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The Communicators
by Evan Koblentz 29 Apr '22

29 Apr '22

I’m interested in a new-to-me research angle: the people who changed computing by writing about it. Lovelace comes to mind. So do Vannevar Bush and Edmund Berkeley. 1. Who else should I consider from prior to 1965? (I have the microcomputer generation covered.) 2. Are there existing papers on this subject? [NJIT logo]<https://www.njit.edu/> Evan A Koblentz Staff Writer, Office of Strategic Communications Adjunct Instructor, Ying Wu College of Computing evan.a.koblentz(a)njit.edu<mailto:evan.a.koblentz@njit.edu> • (973) 596-3065<tel:9735963065> https://web.njit.edu/~evank <https://web.njit.edu/~evank%0b>@TechnicallyEvan<https://twitter.com/technicallyevan>

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New OA book: What Was Artificial Intelligence?
by Jeff Pooley 28 Apr '22

28 Apr '22

mediastudies.press is a scholar-led, nonprofit, no-fee open access publisher in the media, film, and communication studies fields. We are excited to announce the publication of our latest book, Sue Curry Jansen’s *What Was Artificial Intelligence?*: https://www.mediastudies.press/wwai When it was originally published in 2002, Sue Curry Jansen’s “What Was Artificial Intelligence?” attracted little notice. The long essay was published as a chapter in Jansen’s Critical Communication Theory, a book whose wisdom and erudition failed to register across the many fields it addressed. One explanation for the neglect, ironic and telling, is that Jansen’s sheer scope as an intellectual had few competent readers in the communication studies discipline into which she published the book. “What Was Artificial Intelligence?” was buried treasure. In this mediastudies.press edition, Jansen’s prescient autopsy of AI self-selling—the rhetoric of the masculinist sublime—is reprinted with a new introduction. Now an open access book, What Was Artificial Intelligence? is a message in a bottle, addressed to Musk, Bezos, and the latest generation of AI myth-makers. https://www.mediastudies.press/wwai The book is available online, and as a free download in PDF, ePub, and Mobi. The book is also available as a $5 paperback. https://www.mediastudies.press/wwai What Was Artificial Intelligence? appears in the Media Manifold series. Scholars interested in proposing volumes in this or other series are encouraged to reach out with a query: https://www.mediastudies.press/queries --------- Jeff Pooley Professor of Media & Communication, Muhlenberg College Director, mediastudies.press jeffpooley.com

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BBC TV Request for Help
by James Cortada 27 Apr '22

27 Apr '22

I have received a request for help that I thought one or more of you could assist with. Johndy Surio III, a researcher at the BBC Studios in London is working on a documentary program entitled “The Secret Genius of Everything,” and wants to learn more about the invention of the magstripe and the Forrest Parry ironing story. BBC would like to have a chat with someone knowledgeable about these topics. Can one of you help out? I can facilitate an introduction. Thanks. Jim Cortada -- James W. Cortada Senior Research Fellow Charles Babbage Institute University of Minnesota jcortada(a)umn.edu 608-274-6382

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Great podcast series about Klara von Neumann
by thomas.haigh＠gmail.com 27 Apr '22

