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BBC broadcast discussion on Alan Turing
by Brian Randell 18 Oct '20

18 Oct '20

Hi: I've just been listening to the podcast version of an excellent BBC Radio programme in the In Our Time series on Alan Turing. You can listed to at, or download it from: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000ncmw The speakers were: Leslie Ann Goldberg (University of Oxford) Simon Schaffer (University of Cambridge) Andrew Hodges (University of Oxford - Turing's biographer) I trust there are no problems accessing this from outside the UK. 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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Colleen Bushell and Mosaic
by Irish, Sharon Lee 17 Oct '20

17 Oct '20

Hello from central Illinois (USA), This recent, short account of Colleen Bushell’s involvement with Mosaic in the early 1990s is partly public relations, but also features Ms. Bushell’s contributions to the web browser, Mosaic. https://storied.illinois.edu/center-of-the-universe/ I interviewed Ms. Bushell when I wrote my short piece on WITS<https://www.technologystories.org/hierarchies-in-the-circuitry-women-inform…> (Women, Information Technology and Scholarship) back in 2013. Link rot means that the video we made isn’t properly listed, but, for old times sake, the video can be found here: https://vimeo.com/83869313 and the transcript is here: https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/handle/2142/91518 Sharon Irish Research Affiliate School of Information Sciences University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

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PhD: Statistics, computing and environmental knowledge, University of York (UK)
by James Sumner 15 Oct '20

15 Oct '20

Dear SIGCIS list Here's an upcoming funded PhD studentship at the University of York (UK). I'm forwarding on behalf of the supervisors: potential applicants should contact Sabine Clarke, sabine.clarke(a)york.ac.uk, who will be able to advise further. The timetable for recruitment is * Application deadline: Monday 11 January 2021 * Anticipated interview dates: February 2021 * Start date: October 2021 The funding will cover fees at UK rates for 4 years and a student stipend at the UKRI national minimum rate for 3.5 years (£15,560 per year for 2021/22). International students are eligible, but if they are charged the higher international fee rate, will need to find additional funds to cover the difference. Best James PhD in Statistics, computing and environmental knowledge in the 20th Century A PhD studentship is available to explore the contributions to environmental knowledge and innovations in farming made by applied scientists based at agricultural research stations in Britain and its colonies between 1920 and 1970. Statistics and computing became key tools for the study of ecology during the course of the 20th century and this project will unpack the motives for developing these tools and the assumptions that underpinned their use. You will be based in the Leverhulme Centre for Anthropocene Biodiversity (LCAB) <https://www.york.ac.uk/anthropocene-biodiversity/> at the University of York, supervised by leading experts in this field, Sabine Clarke <https://www.york.ac.uk/history/staff/profiles/clarke/> and Calvin Dytham <https://www.york.ac.uk/biology/research/ecology-evolution/calvin-dytham/>. Key research questions include: * What is the relationship between problem-solving in agriculture and the development of new quantitative methods of analysis involving statistics and computing between 1920 and 1970? * What is the relationship between agricultural research and ecology in Britain? * What was the relationship between environmental knowledge and the ambitions of government for increasing productivity in farming in Britain and the British empire? The student will use the archives of agricultural research stations and British scientists, and relevant publications to map the contexts and networks that were important for the production of new techniques for analysing data and their relationship with ecological and agricultural knowledge in the mid-twentieth century. This project would suit a student with an interest in history (of statistics, computing, ecology or agricultural research) or ecological/environmental science methods and interdisciplinary working. It also has potential for thinking about the ways in which ecologists communicate their methods (not just their findings) to a wider public audience, a key issue in building trust in science amongst society. LCAB will provide you with a range of opportunities to interact with other PhD students and researchers across departments and institutions, and will support you with additional training as required. * Supervisors: Dr Sabine Clarke <mailto:sabine.clarke@york.ac.uk> and Prof Calvin Dytham <mailto:calvin.dytham@york.ac.uk> * Home department: History <https://www.york.ac.uk/history/>

