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REMINDER: SIGCIS 2021 // Proposals Due June 1
by Laine Nooney 25 May '21

25 May '21

Just a friendly reminder to the SIGCIS community to get your abstracts and proposals in by next Tuesday! -- SIGCIS Meetings Organizing Committee SIGCIS 2021: ONLINE EDITION September 23-25, 2021 The 12th Annual (Virtual!) Conference for the Special Interest Group for Computing, Information, and Society meetings.sigcis.org CALL FOR PARTICIPATION: DUE JUNE 1 SIGCIS 2021 is an open call for any and all work related to the history of computing and information systems, broadly imagined. The SIGCIS community is especially welcoming of new directions in research and creative production, and encompasses academic professionals, museum and archive professionals, IT practitioners, artists and creative technologists, and independent researchers across the disciplinary spectrum. We maintain an inclusive atmosphere for scholarly inquiry, promoting diversity in STEM and supporting disciplinary interventions from beyond traditional history of technology. We especially encourage submissions from those who have not previously attended but wish to learn more about our community. Traditionally, SIGCIS holds its annual conference on the Sunday immediately following the annual conference for our parent organization, the Society for the History of Technology. While SHOT is going forward with an in-person meeting this fall, this year SIGCIS has elected to hold a virtual meeting earlier in the fall. We believe this choice will help ensure accessibility for our wide-ranging community, which includes many graduate students, early career scholars, precarious workers, and international scholars who may not be able to travel. Membership in SHOT is not required to submit to or attend SIGCIS. SIGCIS has always invited both traditional scholarship and alternative forms of presentation and discussion. We encourage participants to think creatively about what forms of engagement, presentation, and scholarship will help us bridge the experience of the last year and what is to come. Presentation formats include, but aren’t limited to: - Individual presentations of scholarly work - Pre-constituted panels or roundtables of 3-4 scholars plus a moderator/respondent - Virtual performances or exhibitions - Skill-shares and tutorials - Social activities - Lightning talk sessions VIRTUAL LOGISTICS AND ACCESSIBILITY In order to make SIGCIS 2021 as accessible as possible within the means of an all-volunteer organization, the following changes have been made to the traditional SIGCIS Conference format: - This year’s SIGCIS conference will not be co-located or co-timed with our parent organization, SHOT, so as not to conflict with SHOT’s in-person conference - Our traditional one-day, 3-stream conference will be re-organized as a multi-day, single stream event - Time-zone sensitive scheduling - Sliding scale registration fees; membership in SHOT is not required SUBMISSION PROCEDURES Submissions are due June 1, 2021 via Google form: https://forms.gle/C8ixar9s3JsCXq8d9. Submissions require: - 300-350 word abstract, summary, or prospectus (as appropriate for the submission type). Full panel proposals should additionally include 200-250 word abstracts for each paper that will be part of the panel. - 100-150 word bios for each participant If you are submitting a co-presented paper, pre-constituted panel, or other submission involving multiple participants, please only have one person submit for the group; contact and professional information for other participants can be included in the Bio submission section. Questions about the submission process should be sent to: xiaochang.li(a)stanford.edu. SIGCIS MEETINGS ORGANIZING COMMITTEE Laine Nooney, New York University (SIGCIS Vice-Chair of Meetings) Morgan Ames, University of California, Berkeley Stephanie Dick, University of Pennsylvania Xiaochang Li, Stanford University

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Question about the Tiltman break in Lorenz cypher (1941)
by E. Lazard 24 May '21

24 May '21

Dear all, I’m looking for some original information on the famous "Tiltman break" which led to the cryptanalysis of the Lorenz cipher en 1941. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptanalysis_of_the_Lorenz_cipher) (http://www.eprg.org/computerphile/lorenz-combined.pdf) The story is: the British intercepted two messages sent with the same key (HQIBPEXEZMUG) also called a "depth". When adding the two cipher texts with the exclusive-or function, the key cancels out and what is left is the exclusive-or of the two plain texts. From there, brigadier John Tiltman found the two messages by trying various likely pieces of plaintext and found that the first message started with the word SPRUCHNUMMER (message number) and that the second message also used the same word but shortened out as SPRUCHNR. EVERY SINGLE WEBSITE and the Copeland book "Colossus" list the two intercepted cypher texts as: C1 = JSH5N ZYMFS 01151 VKU1Y U4NCE JEGPB C2 = JSH5N ZYZY5 GLFRG XO5SQ 5DA1J JHD5O and their exclusive-or as: D = ///// //FOU GF14M AQSG5 SEKZR /YWHE My problem is that IT DOES NOT ADD UP! The U in 10th position is not the correct result, it should be a V. (S is 10100, 5 is 11011, so their exclusive-or is 01111 which is V) And I found other issues with all examples using the cypher text, the messages, the key… I always have several letters which are wrong. So I’m wondering if I’ve misunderstood something or have the cypher texts been incorrectly written down once and everybody just copied them without checking? Anybody has genuine information or can point me to some source? Regards Emmanuel Lazard

