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A landmark session
by Research 24 Feb '22

24 Feb '22

Summing up, Doron Swade, noted our seminar last week as "a 'landmark session' ...successfully bridging conventional silos and tying the discussion of social and cultural aspects of the IT industry to technology." If you missed it you can catch up with the abridged video proceedings at https://archivesit.org.uk/learning-from-history/ Regards Tom Dr 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> > Please support us at https://archivesit.org.uk/get-involved-4/make-a-difference/ Registered Charity No: 1164198 This e-mail is confidential and may be privileged. It may be read, copied and used only by the intended recipient. If you have received it in error, please contact the sender immediately by return e-mail. Please then delete the e-mail and do not disclose its contents to any person.

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2nd call for abstracts HaPoP-5, 13 june 2022, Lille, France
by lidemol 21 Feb '22

21 Feb '22

Dear all, I am happy to send you the second call for abstracts of HAPOP-5 which is currently planned as a hybrid event in Lille (France) on June 13 2022 and to be co-located with the final PROGRAMme event. I also add that we will have some grants for young scholars and scholars who do not have access to institutional support -- details for those will be published later. If you would have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact me or my co-chair Tomas Petricek, with best wishes, Liesbeth De Mol ======================== Second call for Abstracts ======================== *HaPoP 2022* /Fifth Symposium on the History and Philosophy of Programming (hybrid)/ 13 June 2022, Lille, France Maison Européenne des Sciences de l'Homme et de la Société website: https://www.shift-society.org/hapop5/ Co-located with the final conference of the ANR-funded PROGRAMme project, 14-15 June 2022 (more details to follow soon). In a society where computers have become ubiquitous, it is necessary to develop a deeper understanding of the nature of computer programs, not just from the technical viewpoint, but from a broader historical and philosophical perspective. A historical awareness of the evolution of programming not only helps to clarify the complex structure of computing, but it also provides an insight in what programming was, is and could be in the future. Philosophy, on the other hand, helps to tackle fundamental questions about the nature of programs, programming languages and programming as a discipline. HaPoP 2022 is the fifth edition of the Symposium on the History and Philosophy of Programming, organised by HaPoC, Commission on the History and Philosophy of Computing (www.hapoc.org) as a hybrid event. As in the previous editions, we are convinced that an interdisciplinary approach is necessary for understanding programming with its multifaceted nature. As such, we welcome participation by researchers and practitioners coming from a diversity of backgrounds, including historians, philosophers, artists, computer scientists and professional software developers. WHAT IS A COMPUTER PROGRAM? This edition of the symposium will be co-located with the final conference of the ANR-funded PROGRAMme project which poses the basic question “What is a computer program?” This seemingly simple question has no simple answer today, but the responses one gives to it affect very real problems: who is responsible if a given piece of software fails; whether a program is correct or not; or whether copyright or patent law applies to programs. The project is anchored in the conviction that a new kind of foundational research is needed. The broad range of scientific and societal problems related to computing cannot be addressed by any single discipline. The question “What is a program?”, is a call for deeper critical thinking about the nature of programs that is both foundational, in the sense that it goes beyond specific problems, but also accessible, in the sense that it should be open to anyone who is willing to make an effort in understanding this basic technique from a broader horizon. In order to initiate new collaborations that critically reflect on the nature of programs and engage a broader community with the above issues, HaPoP 2022 is particularly looking for talk proposals that relate to the question “What is a computer program?” and offer a novel reflection from a variety of perspectives, including historical, practice-based, philosophical, logical, etc. SELECTED TOPICS OF INTEREST FOR THE SYMPOSIUM Possible and in no way exclusive questions of relevance to this symposium are: - What is a computer program? - Are we getting better at writing programs that solve the given problem? Is programming a specialist discipline, or will everyone in the future be a programmer? - What are the different scientific paradigms and research programmes developed through the history of computer programming? - What is a correct program? - Is a program a text? - Is it possible to eliminate errors from computer programs? - How did the notion of a program change throughout the history? - How are programs and abstractions born, used and understood? - What was and is the relationship between hardware and software developments? - How did theoretical computer science (lambda-calculus, logics, category theory) influence the development of programming languages and vice versa? - What are the novel and most interesting approaches to the design of programs? - What is the nature of the relationship between algorithms and programs? - What legal and socio-economical issues are involved in the creation, patenting and free-distribution of programs? - How do we understand the multi-faceted nature of programs combining syntax, semantics and physical implementation? - How is programming to be taught? PROGRAM COMMITTEE AND REGISTRATION HaPoP5 co-chairs are Liesbeth De Mol and Tomas Petricek. If you have any questions regarding suitability of a topic or format of the extended abstract, please contact Liesbeth at liesbeth.de-mol(a)univ-lille.fr or Tomas at tomas(a)tomasp.net. For quick questions, you can also use @tomaspetricek on Twitter. - Arnaud Bailly, Pankzsoft - Martin Carlé, Ionean University, Corfu - Liesbeth De Mol (co-chair), CNRS, UMR 8163 STL, Université de Lille - Andrea Magnorsky, Independent - Ursula Martin, University of Oxford - Baptiste Mélès, CNRS, UMR 7117 Archives Henri-Poincaré - Tomas Petricek (co-chair), University of Kent - Mark Priestley, National Museum of Computing, Bletchley - Giuseppe Primiero, University of Milan Information about registration and travel grants will be announced soon. Please check our webpage https://www.shift-society.org/hapop5/ regularly for updates. We will be also sharing updates via the HaPoC Comission web page (register to get updates via email) and on Twitter at @HaPoComputing. DATES, FORMAT AND SUBMISSION We cordially invite anyone working in a field relevant to the main topic to submit *a short abstract* (at most 200 words) together with *an extended abstract* (at most 1000 words with references included) through Easychair: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=hapop50. Accepted papers will be given a 30 minute presentation slot including discussion. As with the previous editions, we also intend to submit a proposal for a special issue of a suitable journal for publication of full papers based on the symposium presentations. /Important dates/ Submission deadline: 18 March 2022 Author notification: 15 April 2022 HaPoP symposium: 13 June 2022 /Important links/ Submission web site: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=hapop50 Financial support: Coming soon Registraton site: Coming soon SUPPORT The symposium is supported by: - ANR (https://anr.fr/) - UMR 8162 Savoirs, Textes, Langage, Université de Lille (https://stl.univ-lille.fr/) - HAPOC (www.hapoc.org)

