CCS Thursday May 20th - Doron Swade on Historiography of the History of Computing
Hi: This has just been posted by the Computer Conservation Society: Dear Fellow CCS Members The May meeting of the Computer Conservation Society is on Thursday 20th May via Zoom. This is the final meeting of the 2020/21 programme. The lecture will begin at 2.30PM with the Zoom session opening at 2.15PM. Our speaker is the CCS Chairman Dr Doron Swade is our speaker and his title is Historiography of the History of Computing. Doron has written: A task of history is to provide a coherent account for the profusion of past events — contingent occurrences, breakthroughs, markets, users, human motivations, agency, change and consequence. Histories use narratives that allow us to marshal otherwise unmanageable levels of detail. I describe the three major narratives that have emerged so far and show how at least one was constructed in a way that is now misleading. A solution is offered. I also look to artefactual history — the history of products and artefacts of technology, and a crisis in material culture — the “collapse of categories” that occurred in the wake of revolutions in solid-state physics. This all sounds rather abstract and conceptual. Not so. The material is rooted in the specific episodes, machines and devices of computing of which history seeks to make sense. Historiography is concerned with how history is written. This is my excuse for the pretentious title. About the speaker - Doron Swade is an engineer, historian and museum professional. He was Curator of Computing for many years at the Science Museum, London and later Assistant Director & Head of Collections. He has studied physics, mathematics, electrical engineering, control engineering, philosophy of science, man-machine studies, and history at various universities. He has published four books (one co-authored) and many scholarly and popular articles on history of computing, curatorship, and museology. He was responsible for founding the Computer Conservation Society in 1989 and is its current chairman. He is an Honorary Fellow of the British Computer Society and of Royal Holloway University of London. He was awarded an MBE in 2009 for services to the history of computing. Please pre-register for the event. To do so, follow this link http://www.computerconservationsociety.org/lectures/current/lecture.htm and click on the “Book” symbol. All registrants will be notified of the URL for the Zoom link in advance of the meeting. Details of the 2021/22 season will soon be available. We are currently planning that our future meetings starting in September will be hybrid – offering both attendance in the BCS London meeting rooms and also remote participation in real time as well as providing the usual recorded version on the CCS YouTube channel. This is proving ambitious and will depend on the BCS meeting room having the necessary equipment and internet connections. Our meetings are free to attend and open to all. Please tell anyone who may be interested about this event. We have recently been asked to draw to your attention the UK based Archives of IT. Good wishes Roger Johnson CCS London Programme Secretary Cheers Brian Randell — School of Computing, Newcastle University, 1 Science Square, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE4 5TG EMAIL = Brian.Randell@ncl.ac.uk PHONE = +44 191 208 7923 URL = http://www.ncl.ac.uk/computing/people/profile/brianrandell.html
Hi:
This has just been posted by the Computer Conservation Society:
Dear Fellow CCS Members
The May meeting of the Computer Conservation Society is on Thursday 20th May via Zoom. This is the final meeting of the 2020/21 programme. The lecture will begin at 2.30PM with the Zoom session opening at 2.15PM.
Our speaker is the CCS Chairman Dr Doron Swade is our speaker and his title is Historiography of the History of Computing. Doron has written: A task of history is to provide a coherent account for the profusion of past events — contingent occurrences, breakthroughs, markets, users, human motivations, agency, change and consequence. Histories use narratives that allow us to marshal otherwise unmanageable levels of detail. I describe the three major narratives that have emerged so far and show how at least one was constructed in a way that is now misleading. A solution is offered. I also look to artefactual history — the history of products and artefacts of technology, and a crisis in material culture — the “collapse of categories”
Hi Brian, Thanks for the notification. Will there be a recording for those of us in strange time zones like UTC+12? Kind regards Brian Carpenter On 06-May-21 01:35, Brian Randell wrote: that occurred in the wake of revolutions in solid-state physics. This all sounds rather abstract and conceptual. Not so. The material is rooted in the specific episodes, machines and devices of computing of which history seeks to make sense. Historiography is concerned with how history is written. This is my excuse for the pretentious title.
About the speaker - Doron Swade is an engineer, historian and museum professional. He was Curator of Computing for many years at the Science Museum, London and later Assistant Director & Head of Collections. He has studied physics, mathematics, electrical engineering, control engineering, philosophy of science, man-machine studies, and history at various universities. He has published four books (one co-authored) and many scholarly and popular articles on history of computing, curatorship, and museology.
He was responsible for founding the Computer Conservation Society in 1989 and is its current chairman. He is an Honorary Fellow of the British Computer Society and of Royal Holloway University of London. He was awarded an MBE in 2009 for services to the history of computing.
Please pre-register for the event. To do so, follow this link http://www.computerconservationsociety.org/lectures/current/lecture.htm and click
on the “Book” symbol. All registrants will be notified of the URL for the Zoom link in advance of the meeting.
