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The Silicon Revolution
by Armand Van Dormael 15 Oct '12

15 Oct '12

Hello, My book The Silicon Revolution is now available on Amazon. If you decide to acquire it, I hope you’ll enjoy it. If you have any comment or question, please let me know. Best wishes. Armand Van Dormael

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Resources on Technology "Laws"?
by Joshua Welsh 05 Oct '12

05 Oct '12

Hello! I wonder if anyone in the group could point me to a resource or two on the "Laws" and Maxims that seem to pervade the technology industry. I'm thinking of things such as Moore's Law, Brooks' Law, etc. I guess I'm especially looking for some kind of "meta scholarship" on laws and maxims themselves. It's simple enough to find sources that explain or contextualize the laws themselves. but a bit harder to find scholarship on the big picture. A bit of context: I'm working on my dissertation, which involves the rhetoric that technological choices are built upon, and I've stumbled across an allusion to Amara's Law (i.e., People tend to overestimate technology in the short term and underestimate it in the long term.). I got to wondering just how big of a role such laws play in technology decisions. Thanks in advance! -Josh -- Joshua Welsh PhD Candidate, Rhetoric and Scientific and Technical Communication University of Minnesota Department of Writing Studies 214 Nolte Center 315 Pillsbury Dr SE Minneapolis, MN 55455

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Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Resources on Technology "Laws"?
by Pierre Mounier 05 Oct '12

05 Oct '12

Josh, You might contact Bernadette Bensaude Vincent who held a seminar on similar topics, last year in Paris *. bensaude(a)club-internet.fr Best, Pierre Mounier-Kuhn * Séminaire de Master 2: L’innovation en technoscience Bernadette Bensaude Vincent, Université Paris 1, 17 rue de la Sorbonne, esc C, 1er étage, salle Halbwachs, Lundi 16h-18h L’innovation dans les technologies contemporaines (technologies de l’information, biotechnologies, nanotechnologies, etc) s’accompagne de grands discours sur les technologies et la société, de portée ouvertement normative. Ainsi voit-on proliférer des expressions à la mode (buzzword) telles que : « innovation responsable », « prospective», « société de la connaissance » « gouvernance » ainsi que des formules plus spécifiques : « human enhancement », « énergie verte », « machines moléculaires » « machines vivantes », « médecine régénérative » « missiles thérapeutiques » « theranostic », « smart technology » « empreinte carbone »…. Ce séminaire propose une analyse critique de quelques uns de ces slogans. On examinera leurs conditions d’émergence, leur fonctions (attractive et performative) et les pratiques qu’ils désignent, comme celles qu’ils dissimulent. Le séminaire se déroule sous la forme de treize séances de 2h par semaine au Semestre 1 suivies d’une journée complète de séminaire le samedi 7 janvier. Il requiert une participation active des étudiants, et des lectures à chaque séance (10 à 20 pages, souvent en anglais). Il est ouvert aux auditeurs externes. 19 septembre 2011 : introduction : Les slogans de la technoscience 26 septembre 2011 : Innovation et progrès 3 octobre 2011 : Demain, les transhumains 10 octobre 2011 : Prospective : quelle présence du futur dans l’innovation 17 octobre 2011 : Mémoire du futur ? avec la participation de Laurence Raineau-Facchini et Sophie Poirot-Delpech 24 octobre : Innovation solution ou gadget? 31 octobre : Innovation responsable : 7 novembre : Des techniques morales ? 14 novembre : Société de la connaissance 21 novembre : Médecine régénérative 28 novembre : Energie verte : des machines vivantes 5 décembre : électronique ambiante (avec la participation de Gérard Dubey) 12 décembre : Zéro émission et empreinte carbone (avec la participation de Sacha Loeve) Samedi 7 janvier 2012 : 9h-18h présentation des travaux d’étudiants, conclusions et perspectives Le 5 oct. 12 à 12:43, Joshua Welsh a écrit : > Hello! > > I wonder if anyone in the group could point me to a resource or two > on the "Laws" and Maxims that seem to pervade the technology > industry. I'm thinking of things such as Moore's Law, Brooks' Law, > etc. I guess I'm especially looking for some kind of "meta > scholarship" on laws and maxims themselves. It's simple enough to > find sources that explain or contextualize the laws themselves. but > a bit harder to find scholarship on the big picture. > > A bit of context: I'm working on my dissertation, which involves the > rhetoric that technological choices are built upon, and I've > stumbled across an allusion to Amara's Law (i.e., People tend to > overestimate technology in the short term and underestimate it in > the long term.). I got to wondering just how big of a role such laws > play in technology decisions. > > Thanks in advance! > > -Josh > > > -- > Joshua Welsh > PhD Candidate, Rhetoric and Scientific and Technical Communication > University of Minnesota > > Department of Writing Studies > 214 Nolte Center > 315 Pillsbury Dr SE > Minneapolis, MN 55455 > > _______________________________________________ > 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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Open-rank position: interpretivist studies of information and info tech, UM School of Information
by Paul N. Edwards 05 Oct '12

