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SIMNET past and future
by Jonathan Coopersmith 07 Dec '20

07 Dec '20

Fascinating area of desired research: https://warontherocks.com/2020/12/the-next-simnet-unlocking-the-future-of-m… Stay sane, keep washing those hands, and practice social solidarity as well as physical distancing, Jonathan Jonathan Coopersmith Professor Department of History Texas A&M University College Station, TX 77843-4236 979.291.2925 (cell) 979.862.4314 (fax) Engineering elections: https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/telecom/security/engineering-principles… Racial disparities in waiting to vote: https://theconversation.com/it-takes-a-long-time-to-vote-141267 *FAXED. The Rise and Fall of the Fax Machine* (Johns Hopkins University Press)

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Assistant Professor of Critical Race Studies Position at George Mason University
by Alexander Monea 07 Dec '20

07 Dec '20

George Mason University is hiring an Assistant Professor of Critical Race Studies to teach in the Cultural Studies PhD Program, the Philosophy Department, and the Women and Gender Studies Program. See the full job at <https://jobs.gmu.edu/postings/49041> — details also posted below. Tenure Track Assistant or Associate Professor The George Mason University College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS) invites applications for an interdisciplinary full-time, tenure-line position (assistant or associate level) with a research and teaching specialty in critical race studies, and an emphasis on how race and racialization interact with other forms of socially constructed identities, including but not limited to, gender, sexuality, class, and disability. George Mason University has a strong institutional commitment to the achievement of excellence and diversity among its faculty and staff, and strongly encourages candidates to apply who will enrich Mason’s academic and culturally inclusive environment. Position Description: This position is a part of the College of Humanities and Social Science’s diversity cluster hire initiative designed to create a cohort of faculty across departments whose scholarship focuses on issues related to inequalities; underrepresented regions and languages of the world; underserved, vulnerable populations; race, racism, and antiracism; and intersectional approaches to the study of difference, diversity, discrimination, and social justice. This cohort will contribute to interdisciplinary programs and enhance the mentorship of a diverse student population. The College and the University are committed to providing a robust structure to support this cohort of interdisciplinary positions and those who hold them. Agreements will be worked out to ensure an equitable and just allocation of teaching and service responsibilities across participating units. We seek applicants whose work addresses such matters as environmental racism; connections between racial formations and capitalism; indigeneity; blackness and the afterlives of slavery; whiteness, colonialism, and decolonization; neoliberalism; or the prison-industrial complex. Disciplinary training is open. Preference will be given to approaches in the critical Humanities, including critical race studies, cultural studies, gender/sexuality/queer theory, media, globalization, articulation theory; or in philosophical approaches that connect directly with one or more of these fields. The appointment will begin in August 2021. Home Department: * Departmental home in Cultural Studies, Philosophy, or Women and Gender Studies, to be determined based on disciplinary expertise of candidate; * 2:2 teaching load, with releases as appropriate for administrative work. Responsibilities: * Sustain an active program of scholarly research in their areas of expertise, produce peer-reviewed publications, and participate in professional organizations and societies; * Complement existing faculty expertise in critical race studies and intersecting areas; * Contribute to interdisciplinary research and teaching collaborations within the College of Humanities and Social Sciences; * Teach courses in the BA and MA programs in Philosophy and/or Women and Gender Studies, and/or the PhD program in Cultural Studies, and develop new courses that will expand the College’s offerings and serve students in related disciplines; * Mentor undergraduate and graduate student research; serve on thesis, field, and dissertation committees; * Advise students and contribute to the College’s commitment to fostering a diverse and inclusive academic community. Required Qualifications: * Ph.D. in relevant field with evidence of completion by August 2021; * Area of specialization: critical race studies; * Demonstrable potential for excellence in scholarship and in graduate and undergraduate teaching. Preferred Qualifications: * Teaching expertise in areas that complement existing teaching capacity in at least two of the participating units (Cultural Studies, Philosophy, Women and Gender Studies); * A commitment to activism, community engagement, and/or public-facing scholarship that reaches beyond the classroom to the wider community. Information about the University and College: George Mason University is a Carnegie Tier 1 Research [R1] university located in the greater Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, and is the largest public university in the state of Virginia, with the most diverse student body in the state. In the summer of 2020, the Presidential Initiative on Anti-Racism and Inclusive Excellence (ARIE) was established to ensure that George Mason University creates an inclusive and equitable campus environment in which every member of our community, without exception, is valued, supported, and experiences a sense of belonging. The primary purpose of this initiative is to position the university to become a national exemplar of anti-racism and inclusive excellence through its own reconciliation work. To ensure the greatest collective impact, the work of the task force is anchored in the scholarly, teaching and learning, and administrative expertise that exists within Mason’s colleges and schools around issues of diversity, inclusion, equity and social justice, conflict resolution and analysis, and the histories and social identities of individuals from marginalized groups. The Programs in Cultural Studies and Women and Gender Studies and the Department of Philosophy at Mason are committed to excellence in teaching and research across diverse perspectives and disciplinary lines. Each of these departments or programs collaborates with one another and with many other departments and units including African and African American Studies, Economics, Global Affairs, the Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution, and the Schar School of Policy and Government, as well as the Center for Climate Change Communication and the Institute for a Sustainable Earth. * The PhD program in Cultural Studies was the first standalone Cultural Studies PhD program in the US. * The Philosophy department is home to the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy (IPPP) and to faculty who work on pressing issues of public and global concern, including climate change, international criminal law, global health justice, bioethics, and philosophies of race and gender. * The program in Women and Gender Studies is based on an integrated, co-curricular model, serving as both an academic unit in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and as a student affairs unit in University Life. Its undergraduate minor in LGBTQ studies was one of the first in the state. * George Mason University has recently chartered a Center for Humanities Research, which will both support faculty research through study leaves, and serve as an intellectual hub on campus. Alexander Monea Assistant Professor English | Cultural Studies George Mason University Alexander Monea Assistant Professor English | Cultural Studies George Mason University [cid:22ff3ecd-564b-4d91-bde8-1d7988fa1483]