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15th CIFAS Field School in Ethnographic Research Methods in New York City
by Renzo Taddei 19 Feb '22

19 Feb '22

*Apologies for cross-posting.* *15th CIFAS Field School in Ethnographic Research Methods in New York City* Online: June 20 to July 1, 2022 – 9 AM to 12 PM EDT On-site in New York City: July 18 to 29, 2022 – 9 AM to 12 PM EDT [image: image.png] The Comitas Institute for Anthropological Study (CIFAS) is pleased to announce the 15th CIFAS Field School in Ethnographic Research Methods. In 2022, the course will take place in two sessions: one in an online format at the end of June and another returning to its face-to-face modality, in New York City, in July (provided sanitary conditions allow). The goal of the Field School is to offer training in the foundations and practice of ethnographic methods. The faculty works closely with participants to identify the required field methods needed to address their academic or professional needs. The Field School is suitable for graduate and undergraduate students in social sciences and other fields of study that use qualitative approaches (such as education, communication, cultural studies, health, social work, human ecology, development studies, consumer behavior, among others), applied social scientists, professionals, and researchers who have an interest in learning more about ethnographic methods and their applications. *Program:* - Foundations of ethnographic research - Theory and practice: social theories in the field - Research design - Data collection techniques - Planning the logistics of field research - Digital ethnography - Ethnography in interface with Social Network Analysis and other trends in the field of the digital humanities - Ethnography in specific fields of activity (applied social sciences, health, social service, environmental studies, public policy design, business, and others) - Principles of organization and indexation of field data - Analyzing field data; qualitative analysis software packages: basic principles The total workload of the course is 30 hours. In this edition of the summer school, the option of earning credits is not available. Places are limited. The tuition fee is US$ 1,200. *Comitas Field School Fellowship:* a limited amount of fellowships are available to students from underrepresented minorities and low-income countries. See information on how to apply at the end of the application form. The application should be completed online *here* <http://cifas.us/field-school-registration-form/>. For more information, please see https://cifas.us/field-school/ or email us at fieldschool(a)cifas.us.

