) Subject: Understanding technology’s future: Norbert Wiener’s impact today – IEEE conference Call for Papers Boston 24-26 June, 2014, http://21stcenturywiener.org/ Norbert Wiener is the father of cybernetics, the “cyber” in cyberspace. The 2014 IEEE Conference on Norbert Wiener in the 21st Century will focus on understanding technology’s future through an examination of Wiener’s impact: * Current developments of his research * His foresights regarding today’s technology * Reminiscences of his life. We particularly welcome submission of papers and panel proposals on relevant topics including on the following topics: * Fuzzy sets and modelling, information theory, philosophy, life sciences, interval computation, Brownian motion, analysis under uncertainty, cybernetics and its applications in business, education and society. * Information ethics, technology innovation and economic development, robots and the future of work, cyber warfare and crime, science fiction as social commentary * Reminiscences, history of technology including the internet, technology biography, Wiener’s work in India and China. A history milestone and MIT Tour is planned for Monday 23 June. * Student papers: Best Student Paper Awards will be presented based on both manuscript content and presentation quality. A PhD symposium will be held Monday 23 June. * Professional stream, short papers and posters: We encourage practicing professionals to submit papers reporting on their experiences or as commentaries on practical applications in their field. Confirmed keynotes: social anthropologist Mary Catherine Bateson, cryptographer Bruce Schneier, engineering historian David Mindell; welcome by IEEE 2013 President Dr Peter Staecker. KEY DATES 30 November 2013: Abstracts up to 2 pages / 500 words submitted via web site. 20 February 2014: Full paper deadline. Papers (excluding Professional stream) will be peer reviewed. Full Call for Papers at http://21stcenturywiener.org/call-for-papers-instructions-to-authors-and-st…. Queries to submissions(a)21stcenturywiener.org. Sponsoring and supporting organizations * IEEE Boston Section * SSIT (IEEE Society on Social Implications of Technology) * SMC (IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics) * CSS (IEEE Control Systems Society) * IEEE History Center * NAFIPS (North American Fuzzy Information Processing Society) * ICIE (International Center for Information Ethics) * WOSC (World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics Conference Organizing Committee) * ASC (American Society for Cybernetics) * CSI (Computer Society of India) http://21stcenturywiener.org/ ============================================================ IEEE Society On Social Implications Of Technology <http://www.ieeessit.org/> To unsubscribe from conference eNotices, please visit <https://www.ieee.org/profile/commprefs/showcommPrefpage.html>. If you need assistance with your eNotice subscription, please visit <https://supportcenter.ieee.org/>. ============================================================ IEEE, 445 Hoes Lane, Piscataway, NJ 08854 USA <http://www.ieee.org/> -- Jonathan Coopersmith Associate Professor Department of History Texas A&M University College Station, TX 77843-4326 979.845.7151 979.862.4314 fax http://aggiegaijin.blogspot.com/

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Ada Conference: Registration Closes Tuesday 10/15
by Andrew Russell 14 Oct '13

14 Oct '13

Hi everyone - It was terrific to see many of you in Portland. I'm writing to remind you of the interdisciplinary conference celebrating the achievements and legacy of Ada Lovelace, to be held at Stevens Institute of Technology this Friday, October 18, from 9-6. Stevens is in Hoboken, NJ, directly across the Hudson River from Chelsea and easily accessible by PATH train, bus, or ferry. The conference features a 5 pm keynote address by Valerie Aurora (Ada Initiative), a lunchtime plenary address by Tom Misa (Babbage Institute), and panels on women in computing, steampunk literature, art in the digital world, and Ada in the literary world. If you plan to attend, please register by 5 pm on Tuesday, October 15, to help us plan for food, coffee, etc. For more details please visit http://www.stevens.edu/calconference/. Cheers, Andy --------------------------------------------------------------------- Andrew L. Russell, Ph.D. Director, Program in Science & Technology Studies Assistant Professor, History College of Arts & Letters Stevens Institute of Technology Hoboken, New Jersey 07030

