- Members - lists.sigcis.org

Another Hero Gone
by John Impagliazzo 05 Jul '13

05 Jul '13

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/04/technology/douglas-c-engelbart-inventor-o… John Impagliazzo, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus, Hofstra University IEEE Life Fellow; ACM Distinguished Educator Editor-in-Chief, ACM Inroads

1 0

Origin of "Computer Science"
by Martin Campbell-Kelly 02 Jul '13

02 Jul '13

I'm trying to find when the term "computer science" came into general use. The term "software" seems to be quite accurately dated as appearing in 1960 in several contemporary publications, but I have found nothing similar for computer science. Martin - Martin Campbell-Kelly, Dept of Computer Science University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, U.K. voice: +44 24 7652 3193 fax: +44 24 7657 3024 email: <mailto:M.Campbell-Kelly@warwick.ac.uk> M.Campbell-Kelly(a)warwick.ac.uk

7 8

The National Security Agency and Technological Change
by Brian Randell 01 Jul '13

01 Jul '13

Hi: I recently saw, on another mailing list, an interesting post from Lee Vinsel which contained the comment: "As a historian of technology, I am interested in how PRISM and the other NSA programs fit into a longer trajectory, namely how government spending and programs shape technological change. I have not read anyone discussing this issue explicitly yet." I asked Lee for permission to copy his post across to the SIGCIS mailing list - he suggested that instead I draw the mailing list's attention to a revised blog post he has since written. This is at: http://americanscience.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/the-national-security-agency-… and starts: > This post builds on the one Lukas put up last week. Most commentaries on the Snowden Affair, PRISM, and the other NSA programs that have come to light have focused on whether these programs are constitutional, whether Snowden is a hero or villain or something else, and, now, what these programs will mean for US foreign relations. I have also heard people ask how any of us could be surprised by these programs, and for a few days, people spent a lot of time talking about Snowden's girlfriend's pole-dancing skills. In other words, the Snowden Affair has all the markings of a major American media event. > > In this post, I'd like to exercise the historian's prerogative by exploring how these NSA programs fit into a longer historical trajectory, namely how government spending and procurement influence technological change. > The history and sociology of science and technology are full of well-known stories of how government funding affected the direction and growth of technological innovation. The best known stories in the United States have to do with technical advances made at MIT, Harvard, and Los Alamos during World War II and the wide variety of scientific breakthroughs and technologies that emerged from Cold War defense spending. (Mark Buchanan recently put up an entertaining postabout the many technologies that ultimately have roots in government spending.) There are many earlier examples in the United States from WWI and even the 19th century. Of course, any comprehensive history of the military-science-technology relationship would have to go back much further; in the West, right through 18th century French science societies through da Vinci at least back to Archimedes. > > We can assume that spending on intelligence and the technology that undergirds it exploded after 9/11. 9/11 was to the surveillance-industrial complex what Sputnik was for Cold War sci-tech funding. It would be interesting to know whether the programs that developed after that date were merely extensions—if massively scaled up extensions—of things that were already in the works. It would also be interesting to know how many new programs developed after that date (versus building on old programs). > > But it would also be fascinating to learn how these programs have influenced technological change, if at all. Do fundamentally new and largely unknown computing technologies lay behind the NSA's capabilities. Are these capabilities mostly the result of hugely scaling up technologies that are already well known (server farms, data mining algorithms, etc.)? Or will we look back at the NSA's programs as greatly changing computing technologies? If so, which companies would have produced these technologies for the agency? Mostly defense contractors? Or mostly computing firms? Or might the government have its own internal R&D shops? <snip> Cheers Brian Randell School of Computing Science, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU EMAIL = Brian.Randell(a)ncl.ac.uk PHONE = +44 191 222 7923 URL = http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/people/brian.randell

1 0

Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Members Digest, Vol 36, Issue 14
by Patricia Galloway 27 Jun '13