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Histories of Computing in Oceania Virtual Conference
by Janet Toland 16 Feb '22

16 Feb '22

Any SIGCIS members interested in the history of computing in Oceania are welcome to attend this virtual conference on 23rd Feb 11am to 2pm Australian Eastern Daylight Time (which will be 22nd Feb for many of you). Attendance is free but you must register in advance. https://business.sydney.edu.au/events/research/2022/blhg/histories-of-compu… Dr Janet Toland Associate Professor in Information Systems Victoria University of Wellington/ Te Herenga Waka New Zealand Editor: From Yesterday to Tomorrow 60 Years of Tech in New Zealand https://history.itp.nz/

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Reminder: 2022 ACM FAccT deadlines this Friday February 18, 2022: Call for Tutorials, Community Keynotes, CRAFT, Doctoral Colloquium
by FAccT Publicity 15 Feb '22

15 Feb '22

Dear all, this is a reminder that the submission deadline for several calls at the 2022 ACM FAccT (Fairness, Accountability and Transparency) conference is fast approaching. The submission deadline for all of these calls is on Friday, February 18, 2022 at 11:59 PM AoE (Anywhere on Earth). This includes 1. the call for Tutorial proposals 2. the call for Community Keynote proposals 3. the call for CRAFT (Critiquing and Rethinking Accountability, Fairness and Transparency) proposals 4. the call for submissions to the Doctoral Colloquium. We also have a call for applications for DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) scholars. The deadline for this call is March 18, 2022 at 11:59 PM AoE (Anywhere on Earth). The 2022 ACM FAccT (Fairness, Accountability and Transparency) conference will be held both in-person and online. The in-person conference will take place in Seoul, South Korea on June 21-24, 2022. The online conference--including both live-streamed elements of the in-person conference, and online-only content--will also begin on June 21, with content and discussion available for two weeks from that date, and a library of content available subsequently. 1. Call for Tutorials Call: https://facctconference.org/2022/cft.html Deadline: February 18, 2022 at 11:59 PM AoE (Anywhere on Earth) Tutorials should address practical, technical, policy, regulatory, ethical, or societal issues related to FAccT for a broad audience. We are soliciting three types of tutorials for 2022: dialogue/translation tutorials, implications tutorials, and practice tutorials. We will give presenters either 45 or 90 minutes to present their tutorial. The tutorials track is curated: the Tutorial Chairs will select from the pool of proposals with the aim of ensuring broad coverage of disciplines and topics. We welcome perspectives from a variety of disciplines, including computer science, economics, law, philosophy, political science, communication, sociology, education, and social work. A goal of the tutorials track is that the diversity of perspectives represents the diversity of the populations impacted by this technology throughout the world. Note: ACM FAccT also solicits proposals on CRAFT (Critiquing and Rethinking Accountability Fairness and Transparency). Some proposals we receive under the CRAFT Call may be more appropriate as proposals for Tutorials, and vice-versa. In such cases, the Tutorial and CRAFT Co-Chairs may transfer such proposals to the other track, in consultation with proposal coordinator(s). If you have questions, contact tutorials(a)facctconference.org 2. Call for Community Keynotes Call: https://facctconference.org/2022/cfkeynotes.html Deadline: February 18, 2022 at 11:59 PM AoE (Anywhere on Earth) Do you have research or have you come across research that should have wider reach because of its importance to the daily lives of people and communities? Are you impressed with high-quality narrative and explainer videos or short documentaries that millions of people online find compelling and share with their communities? Here is your chance to receive funding of up to $5,000 USD and mentorship to support producing your own 15 to 45 minute video exploring a topic relevant to the FAccT community. Your video will be presented as a "Community Keynote" at the ACM FAccT 2022 Hybrid conference. We expect to fund 2-3 keynotes. Building on the successes of the 2021 ACM FAccT conference, the 2022 Chairs are issuing a call for applications to support innovative and highly-produced video content on any topic in the broad area of fairness, accountability and transparency in sociotechnical systems. This call is open to teams from all corners of the FAccT community and beyond. Community Keynote videos can be short documentary films, animated explainers, or video explainers paired with interviews with notable researchers, creators, activists, or community members. Eligibility: Anyone can apply--individuals or teams. Assessment criteria: The selection panel will be looking for potential to pair an innovative and visually interesting aesthetic with relevant substantive content. High production values are not required for the application video. It is more important that your video contain the information we are requesting above, but you may include