Dear all, A reminder that abstracts for our 2024 SIGCIS meeting, *SYSTEM UPDATE*, (July 14, 2024 in Viña del Mar, Chile, on the Sunday of the SHOT meeting) are due *this Sunday, Jan 28, 2024*. Our keynote for the event is *Anita Say Chan <https://ischool.illinois.edu/people/anita-say-chan>*, Associate Professor in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Below you can find the full CFP for this year's conference. The CFP can also be viewed as a Google doc here <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wrXsJaSuQnK1NKaZKTSY5mJLy7I5d90qgj6obBbbC6o/edit?usp=sharing>, or at our conference website: https://meetings.sigcis.org. Please circulate widely, and we hope to see you at SIGCIS! -Morgan G. Ames, Xiaochang Li, Gili Vidan, Katya Babintseva, and Colette Perold ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *System Update:Patches, Tactics, Responses* Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Viña del Mar, Chile | July 14, 2024 The Special Interest Group in Computing, Information, and Society [SIGCIS] welcomes submissions to their 15th Annual Conference meetings.sigcis.org Proposal Due Date: January 28, 2024 <https://forms.gle/87jx9wSrpUs8i4ZM7> KEYNOTE SPEAKER Anita Say Chan <https://ischool.illinois.edu/people/anita-say-chan>Associate Professor, School of Information Sciences Director, Community Data Clinic Provost Fellow, International Relations & Global Strategies University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign THEME Patches, central to functioning computer systems, may improve performance, mend security flaws, or debug code. Like a patch on torn clothing, these updates are by design tactical and temporary, a response to immediate vulnerabilities. Patchwork can be an important tool for resilience and repair when a system overhaul would be protracted and disruptive. Still, patchwork also presumes that problems are ‘bugs’ or ‘glitches,’ isolated issues that could and would be fixed on the go (Benjamin 2019, Kidwell 1998). As patches accumulate, their stitches and seams can themselves be a vulnerability, and their presence may distract from more transformative change. The history of computing is permeated with patchwork. While many have critiqued an overreliance on quick technical fixes, patchwork can also be understood as a targeted resistance, a vital stopgap that directly addresses local failures and externalities within political, social, and economic systems when systemic forms of recourse are limited or unresponsive to the specific needs of local communities. As we gather for our first SIGCIS meeting in Latin America, Chile provides important historical lessons for how to think about architectures for technology and power, ones that move beyond surface-level responses to deeply revolutionary visions (Medina 2011). This history also reminds us of the constraints faced by historical actors who must work within a system even when seeking to update it. “System Update: Patches, Tactics, Responses” invites scholars, museum and archive professionals, journalists, IT practitioners, artists, and independent researchers across the disciplinary spectrum to consider how the history of computing and information technology is entangled with political and economic histories in a variety of contexts, and especially to consider patchwork. In spaces of uneven infrastructural investment, environmental restoration, or resistance and reparations, what are the uses and limitations of quick fixes? How have patches been used as tactical responses to large-scale, deeply historical injustices? Who carries the burden of patchwork and who is left out of the update? How can historical analyses help us respond to colonial and environmentally-fraught computing practices in and beyond the Global South? What strategies might allow for system rebuilding rather than mere patching? The annual SIGCIS Conference begins immediately after the regular annual meeting of our parent organization, the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT). Information about the annual SHOT conference can be found at: https://www.historyoftechnology.org/annual-meeting/2024-joint-icohtec-shot-a... SUBMISSION FORMAT AND PROCEDURES SIGCIS welcomes proposals for individual 15-minute papers, 3-4 paper panel proposals, and non-traditional proposals such as roundtables, software demonstrations, art and music performances, hands-on workshops, etc. Submissions are due January 28, 2024 via Google Form https://forms.gle/87jx9wSrpUs8i4ZM7. 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. SIGCIS is especially welcoming of new directions in scholarship. We maintain an inclusive atmosphere for scholarly inquiry, supporting disciplinary interventions from beyond the traditional history of technology and promoting diversity in STEM. We welcome submissions from: the histories of technology, computing, information, and science; science and technology studies; oral history and archival studies; critical studies of big data and machine learning; studies of women, gender, and sexuality; studies of race, ethnicity, and postcoloniality; film, media, and game studies; software and code studies; network and internet histories; music, sound studies, and art history; and all other applicable domains. Questions about the submission process should be sent to: sigcis.conference@gmail.com. REGISTRATION COSTS Hosting an in-person event incurs costs related to room and A/V rental, catering, etc. These costs are subsidized in part by our parent organization, SHOT, but participants should expect registration fees in the range of $45-50 for SHOT attendees and $90-120 for those only attending the Sunday SIGCIS Conference (we list these rates in good faith, but they are subject to change). Attending SHOT has its own registration costs. TRAVEL AND CARE GRANTS Continuing our 2022 initiative, SIGCIS will be offering grants to support travel expenses and/or expenses related to child, elder, and other forms of care for presenters whose responsibilities at home may present a barrier to in-person participation. The top financial priority of SIGCIS is support for graduate students, visiting faculty without institutional travel support, and others who would be unable to attend the meeting without travel assistance. We will reach out to presenters after acceptances have been sent out with further information and instructions for applying. Any award offered is contingent on registering for and attending the SIGCIS Conference. Please note that SHOT does not classify the SIGCIS Conference as participation in the SHOT Annual Meeting, so acceptance by SIGCIS does not imply eligibility for the SHOT travel grant program. ACCESSIBILITY ACCOMMODATIONS REQUESTS The submission Google form will include a field where individuals may make requests for accessibility accommodations. Since our event is coordinated by our parent organization, SHOT, we cannot guarantee our ability to meet all accommodation requests. However, our intent will always be to advocate strongly to meet the accessibility needs of our participants. SIGCIS MEETINGS ORGANIZING COMMITTEE Morgan G. Ames <http://morganya.org/>, University of California, Berkeley (SIGCIS Vice-Chair of Meetings) Xiaochang Li <https://comm.stanford.edu/faculty-li/>, Stanford University Katya Babintseva <https://www.cla.purdue.edu/directory/profiles/ekaterina-babintseva.html>, Purdue University Gili Vidan <https://infosci.cornell.edu/content/vidan>, Cornell University Colette Perold <https://www.colorado.edu/cmci/people/media-studies/colette-perold>, University of Colorado --- Gili Vidan Assistant Professor | Information Science | Cornell University Pronouns: she/her