27 Jun '13

I'd suggest that people might want to investigate the Dead Media Project: http://www.deadmedia.org/ Pat Galloway UT-Austin On 6/27/2013 11:00 AM, members-request(a)sigcis.org wrote: > Send Members mailing list submissions to > members(a)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: Telegram service ending soon - have any other info > technologies actually died? (Christian Sandvig) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Tue, 18 Jun 2013 19:07:55 -0400 > From: Christian Sandvig<csandvig(a)umich.edu> > To: members(a)sigcis.org > Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Telegram service ending soon - have any > other info technologies actually died? > Message-ID: > <CAN6=x0vLiKcw+fO3u_SLfphUv=rHmQGUzooesOf4qwFj7N9ihA(a)mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252" > > This question is the topic of the dead media project ( > http://www.deadmedia.org/) which is itself dead. > > My favorite nominations: > > The Myriorama. Once you have a motion picture, a motorized three-mile-long > panoramic painting on rollers (shown while a performer narrates and plays > the piano) fails to draw a crowd. Although actually now that I think of it > I would pay to see a myriorama today. > > The Telephonic Newspaper (e.g., > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telefon_H%C3%ADrmond%C3%B3) > > Christian > > > So, can anyone come up with another information technology that has >> definitively and verifiably vanished completely from use? Specific products >> don?t count. >> >> >

1 0

REMINDER - detaline JUNE 30. 2013 SIGCIS CFP. "Old Ideas: Recomputing the History of Information Technology"
by Thomas Haigh 26 Jun '13