05 Oct '12

All, The University of Michigan School of Information has a position opening at any rank for an "interpretivist" - partial description below, more available at the web link. The description is written broadly to encourage applications from people with qualitative/ethnographically oriented backgrounds such as science and technology studies, anthropology, sociology, HCI-CSCW, and of course iSchools. The deadline is SOON: November 1. I'm not on the search committee this year, but I'll be at Society for Social Studies of Science in Copenhagen if anyone would like to discuss the position and/or the School of Information. Please forward widely! Best, Paul 2012 Faculty opening: Interpretivism The School of Information at the University of Michigan (UMSI) seeks a tenure-track professor at any rank with expertise in interpretivist methods and theory who advances knowledge about the interactions between people, information and information technology. While we encourage applications from both foundational and applied interpretivist researchers, we are particularly interested in candidates who are not merely consumers of ethnographically based methods, but who have deep expertise in at least one relevant theoretical literature as well as methods. For a brief background statement of the interpretivist perspective see http://www.qualres.org/HomeInte-3516.html, but we encourage candidates from other interpretivist traditions as well. http://www.si.umich.edu/aboutsi/2012-faculty-opening-interpretivism Applications submitted by November 1 receive fullest consideration ___________________________ Paul N. Edwards Professeur invité, Sciences Po, Paris, 2012-13) 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) Mailing address (2012-13): 82 rue Mouffetard 75005 Paris, France (206) 337-1523 (fax) pne.people.si.umich.edu

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Computer Science in Higher Education
by Pierre Mounier 05 Oct '12

05 Oct '12

Dear Friends & Colleagues, This is just to inform SIGCIS members, particularly those working on Computer Science in Higher Education, of a paper about to appear : "Computer Science in French Universities: Early Entrants and Latecomers" http://www.infoculturejournal.org/current_issue/47.4 This paper stems from my book *, but goes further to define models of development in an international comparaison perspective. With cordial salutations, looking forward to meet some of you in Copenhagen, Pierre Mounier-Kuhn CNRS & Université Paris-Sorbonne * http://pups.paris-sorbonne.fr/pages/aff_livre.php?Id=838 http://www.koyre.cnrs.fr/IMG/pdf/CV-Mounier-Kuhn_1_.pdf Abstract - MOUNIER-KUHN Pierre, 2012, "Computer Science in French Universities: Early Entrants and Latecomers", Information & Culture: A Journal of History, vol. 47, n° 4. How do new disciplines develop in certain universities, not in others ? What factors shape the geography of science ? The history of computer science in French higher education suggests a model to describe this development and differenciation process. Computer science stemmed from local configurations associating a school of electrical engineering and a professor of numerical analysis. In the early 1950s, a few professors, who may be characterized as “science entrepreneurs”, created three-fold structures, associating courses in applied mathematics and programming, a computing facility and a research laboratory. This initiated a cumulative development process, attracting students, researchers, contracts, funding and powerful machines, and opening the field to novel applications or theoretical investigations. In other universities, these configurations were not completed – typically, they were limited to an assistant and a small computer, so that computing remained confined to technical training. In the 1960s, the pioneers became the leaders of the new informatics field, hold power positions in learned societies and in science policy committees, and controlled the definition of computer science curricula. As the computing institutes they had created reached considerable size, they began to spin off their junior professors toward other universities, thus still increasing their « radiance ». These centers, like Grenoble, Nancy or Toulouse, remain major academic centers in the discipline today.