27 Apr '22

Hello SIGCIS, In the wake of Andy's recent self-promotion, please allow me to pop up suddenly in your inbox to let you know about a new podcast centered on Klara von Neumann. It's season 2 of _Lost Women of Science_, fronted by Katie Hafner of NY Times, WELL & _Where Wizards Stay Up Late_ fame and distributed with PRX and Scientific American. Klara von Neumann made her main contributions to the history of computing between 1947 and 1950. In my book _ENIAC in Action_ (with Mark Priestley and Crispin Rope) we argued that the code she wrote in 1947/8 for ENIAC was not just the first Monte Carlo simulation run on a computer but the first "modern" code of any kind executed on any computer. She worked hands on with ENIAC during two long visits that year, and played an even more central role in further fission and fusion simulations run on behalf of Los Alamos in 1949 and 1950. Yet despite her conspicuous accomplishments, and a prominent appearance in George Dyson's bestselling and idiosyncratic _Turing's Cathedral_ she never quite made list of well known pioneering women in computing. <Grumpy aside> Compounding this general neglect, the most prominent online source about her, a 2017 Smithsonian Magazine article, is centered on something she didn't do (invent numerical meteorology). https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/meet-computer-scientist-you-sh ould-thank-your-phone-weather-app-180963716/ In fact she didn't write the code for this project, wasn't there when it was run, didn't manage the punched cards holding data, and despite the article's title doesn't need to be thanked for your smartphone weather app. Unfortunately the bogus claim has now been further garbled by the Guardian and written into Wikipedia, so likely it will never go away. </grumpy aside> In contrast, the Lost Women of Science format devotes an entire season to a single "lost woman" which is a nice change from the thriving industry of shoddily sourced quickie online articles recycling tired anecdotes about the same handful of (by now well-known) inspirational women. So there's an actual team of journalists behind it who did archival research and spoke with a lot of people, including SIGCIS stalwarts such as Janet Abbate, Nathan Ensmenger and Anne Fitzpatrick. I feature up quite prominently in episodes three and four, which deal with ENIAC and the work that Klara did with it. That's when computers enter the picture, but I urge you to listen to the whole thing - it's a very high quality production and delves into Klara's story to turn up information on her earlier life that I wasn't aware of and I don't believe has been fully reported elsewhere. I was very impressed with the team's commitment to getting details correct and its willingness to explore the paradoxes and ambiguities of a complicated life without trying to shoehorn it into a tidy narrative template. The first four episodes are up at https://lostwomenofscience.org/season-2. There should be one more coming soon, plus a bonus episode. In addition, you might be interested in an event that was organized at the Computer History Museum to launch the new season. It featured me in conversation with Katie Hafner, moderated by Maria Klawe. There's a nice blog post at https://computerhistory.org/blog/there-at-the-creation/, which includes video snippets embedded in the text (as well as the whole thing at the bottom). Best wishes, Tom

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New Book & Article on Internetworking history: Pelkey, Russell, and Robbins
by Andrew Russell 27 Apr '22

27 Apr '22

Hi SIGCIS! Self-promotion alert :) I’m beyond thrilled to share the news that the book that I’ve been working on with James Pelkey and Loring Robbins is, at long last, published and on sale. The book is called “Circuits, Packets, and Protocols: Entrepreneurs and Computer Communications, 1968-1988,” published by ACM Books/Morgan & Claypool. Details here: https://www.morganclaypoolpublishers.com/catalog_Orig/product_info.php?prod…. As many of you may know, the foundation for the book is Jim Pelkey’s interviews, conducted in the late 1980s, with over 80 protagonists in the data comm, networking, and internetworking industries. These interviews now reside in the Pelkey collection at Computer History Museum <https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102746648>; you can also access them through Pelkey’s website, https://historyofcomputercommunications.info/. There he has some overviews and context for the interiews (check out the JCR Licklider <https://historyofcomputercommunications.info/interviews/j.c.r.-licklider/> intro, for example, and the intro to the Paul Baran <https://historyofcomputercommunications.info/interviews/paul-baran/> interview for insight into the backstory for the book). Circuits, Packets, and Protocols is 632 pages, with many color illustrations, including an appendix that has a timeline of events, technologies, and companies in 3 different market-structures that arose between 1968 and 1988: data communications (modems); networking (LANs); and internetworking (gateways and routers). The book answers questions that no other book has taken on, namely: who made these devices that allowed computers to interconnect? How did they do it? How did they navigate the competing forces of government funding, standards committees, the towering presence of AT&T and IBM, and, of course, fickle (and then overwhelming) market demand? The book is available for purchase at https://www.morganclaypoolpublishers.com/catalog_Orig/product_info.php?prod…, and at other places where books are sold. It’s also available via the ACM Digital Library, and I believe some ACM members will have free or discounted access as a perk of their membership. In addition, we have an article just published by Business History Review in a special issue on standards and international business, which summarizes some aspect of the book that relate to standards. That article appears to be open access (for the time being), available from https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/business-history-review/article/abs…. The article might be especially appealing for those looking for a breezy 12,000 word version, before you dive into the full 632 pages of Circuits, Packets, and Protocols. This has been a project long in the making, and I want to thank those who have supported Pelkey and us along the way, especially Tom Misa, our series editor at ACM Books. I hope you enjoy it! And please help us spread the word :) Many thanks, Andy — — — — — — — — — — — Andrew L. Russell, Ph.D. Dean, College of Arts & Sciences SUNY Polytechnic Institute Donovan Hall - 2123B 100 Seymour Road Utica, NY 13502 t. 315-792-7317 w. https://sunypoly.edu/ e. arussell(a)arussell.org

