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Query: mobile phones and science fiction
by Andrew Russell 14 Oct '21

14 Oct '21

Hi again SIGCIS - please see below, forwarded with permission via Peggy Kidwell - > > From: Baker, Alexi <alexi.baker(a)yale.edu <mailto:alexi.baker@yale.edu>> > Sent: Wednesday, October 13, 2021 2:14 PM > To: rete(a)maillist.ox.ac.uk <mailto:rete@maillist.ox.ac.uk> <rete(a)maillist.ox.ac.uk <mailto:rete@maillist.ox.ac.uk>> > Subject: [rete] History of telecommunications / mobile phones > > This is perhaps going a bit far afield in the history of technology, but I have a student who is interested in the history of mobile phones with respect to science fiction. She is in particular interested in how the development of such telecommunications influenced, was represented in, and was influenced by science fiction films. Do any of you happen to know of historians who have focused on the development of mobile phones and/or on the relationship between sci fi and technology in general? > > Many thanks for any suggestions - Alexi > > Dr. Alexi Baker > Division of the History of Science & Technology > Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History > Tel. 203-737-3084 > alexi.baker(a)yale.edu <mailto:alexi.baker@yale.edu>

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Transformations of Infrastructure Systems, Virtual Conference on 4.-5. November 2021
by Schmitt, Martin 13 Oct '21

13 Oct '21

Dear SIGCIS, my colleagues at TU Darmstadt are organizing a virtual conference on critical infrastructures this November. Topics range from digitalization to decarbonisation to urbanization. Keynote lectures will be helt by Timothy Moss (Humboldt University of Berlin), Anique Hommels (Maastricht University), Niklas Vespermann (German Federal Network Agency for Electricity, Gas, Telecommunications, Post and Railway). Participation is free of charge. I thought the conference theme might be interesting for some here on the list. Maintenance and repair will be specially addressed. You find more information on the conference website: https://kritis.gitlab.io/intconf2021/ The website will be updated continuously. You also find the program there. Best wishes from Darmstadt, Germany Martin Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter | Post-Doc | digital enthusiast Technische Universität Darmstadt Institut für Geschichte Fachgebiet Technikgeschichte Mail: martin.schmitt(a)tu-darmstadt.de<mailto:martin.schmitt@tu-darmstadt.de> Tel: +49 6151-16-57327 http://www.computerisierung.com & Assoziierter Wissenschaftler LEIBNIZ-ZENTRUM FÜR ZEITHISTORISCHE FORSCHUNG | POTSDAM Vice Chair IFIP WG 9.7 „History of computing" Zuletzt erschienen: Leslie, Christopher und Martin Schmitt (eds.): Histories of Computing in Eastern Europe, Cham: Springer International Publishing 2019 (IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology 549), https://www.springer.com/978-3-030-29159-4

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CFP Economic and Business History Society, May 18-22, 2022
by Andrew Russell 13 Oct '21

13 Oct '21

Hi SIGCIS - Please see attached for the call for papers from the Economic and Business History Society, to be held in Utah in May, 2022. Deadline for proposals is Feb 1, 2022. Please direct questions to EBHS President Mark Crowley <mark.crowley(a)eccles.utah.edu <mailto:mark.crowley@eccles.utah.edu>>. Details also are available on their website, https://ebhsoc.org/ <https://ebhsoc.org/>. Prof Crowley mentioned that he would be happy to entertain a submission that is ’sponsored’ by SIGCIS, where sponsorship means organizational rather than financial support. If you’re interested in organizing or participating on a panel submission with SIGCIS sponsorship, please let me know. Best regards, Andy Russell SIGCIS Co-Chair

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New ACM Turing Laureate book: Tony Hoare
by Cliff Jones 12 Oct '21

12 Oct '21

The book on Tony Hoare at: https://dl.acm.org/doi/book/10.1145/3477355 has significant historical content from people who have worked with Tony Hoare. The whole series on people who have received an ACM Turing Award is worth looking at for historical context cliff jones

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Clive Sinclair obituary
by Jonathan Coopersmith 09 Oct '21

09 Oct '21

Worth the read: https://www.economist.com/obituary/obituary-clive-sinclair-foresaw-the-futu… Stay sane and keep wearing a mask (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) Voting challenges: https://theeagle.com/opinion/columnists/texas-should-be-the-model-for-secur… 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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Announcement: New Book and Book Launch
by Matthew Kirschenbaum 08 Oct '21