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2 Positions at Dalhousie University related to computers and society...
by Allan Olley 21 May '21

21 May '21

I have noticed on a different list I am on that there are two positions at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, may be of interest to people in this group or your associates. 1) A tenure track position in Humanities and Computing the position is a combined appointment at the Faculty of Arts and Social Science and the Faculty of Computer Science at Dalhousie and the History of Science and Technology Program at King's College, deadline for application June 7, 2021, full details here: https://dal.peopleadmin.ca/postings/6136 2) A three year Limited Term Appointment as Assistant Professor in Ethics and Computer Science at the Department of Philosophy at Dalhousie University, deadline for application May 26, 2021 (recently extended), full details here: https://dal.peopleadmin.ca/postings/5843 -- Yours Truly, Allan Olley, PhD http://individual.utoronto.ca/fofound/

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PROGRAMme spring workshop, 8-9 june 2021
by lidemol 21 May '21

21 May '21

Dear all, it is my pleasure to announce the next PROGRAMme spring event to be held on June 8-9 2021 which I think might be of interest to some members on this list. Due to the pandemic the workshop will be held virtually and the format will be slightly different from before with a more restricted workshop on systems and a roundtable on free software spread over two days. In order to register, please send a mail to: liesbeth.de-mol(a)univ-lille.fr indicating which days you would like to participate. Registration is free but required in order to attend. A detailed program is available here: https://programme.hypotheses.org/spring-workshop-ii *8 june 2021, Systems workshop* Maarten Bullynck (Université de Paris 8), Tomas Petricek (University of Kent) and Julian Rohrhuber (Robert Schumann Hochschule), /The system is dead! Long live the system!/ Jean-Gabriel Ganascia (LIP6, Sorbonne University), /From Moral Artificial Agents to Computational Ethics/ Géza Kulcsar (InQuery Labs), /Clouded Systems: Systems Engineering under the Rule of the Unknown/ Teresa Numerico (Roma Tre University), /The late victory of the cybernetical systemic approach in machine intelligence/ *9 june 2021, Roundtable on free software* Gaël Duval (E foundation) Bastien Guerry (Etalab) Martin Carlé (Ionian University) The roundtable will be moderated by Selmer Bringsjord (Rensselaer AI & Reasoning (RAIR) Lab) and is organized by Henri Stephanou (IHPST, Université Paris 1 Paris-Sorbonne), Selmer Bringsjord and Liesbeth De Mol (CNRS, STL, Université de Lille), with best wishes, Liesbeth De Mol

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REMINDER - CCS Thursday May 20th at 2.15 for 2.30 -CCS Chairman Dr Doron Swade on Historiography of the History of Computing (SIGCIS)
by Roger Johnson 17 May '21

17 May '21

Dear Fellow CCS Members The May meeting of the Computer Conservation Society is on Thursday 20th May via Zoom. This is the final meeting of the 2020/21 programme. The lecture will begin at 2.30PM with the Zoom session opening at 2.15PM. The Zoom link should come via Eventbrite but is https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83365840484 Our speaker is the CCS Chairman Dr Doron Swade is our speaker and his title is Historiography of the History of Computing. Doron has written: A task of history is to provide a coherent account for the profusion of past events - contingent occurrences, breakthroughs, markets, users, human motivations, agency, change and consequence. Histories use narratives that allow us to marshal otherwise unmanageable levels of detail. I describe the three major narratives that have emerged so far and show how at least one was constructed in a way that is now misleading. A solution is offered. I also look to artefactual history - the history of products and artefacts of technology, and a crisis in material culture - the "collapse of categories" that occurred in the wake of revolutions in solid-state physics. This all sounds rather abstract and conceptual. Not so. The material is rooted in the specific episodes, machines and devices of computing of which history seeks to make sense. Historiography is concerned with how history is written. This is my excuse for the pretentious title. About the speaker - Doron Swade is an engineer, historian and museum professional. He was Curator of Computing for many years at the Science Museum, London and later Assistant Director & Head of Collections. He has studied physics, mathematics, electrical engineering, control engineering, philosophy of science, man-machine studies, and history at various universities. He has published four books (one co-authored) and many scholarly and popular articles on history of computing, curatorship, and museology. He was responsible for founding the Computer Conservation Society in 1989 and is its current chairman. He is an Honorary Fellow of the British Computer Society and of Royal Holloway University of London. He was awarded an MBE in 2009 for services to the history of computing. 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. All registrants will be notified of the URL for the Zoom link in advance of the meeting. Details of the 2021/22 season will soon be available. We are currently planning that our future meetings starting in September will be hybrid - offering both attendance in the BCS London meeting rooms and also remote participation in real time as well as providing the usual recorded version on the CCS YouTube channel. This is proving ambitious and will depend on the BCS meeting room having the necessary equipment and internet connections. Our meetings are free to attend and open to all. Please tell anyone who may be interested about this event. We have recently been asked to draw to your attention the UK based Archives of IT. Good wishes Roger Johnson CCS London Programme Secretary