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Amazing computer history news: Antikythera divers to return to site for first survey ever!
by Dag Spicer 04 Oct '12

04 Oct '12

Dear SIG Friends, Some of you may know about the Antikythera Mechanism, an ancient (2,000 years old) astronomical computer from Greece that is re-writing what we know about the state of ancient Greek technology. The skills displayed in the construction of the A.M. were not thought to have developed until 1,500 years later in Medieval Europe! Divers are now returning to the site (first discovery happened in 1901) with modern equipment. There will almost certainly be some amazing finds… and perhaps even another A.M.! Enjoy: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2012/oct/02/return-antikythera-wreck… Dag PS You can read more about it at our Revolution exhibit online: http://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/calculators/1/42 -- Dag Spicer | Senior Curator | Computer History Museum Editorial Board | Annals of the History of Computing 1401 N. Shoreline Blvd. | Mountain View CA 94043 Tel: +1 650 810 1035 | Fax: +1 650 810 1055 Twitter: @ComputerHistory FB: facebook.com/computerhistory Blog: http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/ Technology married with the humanities makes our hearts sing. -- Steve Jobs

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SIGCIS & SHOT Meeting - please read if attending
by Thomas Haigh 03 Oct '12

03 Oct '12

Hello SIGCIS members, Many of you are now packing to leave for Copenhagen, or may already be in the air. So I wanted to make a couple of important reminders or announcements. 1. Usually I go through the SHOT provisional program posted online and compile a list of all papers and panels with material related to computing. Sadly this year Ive been unable to find any detailed program information on the meeting website at http://www.historyoftechnology.org/annual_meeting.html. You will find below this message the details of the three main conference panels organized or sponsored by SIGCIS though we still dont know the room assignments. 2. The SIGCIS lunch takes place 12:30 to 2:00 on Friday. Hopefully youve seen our previous announcements on this topic. The information on the SHOT website is still wrong in fact the lunch will be a tapas buffet with a cost of $25 per person, paid in advance when you pick up your materials at the meeting registration desk. The location is the rotunda by the Soldjberg Plads cafeteria. Unfortunately we were left off the SHOT registration form this year, so the process of establishing who is coming has been rather chaotic. We hope that at least a few additional spaces will be available for those who did not already reserve a spot via email to SHOT if you are interested then check this when you are at the registration desk. Bring plenty of cash for the book auction. 3. The SIGCIS workshop takes place all day on Sunday. We have now updated the program at http://www.sigcis.org/workshop12 with details about the post-workshop informal group dinner, which will take place shortly after the workshop at a nearby restaurant. Pay in cash directly at the restaurant. Andy Russell, the workshop chair, has been collecting names for the reservation list. arussell(a)stevens.edu <mailto:arussell@stevens.edu?subject=SIGCIS%20question> There is no official business to be conducted just chat and relaxation. 4. If you are coming to the workshop, PLEASE do you best to read the precirculated papers for the dissertations in progress session and/or the work in progress session. These are available directly from the workshop program page via the full text links. http://www.sigcis.org/workshop12 I am printing them to read on and between planes on my way to Denmark. These sessions will just feature short (approx 5 minute) statements from the authors followed by discussion of the precirculated materials. So we need a critical mass of people in the audience who have read them. My apologies for not sending a reminder earlier. We usually do this when the collection is complete, and the sad truth is that for each session we only ever received two out of three papers. The four participants who did get their material to us for posting should not suffer for the sins of the other two, so lets make an effort to read their materials and give them a spirited discussion that makes their journey worthwhile. Best wishes, Tom Below is what we received from SHOT with details on the timing of the SIGCIS panels in the main conference: FRIDAY, 5 OCTOBER 8.30 - 10 AM The Social Origins of Personal Computing Sponsored by SIGCIS Organizer: Peter Collopy (University of Pennsylvania) Chair: John Laprise (Northwestern University in Qatar) Commentator: Thomas Haigh (University of WisconsinMilwaukee) Kevin Gotkin (University of Pennsylvania): When Computers Were Amateurs: Hobbyist Computer Clubs, 1966-1976 (WITHDRAWN: Peter Collopy (University of Pennsylvania): A Bicycle for the Mind: The Personal Computer as Appropriate Technology) Laine Nooney (Stony Brook University): Home is Where the Game Is: Sierra On-Line and Womens Computer Gaming FRIDAY, 5 OCTOBER 2 - 3.30 PM International Information Identities Sponsored by SIGCIS Organizer: Thomas Haigh (University of WisconsinMilwaukee) Chair: Daniel Holbrook (Marshall University) Commentator: Marie Hicks (Illinois Institute of Technology) Petri Paju (University of Turku): Composing a New Europe: IBMs Electric Typewriter and European Reconstruction Ramesh Subramanian (Quinnipiac University): Technology Policy and National Identity: The Personal Computer Comes to India Christopher Leslie (Polytechnic Institute of New York University): CSNET and the Internationalization of the Internet Saturday 6 October 2 3.30 PM 36. International Information Societies Sponsored by SIGCIS Organizer: Thomas Haigh (University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee) Chair: Pascal Griset (Université Paris IV, Sorbonne) Commentator: Gerard Alberts (Amsterdam University) Giuditta Parolini (University of Bologna): The Politics of the Statistical Tables for Biological, Agricultural and Medical Research Bernard Dionysus Geoghegan (Humboldt University, Berlin): Claude Lévi-Strauss and the Technologies of Man: Cybernetic Reasoning and the Reform of the Human Sciences Ksenia Tatarchenko (Princeton University): A Plan for the Soviet Future: Programming, the Second Literacy