visual samples if you believe it will be more informative for the selection panel. DEI focus: We are especially interested in spotlighting voices and concerns that receive inadequate attention, and particularly welcome submissions from members of underrepresented communities in the FAccT area, and in particular from the global South. If you have questions, contact general-chairs(a)facctconference.org 3. Call for CRAFT proposals Call: https://facctconference.org/2022/cfcraft.html Deadline: February 18, 2022 at 11:59 PM AoE (Anywhere on Earth) The ACM FAccT conference has predominantly focused on Fairness, Accountability and Transparency in computing systems. This focus on fairness, accountability and transparency has also attracted critique and renewed attention to the limitations of achieving these goals in computing systems without a broader consideration outside the more traditional ML fields. In the spirit of reflection and response, we invite academics of all disciplines and people representing different communities of practice (including journalism, activism, advocacy, public authorities, education, art, spirituality, etc.) to contribute to CRAFT, a program embedded in the ACM FAccT conference. This call invites contributions in the form of workshops, panels and other formats to: - Creatively address critiques of the field of fairness, accountability and transparency--its gaps, omissions and possibilities by taking a more holistic approach - Highlight novel modes of interaction with questions of fairness, accountability and transparency - Invite an interdisciplinary and cross-practice group of organizers, researchers, activists and artists to explore and inspire conversation and open future lines of research, collaboration and practice - Push beyond the epistemological and methodological boundaries of their research and practice In addition to contributions that explore the problem space in greater depth and from broader perspectives, we particularly encourage proposals that explore solution spaces, indicate mechanisms for positive change, or open possibilities for a greater conversation around countering automated injustices. We value proposals focused on interaction among participants, and we will prioritize formats that allow participants to share and explore starting assumptions, prior experiences or competing values and to foster community building, collaborative knowledge production and future engagement. Themes: - Modeling and (Non-)Deployment - Values, Assumptions and Context - Generating Higher Order Critiques - Emerging Problems - New Models of Engagement - Overlooked Disciplinary Approaches If you have questions, contact craft(a)facctconference.org 4. Call for Doctoral Colloquium Call: https://facctconference.org/2022/cfdc.html Deadline: February 18, 2022 at 11:59 PM AoE (Anywhere on Earth) The third annual ACM FAccT Conference 2022 invites applicants for the FAccT Doctoral Colloquium (DC). The ACM FAccT 2022 Doctoral Colloquium is open to PhD students (or others pursuing a relevant advanced degree, as well as recent grads of professional schools) doing research on fairness, accountability and transparency (or related topics) in relation to socio-technical systems. We are looking for students in computer science, philosophy, sociology, law, psychology, or any of the broad range of subjects contributing to this area. The Doctoral Colloquium is a unique opportunity to engage in substantive interaction with experienced researchers and peers regarding dissertation research and career objectives. Assessment criteria: Applications will be reviewed according to the following criteria: clarity and completeness of submission package and evidence of research progress. If you have questions, contact dc-chairs(a)facctconference.org 5. Call for DEI Scholars Call: https://facctconference.org/2022/cfs.html Deadline: March 18, 2022 at 11:59 PM AoE (Anywhere on Earth) ACM FAccT welcomes applications for the inaugural FAcct Diversity and Inclusion (DEI) Scholarships. One of FAccT's Strategic Goals is to innovate and lead on diversity and inclusion. This program seeks to advance this goal by funding scholars to conduct research that deepens our collective understanding of and advances DEI initiatives. Either individuals or small teams are welcome to apply. Applicants should describe the research that they want to conduct. The proposed work should leverage the FAccT conference/organization, and should have broader impacts (e.g., guidelines for practice, tutorials) and/or intellectual merits. We welcome a diverse range of methods - ethnographic, qualitative, quantitative, experimental, etc. Eligibility: Anyone who is interested in conducting research to advance the diversity and inclusion goals of the FAccT community can apply. Depending on the scope of the project, a small team of individuals (1-4 people) can apply as well. Funding and duration: The funding is provided as one-time payment of funds up to $25,000. The project can last from 6 to 12 months, and an extension can be granted depending on the project's scope. If you have questions, contact inclusion(a)facctconference.org Best wishes, Deb Raji & Annette Zimmermann ACM FAccT Publicity Co-Chairs