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14th CIFAS Summer School in Ethnographic Research Methods
by Renzo Taddei 13 May '21

13 May '21

*A few seats are still available. Apologies for cross-posting. Please distribute to potentially interested people. Thank you.* 14th CIFAS Summer School in Ethnographic Research Methods July 19 to 30, 2021 – 7 PM to 9:30 PM (EDT time) The Comitas Institute for Anthropological Study (CIFAS) is pleased to announce the 14th CIFAS Summer School in Ethnographic Research Methods. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this edition of the summer school will take place online. The goal of the summer 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 summer 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, 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. The social isolation measures adopted across the planet due to the current pandemic have made digital ethnography, in all its variations, an option of choice for researchers who previously did not consider it. The summer school program was reformulated, devoting more time to the discussion of digital methods and the interface between ethnography and the field of digital humanities. Program: - Class 1 (Jul 19): Foundations of ethnographic research - Class 2 (Jul 20): Theory and practice: social theories in the field - Class 3 (Jul 21): Research design; ethics - Class 4 (Jul 22): Data generation techniques - Class 5 (Jul 23): Planning the logistics of field research - Class 6 (Jul 26): Digital ethnography - Class 7 (Jul 27): Ethnography in interface with Social Network Analysis and other trends in the digital humanities - Class 8 (Jul 28): Visual ethnography; ethnography in specific fields of activity (applied social sciences, health, social service, environmental studies, public policy design, business, and others) - Class 9 (Jul 29): Principles of organization and indexation of field data - Class 10 (Jul 30): Analyzing field data; qualitative analysis software packages: basic principles The total workload of the course is 25 hours. In this edition of the summer school, the option of earning credits is not available. The tuition fee is US$ 1,200. Applications online at https://cifas.us/field-school/ For more information, please write to renzo.taddei(a)cifas.us.

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Digital.Visual.Material Symposium (May 26-28, 2021)
by Theodora Vardouli, Prof. 13 May '21