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NY Times review of Computer History Museum exhbit
by Thomas Haigh 29 Sep '12

29 Sep '12

Hello everyone, Just saw an exhibit review in the New York Times of the main "Revolution" exhibit now installed at the Computer History Museum. Generally very positive. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/29/arts/design/computer-history-museum-in-mou ntain-view-calif.html (as long as you didn't click your ten articles so far this month.) Tom

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Book Auction at SHOT -- donations needed
by Thomas Haigh 24 Sep '12

24 Sep '12

Hello everyone, We'll be sending some more messages soon about the forthcoming SHOT meeting and associated SIGCIS events. One of our traditions is an auction of donated books relevant to the history of computing, which has provided a major part of our travel support grants for graduate students. It is also a fun part of the lunch, and we do our best to keep it moving as quickly as possible. In recent years more than a thousand dollars each year has come from the auction. Most the books have come from MIT Press, which we very much appreciate. We do have a box of books from MIT this year (thanks to Margie Avery and Katie Persons) but because of some changes in the way the press handles its inventory it is not quite as big those in previous years. Indeed MIT has been so generous in the past that it's been a struggle to get everything auctioned off in time. So I'm calling you all to look at their shelves and see if there are any spare desk copies, review copies, promotional copies, etc. of history of computing books you can bring to the SIGCIS lunch in Copenhagen. Or, if you are not going this year, you could also mail me a book or two. I'm leaving on Wednesday next week, so there is still time if they are mailed quickly. Donations to SHOT (and hence to SIGCIS) are treated as charitable contributions under US tax law. Another point: we can accept payment in cash or in US dollar checks. So please bring plenty of cash with you to the lunch so you can drive up the bidding in a good cause. Best wishes, Tom

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Internet History CFP for Information & Culture special issue
by Thomas Haigh 21 Sep '12

