Hello everyone,
SHOT gets underway tomorrow evening in beautiful Pittsburgh.
You’ve been seeing a number of emails over the past few months from Jeff
Tang and Joe November, who have been doing a great job keeping things on track.
Below is a summary of the SIGCIS events planned for the conference, including
our very first SIGCIS Workshop (“Michael Mahoney and the Histories of
Computing(s)”) and the presentation of our Computer History Museum book
prize. There’s also a separate summary of non-SIGCIS panels relevant to
the history of computing. It’s shaping up as another record breaking SHOT
in terms of the volume and quality of history of computing activity.
But first, some reminders:
1.
If you are coming to the SIG Lunch on Friday and/or to
the SIGCIS Workshop on Sunday, please send Jeff Tang (secretary@sigcis.org) an updated little
biography for inclusion in the conference packet.
2.
If you are attending the SIGCIS Workshop on Sunday and still
did not yet let Jeff Tang know that you are coming, please email him (secretary@sigcis.org). If you are not
registered for SHOT itself you will need to buy a $30 one day registration on
the door on Sunday. If you are registered for SHOT there is no additional
charge.
3.
The workshop program features two sessions (one
works in progress, one dissertations) with PRECIRCULATED papers. These
sessions are at the same time, so please pick one then read and bring with you
the drafts shared by participants to enable informed discussion. Find them
online at http://www.sigcis.org/?q=workshop09c.
Also a NEWSFLASH regarding food at the workshop on Sunday:
If you are attending the workshop, we’ve made our
choices for Lunch and Dinner. These are paid directly to the restaurant.
·
Lunch: Primanti Brothers. A local institution
and sandwich shop, with an extensive seating capacity. Varied menu, which
should have something to suit everyone who can eat bread or doesn’t mind
salad. http://www.primantibros.com/menu/city/marketsquare/
Also very affordable. Just around the corner from the hotel.
·
Dinner: We are making the journey (20 mins walk
or very short taxi) over the bridge to the beautiful post-industrial Station
Square development. http://www.stationsquare.com/
There’s a great view and bits of old technology lying around. The
reservation is for 7pm at Buca di Beppo http://www.bucadibeppo.com/
which is a mid priced chain Italian restaurant specializing in large dishes
intended for sharing. It is a nice area for a drink afterwards if anyone wants
one. This choice is actually very appropriate for our conference theme, as Mike
Mahoney had suggested this chain for our dinner in Minneapolis a few years ago
but it was too full to accept our reservation.
Lunch will be informal. For dinner, we could do with a final
number to make sure that everyone has a seat. So please update Jeff if you
would now like to join us for dinner on Sunday or if there is any other shift
in your previously stated dinner status (No > Yes, Yes >No, Maybe >
Yes, etc).
Looking forward to seeing you there.
Tom
Here are the
official SIGCIS events for SHOT:
Friday Oct 16
·
10am to 10:30am – “Meet the SIGs”
– view our amazingly great poster and meet the SIG officers over coffee
in the Balroom Lobby.