13 May '21

Dear SIGCIS, We are thrilled to invite you to the virtual symposium Digital.Visual.Material<https://www.lattice.space/topics/digital-visual-material> (May 26-28, 2021), which explores the cross-disciplinary construction of a computational imaginary of design through scholarly presentations and first-hand accounts on pioneering efforts to transform computers into visual and creative media. Below is an abridged version of the symposium program, which you can view in full on lattice.space<https://www.lattice.space/>, a new platform for critical and creative research at the nexus of design and computation. On the website you will also find details about registration and live-streaming of the event. The Digital.Visual.Material symposium is linked with the forthcoming exhibition Vers un imaginaire numérique<https://www.lattice.space/topics/vers-un-imaginaire-numerique> that will take place September 15-November 7, 2021 at the Centre de Design de l’UQAM in Montreal. The symposium is supported by the Peter Guo-hua Fu School of Architecture, McGill University and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Looking forward to seeing you later in May! Warm wishes, Theodora Vardouli and Daniel Cardoso Llach info(a)lattice.space [Text Description automatically generated]<https://www.lattice.space/> DAY 1: SURFACES May 26, 9:30AM – 5:30PM EST As Below, So Above: Surface and Depth in the Computational Image, Jacob Gaboury<https://www.lattice.space/contributors/jacob-gaboury-2> (UC Berkeley) Materialities of Shiny Surfacing, Akshita Sivakumar<https://www.lattice.space/contributors/akshita-sivakumar> (UC San Diego) Your New Mnemotechnics, John May<https://www.lattice.space/contributors/john-may> (Harvard University) Designers Redesign Robotics, Mario Carpo<https://www.lattice.space/contributors/mario-carpo> (The Bartlett, UCL) With an introduction by the organizers Theodora Vardouli and Daniel Cardoso Llach, and an introduction by session chair Michael Osman<https://www.lattice.space/contributors/michael-osman> (UCLA) Conversations: George Stiny<https://www.lattice.space/contributors/george-stiny-2> Roundtable: To be announced See detailed schedule<https://www.lattice.space/observatory/surfaces> Register for this session<https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcrcumgqDooHNOqCJ65kogYmZve9NlzDu…> ------------------------- DAY 2: STRUCTURES May 27, 10AM – 5:30PM EST On Mathematical Aesthetics, Alma Steingart<https://www.lattice.space/contributors/alma-steingart-2> (Columbia University) Processing Models, Modelling Processes for the HfG Ulm ca. 1952, Anna-Maria Meister<https://www.lattice.space/contributors/anna-maria-meister> (TU Darmstadt) >From Paper to Code: Episodes in the history of computer mapping in Great Britain, Moa Carlsson<https://www.lattice.space/contributors/moa-carlsson> (ESALA) With an introduction by session chair Alessandra Ponte<https://www.lattice.space/contributors/alessandra-ponte> (UdeM) Conversations: Leslie Mezei<https://www.lattice.space/contributors/leslie-mezei> & Frieder Nake<https://www.lattice.space/contributors/frieder-nake> Conversations: Rachel Strickland<https://www.lattice.space/contributors/rachel-strickland> & Paul Pangaro<https://www.lattice.space/contributors/paul-pangaro> See detailed schedule<https://www.lattice.space/observatory/structures> Register for this session<https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwtf-Cspj8qGNxz_pTdoUBp6jCAifzR4b…> ------------------------- DAY 3: PROCESSES May 28, 10AM – 4:30PM EST Feminist Interventions in the West Coast: The case of Video Art and Computer Graphics, Gabriela Aceves-Sepúlveda<https://www.lattice.space/contributors/gabriela-aceves-sepulveda> (Simon Fraser University) Topology, Crystals, and a Multitude of Futures, David Theodore<https://www.lattice.space/contributors/david-theodore> (McGill University) T-Square, Spacewar!, and Interfaces of Early Spatial Computing, Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal<https://www.lattice.space/contributors/singh-dhaliwal> (UC Davis) With an introduction by session chair Olga Touloumi<https://www.lattice.space/contributors/olga-touloumi> (Bard College) Conversations: Elizabeth Vander Zaag<https://www.lattice.space/contributors/elizabeth-vander-zaag> See detailed schedule<https://www.lattice.space/observatory/processes> Register for this session<https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZApce2vrz8jHdL3NSGAFwgfGCIc8eQn-o…>

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CCS Thursday May 20th - Doron Swade on Historiography of the History of Computing
by Brian Randell 06 May '21

06 May '21

Hi: This has just been posted by the Computer Conservation Society: Dear Fellow CCS Members The May meeting of the Computer Conservation Society is on Thursday 20th May via Zoom. This is the final meeting of the 2020/21 programme. The lecture will begin at 2.30PM with the Zoom session opening at 2.15PM. Our speaker is the CCS Chairman Dr Doron Swade is our speaker and his title is Historiography of the History of Computing. Doron has written: A task of history is to provide a coherent account for the profusion of past events — contingent occurrences, breakthroughs, markets, users, human motivations, agency, change and consequence. Histories use narratives that allow us to marshal otherwise unmanageable levels of detail. I describe the three major narratives that have emerged so far and show how at least one was constructed in a way that is now misleading. A solution is offered. I also look to artefactual history — the history of products and artefacts of technology, and a crisis in material culture — the “collapse of categories” that occurred in the wake of revolutions in solid-state physics. This all sounds rather abstract and conceptual. Not so. The material is rooted in the specific episodes, machines and devices of computing of which history seeks to make sense. Historiography is concerned with how history is written. This is my excuse for the pretentious title. About the speaker - Doron Swade is an engineer, historian and museum professional. He was Curator of Computing for many years at the Science Museum, London and later Assistant Director & Head of Collections. He has studied physics, mathematics, electrical engineering, control engineering, philosophy of science, man-machine studies, and history at various universities. He has published four books (one co-authored) and many scholarly and popular articles on history of computing, curatorship, and museology. He was responsible for founding the Computer Conservation Society in 1989 and is its current chairman. He is an Honorary Fellow of the British Computer Society and of Royal Holloway University of London. He was awarded an MBE in 2009 for services to the history of computing. 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. All registrants will be notified of the URL for the Zoom link in advance of the meeting. Details of the 2021/22 season will soon be available. We are currently planning that our future meetings starting in September will be hybrid – offering both attendance in the BCS London meeting rooms and also remote participation in real time as well as providing the usual recorded version on the CCS YouTube channel. This is proving ambitious and will depend on the BCS meeting room having the necessary equipment and internet connections. Our meetings are free to attend and open to all. Please tell anyone who may be interested about this event. We have recently been asked to draw to your attention the UK based Archives of IT. Good wishes Roger Johnson CCS London Programme Secretary Cheers Brian Randell — School of Computing, Newcastle University, 1 Science Square, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE4 5TG EMAIL = Brian.Randell(a)ncl.ac.uk PHONE = +44 191 208 7923 URL = http://www.ncl.ac.uk/computing/people/profile/brianrandell.html