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SIGCIS events at SHOT -- summary
by Thomas Haigh 09 Oct '13

09 Oct '13

Hello SIGCIS members, Here is our traditional roundup of all activities related to SIGCIS or the interests of our community at the forthcoming SHOT meeting in Portland, Maine. We should have particularly good representation this year because the IEEE Annals of the History of Computing is holding its board meeting in conjunction with SHOT. This year SIGCIS has sponsored four panels accepted for the main conference, and is running our usual full day workshop on Sunday. I noticed nine further sessions in the main meeting program with at least one paper directly related to the history of information technology. That all helps to make the history of information technology the largest single area at this years meeting, according to figures presented by SHOT in the draft report we were recently discussing. All details below are taken from the SHOT online program, which at the time of writing does not include room assignments. The paper version distributed when you register should have an updated version. Best wishes, Tom ** SIGCIS Sponsored or Organized Events ** 10. Analog History: The Forgotten Post-WWII World of Analog Computing Friday, 10:30-12:30 Organizer & Commentator: Thomas Haigh (University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee) Chair: JoAnne Yates (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) · David Brock (Chemical Heritage Foundation): Oil Exploration, Automation, and Bits: Pasadena Chemical Instrumentation Firms and the Electronic Computer Industry in the 1950s · David Hemmendinger (Union College): COMIC: An Analog Computer in the Colorant Industry · Chuck House (InnovaScapes Institute): Digitizing Measurements: A Difficult Transition for Instrument Companies? · Peter Sachs Collopy (University of Pennsylvania): Digitizing Video: Synthesis,Computerization, and Experimental Art Other SHOT Panels with Related Materials SIGCIS Lunch, 12:30-2:00 Friday Paid with registration - $26 regular, $13 for graduate students. 17. Gender and Computing: International Perspectives Friday, 2:00-3:30 Organizers: Corinna Schlombs (Rochester Institute of Technology) and Marie Hicks (Illinois Institute of Technology) Chair: Janet Abbate (Virginia Polytechnic Institute) Commentator: Laine Nooney (Stony Brook University) · Corinna Schlombs (Rochester Institute of Technology): Built on the Hands of Women: OfficeAutomation and Womens Work · Marie Hicks (Illinois Institute of Technology ): The Invisible Logic of Technocracy: Feminization, Reskilling, and Governance in British Computing, 19441979 · Helena Durnova (Masaryk University): Did Gender Not Matter? Lives of Prominent Female Programmers in Czechoslovakia 42. The Computational Turn in the Histories of Technology (President's Roundtable) Saturday, 4:00-5:30 Note to attendees: This is a practical workshop on the digital humanities. Please bring a laptop. Organizers: Charles Berret (Columbia University) and Kevin Gotkin (University of Pennsylvania) Panelists: · Charles Berret (Columbia University) · Kevin Gotkin (University of Pennsylvania) 47. Gaming the History of Technology Saturday, 4:00-5:30 Organizer: Laine Nooney (Stony Brook University) and Jacob Gaboury (New York University) Chair: Marie Hicks (Illinois Institute of Technology) Commentator: TBA · Jacob Gaboury (New York University) [Robinson Prize Candidate]: Image Objects: Early Experiments in 3D Computer Graphics · Laine Nooney (Stony Brook University): Competition or Camaraderie? A Cultural History of the Early 1980s West Coast Microcomputer Game Software Industry · Raiford Guins (Stony Brook University): Design and Designation: The History of a Curious Appellation for an Analog Computer Tennis Simulation (Or, How Brookhaven National Laboratorys Tennis Programming No. EH19001-3 aka Tennis for Two Got Its Name) ** 2013 SIGCIS Workshop, All