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B3 Biennale - Panel on computer game history of the Eastern Bloc
by Martin Schmitt 14 Oct '20

14 Oct '20

Dear SIGCIS, this years B3 Biennale of the Moving Image in Frankfurt, Germany, has a great panel on computer game history of the Eastern Bloc. You can watch the interviews live on http://www.live.b3biennale.com or http://vimeo.com/showcase/b3live tomorrow and Friday at 1pm (CEST). The videos will be uploaded on Vimeo afterwards. On Friday, 16th of October, I will also give an interview there on the bigger picture of digitalization in Eastern Bloc Countries, especially in the GDR. Here’s a summary of the panel: "30 years after the German reunification, a talk series looks back at how games were played behind the Iron Curtain in the Eastern Bloc in the 1980s and how games were developed there. We interview Volker Strübing, who is reappraising his youth with a documentary film about the home computer scene in the GDR; Jaroslav Švelch, whose book “Gaming the Iron Curtain” reports on the 1980s in Czechoslovakia; Szilárd Matusik, who makes a film about the secretive development of computer games in communist Hungary for the international market; and technology journalist Andrada Fiscutean about home computers and games in Romania. At the end of the talk, Martin Schmitt, who as a scientist has been researching computerization in West-Germany and the GDR for years, summarizes the differences between West and East once again.“ Here’s a link to those Interviews that already took place: B3 Biennale 2020 Live // Games: Gaming the Iron Curtain. Conversation with Jaroslav Svelch https://vimeo.com/showcase/7657368?video=467508345 B3 Biennale 2020 Live. Games: Homecomputer in the GDR. Conversation with Volker Strübing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSJDK_vwI7M Enjoy some retro computing! Best, Martin Associated Post-Doc | digital enthusiast LEIBNIZ-ZENTRUM FÜR ZEITHISTORISCHE FORSCHUNG | POTSDAM Mail: schmitt(a)zzf-potsdam.de <mailto:schmitt@zzf-pdm.de> Tel: +49 331 - 74510-119 http://www.zzf-pdm.de/site/991/Default.aspx BLOG - www.computerisierung.com Vice Chair of 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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"Just Code" Registration Closes in Two days, Oct. 16th
by Jeffrey Yost 14 Oct '20