Details of the 2021/22 season will soon be available. We are currently planning that our future meetings starting in September will be hybrid – offering both attendance in the BCS London meeting rooms and also remote participation in real time as well as providing the usual recorded
version on the CCS YouTube channel. This is proving ambitious and will depend on the BCS meeting room having the necessary equipment and internet connections.
Our meetings are free to attend and open to all. Please tell anyone who
may be interested about this event.
We have recently been asked to draw to your attention the UK based Archives of IT.
Good wishes
Roger Johnson CCS London Programme Secretary
Cheers
Brian Randell
—
School of Computing, Newcastle University, 1 Science Square, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE4 5TG EMAIL = Brian.Randell@ncl.ac.uk PHONE = +44 191 208 7923 URL = http://www.ncl.ac.uk/computing/people/profile/brianrandell.html
_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
Hi Brian I'm not sure - but a google search on "are ccs lectures recorded" produced a somewhat positive answer. Cheers Brian Sent from my iPhone
On 5 May 2021, at 21:13, Brian E Carpenter <brian.e.carpenter@gmail.com> wrote:
⚠ External sender. Take care when opening links or attachments. Do not provide your login details.
Hi Brian,
Thanks for the notification. Will there be a recording for those of us in strange time zones like UTC+12?
Kind regards Brian Carpenter
On 06-May-21 01:35, Brian Randell wrote: Hi:
This has just been posted by the Computer Conservation Society:
Dear Fellow CCS Members
The May meeting of the Computer Conservation Society is on Thursday 20th May via Zoom. This is the final meeting of the 2020/21 programme. The lecture will begin at 2.30PM with the Zoom session opening at 2.15PM.
Our speaker is the CCS Chairman Dr Doron Swade is our speaker and his title is Historiography of the History of Computing. Doron has written: A task of history is to provide a coherent account for the profusion of past events — contingent occurrences, breakthroughs, markets, users, human motivations, agency, change and consequence. Histories use narratives that allow us to marshal otherwise unmanageable levels of detail. I describe the three major narratives that have emerged so far and show how at least one was constructed in a way that is now misleading. A solution is offered. I also look to artefactual history — the history of products and artefacts of technology, and a crisis in material culture — the “collapse of categories” that occurred in the wake of revolutions in solid-state physics. This all sounds rather abstract and conceptual. Not so. The material is rooted in the specific episodes, machines and devices of computing of which history seeks to make sense. Historiography is concerned with how history is written. This is my excuse for the pretentious title.
About the speaker - Doron Swade is an engineer, historian and museum professional. He was Curator of Computing for many years at the Science Museum, London and later Assistant Director & Head of Collections. He has studied physics, mathematics, electrical engineering, control engineering, philosophy of science, man-machine studies, and history at various universities. He has published four books (one co-authored) and many scholarly and popular articles on history of computing, curatorship, and museology. He was responsible for founding the Computer Conservation Society in 1989 and is its current chairman. He is an Honorary Fellow of the British Computer Society and of Royal Holloway University of London. He was awarded an MBE in 2009 for services to the history of computing.
Please pre-register for the event. To do so, follow this link https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.compute... and click on the “Book” symbol. All registrants will be notified of the URL for the Zoom link in advance of the meeting.
Details of the 2021/22 season will soon be available. We are currently planning that our future meetings starting in September will be hybrid – offering both attendance in the BCS London meeting rooms and also remote participation in real time as well as providing the usual recorded version on the CCS YouTube channel. This is proving ambitious and will depend on the BCS meeting room having the necessary equipment and internet connections.
Our meetings are free to attend and open to all. Please tell anyone who may be interested about this event.
We have recently been asked to draw to your attention the UK based Archives of IT.
Good wishes
Roger Johnson CCS London Programme Secretary
Cheers
Brian Randell
—
School of Computing, Newcastle University, 1 Science Square, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE4 5TG EMAIL = Brian.Randell@ncl.ac.uk PHONE = +44 191 208 7923 URL = http://www.ncl.ac.uk/computing/people/profile/brianrandell.html
_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Flists.sigci... and you can change your subscription options at https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Flists.sigci...
Dear Brian and Brian All CCS meeting are recorded (E&OE!) and are made available within a day or so on the CCS YouTube channel. Our lectures are also free to view and open to all My university recently changed my mailbox address so although for the past couple of weeks I am still receiving SIGCIS listserver messages I can't send to it. I must fix the problem. Good wishes Roger -----Original Message----- From: Brian Randell <brian.randell@newcastle.ac.uk> Sent: 06 May 2021 08:36 To: Brian E Carpenter <brian.e.carpenter@gmail.com> Cc: members@sigcis.org Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] CCS Thursday May 20th - Doron Swade on Historiography of the History of Computing Hi Brian I'm not sure - but a google search on "are ccs lectures recorded" produced a somewhat positive answer. Cheers Brian Sent from my iPhone
On 5 May 2021, at 21:13, Brian E Carpenter <brian.e.carpenter@gmail.com> wrote:
⚠ External sender. Take care when opening links or attachments. Do not provide your login details.