Day Sunday ** Theme: Old Ideas: Recomputing the History of Information Technology Full details at www.sigcis.org/workshop13. Kennebec Room (all plenary events held here) Lincoln Room 9:00 - 10:30 <http://www.sigcis.org/node/381#opening> Opening Plenary * Introduction to Workshop and of Keynote Speaker by Thomas Haigh, University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee (SIGCIS Chair & workshop organizer) * Keynote Address, William Aspray, University of Texas at Austin, In Search of the Many Histories of Information 10:30-11:00 Coffee Break Including presentation of the Computer History Museum Prize, by Jonathan Coopersmith, Texas A&M University, to the author of an outstanding book on the history of computing, broadly conceived. 11:00-12:30 <http://www.sigcis.org/node/381#newwine> New Wine in Old Bottles? Tensions Between Computer Science and Traditional Disciplines Organizer: Janet Abbate, Virginia Tech Chair: Chuck House, InnovaScapes Institute Commentator: Joseph November, University of South Carolina * Janet Abbate, Virginia Tech, <http://www.sigcis.org/node/381#abbate> Old Disciplines and New Infrastructures: Constructing Computer Science in the 1960s * Pierre Mounier-Kuhn, CNRS & Université Paris-Sorbonne, <http://www.sigcis.org/node/381#kuhn> Une Science Encore Incertaine: The Emergence of Computer Science in France (1955-2000) * Irina Nikiforova, Higher School of Economics (Saint-Petersburg), <http://www.sigcis.org/node/381#nikiforova> "Competing Visions of New Science: Computer Science Journals in the US and Russia, 1945-1970" (3x20 minute presentations followed by a 10-15 minute comment and general discussion) <http://www.sigcis.org/node/381#oldideas> Old Ideas on Control and Communication Chair: James Gallo, Science & Technology Policy Institute Commentator: John Laprise, Northwestern University in Qatar * Julie Cohn, University of Houston, <http://www.sigcis.org/node/381#cohn> The old was analog. The new was digital: transitions from the analog to the digital domain in electric power systems. * Christopher Leslie, New York University, <http://www.sigcis.org/node/381#leslie> A Missing Link: Placing International Teleprinter Networks into the Prehistory of the Internet * Joy Rankin, Yale University, <http://www.sigcis.org/node/381#rankin> The Time-Sharing Movement: Building Educational Computing Networks in Minnesota 1965-75 (3x20 minute presentations followed by a 10-15 minute comment and general discussion) 12:30-2:00 Lunch with IEEE History Committee Details to be announced, and will be added here. 2:00-3:50 <http://www.sigcis.org/node/381#workin> Work in Progress Session Leader: Andrew Russell, Stevens Institute of Technology * Bernadette Longo, New Jersey Institute of Technology, <http://www.sigcis.org/node/381#longo> Giant Brains, or Machines That Think." Book chapter in progress ( <http://www.sigcis.org/files/ws2013Longo.pdf> fullext online here). * Trevor Croker, Virginia Tech, <http://www.sigcis.org/node/381#croker> Cloud Computing and the Physicality of the Internet. Dissertation in progress ( <http://www.sigcis.org/files/ws2013Croker.pdf> fulltext online here). * Jacob Gaboury, New York University, <http://www.sigcis.org/node/381#gaboury> Image Objects: Computer Graphics at the University of Utah Dissertation chapter in progress ( <http://www.sigcis.org/files/ws2013Gaboury_Text.pdf> text online here, figures in <http://www.sigcis.org/files/ws2013Gaboury_SmallFigures.pdf> low (2MB) and <http://www.sigcis.org/files/ws2013Gaboury_Figures.pdf> high (13MB) quality). * Thomas Haigh, University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee, <http://www.sigcis.org/node/381#haigh> "Actually, Turing Didn't Invent the Computer." Column in progress for Communications of the ACM ( <http://www.sigcis.org/files/ws2013Haigh.pdf> text online here). (Short presentations, approx 5 minutes each, to introduce precirculated papers, to be discussed in turn by workshop participants) <http://www.sigcis.org/node/381#oldideas2> Old Ideas and New Technologies Chair: Lars Heide, Copenhagen Business School Commentator: Steven W. Usselman, Georgia Tech * Barbara Hahn, Texas Tech University, <http://www.sigcis.org/node/381#hahn> Punch Cards and Industrial