14 Oct '20

Dear SIGCIS Colleagues, Many thanks to all of you who have registered for the Charles Babbage Institute's "Just Code" Online Symposium! Con and I are so excited about the event/program! It is composed of a tremendously talented, interdisciplinary (history, sociology, anthro., STS, media studies, philosophy, comm.) group of scholars presenting on IT and societal inequality across time, place, and culture. Our speakers are from universities spanning the world, while our many registrants extend geographic diversity even further, Faculty and grad. student registrants--from China, India, Malaysia, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, UK, Russia, France, The Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany to Portugal, Estonia, S. Korea, Singapore, Greece, Egypt,, Israel, Kuwait, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, U.S, and many other countries--make this truly a global event! While well over 95 percent are from universities, we also have registrants from museums, libraries, national and international government bodies (United Nations, U.S. Dept. of Energy, etc.), as well as data scientists, artists, and activists. *If you have not registered yet, we hope you will join us for some tremendous scholarship and engaging dialogue. Please register TODAY, registration is free (name, email, affiliation; takes 15 or 20 seconds) and closes in 2 days. Registering by the deadline (Fri. Oct. 16th) is the ONLY way to attend.* The program is below or accessible at the site link below. In addition to the papers and discussion, we are delighted that (Mahoney Prize committee member) Rice Univ. History Prof. Elizabeth Petrick will be announcing this year's SIGCIS CHM Michael S. Mahoney Book Prize Recipient at the "Just Code" Symposium. Best, Jeff and Con Just Code: Power, Inequality, and the Global Political Economy of IT" <https://justcode.cbi.umn.edu/home> examines how code—construed broadly from AI, software, and systems to bodies of law, policy, and practice—structures and reinforces power relations. Just Code will explore the ways that individuals and institutions use algorithms and computer systems to establish, legitimize, and reinforce widespread social, material, commercial, and cultural inequalities and power imbalances*.* *"Just Code" <https://justcode.cbi.umn.edu/registration>*Free Registration <https://justcode.cbi.umn.edu/registration> *(required to attend, deadline Fri. Oct. 16th)* [image: CBI Just Code jpeg 2 top half B.jpg] Just Code: Power, Inequality, and the Global Political Economy of IT *An Online Symposium of the Charles Babbage Institute for Computing, Information & Culture* Friday, Oct 23rd (All times Central/Minneapolis)*9:30 to 9:45 am *Opening Remarks and Acknowledging Sponsors/Co-Sponsors Jeffrey Yost *9:45 to 11:20 am * Keynote Session I: Coding Power Chair: Jeffrey Yost, Charles Babbage Institute (CBI) and History of Science, Technology and Medicine, University of Minnesota Mar Hicks, Lewis College of Human Sciences, Illinois Institute of Technology. “Computers as Colonizers: British Computing Companies and Indian Technological Resistance, 1955-1975.” Stephanie A. Dick, History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania. “NYSIIS, and the Introduction of Modern Digital Computing to Domestic Policing.” *11:30 am to 12:45 pm * Reinvention and Resistance Chair: Honghong Tinn, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine, University of Minnesota Colette Perold, Assistant Professor, Media Studies department at the University of Colorado Boulder, "Assembling the Continental Computer: IBM’s Resurgence in Cold-War Brazil." Hector Beltran, Department of Anthropology, MIT. “Code Work: Thinking with the System in México.” Shreeharsh Kelkar, Interdisciplinary Studies, University of California, Berkeley. “Reinventing Expertise in the Age of Platforms: Technology Reformers and the Platformization of Institutions.” 12:45 pm to 1:30 pm - Lunch Break *1:30 to 2:20 pm * Labor and Politics Chair: Stephanie Dick, History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania Devika Narayan, Department of Sociology, University of Minnesota. “Between the Cloud and a Hard Place: Asset-Light Computing and the New World of Off-Shore Labor.” Corinna Schlombs, Department of History, Rochester Institute of Technology. “US Labor Unions, Automation, and Technical Unemployment: Fighting for Whose Justice?” Gerardo Con Diaz, Science and Technology Studies, University of California, Davis, "Prometheus's Patents: Owning Medical Algorithms in the 21st Century.” *2:25 to 3:40 pm* Education, Work, and Culture Chair: Sally Kohlstedt, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine, University of Minnesota Kate Miltner, Centre for Research in Digital Education, University of Edinburgh. “Everyone Can Code? (Re)producing Inequalities at an American Coding Academy.” Elizabeth Semler, HSTM, UMN. “Employee Handbooks, Company Calendars, and In/Equality at Midwest Computing Companies.” Jeffrey R. Yost, Charles Babbage Institute and HSTM, University of Minnesota. “Reassessing the Iconic and Unbundling the Ironic: IBM System Engineering, Gender, and Antitrust." *3:50 to 5:15 pm * Keynote Session II: Government and Corporate Surveillance in Comparative Economic Contexts Chair: Gerardo Con Diaz, University of California, Davis and Jeffrey R. Yost, CBI and HSTM, University of Minnesota Ya-Wen Lei, Department of Sociology, Harvard University. “Delivering Discontent: Platform Architecture, Labor Control, and Contention in China.” Josh Lauer, College of Liberal Arts, University of New Hampshire & Professor Ken Lipartito, Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs, Florida International University. “Infrastructures of Extraction: Surveillance Technologies in the Modern Economy.” ------------------------------ Saturday, Oct. 24th (All times are Central) Brief Day Two Welcome, Jeffrey Yost *9:30 to 11:00 am * Keynote Session III: Social and Environmental Control Through Computers Chair: Gerardo Con Diaz, University of California, Davis Jennifer Alexander, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine, University of Minnesota. “The Mask of Sanity: Manipulation and Psychopathology at the Human-Computer Interface.” Theo Dryer, AI Now Institute at New York University, AI Now Institute at New York University. “Streams of Data, Streams of Water: Encoding Water Policy and Environmental Racism.” *11:10* CHM/Michael S. Mahoney Prize Winner Announcement-Elizabeth Petrick, Rice, Univ. *11:15-12:40* Law, Environment, and Policy Chair: Elizabeth Petrick, Department of History, Rice University Shun-Ling Chen, Institute Jurisprudentiae, Academia Sinica. “The Politics of Openness in the Age of the Cloud and AI.” Hamid Ekbia, Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies, Indiana University. “Algorithmic Collusion: Legal Challenges and Social Risks.” 12:40 to 1:30 - Lunch Break *1:30 to 2:45 pm* Interfaces and Infrastructures Chair: Corinna Schlombs, Department of History, Rochester Institute of Technology Elizabeth Petrick, Department of History, Rice University. “Spanning Space and Time Barriers: Computerized Conferencing, Disability, and Citizenship.” Chigusa Kita, Department of Informatics, Kyoto University. “Character Codes and Local Writing Cultures.” Andoni Ibarra, Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science, University of the Basque Country, UPV/EHU & Dr. Raúl Tabarés Gutiérrez, Investigator, TECNALIA Research & Innovation. “Conversational Interfaces: Epistemic Opacity and the Disruptive Construction of Digital Power.” *"Injustice wears the same harsh face wherever it shows itself."*-Ralph Ellison Jeffrey R. Yost, Ph.D. Director, Charles Babbage Institute Research Professor, Program in the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine 222 21st Avenue South University of Minnesota Minneapolis, MN 55455 612 624 5050 Phone 612 625 8054 Fax

