Dear Colleagues. Please pass this announcement to relevant parties. Thanks – Anker Helms Jorgensen, IT University of Copenhagen. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - A n n o u n c e m e n t - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - At the IT University of Copenhagen (ITU) a considerable number of Ph.D. study scholarships are offered in a broad range of areas within IT, among these User Interface History. The PhD will last three years and will commence in the fall 2009. The scholarships are fully funded. The applicants are expected to submit a max. 5 page research proposal. The application deadline is April 16. For further detail see below. User interface history To the best of my knowledge, no historians have yet embarked on user interface history, although user interfaces are as old as digital, electronic computers. So far only researchers from Human-Computer Interaction and Media Studies have addressed their history. This PhD call aims at attracting applicants with a degree in history of techology or history of computing. ITU and history ITU offers the PhD scholarships although ITU does not have a study program in technology history. The reputation of ITU in this area is limited, but history is considered important at the ITU. The PhD student will be supervised by me (Anker Helms Jorgensen) who in recent years has done research in history of user interfaces. Although being a relative newcomer in history of computing, I have substantial experience in PhD supervision as I have supervised 11 PhDs - at the ITU and University of Copenhagen - in HCI, virtual worlds, and video games. My approach to user interface history The background to my interest in user interface history interest is threefold. Firstly, my activities in HCI as researcher, teacher and practitioner for three decades. As time passes, interest in the past often surfaces. Secondly, user interfaces are coming of age and I find that the time is ripe to address their history – just like the history of computers and computing has been addressed for several decades. Many papers and books address selected aspects of HCI history and user interface history – some in great depth – but only a handful of papers address user interface/HCI history in general. Written mostly by HCI scholars, their historiographic genre must be considered internalistic - with a few exceptions. Thirdly, the generation growing up seems to have very little knowledge about historical aspects of user interfaces - and computing for that matter. I would like to help remedy this by creating more focus on user interface history. My aim is to adopt a contextual approach as this seems timely and most beneficial. My recent paper “Context and Driving Forces in the Development of the Early Computer Game Nimbi”, appearing in the July issue of IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, illustrates this approach. The key point is that early gaming was far more than entertainment and invoved organisational and social aspects such as educating the general public about the potential of computers. In addition, my approach to user interface history is “history from below”. This contrasts current studies, most of which address the development of the predominant graphical user interface and the influence of early visionaries such as Vannevar Bush, Douglas Engelbart and Alan Kay, i.e. a “history from above” approach. Examples of “from below” projects are plugboard programming, portraits of user interface designers of the 1960s, the role of the pervasive IBM 3270 display protocol, and the user interface of WordPerfect (a loved and hated word processor of the 1980s). Further detail Applicants are expected to submit a maximum 5 page project proposal. I’m more than willing to help potential applicants write a convincing project proposal. We expect that successful applicants have earned a MA in Technology History, History, or similar. The deadline is April 16 at noon Danish time. For further detail please visit http://www1.itu.dk/sw65235.asp http://www1.itu.dk/graphics/ITU-library/Intranet/Personale/ Stillingsopslag/TAP/Stillingsopslag%202009/PhDSpring%202009-2.pdf Please don’t hesitate to contact me for further information: anker@itu.dk, phone: +45 72 18 50 20. -o-o-o-o-o-o-o- Anker Helms Jorgensen Associate Professor, PhD IT University of Copenhagen Rued Langgaardsvej 7 DK-2300 Copenhagen S Denmark anker@itu.dk http://www1.itu.dk/sw4489.asp +45 72 18 50 00