[SIGCIS-Members] SHOT Meeting: Program highlights for History of Computing

Hello, Below is a summary of the history of computing material on the program at SHOT next week – useful for those of you attending, and hopefully of general interest to those not able to make it this year. The main program doesn’t include as many sessions devoted primarily or exclusively to the history of computing as the 2007 or 2008 meetings did, but there are a number of closely related panels and individual papers scattered through the meeting. Plus, of course, our full day meeting on Sunday. Elsewhere on the program I notice a new, more constrained 90 minute format for all the panels and a surge of interest in space and cold war topics. The Official SIGCIS Events are · 8:30-10:00am on Friday, Oct 1: Panel on “Networks As Places in the History of Computing: · 12:30-2:00pm on Friday, Oct 1: SIGCIS Lunch Meeting (Book auction, award presentation, etc) · 9:00am to 6pm on Sunday, Oct 3: SIGCIS 2010 Workshop: Materiality & Immateriality in the History of Computing Below is a detailed guide, including details on all sessions with history of computing/IT content. Tom Haigh Friday: 8:30-10:00am 7: Networks as Places in the History of Computing Thomas Haigh University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee, Organizer & Chair Jeffrey Tang, James Madison University, Commentator · Sue Thomas De Montfort University Shaping the Landscapes of Cyberspace: West Coast Metaphors · J Carles Maixé-Altés University of A Coruña, Spain: Diverging Paths to a Networked World: Computerizing Spanish and British Savings Banks, 1965-90 · Ksenia Tatarchenko Princeton University ‘Not Lost in Translation’: How English Became the Common Language of Computer Science (1960-74) Friday: 2pm-3:30 18: The Shock of the Old, includes · Matt Thomas, University of Iowa Low-Tech Solutions to High-Tech Problems: The Curious Case of the Moleskin Notebook (Not computing, but IT broadly conceived…) Friday: 2pm-3:30 21: Author Meets Critics: Paul Edwards, A Vast Machine: Computer Models, Climate Data, and the Politics of Global Warming Sverker Sörlin, Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden: Organizer Nina Wormbs, Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden: Chair · Sverker Sörlin Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden · James R Fleming Colby College · Paul Edwards University of Michigan Respondent Saturday 8:30-10am 22: T&C: Technology & (Counter) Culture Susan Schmidt Horning, St John’s University Chair & Commentator · Mark Clark, Oregon Institute of Technology, To Hell With the Grid: Home Power Magazine and the Ideology of Alternative Energy · Peter Sachs Collopy (Robinson), University of Pennsylvania, Guerilla Television and the Utopian Promise of Video · Sungook Hong Seoul National University, S Korea,The Artist as Engineer: Nam June Paik’s Video Synthesizer and His Video Art Saturday 8:30-10am 23: Users and Standards includes · Emily Goodmann Northwestern University ‘Information?’: Telephone Books, Information Operators & The Computational Telephone Saturday 8:30-10am 27: Standards, Technology, and Power Includes · Jonathan C Hall Columbia University From ‘Free Software’ to ‘Open Source’: Standardization of a Technical Term in Pursuit of New Markets Saturday 10:30-12:00 32: A Banker’s Utopia: Dreams and Realities of the Cashless/Checkless Society Bernardo Bátiz-Lazo University of Leicester, United Kingdom: Organizer Jeff Yost Charles Babbage Institute: Chair Paul Thomes Aachen, Germany: Commentator · Bernardo Bátiz-Lazo, Tobias Karlsson, and Björn Thodenius, University of Leicester, United Kingdom, Lund University, Sweden, and Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden · Origins of Cashless Payments: Direct to Account Payments, Cash Machines and Online Technology in the UK and Sweden · David Stearns Seattle Pacific University Conflicting Dreams of a Cashless Society: VISA’s Entrée and Expectations of Electronic Funds Transfer · Ian Martin Open University, United Kingdom, ‘Too Far Ahead of its Time’: Britain, Burroughs and Realtime Banking in the 1960s · Olga Pantelidou National Technical, University of Athens, Greece, Automating Check Processing: How ERMA Altered Bank of America’s Network Typology and Branch Architecture, 1955-66 Saturday, 2:00-3:30pm 37: Geek Worlds Jonathan Coopersmith Texas A&M University: Chair & Commentator · Nick Muntean University of Texas-Austin, The Ideology of Consumer Electronics · Matthew Schandler, Lehigh University, Recycling Innovation: Nintendo’s Conservative Approach to Research and Development · Elizabeth Lenaghan (Robinson), Northwestern University Kindling Consumption: How Amazon’s E-reader Marketing Refashions Readers Saturday, 4:00-5:30pm 42: At The Office Jennifer K Alexander, University of Minnesota: Chair & Commentator · Andrew Mamo (Robinson), UC-Berkeley Affect and Automation: Middle-Class Engagements with Mid-Century American Technology · Louise Karlskov Skyggebjerg, Danish Museum of Science & Technology, Denmark, ‘It’s Another Landscape of Communication’: New Technologies in Use in the Office · Colrain M Zuppo (Robinson), Indiana State University/Bowling Green State University, Organizations as Consumers of Human Capital Via Technology: Evolution of the Boundaryless Workplace ALL DAY SUNDAY: SIGCIS 2010 Workshop: Materiality & Immateriality in the History of Computing Stream A (room TBA) Stream B (Room