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Vacancy: Archives Development Manager
by Research 04 Dec '20

04 Dec '20

Archives of IT (AIT), https://archivesit.org.uk/, is a charity that collects and presents oral history. Our focus is the people and organisations of the UK IT industry 1950 to 2020: who they are and how they worked to change the world with the devices that are to be found in the UKs excellent computing collections. AIT seeks to appoint a person to develop our approach to and funding for audience engagement. This is a hands-on role, demanding experience and skills in heritage management, fundraising, communications and knowledge of the industry. The appointment will initially be on an interim / project basis with the potential for extension to a permanent, executive role. Mail research(a)archivesit.org.uk<mailto:research@archivesit.org.uk> by 11 December 2020 for more information

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Peter Landin Semantics seminar on History of ALGOL 60, 3rd December at 18:00
by Troy Astarte 27 Nov '20

27 Nov '20

Dear all, The following webinar may be of interest. Please see the end of the email for details on the seminar. Webinar: BCS-FACS 2020 AGM & Landin Seminar https://www.bcs.org/events/2020/december/webinar-bcs-facs-2020-agm/ Registration: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bcs-facs-2020-agm-tickets-121367745193 The Annual Peter Landin Semantics seminar will follow the AGM. Speakers Tim Denvir and Troy Astarte Agenda This online event will be held on Zoom. 15:30 - Informal chat with your own coffee/tea/biscuits 16:00 - AGM Agenda Apologies (Jonathan Bowen) Minutes of the previous AGM (Roger Carsley/Jonathan Bowen) Chairman's Report (Jonathan Bowen) Liaison Reports (Rob Hierons et al.) Statement of Accounts (John Cooke) Election of Officers and Committee Members* (Jonathan Bowen) Future events (Sofia Meacham/Jonathan Bowen et al.) FACS online (Jonathan Bowen/Tim Denvir et al.) Any other business * Please email the current FACS chair, Jonathan Bowen on jonathan.bowen(a)lsbu.ac.uk<mailto:jonathan.bowen@lsbu.ac.uk> by the end of 1 December 2020 if you would like to stand for the position of chair, secretary, or treasurer, or to join the FACS committee. 17:15 - Informal chat with your own coffee/tea/biscuits 18:00 - Annual Peter Landin Semantics Seminar 19:30 - Close Synopsis Tim Denvir<http://www.denvir.net/Tim/> & Troy Astarte<http://homepages.cs.ncl.ac.uk/troy.astarte/> - Algol 60 @ 60: its place in formal semantics This talk celebrates the programming language Algol 60, 60 years on, especially its formal aspects. See also an article in the FACS FACTS newsletter<https://www.bcs.org/media/5842/facs-jun20.pdf> (June 2020, pp. 7-12) Abstract Algol 60, an inspiration for many languages which followed it, Pascal, C, Simula, Java and others, was very carefully defined. Following its predecessor International Algorithmic Language (IAL, or later ALGOL 58), its syntax was defined in BNF, itself a formal language, in the “Report” and “Revised Report on the Algorithmic Language Algol 60”, generally known as the Algol 60 Report. From the report, it is clear that the whole project was guided by formal considerations, even if there was no specific formal semantics in the definition. Peter Landin was one of several people who published a formal semantics for Algol 60: Landin’s came in two parts in 1965 in CACM Volume 8. This was an early part of an emerging zeitgeist for formal semantic specification of programming