Control: Old Devices with New Relevance * Mary E. Hopper, Digital Den Inc., <http://www.sigcis.org/node/381#hopper> Wisdom from Athena: A Paradigm for Precognition * Rebecca Elizabeth Skinner, <http://www.sigcis.org/node/381#skinner> The Impasse and the Breakthrough: The Pregnant Pause of the early 1950s, and the Birth of Artificial Intelligence Computing * Ulf Hashagen, Deutsches Museum, (Withdrawn) (4x20 minute presentations followed by a 10-15 minute comment and general discussion) 3:40-4:15 Coffee Break 4:15-5:45 <http://www.sigcis.org/node/381#anancient> An Ancient Continent as a New Frontier: Discovering that Computing has a History in Asia (Closing Plenary) Chair:Jeffrey Yost, University of Minnesota (Charles Babbage Institute) Commentator: James W. Cortada, University of Minnesota (Charles Babbage Institute) * Ross Bassett, North Carolina State University, <http://www.sigcis.org/node/381#bassett> Rethinking the Victorian Internet: The Mahratta and the Rise of Technological Nationalism in Poona, India, 1881-1901 * Ramesh Subramanian, Quinnipiac University, <http://www.sigcis.org/node/381#subramanian> Old Ideas: BBSs and the Emergence of Online Communities in India * Ling-Fei Lin, Cornell University, <http://www.sigcis.org/node/381#lin> The Origins of Laptop Contract Manufacturing in Taiwan and the Transnational Learning Years, 1988-2001 (3x20 minute presentations followed by a 10-15 minute comment and general discussion) 5:45-6:45 Time to recover 6:45 Meet in the lobby of the conference hotel to walk to an optional group dinner in a neaby restaurant. Details to be announced. This is at your own expense, but we traditionally cover half of the cost for graduate students. *OTHER PANELS WITH AT LEAST ONE RELEVANT PAPER IN THE MAIN SHOT MEETING* A great representation for the history of information technology this year elsewhere on the SHOT program, in panels proposed by others or assembled by the program committee from papers submitted individually. 8. Expertise, Efficiency, Entertainment? Educational Technology in the United States, 19302000 Friday, 10:30-12:30 Organizer & Chair: Victoria Cain (Northeastern University) Commentator: Amy Slaton (Drexel University) · Victoria Cain (New York University) [Robinson Prize Candidate]: Constructing Teachers Through Technology, 19301960 · Meryl Alper (University of Southern California) [Robinson Prize Candidate]: Can Our Kids Hack It With Computers?: Making Hacking Family-Friendly, 19831987 · Rebecca Onion (Philadelphia Area Center for History of Science) [Robinson Prize Candidate]: Playing the Environment: Advocacy and Web-Based Video Games in Contemporary American Childrens Culture 23. Computers for What? Saturday, 8:30-10:00 Chair and Commentator: Lars Heide (Copenhagen Business School) · Irina Nikiforova (Higher School of Economics): Evaluating Technical Contributions in Computing: Peer Review and the Challenges Faced by ACM Scientists and Engineers · Chigusa Kita (Kansai University): Governmental Role, Universities, and Users Demand for Scientific Computing in Japan, 19631970 · Andrea Sartori (University of Florence) [Robinson Prize Candidate]: Histories of Digitization: A Multiple Narrative Approach to Technological Innovation in Cultural Heritage 27. Once Upon a Time Saturday, 8:30-10:00 Chair and Commentator: Sheldon Hochheiser (IEEE History Center) · Katherine McFadden (University of South Carolina) [Robinson Prize Candidate]: From Cars to Cars: Industry Innovation in Computer Graphics · William Rankin (Yale University) [Robinson Prize Candidate]: Technoglobalism Before GPS:Geographic Universalism and the Teleology of Satellite Navigation · Peter Schaefer (Marymount Manhattan College): Inventing Network Neutrality, 19731985 28. Integrating SHOT SIG Concerns into the Teaching of History of Technology: Rethinking Modes of Instruction in Diverse Communities (President's Roundtable) Saturday 10:30-12:30 Organizers: Honghong Tinn (National University of Singapore) and Francesca Bray (University of Edinburgh) Chair: Ann Johnson (University of South Carolina) · Anna Åberg (Royal Institute of Technology) · Gregory Clancey (National University of Singapore) · Marie Hicks (Illinois Institute of Technology) · Ann Johnson (University of South Carolina) · Geoff D. Zylstra (City University of New York) 32. Ocular Regimes Saturday 10:30-12:30 Chair & Commentator: Andreas Fickers (University of Maastricht) · Heloise Finch-Boyer (National Maritime Museum, UK) [Robinson Prize Candidate]: Pioneers or Pirates? International Innovation vs. British Government Authority in the Development of Electronic Sea Charts, 19752000 · Lan Xuan Le (University of California, Santa Barbara) [Robinson Prize Candidate]: Scanners and the History of Technologized Vision · Luke Stadel (Northwestern University) [Robinson Prize Candidate]: Two-Way Television and the Media Interface · Marissa Petrou (University of California, Los Angeles) [Robinson Prize Candidate]: Reduction and Reproduction: Anthropological Imaging Techniques in the Kaiserreich 34. Lay Expertise Saturday: 10:30-12:30 Chair & Commentator: Wendy Kline (University of Cincinnati) · James Risk (University of South Carolina) [Robinson Prize Candidate]: Lemuel Moody and the Portland Observatory: A Case Study of Knowledge Production and Transfer in the Early United States · Royline Williams-Fontenelle (University of Oklahoma) [Robinson Prize Candidate]: Slave Houses, Slave Ingenuity, and the Antiguan Sugar Plantation, 17701843 · Chris Conway and Chen-Pang Yeang (University of Toronto): Organizing Hobbyists Experiments: From Ham Radio to Homebrew Computers · Timothy Minella (University of South Carolina) [Robinson Prize Candidate]: The Republic of Farmers: Technology and Agriculture in the Early United States 36. New Conceptual Toolkits Saturday 2:00-3:30 Chair and Commentator: Ron Kline (Cornell University) · Nathan Ensmenger (Indiana University): Toward an Environmental History of Computing · Terje Finstad (Norwegian University of Science and Technology): Naked Genes Humanizing Salmon: Reassembling a Natural Biotechnology in the Age of Publics · Greg Siegel (University of California, Santa Barbara): Clues in the Wreckage: On the Forensic Utility of Catastrophes 37. Epistemologies of Information Management Saturday 2:00-3:30 Commentator & Chair: Andrew Russell (Stevens Institute of Technology) · Gemma Cirac Claveras (Centre Alexander Koyré) [Robinson Prize Candidate]: From the Ground to Space (and Back Again): Some Epistemological Questions on the Fabrication of Satellite Data · Rachel Ivy Clarke (University of Washington Information School) [Robinson Prize Candidate]: The Power of the Card Catalog: Affordances, Evolution, and Identity in American Librarianship · Craig Robertson (Northeastern University): The Segregation and Housing of Not Bound: The Filing Cabinet and Early-20th-Century Information Work 44. Visual Renditions Saturday 4:00-5:30 Chair: Julie Wosk (State University of New York, Maritime College) Commentary by the Audience · Meghan Chandler (University of California, Irvine) [Robinson Prize Candidate]: Life in Plastic: Celluloid Acetate and Technologies of Preservation · Tony Liao (Cornell University) and Caroline S. Jack (Cornell University) [Robinson Prize · Candidate]: Historical Perspectives on Computing Technology in Contemporary Debates about Augmented Reality · Daniella Perry (University of California, Los Angeles) [Robinson Prize Candidate]: Expert Testimonial Discourse in Early Video Game CD-Rom Technology

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SIGCIS's Contribution to SHOT's Discussion on its Future
by Thomas Haigh 08 Oct '13

08 Oct '13

Hello everyone, Further to the recent exchange of emails, on the topic of SHOT's draft report on its challenges and future direction http://shot-talk.org/?page_id=30 we've been encouraged to write up something as a reponse. The statement approved by the SIGCIS Executive Committee in response to the report is below and at http://www.sigcis.org/response2013. I also posted a somewhat shorter and less well formatted version on the SHOT page itself with a link to the official text. Of course that only captures the institutional response of SIGCIS, and I encourage all of you to provide personal feedback on the SHOT page. SIGCIS members are already well represented in the online conversation, with posts from Paul Edwards, Marie Hicks, Jim Cortada, David Brock and Janet Abbate. SHOT's future