26 Jun '13

Just a reminder, the deadline for our SIGCIS 2013 workshop is coming up soon. Please submit your proposals online soon. Tom From: Thomas Haigh [mailto:thaigh@computer.org] Sent: Monday, May 20, 2013 3:30 PM To: members(a)sigcis.org Subject: 2013 SIGCIS CFP. "Old Ideas: Recomputing the History of Information Technology," Deadline June 30 Hello everyone, Please find below the CFP for our fifth annual SIGCIS workshop, as always held in conjunction with the annual meeting of our parent association, the Society for the History of Technology. As this is scheduled to be my last full SHOT meeting as chair I've agreed to take primary responsibility for the program myself. However we are, as always, keen to get new volunteers on board with SIGCIS - whether to assist with this and future workshops, to help to upgrade our web and social media presence, or to put your stamp on other aspects of the group's activities. None of the SIGCIS offices are intended to be held for life, and keeping a flow of people and ideas into our core team is essential for the future vitality of SIGCIS. The theme of "Old Ideas: Recomputing the History of Information Technology" should lend itself to interpretation in a variety of ways, though I admit it was inspired by the title of Leonard Cohen's most recent album. So you don't have to be a grumpy reactionary to propose something. No kids will be chased from lawns. This should be an excellent meeting. My impression is that the IEEE Annals board meeting will probably be held in conjunction with SHOT again, though I've not seen an official announcement so this may not be definite yet. Portland has a distinctive and pleasant feel, and is drivable for a large number of people in the North East and Mid-Atlantic. It's also fairly easy to get to for international travelers as there is a train running from Boston. As always, any updates to the call and full information about the workshop itself as it becomes available will be posted to a single URL. www.sigcis.org/workshop13. The submission links don't work yet, but will be live well before the deadline which is JUNE 30. Tom Old Ideas: Recomputing the History of Information Technology SIGCIS Workshop 2013 October 13, 2013, Portland, Maine Deadline: June 30, 2013 The Society for the History of Technology's Special Interest Group for Computers, Information and Society (SIGCIS - http://www.sigcis.org <http://www.sigcis.org/> ) welcomes submissions for a one-day scholarly workshop to be held on Sunday, October 13, 2012 in Portland, Maine. As in previous years, SIGCIS's annual workshop will occur immediately after the end of the regular SHOT annual meeting program, the details of which are available from http://www.historyoftechnology.org/annual_meeting.html. Questions about the 2013 SIGCIS workshop should be addressed to Thomas Haigh (School of Information Studies, University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee), who is serving as chair of the workshop program committee. Email thaigh(a)computer.org. Workshop Theme Information technologists have little time for old thinking, or for anything else old. Entrepreneurs seek the new new thing, computer scientists tackle the grand challenges of future computing, and management consultants chase the next fad. Scholars in the humanities, who are professionally skeptical about the nostrums of neoliberalism, the myth of progress, and the allure of the technological fix, can nevertheless exhibit a similar weakness for the shiny allure of new technologies. In short, information technology is rarely understood as something rooted in history. Its cultural associations are with the future, not the past. For the SIGCIS 2013 Workshop, we invite scholars to turn their attention to something different: old ideas and their relationship to information and computer technology. Perhaps to their overlooked charm, their enduring power, and their continuities with the putatively new. Such papers might * Reclaim from what was famously termed the "enormous condescension of posterity" the ideas about information and information technology held by specific historical actors, explaining what they really thought they were doing and how the understood the world around them. * Demonstrate hidden historical continuities, by showing that technologies, ideas, or practices generally assumed to be of recent origin have a close relationship with those formerly known by different names. * Advocate explicitly or by example the relevance of less fashionable historical approaches, such as quantitative analysis, old-school Marxism, or micro-level studies of technical practice to understanding the history of information technology. * Explore connections between historical research on computing, and the burgeoning recent literature on software studies, game studies, platform studies, etc. produced by scholars in other areas of the humanities. * Place topics within the history of information technology into broader arcs of birth, aging, and death - whether of individuals, institutions, or social practices. * Illuminate the cultural work done to construct some things as old and others as new, and explain who is carrying out this work and why. If none of the above fit your work, even with some creative twisting, then despair not: we also accept new ideas! SIGCIS has a tradition of welcoming all types of contributions related to the history of computing and information, whether or not there is an explicit connection with the annual theme. Our membership is international and interdisciplinary, and our members examine the history of information technologies and their place within society from a variety of scholarly perspectives including the history of technology, business history, labor history, social history, the history of science, science studies, communications, gender and sexuality studies, computing, disability studies, and museum studies. Suggested Formats for Submissions: Proposals for entire sessions and individual presenters are both welcome. We hope to run special sessions featuring dissertations in progress and other works in progress. The workshop is a great opportunity to get helpful feedback on your projects in a relaxed and supportive environment. All proposals will be subject to a peer review process based on abstracts. Individual contributions can fit one of a variety of formats: 1. Traditional 15 to 20-minute presentations followed by a question and answer session. In this case, a one-page abstract (maximum 400 words) will be reviewed and included in the electronic conference program. Abstracts should address the paper's topic, argument, evidence used, and contribution to the existing literature. A full version of the paper should be sent to the session commentator at least 2 weeks prior to the meeting. We welcome proposals for entire sessions (3-4 papers that elucidate a common theme) or for individual presentations. 2. Dissertation proposals. We intend to continue SIGCIS's tradition of hosting special sessions that feature dissertations in progress so that scholars can receive critical feedback in a relaxed and supportive environment. Interested students should submit a dissertation proposal (for projects in the early stages) or draft dissertation chapter together with table of contents of the whole dissertation (for those nearing completion), which will be pre-circulated in the electronic conference program if accepted. Participants will be encouraged to read this prior to the session. You will have five to ten minutes to introduce the material, leaving the bulk of time available for discussion. 3. Works in progress. This is your chance to receive informal and expert discussion of draft dissertation chapters, journal articles, or book chapters. Submit a one page abstract (maximum 400 words) including discussion of the current state of the work and any specific kinds of feedback you are seeking. If your proposal is accepted you will need to supply the draft for discussion by 1 September for inclusion in the electronic program for the workshop. You will have five to ten minutes to introduce the material, leaving the bulk of time available for discussion. 4. Proposals in other formats are also welcome, such as round table discussions, "works in progress" proposals for early-stage research projects, demonstrations of software of interest to historians of computing and information, or "author meets critics" sessions. SIGCIS follows traditional practices for the submission of papers for professional historical conferences, specifically: selection based on abstracts rather than full papers; no pre-circulation or publication of full papers (with the exception of dissertation proposals as noted above); and the requirement that presenters share their full paper with the session commentator at least 2 weeks prior to the meeting. Presenters are encouraged to submit their work the SIGCIS Member Contributions collection. Submissions should be made online using the links from the main workshop page. Travel Support The top financial priority of SIGCIS is the support of travel expenses for graduate students, visiting faculty without institutional travel support, and others who would be unable to attend the meeting without travel assistance. The submission page includes a box to check if you fall into one of these categories and would like to be considered for an award. These is no separate application form, though depending on the volume of requests and available resources we may need to contact you for further information before making a decision. Details on our travel grant program are at http://www.sigcis.org/travelaward. Any award offered is contingent on registering for and attending the workshop and, for participants in work in progress or dissertations in progress sessions, on fulfilling the deadlines set for providing work in progress to be shared on the workshop website. Funding sources include donations from SIGCIS members at our annual meeting, income from the Mahoney Fund http://www.sigcis.org/mahoney and support from MIT Press for our annual book auction. Please note that SHOT does not classify SIGCIS presentations as participation in the SHOT annual meeting and so acceptance by SIGCIS does not imply eligibility for the SHOT travel grant program.