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Noticing computer history - new Walden essay
by Andrew Russell 13 Oct '20

13 Oct '20

Dear SIGCIS - Many of you will already be familiar with Dave Walden’s many contributions to computing history, not only as a member of the Arpanet and Internet communities from his perch at BBN but also as a contributor (and ed board member) to IEEE Annals of the History of Computing and this SIGCIS list and meetings. Dave’s recent essay, “Noticing history - a personal view” is published in the most recent edition of TUGboat - https://tug.org/TUGboat/tb41-2/tb128walden-noticing.pdf <https://tug.org/TUGboat/tb41-2/tb128walden-noticing.pdf> (issue ToC is here: https://www.tug.org/TUGboat/tb41-2/ <https://www.tug.org/TUGboat/tb41-2/>). I found the essay to be a characteristically succinct and insightful, sitting at the crossroads of practitioners and professional historians, and attentive to the urgent need to document computer history from the vantage point of individual experience. From the abstract: "We have access to memories, papers, and flexibility in what we study, and how we present what we learn, that won’t all be available to professional historians. I believe it is our job to help the computing history world capture more computing history while it still exists to be captured." I hope you enjoy & share - Andy — — — — — — — — — — — Andrew L. Russell, Ph.D. Dean, College of Arts & Sciences SUNY Polytechnic Institute Donovan Hall - 2123B 100 Seymour Road Utica, NY 13502 t. 315-792-7317 w. https://sunypoly.edu/ e. arussell(a)arussell.org

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Rendered Worlds: New Regimes of Imaging. October 23
by Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal 13 Oct '20