·
10:30am to 12:30pm – Official SIGCIS
Panel, Materiality Meets Practice, Birmingham Room
Friday, 10.30 AM-12.30 PM
8. Materiality Meets Practice
(SIGCIS Panel)
Birmingham Room
Chair: James W. Cortada (IBM)
Commentator: Gerard Alberts (University
of Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Organizer: Thomas Haigh (University
of Wisconsin—Milwaukee)
·
Thomas Haigh (University of
Wisconsin—Milwaukee): Opening the Beige Box:
Materiality and the
Evolution of the IBM PC, 1981-95
·
Jeffrey Tang (James Madison University):
Plug and Play: Standardized Connectors and
Home Audio Reproduction
·
Allan Olley (University of Toronto,
Canada): The Right Job for the Tools:
Transitioning to the
Computer Age
·
David Alan Grier (George Washington
University), The Material Origins of
Virtualization
·
12:30-2pm: SIGCIS LUNCH, Sterling’s 1
(Lobby Level, behind elevators)
o
Informal mingling over pizza
o
Annual Book Auction
o
Presentation of the Computer History Museum
Prize
o
Announcements
Saturday Oct 17
·
Official SIGCIS Panel, 10:30-12:30, Rivers
Room
37. Paths Not Taken and Paths
Retraced in the History of Information Technology
Rivers Room (SIGCIS Panel)
Chair: Helena Durnova (Technical
University of Brno, Czech Republic)
Commentator: Peter Meyer (US
Bureau of Labor Statistics)
Organizer: Thomas Haigh (University
of Wisconsin—Milwaukee)
·
Jonathan Coopersmith (Texas A&M
University): Transmission Error: Fax, Failure,
and Roads Less Traveled in the History of Technology
·
Paul E. Ceruzzi (National Air and Space
Museum, Smithsonian Institution): Manned
Space Flight and Artificial Intelligence:
“Natural” Trajectories of Technology and their
Implications for Historians
·
Chris McDonald (Princeton University):
>From Computer Utility to Time-Sharing:
Politics and Technology in the 1960s American
Computer Industry
·
Evan Koblentz (InfoAge Science Center):
The Pre-History of Portable Computers
Sunday Oct 18: All Day SIGCIS Workshop!
A Special Workshop on Michael Mahoney and the
Histories of Computing(s)
9-10.45 AM
Plenary Session
Ft. Pitt Room
·
William Aspray, School of Informatics and
Computing, Indiana University
·
Gerard Alberts, University of Amsterdam
·
Thomas Haigh, School of Information
Studies, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
10.45-11 AM Coffee Break, East Lobby Concourse
11-12.30 PM, Sunday
Traditional Paper Session 1:
The Computings of Science
Smithfield Room
Chair: Andrew Russell,
Program in History, Stevens Institute of Technology
Commentator: Chigusa Kita,
Kansai University
·
Joseph November, Department of History,
University of South Carolina: “The
Computer as File Cabinet or
Oscilloscope: Two Computings of Biomedical Research”
·
Buhm Soon Park, Korea Advanced Institute
of Science and Technology: “Chemistry
by Computer: Machines and
Ideas for Computational Chemistry”
·
Scott M. Campbell, University of Waterloo:
“Agendas and the Promise of Computer
Science at the University
of Toronto”
Traditional Paper Session 2:
The Computings of Management
Ft. Pitt Room
Chair: Janet Delve, School
of Creative Technologies, University of Portsmouth
Commentator: William McMillan, Eastern
Michigan University
·
Lars Heide, Copenhagen Business School:
“Punched Cards in German Management of
Resources in the Second
World War”
·
David Anderson, University of Portsmouth:
“The Corridors of Power: Patrick Blackett
and the Political Context
of Early British Computing”
·
Jonathan Aylen, Manchester Institute of
Innovation Research, University of
Manchester:
“’You’ve got to roll with it’: radical adoption of
computers and changes to
managerial routines at
Llanwern steelworks, South Wales”
12.30-2 PM Lunch Break. (Head to lobby to walk around
the corner to Primanti Brothers, Market Square location). See below for map.