08 Oct '21

Dear SIGCIS, I am happy to announce the release of my book *Bitstreams: The Future of Digital Literary Digital Heritage* <https://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/16248.html> from the University of Pennsylvania Press.The ad copy is below, and attached you’ll also find a flyer with a 20% off discount code— the book is simultaneous paperback, so with the discount it is $20 US + shipping. While there is little in this one that breaks new ground in terms of Actual Computer History (tm), I hope the book does succeed in showing the extent to which fields like literary studies and media studies increasingly *depend* on computer history. Chapter 2, in particular, juxtaposes the careers of two poets (William Dickey and Kamau Brathwaite) with the rise of desktop publishing in the 1980s. The English Department at Maryland is hosting a virtual book launch on *Wed., Oct 20 at 12 noon EDT* (see banner below). I will be in conversation about the book with my colleague, *Dr. Marisa Parham*. Registration for the event (free) is here: https://t.co/X8fInonF6N?amp=1 All are welcome! Thank you-- Best, Matt *Bitstreams: The Future of Digital Literary HeritageMatthew G. Kirschenbaum* 160 pages | 6 x 9 | 12 halftones Cloth Oct 2021 | ISBN 9780812253412 | $65.00s | Outside the Americas £52.00 Paper Oct 2021 | ISBN 9780812224955 | $24.95s | Outside the Americas £18.99 Ebook editions are available from selected online vendors A volume in the series Material Texts Table of Contents Preface. Actual Facts Introduction. The Bitstream Chapter 1. Archives Without Dust Chapter 2. The Poetics of Macintosh Chapter 3. The Story of S. Coda. The Postulate of Normality in Exceptional Times Notes Acknowledgments Index * "Matthew Kirschenbaum has almost single-handedly taught us how to read digital objects as material texts. Now, in this field-defining achievement, he shows us the future of bibliography. Like the works of D. F. McKenzie before it, Bitstreams will be required reading for generations to come."*—Whitney Trettien, University of Pennsylvania What are the future prospects for literary knowledge now that literary texts—and the material remains of authorship, publishing, and reading—are reduced to bitstreams, strings of digital ones and zeros? What are the opportunities and obligations for book history, textual criticism, and bibliography when literary texts are distributed across digital platforms, devices, formats, and networks? Indeed, what is textual scholarship when the "text" of our everyday speech is a verb as often as it is a noun? These are the questions that motivate Matthew G. Kirschenbaum in *Bitstreams*, a distillation of twenty years of thinking about the intersection of digital media, textual studies, and literary archives. With an intimate narrative style that belies the cold technics of computing, Kirschenbaum takes the reader into the library where all access to Toni Morrison's "papers" is mediated by digital technology; to the bitmapped fonts of Kamau Brathwaite's Macintosh; to the process of recovering and restoring fourteen lost "HyperPoems" by the noted poet William Dickey; and finally, into the offices of Melcher Media, a small boutique design studio reimagining the future of the codex. A persistent theme is that bits—the ubiquitous ones and zeros of computing—are never self-identical, but always inflected by the material realities of particular systems, platforms, and protocols. These materialities are not liabilities: they are the very bulwark on which we stake the enterprise for preserving the future of literary heritage. Matthew G. Kirschenbaum is author of Mechanisms: New Media and the Forensic Imagination and Track Changes: A Literary History of Word Processing. He is Professor of English and Digital Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park. [image: FA3YeARWYAUk4HQ.jpg] -- Matthew Kirschenbaum Professor of English and Digital Studies Director, Graduate Certificate in Digital Studies Printer's Devil, BookLab University of Maryland mgk(a)umd.edu

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New Book on Software History
by Tracy, Kim 04 Oct '21

04 Oct '21

SIGCIS, I’m pleased announce my book on software history has been published with ACM Books. It is titled Software: A Technical History and is a textbook for students of computing to understand the history of software. If you have access to the ACM Digital Library (DL), then you likely already have free access to it: https://dl.acm.org/doi/book/10.1145/3477339. It is also available via Amazon<https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/145038725X/> and Barnes and Noble<https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/software-kim-w-tracy/1140205842?ean=978145…>. It’s only $34.95 as a paperback, but I’m hoping most students studying computing will have free access through their institution’s ACM DL subscription. I wrote the book because I started teaching the history of computation as a special topics course and it became clear to me that much of the most important part, software, was barely covered in most texts from a technical point of view. I began developing my own materials and it became clear that not only was this material not covered in most curricula, it was becoming increasingly important as students build on layers of pre-existing software without much understanding of how it was built or its design assumptions. Students studying computer security are faced with these layers of pre-existing software that are often put to unpredicted uses which exposes new vulnerabilities. An intent is that students will be able to better reason about software as a technology and better predict where it is going, why it succeeds, and why it fails. I include as many exercises as I could so that students can explore interesting corners of software history that I couldn’t cover in the book. I’d appreciate any feedback on it, and, of course, any Amazon or Barnes and Noble reviews you’d be willing to write. SIGCIS has helped provide a lot of interesting examples over the years, some of which you may recognize as exercises. . . . Thanks, --Kim Kim W. Tracy Visiting Asst. Professor of Computer Science and Software Engineering (pronouns: he, him) ROSE-HULMAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY 5500 Wabash Avenue | Terre Haute, IN 47803-3999 Room: Moench D216 | tracy(a)rose-hulman.edu<mailto:tracy@rose-hulman.edu> Phone: 812.877.8343 | Fax: 812.872.6060 www.rose-hulman.edu<http://www.rose-hulman.edu>