13 Oct '20

Dear SIGCIS friends, Just sharing this <https://twitter.com/ranjodhd/status/1316008537613651968> online event that may be of interest to some on this list. Apologies for any cross-posting. Hope everyone is staying safe! Warmly, Ranjodh ------------------- Hi everyone, Please consider joining us on Friday, October 23 at 10am PDT for 'Rendered Worlds: New Regimes of Imaging'. Co-organized by teams from Stanford University and University of California Davis, this event brings together a transatlantic group of scholars to discuss the social, historical, technical, and aesthetic entanglements of our computational images. Talking about their latest work would be Shane Denson (Stanford), Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal (UC Davis and Universität Siegen), Bernard Dionysius Geoghegan (King's College London), and Deborah Levitt (The New School). Hank Gerba (Stanford) and Jacob Hagelberg (UC Davis) will co-moderate the round-table. Please register at tinyurl.com/renderedworlds for your zoom link! The event is co-sponsored by the Stanford Humanities Center, the Technocultural Futures Research Cluster, and the departments of English, Cinema and Digital Media, and Science and Technology Studies at UC Davis. Made possible by support from Linda Randall Meier, the Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. We hope to see you there! If you have any questions, please direct them to me (rjdhaliwal(a)ucdavis.edu) Best, Ranjodh, Shane, Hank, and Annika (organizing committee) -- *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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Internet Infrastructure and Human Rights: A Reading List
by Janet Abbate 09 Oct '20

09 Oct '20

"Internet Infrastructure and Human Rights: A Reading List" was just published by Stanford's Digital Civil Society Lab. I had nothing to do with creating this, but it seems quite useful; it covers a wide range of topics and journals, including many I wasn’t aware of. You can download it at the link below. https://pacscenter.stanford.edu/publication/internet-infrastructure-and-hum… Dr. Janet Abbate Professor, Science, Technology and Society Virginia Tech Co-director, VT National Capital Region STS program liberalarts.vt.edu/sts www.facebook.com/VirginiaTechSTS https://sites.google.com/vt.edu/stsconnect/

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Longest lived computer architecture: System/360?
by thomas.haigh＠gmail.com 08 Oct '20

08 Oct '20

Another candidate record I was thinking about was the longest lived computer architecture. Longest lived here being the uninterrupted production and sale of machines. (So retro revivals don't count). Architecture being able to run object code without recompilation, and without emulation. I'm assuming that would be the IBM System/360, with the /370, /380 etc. being considered extensions of the same architecture. It is widely claimed (e.g. by Wikipedia) that even the current IBM Z family of mainframes has retained compatibility with the System/360 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Z) such that "Many applications written for these systems can still run unmodified on the newest IBM Z system over five decades later." Although as virtualization is so central to mainframe architecture form the 1970s onward I don't have a clear sense of how much of this is straightforward hardware compatibility and how much is provided by the virtualization software. If we accept this as an uninterrupted architecture, then that give 1964 to 2020, or 56 years and counting. That appears to be longer than the Intel 8086, which has been incrementally extended to the present day, with the x64 architecture, and was launched in 1978, making it 42 years old. I know that some of the first System/360 models included emulation of even earlier machines, and that the original 8086 was designed with early conversion from earlier Intel chips in mind. But in both cases they seem distinct enough to set a new standard. An I missing any other contenders? Or does anyone know enough to make a case that, contrary to popular belief, true System/360 hardware compatibility was lost at some point? Tom

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Documentary Project on History of Personal Computing
by Eric Gade 08 Oct '20

08 Oct '20

Hi all, Please forgive me if this message is inappropriate for the list. I am hoping some members will be interested in the following project. For the past year and a half I have been working on a team that is developing a documentary <https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/messagenotunderstood/message-not-under…> on the history of personal computing. Our goal is to interview the very people who laid the foundations for personal computing while they are still with us, learning about their original visions and getting their take on the present. In this sense it is both an aspiring feature length documentary project but also an endeavor in oral history and posterity. Last fall we were able to shoot our first three interviews. We used these to make a short teaser <https://vimeo.com/429045920>, with the idea it could be used to raise funds for future rounds of interviews. That said, we are currently in the middle of a Kickstarter campaign <https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/messagenotunderstood/message-not-under…> to get the second round funded. If you are interested in learning more, feel free to reach out to me directly and to visit the film's campaign site <https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/messagenotunderstood/message-not-under…> and website <https://messagenotunderstood.com/>. Thanks! -- Eric

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