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CfA Fellowships and Working Groups at the Center for Advanced Internet Studies (CAIS)
by Esther Laufer 26 Apr '22

26 Apr '22

Are you studying the social, political, economic, media-related or cultural effects of digitalization? Do you want to concentrate exclusively on a project and are interested in interdisciplinary exchange? The Center for Advanced Internet Studies (CAIS) in Bochum, Germany, supports innovative projects that deal with the social opportunities and challenges of the digital transformation. Experts from academia and practice can apply for Fellowships and Working Groups. The funding program is open to experts of all career stages, to all disciplines and areas of investigation, as well as to pure research and to projects that are more applied in orientation. The funding program is continuous. Apply by 31 May 2022 for Fellowships starting from April 2023 and for Working Groups starting from 15 May 2023. For more information go to: http://www.cais.nrw/en/callforapplications/. If you have any questions, please contact esther.laufer(a)cais.nrw mailto:esther.laufer@cais.nrw.

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Reminder Fri. Apr. 29th CBI's "Automation by Design" Deadline for paper proposals
by Jeffrey Yost 25 Apr '22

25 Apr '22

Automation by Design: <https://cse.umn.edu/cbi/Automation-by-Design>Politics, Culture, and Landscape in an Age of Machines That Learn <https://cse.umn.edu/cbi/Automation-by-Design>CFP--Deadline Friday, April 29th <https://cse.umn.edu/cbi/Automation-by-Design> *Automation by Design <https://cse.umn.edu/cbi/Automation-by-Design>* is a global, interdisciplinary, virtual CBI symposium on the politics and culture of digital automation. We welcome papers in a broad range of fields across the humanities and social sciences. These include history, STS, sociology, anthropology, media studies, policy, legal studies, geography, communication, rhetoric, information studies, and philosophy. The platformization of society, fueled by automation and machine learning, impacts IT users in deleterious, discriminatory, democracy-threatening, and at times deadly, ways that intersect and compound. This symposium seeks papers that explore how automation—from its algorithmic and architectural design to its structuring, materiality, maintenance, and use—has developed jointly with social politics. We are especially interested in papers that address education, law, capitalism, labor, science, medicine, leisure, privacy/security, surveillance, the body, and the environment. Program Committee: Dr. Jeffrey Yost ( <https://cse.umn.edu/cbi/jeffrey-r-yost-phd> @JustCodeCulture <https://twitter.com/JustCodeCulture>), CBI Dir. & Res. Prof., HSTM, Univ. of Minnesota <https://cse.umn.edu/cbi/jeffrey-r-yost-phd> Dr. Gerardo Con Diaz, Assoc. Prof., STS, Univ. of California, Davis & Stanford Univ. Fellow <https://sts.ucdavis.edu/people/condiaz> Dr. Honghong Tinn, Asst. Prof., HSTM & ECE, Univ. of Minnesota <https://cse.umn.edu/hstm/honghong-tinn> Dr. Colette Perold, Asst. Prof., Media Studies, Univ. of Colorado <https://www.colorado.edu/cmci/people/media-studies/colette-perold> *Please connect: Twitter <https://twitter.com/justcodeculture> ** Linkedin <https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffrey-yost-b714566>** CBI-FB <https://www.facebook.com/babbageinstitute> Blockchain & Society FB <https://www.facebook.com/Decentralizedinternet/>* *Jeffrey Yost, Ph.D. * Director, Charles Babbage Institute <http://www.cse.umn.edu/cbi>; Research Professor, HSTM 222 21st Avenue South, University of Minnesota; Minneapolis, MN 55455 *Studies in Computing and Culture book series, Johns Hopkins U. Press * Co-Editor *PI, NSF-funded CBI project "Mining a Useable Past: Perspectives, Paradoxes, and Possibilities with Security and Privacy."* *Blockchain & Society Blog and Site* <https://www.blockchainandsociety.com> (Founder/Leader) *Interfaces: Essays and Reviews in Computing and Culture <https://cse.umn.edu/cbi/interfaces> *Co-Editor (w/ Amanda Wick) *Committee Member, National Academy of Engineering Extraordinary Engineering Impacts on Society* *Making IT Work: A History of the Computer Services Industry (MIT Press) <https://amzn.to/3gqe4R6>*