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Contact at Air and Space?
by David C. Brock 15 Feb '22

15 Feb '22

Dear All, We had someone offer the Computer History Museum a set of interesting technical documents about NASA’s Pioneer Program missions, and in particular about a Bendix Field Engineering Corporation computer system used for processing the data that the spacecraft returned. We thought that the set might be a good fit for the Air and Space Museum. Could someone tell me who might be the best person for the donor to contact? Best wishes, David +++++++++++++++ David C. Brock dcb(a)dcbrock.net 40 Russell Street, Greenfield, MA 01301 Mobile: 413-522-3578 Skype: dcbrock Twitter: @dcbrock Pronouns: he, him, his

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Moore’s Not Enough: 4 New Laws of Computing
by Joly MacFie 14 Feb '22

14 Feb '22

[I thought this worthy of circulation - Joly] https://spectrum.ieee.org/on-beyond-moores-law-4-new-laws-of-computing *Moore’s Not Enough: 4 New Laws of Computing * *Moore’s and Metcalfe’s conjectures are taught in classrooms every day—these four deserve consideration, too * *ADENEKAN DEDEKE * *04 FEB 2022* I teach technology and information-systems courses at Northeastern University, <https://damore-mckim.northeastern.edu/people/adenekan-dedeke/> in Boston. The two most popular laws that we teach there—and, one presumes, in most other academic departments that offer these subjects—are Moore’s Law and Metcalfe’s Law. Moore’s Law, as everyone by now knows, predicts that the number of transistors on a chip will double every two years. One of the practical values of Intel cofounder Gordon Moore’s legendary law <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore%27s_law> is that it enables managers and professionals to determine how long they should keep their computers. It also helps software developers to anticipate, broadly speaking, how much bigger their software releases should be. Metcalfe’s Law is similar to Moore’s Law in that it also enables one to predict the direction of growth for a phenomenon. Based on the observations and analysis of Robert Metcalfe <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Metcalfe/>, co-inventor of the Ethernet and pioneering innovator in the early days of the Internet, he postulated that the value of a network would grow proportionately to the number of its users squared. A limitation of this law is that a network’s value is difficult to quantify. Furthermore, it is unclear that the growth rate of every network value changes quadratically at the power of two. Nevertheless, this law as well as Moore’s Law remain a centerpiece in both the IT industry and academic computer-science research. Both provide tremendous power to explain and predict behaviors of some seemingly incomprehensible systems and phenomena in the sometimes inscrutable information-technology world. I contend, moreover, that there are still other regularities in the field of computing that could also be formulated in a fashion similar to that of Moore’s and Metcalfe’s relationships. I would like to propose four such laws. *Law 1. Yule’s Law of Complementarity* I named this law after George Udny Yule <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Udny_Yule> (1912), who was the statistician who proposed the seminal equation <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yule%E2%80%93Simon_distribution> for explaining the relationship between two attributes. I formulate this law as follows: *If two attributes or products are complements, the value/demand of one of > the complements will be inversely related to the price of the other > complement.* In other words, if the price of one complement is reduced, the demand for the other will increase. There are a few historical examples of this law. One of the famous ones is the marketing of razor blades. The legendary King Camp Gillette <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_C._Gillette> gained market domination by applying this rule. He reduced the price of the razors, and the demand for razor blades increased. The history of IT contains numerous examples of this phenomenon, too. The case of Atari 2600 is one notable example. Atari video games consisted of the console system hardware and the read-only memory cartridges that contained a game’s software. When the product was released, Atari Inc. marketed three products, namely the Atari Video Computer System <https://spectrum.ieee.org/atari-2600> (VCS) hardware and the two games that it had created, the arcade shooter game *Jet Fighter* and *Tank*, a heavy-artillery combat title involving, not surprisingly, tanks. Crucially, Atari engineers decided that they would use a microchip for the VCS instead of a custom chip. They also made sure that any programmer hoping to create a new game for the VCS would be able to access and use all the inner workings of the system’s hardware. And that was exactly what happened. In other words, the designers reduced the barriers and the cost necessary for other players to develop VCS game cartridges. More than 200 such games have since been developed for the VCS—helping to spawn the sprawling US $170 billion global video game industry today <https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/global-gaming-market>. A similar law of complementarity exists with computer printers. The more