Hi Brian,
Thanks for the notification. Will there be a recording for those of us in strange time zones like UTC+12?
Kind regards Brian Carpenter
On 06-May-21 01:35, Brian Randell wrote: Hi:
This has just been posted by the Computer Conservation Society:
Dear Fellow CCS Members
The May meeting of the Computer Conservation Society is on Thursday 20th May via Zoom. This is the final meeting of the 2020/21 programme. The lecture will begin at 2.30PM with the Zoom session opening at 2.15PM.
Our speaker is the CCS Chairman Dr Doron Swade is our speaker and his title is Historiography of the History of Computing. Doron has written: A task of history is to provide a coherent account for the profusion of past events — contingent occurrences, breakthroughs, markets, users, human motivations, agency, change and consequence. Histories use narratives that allow us to marshal otherwise unmanageable levels of detail. I describe the three major narratives that have emerged so far and show how at least one was constructed in a way that is now misleading. A solution is offered. I also look to artefactual history — the history of products and artefacts of technology, and a crisis in material culture — the “collapse of categories” that occurred in the wake of revolutions in solid-state physics. This all sounds rather abstract and conceptual. Not so. The material is rooted in the specific episodes, machines and devices of computing of which history seeks to make sense. Historiography is concerned with how history is written. This is my excuse for the pretentious title.
About the speaker - Doron Swade is an engineer, historian and museum professional. He was Curator of Computing for many years at the Science Museum, London and later Assistant Director & Head of Collections. He has studied physics, mathematics, electrical engineering, control engineering, philosophy of science, man-machine studies, and history at various universities. He has published four books (one co-authored) and many scholarly and popular articles on history of computing, curatorship, and museology. He was responsible for founding the Computer Conservation Society in 1989 and is its current chairman. He is an Honorary Fellow of the British Computer Society and of Royal Holloway University of London. He was awarded an MBE in 2009 for services to the history of computing.
Please pre-register for the event. To do so, follow this link https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww. computerconservationsociety.org%2Flectures%2Fcurrent%2Flecture.htm&am p;data=04%7C01%7Cbrian.randell%40newcastle.ac.uk%7C976c998f90754ef932 ee08d910024448%7C9c5012c9b61644c2a91766814fbe3e87%7C1%7C0%7C637558424 186071656%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzI iLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=TQIc7o9CKbgqA2%2BA0G 9%2FrFC%2Fw4ddVod6zNPN35l%2B2y4%3D&reserved=0 and click on the “Book” symbol. All registrants will be notified of the URL for the Zoom link in advance of the meeting.
Details of the 2021/22 season will soon be available. We are currently planning that our future meetings starting in September will be hybrid – offering both attendance in the BCS London meeting rooms and also remote participation in real time as well as providing the usual recorded version on the CCS YouTube channel. This is proving ambitious and will depend on the BCS meeting room having the necessary equipment and internet connections.
Our meetings are free to attend and open to all. Please tell anyone who may be interested about this event.
We have recently been asked to draw to your attention the UK based Archives of IT.
Good wishes
Roger Johnson CCS London Programme Secretary
Cheers
Brian Randell
—
School of Computing, Newcastle University, 1 Science Square, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE4 5TG EMAIL = Brian.Randell@ncl.ac.uk PHONE = +44 191 208 7923 URL = http://www.ncl.ac.uk/computing/people/profile/brianrandell.html
_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Flist s.sigcis.org%2Fpipermail%2Fmembers-sigcis.org%2F&data=04%7C01%7Cb rian.randell%40newcastle.ac.uk%7C976c998f90754ef932ee08d910024448%7C9 c5012c9b61644c2a91766814fbe3e87%7C1%7C0%7C637558424186081619%7CUnknow n%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiL CJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=dyBTMyjbm2JINUm5UBjHwsxBMGxcYtnZDYVbCI z54dU%3D&reserved=0 and you can change your subscription options at https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Flist s.sigcis.org%2Flistinfo.cgi%2Fmembers-sigcis.org&data=04%7C01%7Cb rian.randell%40newcastle.ac.uk%7C976c998f90754ef932ee08d910024448%7C9 c5012c9b61644c2a91766814fbe3e87%7C1%7C0%7C637558424186081619%7CUnknow n%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiL CJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=vMmjmvsh%2BfWKS0nnXa9SuKIqAS2OkS9xhRv6 m3oM7Wo%3D&reserved=0
_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org WARNING: This email originated from outside of Birkbeck. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognise the sender. Under testing so any comments sg@dcs.bbk.ac.uk
participants (3)
-
Brian E Carpenter -
Brian Randell -
Roger Johnson