1 0

Fwd: Announcement: New Collections at Hagley
by M. Hicks 25 Jun '13

25 Jun '13

See below ______________________ Marie Hicks, Ph.D. Asst. Professor, History of Technology Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago, IL USA mariehicks.net | mhicks1(a)iit.edu | @histoftech Begin forwarded message: > From: Erik Rau <erau(a)Hagley.org> > Date: June 25, 2013 15:42:57 CDT > To: "admin(a)sigcis.org" <admin(a)sigcis.org> > Subject: Announcement: New Collections at Hagley > > An announcement for the list! > > Thanks! > > -- > Erik P. Rau, PhD > Director, Library Services > Hagley Museum and Library > P.O. Box 3630, 298 Buck Road > Wilmington, DE 19807 > 302.658.2400, ext. 344 > erau(a)hagley.org > www.hagley.org/library > > New Collections at Hagley Museum and Library > > Hagley announces the addition of four new collections in the history of technology, covering computer developments at the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) and a landmark gender equality battle at AT&T. > > Hagley Library has been providing access to portions of the David Sarnoff Collection as they are processed and become available. The papers of Joseph Weisbecker (1932-1990) cover his engineering career at the Radio Corporation of American (RCA), for more than thirty years. After graduating from Drexel, Weisbecker became staff engineer at RCA and worked on general computer development and design. In the early 1970s, Weisbecker developed a computer based on 8-bit architecture using the CMOS process released as COSMAC 1801R and 1801U, and integrated into the 1802 chip in 1976. Later, Weisbecker developed applications for the 1802, including light guns, card readers, and cassette interfaces. Weisbecker twice garnered the RCA Labs Outstanding Achievement Award, the Best Paper Award from the IEEE Computer Society, and the David Sarnoff Award for Outstanding Technical Achievement. > > Hagley has also made available the papers of Lois Herr. Herr worked as a manager for Bell Telephone Laboratory and other units in the Bell System for 26 years. Aware that few women rose into high managerial positions at AT&T, she fought for gender equality. By 1970, her efforts gained the attention of lawyers at the recently formed Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, who opposed AT&T’s request to the Federal Communications Commission to increase its rates. The EEOC, the National Organization for Women, and other civil rights groups applied pressure from outside AT&T while Herr and others worked to change AT&T from within. The case was settled in 1973 and affected how the communications giant, AT&T, and other firms monitored and approached equal rights in the workplace. >

1 0

GIGANET CFP Deadline
by John Paul Laprise 25 Jun '13

25 Jun '13

Please circulate, submit, and encourage your interested colleagues to do likewise. John From: John Paul Laprise Sent: Tuesday, June 25, 2013 3:14 PM To: 'nu-media-technology-society(a)googlegroups.com' Subject: GIGANET CFP Deadline CALL FOR PAPERS 8th Annual Symposium 21 October 2013 Bali, Indonesia Deadline for abstract submission: July 1 2013 The Global Internet Governance Academic Network (GigaNet) is seeking research submissions about Internet Governance to be presented at its Eighth Annual Symposium, held on 21 October 2013, one day before the United Nations Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Bali, Indonesia. GigaNet is a scholarly community that promotes the development of Internet Governance as a recognized, interdisciplinary field of study and facilitates informed dialogue on policy issues and related matters between scholars and governments, international organizations, the private sector and civil society. http://giga-net.org/ Since 2006, GigaNet has organized an Annual Symposium to showcase research about Internet Governance, bringing together researchers from a wide range of disciplines and fields. As in previous years, the symposium will provide room to discuss current and future questions as well as the challenges encountered and results achieved in global Internet governance. Conference themes GigaNet is interested in receiving abstracts related to Internet Governance themes, especially those containing innovative approaches and/or emerging research areas. This year, we are especially encouraging submissions on two interwoven themes: • Cybersecurity, cybersurveillance, cyberespionage and cyberwarfare and • State and non-state actor efforts to control the Internet The program committee welcomes proposals on any other topics related to global Internet governance. This year, one panel will be especially devoted to emerging scholars in the field. We define emerging scholars as doctoral students working on an approved proposal through scholars who have received their PhD within the past three years. Accepted papers from senior scholars will be presented and discussed in a roundtable format involving business, government and technical community representatives, while emerging scholars will present their work in a more traditional academic panel. In both cases, presenters should expect to have conversations about their work with people from a wide range of stakeholder groups. Submissions Interested scholars should submit abstracts of their research paper at the Easy Chair platform: https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=giganet2013 The deadline for submission is July 1, 2013! Paper proposals should be submitted following these requirements:  An abstract of 800-1000 words, in English, where it is mandatory to describe the main research goal(s) and the methodological background of the paper  A short bio note focused on institutional affiliations, advanced degrees, scholarly publications and work in the field of Internet Governance and related issues (for example ICTs). Please include a link to a more detailed CV.  Authors of accepted abstracts must submit their final papers by 30 September 2013. Those unable to do so will be removed from the program. Process and publication The Program Committee will evaluate submitted abstracts and inform proposal authors of acceptance decisions by email before 29 July 2013. Accepted submissions and final papers will be published on the GigaNet website. An online publication with selected papers on the main challenges of Internet Governance is also planned for the Bali IGF. Registration The GigaNet Annual Symposium is free of charge. However, registration will be required to gain entry to the event venue. Please continue visiting our website for further information about registration, venue and accommodation. If you have any question related to the submission or the symposium activities, please e-mail the Program Committee Chair: j-laprise(a)northwestern.edu<mailto:j-laprise@northwestern.edu>. Best regards, John Laprise, Ph.D. Visiting Fellow Oxford Internet Institute<http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/> Oxford University<http://www.ox.ac.uk/> Assistant Professor of Communication in Residence Northwestern University in Qatar<http://www.qatar.northwestern.edu/> Northwestern University<http://www.northwestern.edu/>