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Archives of IT Free Webinar - 3 May 19.00 BST
by Research 24 Apr '22

24 Apr '22

Register for the Archives of IT free Webinar 3 May - by kind invitation of the BCS South Wales Branch A whistle stop tour of the Archive will stop off for a deeper look at how Comms and IT has delivered benefits, including Tech for Good - the convergence of Tech with Biology in the last 70 years Entrepreneurial Enterprises - the history of Tech innovation and growth Q&A will allow us to delve into whatever aspect of the Archives you may wish to explore Start 19:00 Close 20:30 - exclusively online and free to all Book here https://www.bcs.org/events-calendar/2022/may/webinar-an-introduction-to-the… Tom Abram Director - Archives of IT research(a)archivesit.org.uk www.archivesit.org.uk<http://www.archivesit.org.uk/> > Subscribe<https://archivesit.org.uk/sign-up/> to our e-newsletter > Follow us on Twitter @ArchivesIT<https://twitter.com/ArchivesIT> Registered Charity No: 1164198

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Henry G. Rice and APS
by David Nofre 21 Apr '22

21 Apr '22

Dear list, I'm trying to trace back Henry G. Rice's work at Westinghouse Research Labs in the late 1950s on the development of the so-called Automatic Programming System (APS). Rice was trained as a mathematician and logician with Paul C. Rosenbloom at Syracuse and joined Westinghouse labs around 1955/6. From the few sources that I've found it seems that Rice's APS was a language for the Datatron 205 similar to Fortran but making extensive use of Polish notation. Does anybody know if/where I could get more info on Rice and/or APS ? Thanks in advance. David Nofre -- https://www.davidnofre.com/

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2022 Computer History Museum Prize - call for nominations
by Andrew Russell 20 Apr '22

20 Apr '22

Dear colleagues - [Please help us to circulate this call widely, including on mailing lists, social media, and directly to authors and publishers of books about computer history, broadly defined.] Nominations are now open for the 2022 Computer History Museum Prize. Details are available from https://www.sigcis.org/chmprize. Books published in 2019, 2020, and 2021 are eligible for the 2022 prize. Books in translation are eligible for three years following the date of their publication in English. Publishers, authors, and other interested members of the computer history community are invited to nominate books. Please note that books nominated in previous years may be nominated again, provided they have been published in the timeframes specified above. Please send digital and physical copies of the nominated title to each of the committee members listed at https://www.sigcis.org/chmprize, with a postmark no later than May 15, 2022. Please direct any questions to the 2022 committee chair, Jean Kumagai. About the Computer History Museum Prize The Computer History Museum Prize is awarded to the author of an outstanding book in the history of computing broadly conceived, published during the prior three years. The prize of $1,000 is awarded by SIGCIS, the Special Interest Group for Computers, Information and Society. SIGCIS is part of the Society for the History of Technology. In 2012 the prize was endowed in perpetuity through a generous bequest from the estate of Paul Baran, a legendary computer innovator and entrepreneur best known for his work to develop and promote the packet switching approach on which modern networks are built. Baran was a longtime supporter of work on the history of information technology and named the prize to celebrate the contributions of the Computer History Museum to that field. Many thanks, Andy — — — — — — — — — — — Andrew L. Russell, Ph.D. Dean, College of Arts & Sciences SUNY Polytechnic Institute Donovan Hall - 2123B 100 Seymour Road Utica, NY 13502 t. 315-792-7317 w. https://sunypoly.edu/ e. arussell(a)arussell.org

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