affordable the price of a printer is kept, the higher the demand for that printer’s ink cartridges. Managing complementary components well was also crucial to Apple’s winning the MP3 player wars of the early 2000s <https://books.google.com/books?id=tGUYDQAAQBAJ&q=ipod#v=snippet&q=ipod&f=fa…>, with its now-iconic iPod. >From a strategic point of view, technology firms ultimately need to know which complementary element of their product to sell at a low price—and which complement to sell at a higher price. And, as the economist Bharat Anand points out in his celebrated 2016 book <https://books.google.com/books?id=tGUYDQAAQBAJ&vq=ipod&source=gbs_navlinks_s>*The Content Tra <https://books.google.com/books?id=tGUYDQAAQBAJ&vq=ipod&source=gbs_navlinks_s>p*, proprietary complements tend to be more profitable than nonproprietary ones. *Law 2. Hoff’s Law of Scalability* This law is named after Marcian Edward (Ted) Hoff Jr.—the engineer who convinced the CEO of Intel to apply the law of scalability to the design and development of processors. Certainly, the phenomenon of scalability was well known in the automobile industry before it made a significant impact on the computing industry. Henry Ford was a notable example of the application of this scalability law. Henry Ford’s company was perhaps the first company to apply this law on a grand scale. Ford produced the Model T, which was the first mass-produced car. At the core of Henry Ford’s achievement was the design of an automobile that was made for mass production. Ford’s engineers broke down the assembly process of the Model T into 84 discrete steps <https://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/2018/01/historic_photos_fords_assembly.h….>. The company standardized all the tasks and assigned each worker to do just one task, thus standardizing the work each worker performed as well. Ford further built machines that could stamp out parts automatically. Together with Ford’s innovative development of the first moving assembly line, this production system cut the time to build a car from 12 hours to about 1.5 hours <https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/fords-assembly-line-starts-roll…>. The Model T is probably the paradigmatic example of how standardization enables designing processes for scalability. Intel also mastered the law of scalability early in its history. In 1969, Busicom, a Japanese company, approached Intel about building custom chips <https://spectrum.ieee.org/chip-hall-of-fame-intel-4004-microprocessor> for use in its programmable computers. Gordon Moore was not interested in a custom chip because he knew that it would not be scalable. It was the quest to create a scalable product that led Intel’s Ted Hoff to partition the chip into a general-purpose logic processor chip and a separate read-only memory (ROM) chip that stored an application program. As Albert Yu shows in his history of Intel, *Creating the Digital Future <https://books.google.com/books/about/Creating_the_Digital_Future.html?id=AY…>*, the fledgling semiconductor company’s general-purpose processor, the 4004, was scalable and pretty much bequeathed the world the hardware architecture of the modern computer. And it was Hoff who redesigned the 4004 to scale. Hoff’s Law of Scalability could thus be described as follows: *The potential for scalability of a technology product is inversely proportional to its degree of customization and directly proportional to its degree of standardization.* In sum, the law predicts that a technology component or process that has a high degree of customization and/or a lower degree of standardization will be a poor candidate for scaling. *Law 3. Evans’s Law of Modularity* This law derives its name from Bob Overton Evans <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_O._Evans>. He was the engineer who in the early 1960s persuaded IBM’s chairman, Thomas J. Watson Jr <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_J._Watson>., to discontinue IBM’s technology design approach, which had produced a hodgepodge of incompatible computers. Evans advocated that IBM should instead embark on the development of a family of modular computers that would share peripheries, instructions, and common interfaces. IBM’s first product family under this new design rubric was called System/360 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_System/360>. Prior to this era, IBM and other mainframe computer manufacturers produced systems that were unique. Each system had its own distinct operating system, processor, peripherals, and application software. After the purchase of a new IBM computer, customers had to rewrite all their existing code. Evans convinced CEO Watson that a line of computers should be designed to share many of the same instructions and interfaces. This new approach of modular design meant that IBM’s engineers developed a common architecture (the specification of which functions and modules will be part of the system), common interfaces (a description of how the modules will interact, fit together, connect, and communicate), and common standards (a definition of shared rules and methods that would be used to achieve common functions and tasks). This bold move on Big Blue’s part created a new family of computers that revolutionized the computer industry. Customers could now protect their investments because the instructions, software, and peripheries were reusable and compatible within each computer family. Evans’s Law could be formulated as follows: *The inflexibilities, incompatibilities, and rigidities of complex and/or > monolithically structured technologies could be simplified by the > modularization of the technology structures (and processes).