vitality is important to all of us. Best wishes, Tom Response to the Draft Report from the Ad Hoc Committee on Structure and Organization of SHOT from the Executive Committee of SHOT's Special Interest Group on Computers, Information and Society (SIGCIS) Our parent society, SHOT, <http://shot-talk.org/wp-content/themes/twentytwelve/pdf/Preliminary%20Draft %20Report%20for%20Membership.pdf> recently issued a draft report offering ideas on the challenges it faces and changes that might strengthen it for the future. This is the response of SIGCIS, a contribution to the online discussion of the report requested by SHOT and <http://shot-talk.org/?page_id=30#comment-62> underway on its website. The draft report discusses strategic challenges and opportunities facing SHOT and it discusses SHOT's interest groups. What it does not do is put those two things together. We believe that the success of SIGCIS, SHOT's Special Interest Group on Computers, Information, and Society over the past decade holds important lessons for SHOT as a whole. SIGCIS appreciates the careful and thoughtful work done by the committee members and shares their concern with improving SHOT's intellectual vitality and boosting attendance at its annual meetings. We also share the committee's sense that SHOT can benefit from engagement with "neighboring disciplines." What SIGCIS does: SIGICS has grown to more than 300 members around the world. We raised a $25,000 endowment for our book prize, and have accumulated around $15,000 in our Mahoney Fund as a capital base. Each year we make around $2,500 in travel awards to graduate students to help them attend SHOT. SIGICS hosts a full day workshop on the Sunday of each SHOT conference with two streams of parallel programming. We organize or sponsor an average of four panel submissions for the main SHOT conference. The workshop and our lunch meetings each attract around fifty registrants each year. SIGCIS provides a listserv for discussion and announcement among its members and hosts a membership directory, syllabus repository, and set of resource guides on its website at <http://www.sigcis.org> www.sigcis.org. SIGICIS has also served as a voice for the history of computing community, as in recent controversy over the self-proclaimed "inventor of email." How SIGCIS benefits SHOT: * Between the SIGIS members participating in SIGCIS-sponsored panels in the main SHOT program and in our workshop we have around 40 speakers, chairs and commentators represented. Of course some of these would come to SHOT anyway, but this density of colleagues and relevant papers also attracts a number of SIGCIS members who are not presenting, and ancillary events such as the IEEE Annals of the History of Computing board meeting. Thus I estimate that we bring at least 30 people to SHOT each year who would not otherwise attend. As the report shows meeting registrations slipping to around 200 during the recent recession that's played an important part in keeping the meeting afloat. * The report acknowledges that SHOT has had limited success in attracting participants with geographical and intellectual diversity. Many of the SIGCIS members attending SHOT are not Ph.D. historians of technology and hence might not otherwise participate in SHOT. As we are the only interest group for those with an interest in the history of information technology we have also been able to attract people who identify primarily with business history, labor history, economic history, museum studies, media studies, etc. We also include active members with technical backgrounds and an avocational interest in history. SHOT used to be more open to engineers and non-Ph.D. historians but has increasingly professionalized around the Ph.D. graduates of major history of science, history of technology, and STS programs. * One important way SIGCIS has accomplished this is by sharing tacit knowledge about what a SHOT abstract is supposed to look like and how SHOT panels work. This is usually picked up from peers in the aforementioned Ph.D. programs but can otherwise be quite mysterious. Some common features of history conferences, for example the role of a commentator, are also little understood in other disciplines. Knowing how