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Fwd: Princeton Position in the History of Information Technology
by Ross Bassett 04 Oct '21

04 Oct '21

Dear SIGCIS members, Princeton is (finally) continuing Mike Mahoney’s legacy and making a senior level hire in the history of information technology. : https://puwebp.princeton.edu/AcadHire/apply/application.xhtml?listingId=227… <https://puwebp.princeton.edu/AcadHire/apply/application.xhtml?listingId=227…> The official text reads: “The Department of History at Princeton University invites applications from scholars who work on the history of information technology. The time period, geographical emphasis, and field of specialization are open, but the candidate should be prepared to offer an undergraduate survey on the history of information technology that includes developments in computing up to the 21st century, as well as upper-level undergraduate courses and graduate seminars on specialized aspects of this field. Review of files will begin November 1, 2021, but applications will be considered until the department chooses to close the search. Applicants should provide a detailed letter of application, curriculum vitae, book abstract(s) and chapter outline(s), and one chapter-or article-length writing sample. Applicants should also provide contact information for at least three potential recommenders as part of the online application process. Anticipated start date, September 1, 2022.” Best, Ross Bassett

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CCS Meeting October 21st - Digitising Hollywood — the Development of Digital Recording for Cinema (CIS)
by Roger Johnson 03 Oct '21

03 Oct '21

Dear Fellow Members The next meeting of the Computer Conservation Society for the 2021/22 season is on Thursday 21st October. It will be a hybrid meeting with the lecture being given at the BCS London meeting room with an option for interactive participation via Zoom. The meeting will start at 2PM with a short AGM and the lecture will begin at 2.30PM. There will be a Zoom “waiting room” in operation. It will not be possible to join the AGM after it has started but there will be an opportunity to join for the talk shortly before 2.30pm. Copies of the AGM papers are available on request from r.johnson(a)bbk.ac.uk<mailto:r.johnson@bbk.ac.uk> . As last year, online participants will be able to vote via Zoom. The Zoom link for the AGM and lecture is https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85701761307<https://www.google.com/url?q=https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85701761307&sa=D&sou…> The title of the meeting is Digitising Hollywood — the Development of Digital Recording for Cinema. Our speaker will be Delwyn Holroyd. Delwyn joined the National Museum of Computing in 2009 as a volunteer and leads the 2966 and HDC project teams. He started his career in computing in 1987 with ICL Mainframe Systems at West Gorton. During his time at ICL he worked with the Series 39 SX OCP, VME and Open TP teams. Between 1994 and 2003 he worked for Lightworks Editing Systems, a pioneer in the field of non-linear video editing, and 5D Solutions, creator of innovative PC-based visual effects compositing software. In 2003 he co-founded Codex Digital, a company that provides recording and workflow technology to the media industry. In 2019 Delwyn was awarded an Emmy for his contribution to the film and television industry, with their technology being used on many films including Mary Poppins and Bohemian Rhapsody and the TV series Game of Thrones. Delwyn writes that the film industry was a relative latecomer to the world of digital cameras. In this talk we’ll discover why the transition took so long, and look at some of the pioneering cameras. We’ll then go on to look at recording technology, which was video tape-based in the early days before transitioning to hard disks and finally to solid state flash memory. We’ll look at some of the technical problems that needed to be solved to create systems that can reliably capture video at very high data rates on location, in all weathers, and when a second take may not be an option. Along the way there will be a few war stories too! Please pre-register for the event. To do so, follow this link http://www.computerconservationsociety.org/lectures/current/lecture.htm and click on the “Book” symbol. Please indicate if you intend to participate in person or remotely. Remote participants will be notified of the URL for the Zoom link a few days in advance of the meeting. Our meetings are open to all free of charge so do pass on this invitation to others who may be interested in this meeting or other CCS activities. The programme for the 2021/22 season will be found at http://www.computerconservationsociety.org/lectures/current/lecture.htm Good wishes Roger Johnson CCS London Programme Secretary

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Dedicated to SIGCIS: A New History of Modern Computing
by thomas.haigh＠gmail.com 01 Oct '21