* This law predicts that the application of modularization will reduce incompatibilities and complexities. One further example of Evans’s Law can be seen in the software development industry, as it has shifted from the “waterfall” to the agile software development methodology <https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/agile-vs-waterfall-methodology/>. The former is a linear and sequential model stipulating that each project phase can begin only the previous phase has ended. (The name comes from the fact that water flows in only one direction down a waterfall.) By contrast, the agile development approach applies the law of modularization to software design and the software development process. Agile software developments tend to be more flexible, more responsive, and faster. In other words, modularization of software projects and the development process makes such endeavors more efficient. As outlined in a helpful 2016 *Harvard Business Review* <https://hbr.org/2016/05/embracing-agile> article, the preconditions for an agile methodology are as follows: The problem to be solved is complex; the solutions are initially unknown, with product requirements evolving; the work can be modularized; and close collaboration with end users is feasible. *Law 4. The Law of Digitiplication* The concept of digitiplication is derived from two concepts: digitalization and multiplication. The law stems from my own study and observations of what happens when a resource is digitized or a process is digitalized. *The law of digitiplication stipulates that whenever a resource or process > is digitalized, its potential value grows in a multiplicative manner.* For example, if a paper is copied four times, one can now share the resource with five people. But digitize the document and the value-creation opportunities are multiplicative rather than additive. Consider the example of a retail store. The store’s sales reps, tasked with selling physical products to individual people, are able to service only one customer at a time. However, if the same retail environment is placed online, many customers can view the store’s products and services. Digital text can also easily be transformed into an audio format, providing a different kind of value to customers. Search functionality within the store’s inventory of course adds another layer of value to the customer. The store’s managers can also monitor how many customers are viewing the store’s website’s pages and for how long. All of these enhancements to the customer’s (and retailer’s) experience provide different kinds of value. As can be seen by these examples, the digitalization of a resource, asset, or process creates multiplicative rather than additive value. As a further example, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos first began digitizing data about books as a way to facilitate more and greater book sales online. Bezos quickly transformed Amazon into a digitiplication engine by becoming a data-centric e-commerce company. The company now benefits from the multiplicative effects of digitalized processes and digitized information. Amazon’s search, selection, and purchase functions also allow the company to record and produce data that can be leveraged to predict what the customer wants to buy—and thus select which products it should show to customers. The digitization of customer feedback, seller ratings, and seller feedback creates its own dimension of multiplicative value. Conclusion These four laws can be useful for engineers and designers to pose questions as they begin to develop a product. For example: Do customer requirements lend themselves to a product design that could be scaled (or mass-produced)? Might the functional requirements they’re working with be satisfied through the development of a modular product design? Could Yule’s Law of Complementarity provide cues toward mass production or modular design alternatives? Could product complements be developed in-house or outsourced? Software engineers might also be led toward productive questions about how data could be digitized, or how specific processes could be digitalized to leverage the law of digitiplication. The fields of IT and electrical engineering and computer science (EECS) have become critical disciplines of the digital age. To pass along the most succinct and relevant formulations of accumulated knowledge to date to the next generation, it's incumbent on academics and thought leaders in these essential technical fields to translate lessons learned into more formalized sets of theorems and laws. Such formulations would, I hope, enable current and future generations of IT and EECS professionals to develop the most useful, relevant, impactful, and indeed sometimes even disruptive technologies. I hope that the proposed four laws in this article could help to trigger a larger discussion about the need for and relevance of new laws for our disciplines. -- -------------------------------------- Joly MacFie +12185659365 -------------------------------------- -