languages. The talk will describe some of the history of the language’s definition and the background of its authors, and will comment upon Peter Landin’s semantics and Algol’s relation to Church's λ-calculus. Some other semantic descriptions of ALGOL 60 will be overviewed in addition. Finally, the impact and influence of ALGOL 60 will be explored. Our events are for adults aged 16 years and over. This event is brought to you by: BCS FACS specialist group<https://www.bcs.org/membership/member-communities/facs-formal-aspects-of-co…>

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Vacancy: Archives Development Manager
by Research 26 Nov '20

26 Nov '20

Archives of IT (AIT), https://archivesit.org.uk/, is a charity that collects and presents oral history. Our focus is the people and organisations of the UK IT industry 1950 to 2020: who they are and how they worked to change the world with the devices that are to be found in the UKs excellent computing collections. AIT seeks to appoint a person to develop our approach to and funding for audience engagement. This is a hands-on role, demanding experience and skills in heritage management, fundraising, communications and knowledge of the industry. The appointment will initially be on an interim / project basis with the potential for extension to a permanent, executive role. Mail research(a)archivesit.org.uk<mailto:research@archivesit.org.uk> by 4 December 2020 for more information

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Cities and Computers: Our Urban-Machinic Imaginaries: Dec 4
by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal 23 Nov '20

23 Nov '20

Dear SIGCIS friends, Just forwarding information re: an event that may be of interest to many on this list. Hope you have a wonderful week ahead! Please stay safe. >cheers/ranjodh/ ---- *Apologies for cross-posting* Please consider joining us on *Friday, December 4, 9am Pacific Time* for 'Cities and Computers: Our Urban-Machinic Imaginaries'. This event brings together an interdisciplinary group of scholars interested in interrogating the many shifting registers of the terms 'cities' and 'computers' and how they get historically, mediatically, aesthetically, metaphorically, and conceptually interlocked, or mapped on to each other. Talking about their latest work would be Shannon Mattern (New School), Brian House (Lewis & Clark), Yuriko Furuhata (McGill), and Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal (UC Davis and Universität Siegen). May Ee Wong and Tobias Smith (UC Davis) will co-moderate the round-table. Please register at https://ucdavis.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAodeivrjoqGtC-2QBJtR8Wxy3N9jXK8g… or https://tinyurl.com/citiescomputers for your zoom link! And feel free to forward to anyone else who may be interested. The event is organized by the Technocultural Futures Research Cluster, and sponsored by Science and Technology Studies <https://sts.ucdavis.edu/> at UC Davis. We hope to see you there! If you have any questions, please direct them to me (rjdhaliwal(a)ucdavis.edu) Best wishes, Ranjodh -- *Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal* Visiting Fellow, Sonderforschungsbereich “Medien der Kooperation,” Universität Siegen. Provost's Dissertation Fellow in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Doctoral Candidate in English and Science and Technology Studies, University of California, Davis https://www.ranjodhdhaliwal.com/ This email was sent from a mobile device. Please excuse the typos.