01 Oct '21

Hello SIGCIS, Im very happy to be able to tell you that MIT Press has now published A New History of Modern Computing, my collaboration with Paul Ceruzzi to produce a replacement for his 1998 classic A History of Modern Computing. https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/new-history-modern-computing MIT has produced a handsome, oversized book with plenty of space to see the detail in the many pictures. Gerado Con Diaz blurbed it as follows: "A New History of Modern Computing is an instant classicessential to historians, curators, and interdisciplinary scholars in information and media studies. Its integrated analysis of usage and technological change is an impressive feat and a real joy to read." Paul Edwards called it "indispensable" and Valérie Schafer called it "a must-read." The price is a fairly reasonable $40, which we lobbied hard for in the hope that this is a book people might buy to read for pleasure, rather than just because it is assigned for a college course. As you would expect from any book with both new and modern in the title, this one strives to be up to date. We have added in-depth coverage of topics neglected in previous overview histories such as communications, video games, digital media, smartphones, cloud computing, home computers, embedded microcontrollers, and operating systems that were given only glancing coverage in previous overview histories. The timeline comes right up to this year, with an epilogue covering the role of computer technology during our current apocalyptic moment. Weve made a particular effort to take serious the evolution of the PC through the 1980s and 1990s rather than just treating the original IBM model as the endpoint of the personal computing story. But we have also tried to come up to date in terms of reflecting much of the wonderful scholarship produced by this community in the two decades since Paul published his original book. Youll see that the book is dedicated to the SIGCIS community, from two former chairs. Even the discussion of topics that were given thorough treatment in the original book, such as chips, timesharing systems, and early personal computing, has been greatly deepened because of all the new work we were able to draw on. We hope that the endnotes and, in many cases, in-text mentions of this work will steer readers deeper into the intellectual life of our community. Id also like to thank the many members of the SIGCIS community who helped us by reading drafts of some or all of the book. That list include David Hemmendinger, Con Diaz, Alana Staiti, Marc Weber, Michael J. Halvorson, Paul McJones, David Brock, Troy Astarte, Tom Lean, Bradley Fidler, and Henry Lowood. Also, of course Bill Aspray and Tom Misa as the editors for the History of Computing Series. Many others helped us by answering specific questions, assisting with image permissions, or critiquing our initial plan for the books content and organization. Our most ambitious goal was to reconceptualize the history of electronic computing as a series of transitions, in which particular groups of users remake the computer to fit their needs. In each chapter the computer becomes something new, such as a scientific supertool, a real-time control system, a communications medium, or a publishing platform. This lets us integrate discussion of users, applications, hardware, and software into a succession of intertwined stories which, cumulatively, add up to an explanation of why and how the computer became a universal machine. I described that objective in more detail in a 2018 working paper called Finding a Story for the History of Computing. (https://mediarep.org/bitstream/handle/doc/4553/Haigh_2018_Finding-a-Story_W orking-Paper-Series-SFB-1187-No-3_.pdf?sequence=10) In the present moment you may feel there is something inherently reactionary about imposing a grand narrative on computing, particularly when the effort is made by two white men both over the age of 45. Its hard, perhaps impossible, to further the widely repeated goal of decentering the computer when writing a book that tries to tell the story of said technology. Given that computing is now a part of pretty much everything, if you remove the thread of technology that holds the thing together you just finish up with the history of the world. But I am by temperament and training a slightly old fashioned social historian, and my teaching consists mostly of telling the story of the US in one survey class on the history of race and heath and another on the history of capitalism. So Im well aware of the tension between a narrative frame based around a technology and the broader themes of US history that have now become part of general discourse. I will say that we have tried to incorporate elements of social, cultural, and political history into the narrative as smoothly as possible in ways that will not seem gratuitous to readers who are there for the technical story. While still US-dominated, the narrative does reach out more than previously to the UK with occasional visits to France and some attention to Asia in the later part. That may not seem like enough to you, but it is more than you are going to get out of a book like The Innovators (which is by far the best-selling overview history of computing). As the saying goes, the problem with being in the middle of the road is that you get runover. The book is unlikely to produce the same excitement currently gathering around cultural history, critique of AI, or media theoretic approaches. But we were in a situation where the established overview histories were falling further and further behind the rapidly expanding and diversifying perspectives of our community. I hope that weve managed to close that gap, by produce something thats engaged with newer work and broader histories while also deeply engaged with the affordances and materiality of computer technology. A book like this gets essentially no marketing and is unlikely to be reviewed in mass-market outlets. So if you do like it, or at least like it more than The Innovators or Turings Cathedral which are the books that general readers are likely to stumble upon, please consider helping to get the word out by using your social media networks, putting a review up on Amazon, or just recommending it to a friend or family member who is looking for something to read. The same goes for almost all scholarly books, by the way. I sometimes think the most helpful thing we could do for each other as a community is to write a bunch of Amazon reviews and add references to Wikipedia entries. Best wishes, Tom

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