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Computer History Museum Book Prize - nominations due by May 31, 2021
by Rebecca Slayton 04 May '21

04 May '21

Hi Everyone, After a pandemic-induced hiatus last year, we are planning to award TWO books the Computer History Museum Book Prize this year. One will recognize the best book in the history of computing published between 2017-2019 (i.e. the prize that should have been awarded last year) AND one will recognize the best book published between 2018-2020. Up-to-date information on how to nominate books can be found online: https://www.sigcis.org/chmprize I’ve also copied the relevant information below. Please feel free to be in touch with any questions. Best, Rebecca (for the selection committee) Rebecca Slayton Associate Professor, Department of Science & Technology Studies Director, Judith Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies Cornell University, Ithaca NY 14853 From https://www.sigcis.org/chmprize 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. 2021 Submissions We anticipate awarding two Prizes this year. One will be the best book for the period 2017-2019 (the 2020 Prize, which was indefinitely postponed by the pandemic last year); the other will be the best book for the period 2018-2020 (the 2021 Prize). Current information about the prize, including the most recent call and a list of previous winners, always may be found at http://www.sigcis.org/chmprize. To nominate a book for either Prize, please send each of the committee members (listed below) a book copy no later than May 31, 2021. Electronic books are acceptable to all committee members, though physical book copies are preferred by Alberts. Electronic copies of books may be sent to the e-mail addresses listed below. To send physical books, please contact the committee chair (Slayton) for mailing addresses. 2021 Prize Committee Members Rebecca Slayton (committee chair; term ends 2021) Department of Science & Technology Studies Cornell University Rs849(a)cornell.edu<mailto:Rs849@cornell.edu> Gerard Alberts (term ends 2021) Faculty of Science, KdVI University of Amsterdam G.Alberts(a)uva.nl<mailto:G.Alberts@uva.nl> Jean Kumagai (term ends 2022) IEEE Spectrum j.kumagai(a)ieee.org<mailto:j.kumagai@ieee.org>

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Books
by Holbrook, Dan 03 May '21

03 May '21

Hello, I am retiring, and would like to offer the books below to the good homes I'm sure they can find here. I'd be especially pleased if a grad student got them, but really I just want them to continue to be useful to someone. I know some of these books are worth a bit of money. Please don't ask for them if your intent is to resell for a profit. List is below; let me know which ones you're interested in. First come, first served. We'll work out the shipping. Thanks. Dan Air Force Materials Lab, Abstracts of Active Contracts, Jan. 1965 Angel, Restructuring for Innovation Bashe, Johnson, Palmer and Pugh, IBM's Early Computers Burck, ed, The Computer Age and Its Potential for Management Cardwell, Norton History of Technology Cortada, Computer in the United States Eckert and Schubert, Crystals, Electrons, Transistors Forester, ed., The Microelectronics Revolution Hanson, The New Alchemists Hayes, Behind the Silicon Curtain Hoddeson et al Critical Assembly Hoddeson, Braun, Teichmann and Weart, Out of the Crystal Maze Jones, The Age of Energy Keonjian, ed., Micro-Electronics, Theory, Design and Fabrication Malone, The Big Score Malone, The Microprocessor, A Biography Penguin Handbook of Electronics Pugh, Memories that Shaped an Industry Pugh , Johnson and Palmer, IBM's 360 and Early 370 Systems Rada, The Impact of Micro-Electronics Reid, The Chip Riordan and Hoddeson, Crystal Fire Rutkowski, Solid-State Electronics, third Ed. Scott: Creative Ordeal: the Story of Raytheon Seitz and Einspruch, Electronic Genie Smits, Ed. History of Engineering and Science in the Bell System Sobel, IBM: Colossus in Transition Strull, Electronic Enterprise: Stories from the History of Westinghouse Electronic Systems Swade, The Difference Engine Time-Life, The Chipmakers Zygmont, Microchip [cid:image003.png@01D7401A.FBE38BC0]

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