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Historical list of computer stores
by Nabeel Siddiqui 21 Nov '20

21 Nov '20

Hello, I’m trying to determine some information on the rise of computer stores and was wondering if anyone knew how to find a list (such as business registration), I’m particularly interested in the time between early 1970s and early 1990s. https://www.nabeelsiddiqui.net

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Percy Ludgate 1883-1922 - Irish Computer Pioneer
by Brian Randell 20 Nov '20

20 Nov '20

Hi: During the last few years I’ve been involved in a project led by Brian Coghlan (Trinity College, Dublin) investigating the Life and work of Percy Ludgate. The paper that has been produced on the work of the project to date has just been accepted by the IEEE Annals. The full text of the paper is available at: https://www.scss.tcd.ie/SCSSTreasuresCatalog/miscellany/TCD-SCSS-X.20121208… Abstract: Percy Edwin Ludgate (1883-1922) is notable as the second person to publish a design for an Analytical Machine, the first after Babbage’s “Analytical Engine”. We outline the initial results of the first new investigation into the work and life of Percy Ludgate since Randell’s papers of nearly 50 years ago and nearly 100 years after Ludgate’s death. Firstly we examine the principles of his machine and how it was constructed and worked. Secondly we outline his life. We present a range of new material, including two significant discoveries, one concerning Ludgate’s machine, the other his family. Cheers Brian Randell — School of Computing, Newcastle University, 1 Science Square, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE4 5TG EMAIL = Brian.Randell(a)ncl.ac.uk<mailto:Brian.Randell@ncl.ac.uk> PHONE = +44 191 208 7923 URL = http://www.ncl.ac.uk/computing/people/profile/brianrandell.html

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IBM Apologizes For Firing Computer Pioneer For Being Transgender...52 Years Later
by Brian Randell 20 Nov '20

20 Nov '20

Hi: I was delighted to see this news story about Lynn Conway at last receiving an apology from IBM for the way she was treated over her gender transition. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeremyalicandri/2020/11/18/ibm-apologizes-for-… Her amazing career is well-summarised in Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynn_Conway I worked with Lynn in the 1960s in IBM’s ACS Project. I told the story of our collaboration, on Dynamic Instruction Scheduling, and of how I learned of her subsequent career and triumphs over adversity, in an IEEE Annals of the History of Computing paper - whose text is available at https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/326580149.pdf Cheers Brian Randell

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history, technology and education of theoretical math/cs concepts
by Paul Fishwick 19 Nov '20

19 Nov '20

There is a topic that has interested me, but I have been unable to make much headway in past years since I am not sure where to look. Consider that Kathy, an 8th grade student, knows more about how to use a computer than her parents, who may know more than her grandparents. When learning to use digital technology artifacts such as “menu”, education is imparted on Kathy. She learns something about tree structures, and possibly finite state machines (FSMs). This is done invisibly because she did not have to learn discrete mathematics and automata theory to use the computer. One hypothesis that all technology is this way. We use technology and technology uses us (by invisibly transferring new mental models). The introduction of the mechanical clock changed how we conceptualize time. Fast forwarding to digital technology, Kathy must have conceptualized trees and FSMs as mental models even though this theory was not made explicit. My searches have taken me to psychology (where the dominant discourse is about dysfunction where technology is concerned), history of technology as well as the history of science. This relates to math and computer science education too—teaching FSMs to people through implicit means. Learning something without knowing that your learning it. If anyone on this list has a good place for me to dive, let me know. -paul Paul Fishwick, PhD Distinguished University Chair of Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication Professor of Computer Science Director, Creative Automata Laboratory The University of Texas at Dallas Arts & Technology 800 West Campbell Road, AT10 Richardson, TX 75080-3021 Home: utdallas.edu/atec/fishwick Media: medium.com/@metaphorz Modeling: digest.sigsim.org Twitter: @PaulFishwick ONLINE: Webex,Collaborate, TEAMS, Zoom, Skype, Hangout

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