2-4 PM, Sunday
Dissertation Session
Smithfield Room
·
Cristina Turdean, Hagley Program,
Department of History, University of Delaware:
“Reimagining a
Gambling Technology: The Digitization of the Slot Machine (1970-2000)”
·
Christopher McDonald, Princeton
University: “A New Nervous System of Society: The Technology and Politics
of Mass Computer-Communications Systems”
·
Hansen Hsu, Cornell University:
“Connections between the Software Crisis and Object-Oriented
Programming”
Works in Progress
Ft. Pitt Room
Chair and Commentator: Janet
Abbate, Science and Technology Studies Program,
Virginia Tech
·
Rebecca Slayton, Stanford University:
“An Evolving Discipline: The Political Economy of Software
Engineering”
·
Pierre Mounier-Kuhn, Centre National de
la Recherche Scientifique: “The Emergence of Computing as an Academic
Discipline in France”
·
Anker Helms Jorgensen, IT University of
Copenhagen: “History of User Interfaces to Computers – A Mahoneyan
Perspective”
·
Sten Henriksson, Computer Science
Department, Lund University: “A brief history of the stack”
4-4.15 PM Coffee Break, East Lobby Concourse
4.15-5.45 PM, Sunday
Traditional Paper Session 3:
Political Institutions in the Histories of Computings
Smithfield Room
Commentator: Helena Durnová, Department
of Mathematics, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Communications, Brno
University of Technology
·
Andrew Mamo, “Computing Societies:
Communications Technologies and Social Science in the Cambridge Project”
·
Stephen Patnode, Temple University:
“The Impact of Computers on Corporate Paternalism in the Post-war United
States”
·
David Nofre, Informatics Institute,
University of Amsterdam: “The Dutch politics of computing and the limits
of international cooperation, 1945-65”
Traditional Paper Session 4:
Computings as They Rose and Fell
Ft. Pitt Room
Chair: David Hemmendinger,
Computer Science Department, Union College
Commentator: Paul Ceruzzi,
National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution
·
Dave Goodwin, Birkbeck College, University
of London: “Digital Equipment Corporation: The mistakes that led to its
downfall”
·
Larry Owens, University of Massachusetts
Amherst: “Walking Around Computerville: The PC and the Encyclopedia of
Computer Science, 1976-83”
6.30 PM Gather for dinner in the
lobby for walk to dinner. (Dinner is 7:00pm at Buca di Beppo in Station
Square) – see below for map.
Non-SIGCIS Panels Related
to History of Computing
·
Friday, Oct 16: 8:30-10 am
3. Web 2.0 and the History of
Technology
Ft. Pitt Room
Chair: Sheldon Hochheiser (IEEE
History Center)
Commentator: Thomas J. Misa (Charles
Babbage Institute)
Organizers: Michael N.
Geselowitz (IEEE History Center) and Thomas J. Misa
(Charles Babbage Institute)
Stephanie H. Crowe (Charles
Babbage Institute): Experimenting with Web 2.0 at the
Charles Babbage Institute
Suzanne Fischer (The Henry
Ford): The History Museum as Communication Platform
Michael N. Geselowitz (IEEE
History Center): The IEEE Global History Network
5: Operating Technological Networks
Duquesne Room
Includes: Nathan Ensmenger (University
of Pennsylvania): From Computer Operations to
Operating Systems: The Hidden Costs
of Business Computing
·
Friday, Oct 16, 10:30-12:30
9. Technological Shifts
Smithfield Room
Chair & Commentator: Glenn
Bugos (NASA Ames Research Center)
Yasushi Sato (National
Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, Japan): An Inconspicuous
Giant in the History of Japanese
Computing: NTT and its Early Masterwork, DIPS-1
14. Increasing Women’s
Participation in Engineering and Computer Science:
Perspectives from the Field
and from History - Roundtable
Rivers Room
Organizer: Jennifer Light (Northwestern
University)
Participants: Allan Fisher (Laureate
Education, Inc); Janet Abbate, (Virginia Tech),
Marie Hicks (Duke
University), Patricia L. Eng (U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission), Ruth Schwartz Cowan