21 Sep '12

[See below. The project has strong ties to SIGCIS - Andy Russell and I are two of the guest editors, and Bill Aspray is the Editor in Chief of the journal. The first guest editor and originator of the project is William H Dutton, a leading figure in Internet Studies, so we are hoping for a productive interdisciplinary mix that can build new connections between historians, Internet Studies people, and Internet pioneers. SIGCIS members may find much of interest in Information and Culture, which is available via Project Muse and JSTOR. Tom.] Histories of the Internet - Call for Papers This is a call for papers for a special issue of Information & Culture: A Journal of History (Volume 50, Issue 1, February-March 2015). For the latest and most complete information on the special issue please see www.sigcis.org/InternetIssue. Guest Editors * William H. Dutton, Professor of Internet Studies, Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, and Professorial Fellow, Balliol College * Thomas Haigh, Associate Professor of Information Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee * Andrew L. Russell, Assistant Professor of History, College of Arts & Letters, Stevens Institute of Technology Deadlines Abstracts can be submitted to an editor of the special issue for informal feedback until 1 March 2013: e-mail: William dot Dutton at oii dot ox dot ac dot uk. Full papers should be submitted to the managing editor, George Royer, for review by 30 August 2013. The Call The increasing importance of the Internet, Web and related information and communication technologies, such as social media, has made it ever harder and ever more important to understand their history. Many authors have traced the timelines of technical developments, and a growing number of books have been written about the social history of the innovations that comprise and enable this network of networks. Scholars disagree over the very definition of the Internet and its history as a set of protocols, a large technical system, an infrastructure, or ensemble of technologies. The editors invite original, scholarly treatments of the history of the Internet that critically examine common assumptions about its origins and developments over the decades. Submissions could take any number of approaches, including: * Broad historical perspectives on the Internet's development; * Historical case studies of particular developments, such as ARPANet, TCP/IP, the World Wide Web, or Facebook; * Accounts of computer and communication networks, such as Open Systems Interconnection, online services, the European Informatics Network, and digital mobile telephone networks that contributed to or anticipated aspects of today's Internet but did not use Internet technologies; * Regional histories of Internet adoption or innovation; * Studies of an institution, such as ICANN, W3C, or Internet Governance Forum; * Explorations of an event, such as the dotcom bubble; * Critical analyses of scholarly or popular narratives about the Internet's history. These are only illustrative of possible approaches, as we would welcome creative approaches to the history of the Internet that go beyond these specific examples. About the Editors William H. Dutton is Professor of Internet Studies at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, and Fellow of Balliol College. Before coming to Oxford in 2002, Bill was a Professor in the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California, where he was elected President of the Faculty, and remains an Emeritus Professor. In the UK, Bill was a Fulbright Scholar, then National Director of the UK's Programme on Information and Communication Technologies (PICT), and founding director of the OII during its first decade. He is editor of The Oxford Handbook of Internet Studies (forthcoming 2013), and is writing a book on the Fifth Estate. Thomas Haigh is an Associate Professor of Information Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and chair of the SIGCIS group for historians of information technology. He has published widely on the history of computing - see more at www.tomandmaria.com/tom. Andrew L. Russell is an Assistant Professor of History and Director of the Program in Science and Technology Studies in the College of Arts & Letters at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey. Russell has published numerous articles and book chapters on the history of computers and telecommunications, and is the author of An Open World: History, Ideology, and Network Standards (forthcoming, Cambridge University Press). About the Journal Information & Culture: A Journal of History publishes high-quality, peer reviewed articles on the history of information. The journal honors its (45+ year) heritage by continuing to publish in the areas of library, archival, museum, conservation, and information science history. However, the journal's scope has been broadened significantly beyond these areas to include the historical study of any topic that would fall under the purview of any of the modern interdisciplinary schools of information. In keeping with the spirit of the information schools, the work is human centered and looks at the interactions of people, organizations, and societies with information and technologies. Social and cultural context of information and information technology, viewed from an historical perspective, is at the heart of the journal's interests. See: http://www.infoculturejournal.org/about Submission and Review Process Full papers should be from 6,000 to 10,000 words, including all notes and bibliography. Shorter or longer papers might be considered in exceptional cases, based on the merit of the case. The editors expect to publish 4-6 papers in the special issue, with any additional papers that merit publication scheduled for journal issues that will appear after the special issue. Before preparing or submitting an article, please check for any updated instructions at www.sigcis.org/InternetIssue. Authors are asked to please follow the submission guidelines available at http://sentra.ischool.utexas.edu/~lcr/submissions/submissions.php <http://sentra.ischool.utexas.edu/%7Elcr/submissions/submissions.php> . In particular, authors should prepare notes and bibliography in accordance with the journal style. Neither the editorial office nor the special editors should need to make formatting changes to notes or bibliography.

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