to produce a SHOT-friendly abstract does not necessarily correlate with delivering a great paper, and vice versa, so help in shaping abstracts is a crucial way to address the problems mentioned by the committee with high rates of rejection when scholars from area studies and other fields outside the SHOT mainstream attempt to submit proposals. * SIGCIS builds on the SHOT tradition of providing a welcoming and supportive environment for new members. Discussion of the history of information technology was formerly marginal at the SHOT meeting and is now central. In related associations such as 4S, HSS, or the Business History Conference it remains marginal. Thus we attribute some of the progress to things SHOT has done differently to these other associations, including its strong interest group in the area. Because out community is now well represented at SHOT we make sure that those new to the history of technology find their visit to SHOT rewarding. SIGCIS organizes informal dinners and other activities such as hikes as well as its workshop and formal lunch meeting. This shows that once achieved a critical mass of participants within a particular area can become self-sustaining and improve the vitality of SHOT as a whole. * The SIGCIS workshop CFP, our Computer History Museum prize call, etc. are distributed widely and bring additional visibility to SHOT. Likewise, the SIGCIS website complements SHOT's own website to improve the overall visibility of the society. * The report suggests that SHOT should experiment with new kinds of program mechanisms. We support this idea, and feel that SIGCIS and other SIGS could play an important role in organizing innovative panels. However we are perplexed by the suggestion that while SHOT makes "use of SIGs, other societies seem to employ other, possibly more fluid mechanisms for developing new and emergent areas" including substantive sessions for graduate students and work in progress sessions. In fact SIGCIS always includes a precirculated work in progress session in its workshop, usually includes a dissertation in progress session, and has experiments with other formats including roundtables and closing plenary sessions. SIGCIS also has a theme for each workshop, which we ask participants to address and choose a keynote speaker to highlight. This is another areas where innovations pioneered by SIGs are strengthening SHOT as a whole. * The report treats internationalization of SHOT as a priority. The membership of SIGCIS is comparatively well balanced over the developed world, and we have a set of regional vice chairs responsible for growing our presence in particular areas. Thoughts on the future: * Supporting SIG initiatives and encouraging their growth will bring new energy to SHOT. Better integrating SIGs into SHOT's governance can address some of the issues raised in the report concerning the depth of SHOT's volunteer pool and the narrowness * SHOT should continue to offer its interest groups the opportunity to run full day events. The SIGCIS workshop serves as an annual meeting for the history of IT community and thus makes SHOT the centerpiece of this growing field. If SHOT does not harness this energy then another group will. * Currently SHOT recoups costs from SIGCIS for Sunday expenses (coffee, projectors, etc.) but is not willing to add a charge for the workshop to the registration page. SIGCIS has to demand cash from attendees. Adding small charges for SIG events on the registration page could bring revenue for SHOT to share with the SIGs responsible and, from SHOT's viewpoint, turn the events from expenses into profit centers. * Competition for space at SHOT is not a zero sum game. The energy of the SIGCIS community has made IT history the largest single area at SHOT, whereas it was barely represented just a decade ago. That brings people into SHOT would not otherwise be involved with it. We know from the report that the SHOT program committee is alarmed at a lack of suitable submissions, so this growth has not crowded out other fields. Thus the opportunity exists for other SIGs current and future to make SHOT into the hub for other emerging scholarly communities.

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