(University of Pennsylvania)
·
Saturday, Oct 17, 8:30-10am
26. Navigating Virtual and
Physical Landscapes: Geocaching, Locative Media, and
Video Games
Ft. Pitt Room
Chair: Stephen H. Cutcliffe (Lehigh
University)
Commentator: Hugh Slotten (University
of Otago, New Zealand)
Organizer: Silas Chamberlin (Lehigh
University)
Silas Chamberlin A High-Tech
Easter Egg Hunt: Geocaching in Historical Perspective
Nathan Schulman (California
Institute of the Arts): Navigating the Cityscape: Digital
Locative Media in the Modern City
Matthew Schandler (Lehigh
University) [Robinson Prize Candidate]: Navigating
Virtual Worlds: Agency and
Alternatives in the History of Video Games
30. Confrontation and Cooperation
in the Cold War (I)
Duquesne Room
Chair & Commentator: Paul
Josephson (Colby College)
Helena Durnova (Brno
University of Technology, Czech Republic): Computers as the
messengers of freedom in Soviet
bloc countries
Anna Geltzer (Cornell
University): Cybernetics without computers? Medical
cybernetics in the USSR
·
Saturday, Oct 17, 10:30-12:30
35. The Instability of
Technological Identities
Benedum Room
Chair & Commentator: Edmund
Russell (University of Virginia)
(includes)
Yasuo Deguchi (Kyoto
University, Japan) and Chigusa I. Kita (Kansai University,
Japan): Punched cards from
accounting office to laboratory: Eckert and von Neumann
36. Consumer Agency in the
History of Technology
Duquesne Room
Chair & Commentator: Karin
Zachmann (Deutsches Museum, Germany)
(includes)
Dov Lungu (York University,
Canada) and Zbigniew Stachniak (York University,
Canada): The Toronto Region
Association of Computer Enthusiasts (1976-85): A case
study in the evolution of the
Computer Hobbyist Movement in Canada
38. Robots in Practice
Forbes Room
Chair: Roger D. Launius (National
Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution)
Commentator: Lisa Nocks (New
Jersey Institute of Technology)
Organizer: Frank Dittmann (Deutsches
Museum, Germany)
Hironori Matsuzaki (Carl von
Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Germany)
[Robinson Prize Candidate]:
M.A Humanoid robots and the borders of the social
world. A cross-cultural analysis
between Europe, the USA, and Japan
Ralf Spicker (Deutsches Museum,
Germany): Between Science Fiction and
technological concepts: An Overview
over the History and (near) Future of industrial
robots
Catarina Caetano da Rosa (RWTH
Aachen University): Can medical robots act?
Frank Dittmann (Deutsches
Museum): Service Robots – The Brownies of
the 21st Century?
·
Saturday, Oct 17, 2-3:30pm
40. Girls Buy Dresses; Boys
Buy Video Games: Gender, Technology, and
Consumption in Twentieth-Century
America
Smithfield Room
Chair & Commentator: Regina
Lee Blaszczyk
Organizer: Deirdre Clemente (Carnegie
Mellon University)
(includes)
Racquel Gonzales (University
of Texas at Austin) [Robinson Prize Candidate]: This
is a Man’s Man’s
Man’s World?: The Gendering of Video Games through Television
Advertising
41. Making Technologies
Public
Ft. Pitt Room
Chair & Commentator: Alex
Roland (Duke University)
Organizer: Jason Young (York
University, Canada)
(includes)
Andrew Meade McGee (University
of Virginia) [Robinson Prize Candidate]: A Sort
of Breathing IBM Machine: The
Social Security Administration, Publicized
Technology, and Promotion of the
Public’s Role in an Information System, 1936-79
·
Saturday, Oct 17, 4-5:30pm
51. Technological History of
the “Third Industrial Revolution”
Benedum Room
Chair & Commentator: Steven
Usselman (Georgia Tech)
Co-organizers: Hyungsub Choi (Chemical
Heritage Foundation) and Andrew L.
Russell (Stevens Institute
of Technology)
(includes)
Hyungsub Choi: The Long Tail
of the Third Industrial Revolution: Technology
Platform and Supply Chain
Relationships at SEMATECH
Map: How to get to Lunch on Sunday
Map: How to get to Dinner on Sunday