TBA) 9:00-10:30 Opening Plenary: * Introduction to the Workshop and its Theme by Thomas Haigh, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee * Keynote Address: "Friction: Rethinking Speed, Power, and Possibility in the History of Information Infrastructures" by Paul Edwards, University of Michigan 10:30-10:45 Coffee break 10:45-12:00 Roundtable: Computers, Information and Society in the Classroom * Andrew Russell, Stevens Institute of Technology (chair & organizer) * Nathan Ensmenger, University of Pennsylvania * Rebecca Slayton, Stanford University (Short presentations to introduce pre circulated documents, followed by general discussion). Consolidated file of syllabi <http://www.sigcis.org/files/WS2010Syllabi.pdf> now available for download. Examining the Interaction of Speculative Literature and Computing: Toward a Research Agenda * David L. Ferro, Weber State University (chair & organizer) <http://www.sigcis.org/files/Ferro.pdf> full text * Janet Abbate, Virgina Tech <http://www.sigcis.org/files/Abbate.pdf> full text * Eric G. Swedin, Weber State University <http://www.sigcis.org/files/Swedin%20and%20Ferro.pdf> full text * Thomas Haigh, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee <http://www.sigcis.org/files/Haigh.pdf> full text (Short presentations to introduce pre circulated documents, followed by general discussion) 12:00-1:30 Lunch break (group lunch option TBA) 1:30-3:30 Dissertations In Progress Chair/Commentator: Paul Edwards, University of Michigan * “ <http://www.sigcis.org/dp1> The Akademgorodok Computing Center (1958-1990)” Ksenia Tatachenko, Princeton University. <http://www.sigcis.org/files/Tatachenko.pdf> full text * “ <http://www.sigcis.org/dp2> Digital Equipment's Rise and Fall, Could it Have Been Avoided?” Dave Goodwin, Birkbeck College London. <http://www.sigcis.org/files/Goodwin.pdf> full text * “ <http://www.sigcis.org/dp3> A History and Ethnography of the Cocoa Software Community.” Hansen Hsu, Cornell University. <http://www.sigcis.org/files/Hsu2.pdf> full text * “ <http://www.sigcis.org/dp4> Connecting Minds in a Multimedia Episteme: The Academic Supercomputer Centers and the Construction an Advanced Cognitive Infrastructure for the U.S. Research Community: 1983-1993” Kevin Walsh, University of California, San Diego. (Short presentations to introduce pre circulated dissertation proposals, to be discussed in turn by workshop participants) Traditional Papers: Teaching & Showing Chair: Olga Pantelidou, National Technical University of Athens Commentator: Rebecca Slayton, Stanford University * “ <http://www.sigcis.org/t4> The PLATO Computer-Based Education System: Teacher's Tool or Teacher?” Christopher McDonald, Princeton University. * “ <http://www.sigcis.org/t6> Car Navigation Systems – A History of Associative Clusters.” Tristan Thielmann, University of Siegen. * “ <http://www.sigcis.org/t7> A Material History of Bits.” Jean-François Blanchette, UCLA. * “ <http://www.sigcis.org/t9> Museums and the Material Culture of Video Games.” Petrina Foti, Smithsonian NMAH. (4x20 minute presentations followed by a 10-15 minute comment and general discussion) 3:30-4:00 Coffee break (Demonstration of the "IT History Society Archival Database," Jeffery Stein, IT History Society). 4:00-6:00 Works in Progress Chair/Commentator: TBA * “ <http://www.sigcis.org/wp1> Multi-sided markets and on-line distribution of working papers: A brief history of NEP, 1993-2005.” Bernardo Batiz-Lazo, University of Leicester and Thomas Krichel (Long Island University & Novosibirsk State University, Russia). * “ <http://www.sigcis.org/wp2> Making Computers Logical: Edmund Berkeley’s promotion of logical machines.” Mai Sugimoto, Kyoto University. <http://www.sigcis.org/files/Sugimoto.pdf> full text * “ <http://www.sigcis.org/wp4> Technological system or military-industrial-complex – the diffusion of numerically controlled machine tools in Sweden, 1950–1970.” Gustav Sjöblom, Chalmers University of Technology. <http://www.sigcis.org/files/Sjöblom.pdf> full text * “ <http://www.sigcis.org/wp5> Meta Filter: Coming to Agreement with Interactive Computer Technology.” Sharon Irish, UIUC. <http://www.sigcis.org/files/Irish.pdf> full text (Short presentations to introduce pre circulated papers, to be discussed in turn by workshop participants) Traditional Papers: Place & Space Chair: Ann Johnson, University of South Carolina. Commentator: Peter Meyer, Bureau of Labor Statistics. * “ <http://www.sigcis.org/t2> The Material History of Digital Electronics: The Development of Silicon Manufacturing Technology at Fairchild Semiconductor.” David C. Brock, Chemical Heritage Foundation & Christophe Lecuyer, University of California. * “ <http://www.sigcis.org/t5> ’The World Looks to Britain’: Technology Transfer, Heterogeneous Engineering, and British Computing Companies’ Attempt to Capture the Indian Market, 1955-1965.” Marie Hicks, Duke University. * “ <http://www.sigcis.org/t8> Wat' Forever: Computing Education at the University of Waterloo.” Scott M. Campbell, University of Waterloo. * “ <http://www.sigcis.org/t10> Materiality, modernity and space: The British banks and their computer centres, 1961–1963.” Ian Martin, Open University & University of Manchester. (4x20 minute presentations followed by a 10-15 minute comment and general discussion) Dinner: An optional group dinner will be held following the workshop for those eager to continue conversation over food.