1 0

NSA "pre-history of code-breaking"?
by Janet Abbate 25 Jun '13

25 Jun '13

This was posted on Slashdot today: "The National Security Agency has declassified an eye-opening pre-history of computers used for code-breaking between the 1930s and 1960s. The 344 page report, entitled It Wasn't All Magic: The Early Struggle to Automate Cryptanalysis (pdf), it is available on the Government Attic web site. Government Attic has also just posted a somewhat less declassified NSA compendium from 1993: A Collection of Writings on Traffic Analysis. (pdf)" When I tried to click on the link I got an error message (not that I really want a file from the NSA on my computer...). Anybody know if this is for real? Dr. Janet Abbate Associate Professor Science & Technology in Society Virginia Tech www.sts.vt.edu/ncr www.linkedin.com/groups/STS-Virginia-Tech-4565055 www.facebook.com/VirginiaTechSTS

3 3

Telegram service ending soon - have any other info technologies actually died?
by Thomas Haigh 18 Jun '13

18 Jun '13

Hello everyone, Slate has an little interesting story, framed with the idea that "dead" technologies take a very long time to actually depart. Apparently the last telegram will soon be sent, as India is discontinuing the service as a result of widening losses. http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/06/17/death_of_the_telegraph_wo rld_s_last_telegram_to_be_sent_in_india_on_july.html. According to the original story http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2013/0614/India-to-send-wo rld-s-last-telegram.-Stop the system was down to its last 998 workers and was handling only about 5,000 messages a day. Of course, it's only really with a service based technology that an actual date of death can be established. Something like a PC can just go into the attic and might one day come out again in working order. Even pneumatic tubes, a retro technology favorite, are still in use in some settings. Punched cards are still used in voting machines. Vacuum tubes are still used in expensive amplifiers. According to Wikipedia even semaphore flags are still "used during underway replenishment at sea." So, can anyone come up with another information technology that has definitively and verifiably vanished completely from use? Specific products don't count. Tom

6 5

Fwd: Ada Conference Registration Now Open
by Andrew Russell 14 Jun '13

14 Jun '13

Hi - For those of you in the New York area (or leisurely passing through in the week after SHOT/SIGCIS in October), please come visit us at Stevens for an interdisciplinary conference celebrating the achievements and legacy of Ada Lovelace. The dates are October 17-18, 2013; more information at the url below. Cheers, Andy Begin forwarded message: > From: rhammerm <rhammerm(a)stevens.edu> > Subject: Ada Conference Registration Now Open > Date: June 14, 2013 12:33:42 PM EDT > To: Robin Hammerman <rhammerm(a)stevens.edu> > > Dear Colleagues: > > Registration for the upcoming Ada conference at Stevens Institute of Technology is now open. Please access the conference webpage here for your convenience: http://www.stevens.edu/calconference. Do feel free to share with your friends and colleagues. Thank you for your kind consideration. > > Sincerely, > > Robin Hammerman > Conference Organizer > > -- > Dr. Robin S. Hammerman > Teaching Assistant Professor > College of Arts and Letters > Stevens Institute of Technology > Hoboken, New Jersey 07030

1 0