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Toward Cognitive Search: Using Machine-Learning on Digital Media Collections
by Hansen Hsu 11 Feb '22

11 Feb '22

Hi everyone, CHM is hosting a virtual event next Friday, Feb 18, to show our findings from a pilot project to use machine learning on our collections, funded by a grant from the Moore Foundation. I thought you might be interested in this. https://computerhistory.org/events/toward-cognitive-search/#register .................................... Hansen Hsu, Ph.D. Curator, Software History Center Computer History Museum<http://www.computerhistory.org/> 1401 N. Shoreline Blvd. Mountain View, CA 94043 (650) 810-1880 direct (650) 810-1010 main (650) 284-6254 mobile (650) 810-1055 fax hhsu(a)computerhistory.org<mailto:hhsu@computerhistory.org> Follow Us: CHM Blog<http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/> I Facebook<http://www.facebook.com/computerhistory> I Twitter<http://www.twitter.com/computerhistory> I YouTube<http://www.youtube.com/computerhistory>

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Come and party with early graphics geeks
by LO*OP CENTER, INC. 10 Feb '22

10 Feb '22

The Graphics Gathering celebrates its 42 Birthday with a cool online party on two separate days: 20 Feb & 22 Feb. First day will focus on computing and computer graphics. Second day will be more about climate change and political action. http://ecocre8.com for more details. -- Liza Loop Executive Director, LO*OP Center, Inc. Guerneville, CA 95446 www.loopcenter.org 650 619 1099 (between 8 am and 10 pm Pacific time only please)

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Shiva Ayyadurai - he's making money "auditing" elections
by Jonathan Coopersmith 09 Feb '22

09 Feb '22

https://www.thedailybeast.com/pro-trump-otero-county-in-new-mexico-is-carry… Stay sane and get a booster (partially for you; more for others), Jonathan Jonathan Coopersmith Professor Department of History Texas A&M University College Station, TX 77843-4236 979.739.4708 (cell) 979.862.4314 (fax) America's "stab in the back"myth: https://theeagle.com/opinion/columnists/unnerving-similarities-to-jan-6/art… Preserving space archives: https://www.toboldlypreserve.space/ International standards battles: https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/geek-life/history/lets-thwart-this-terr… <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/geek-life/h…> *FAXED. The Rise and Fall of the Fax Machine* (Johns Hopkins University Press)

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