Hello SIGCIS members, Please find below (and at http://www.sigcis.org/workshop11) the call for contributions to our 2011 workshop "Cultures and Communities in the History of Computing." Marie Hicks is chairing the program committee this year. There are still some things we need to address, including the physical hosting and keynote speakers, but wanted to get the call itself out in good time. IEEE Annals is having its editorial board meeting in conjunction with SHOT so prospects are good for a record turnout of historians of computing. Tom CALL FOR PAPERS SIGCIS Workshop 2011: Cultures and Communities in the History of Computing For the latest updates see http://www.sigcis.org/workshop11. DEADLINE for submissions: 15 June 2011 The Society for the History of Technology's Special Interest Group for Computers, Information and Society (SIGCIS - www.sigcis.org) welcomes submissions for its latest one day scholarly workshop on Materiality and Immateriality in the History of Computing. The workshop will be held in Cleveland, OH all day on Sunday, 6th November 2011. This is the final day of the annual SHOT meeting. SHOT has reserved that day for SIG events and therefore the symposium will not overlap scheduled sessions in the main program. For details on the main SHOT meeting see http://www.historyoftechnology.org/annual_meeting.html. Workshop Theme: Information technologies are created to be used by people, and thus function within particular human communities. The workshop explores a range of disciplinary perspectives on the historical development of computing activity, among them * Connections between and across communities, for example between users and producers, experts and non-experts, across disciplinary communities, within trading zones * The publics of computing, whether in home, business, or science * Communities of practice based around the use and/or creation of information technologies * Use of computers within particular disciplinary traditions or institutions * The cultures and subcultures of information technology However our practice is to welcome contributions on all topics related to the history of computing whether or not there is an explicit connection with the annual theme. Our membership is interdisciplinary and proposals are expected from the perspectives of business history, labor history, social history, science studies and the history of science as well as from historians of technology. SHOT is collocated with HSS (history of science) and 4S (science studies) this year, so contributions from those perspectives would be particularly welcome. Proposals for entire sessions and individual presenters are both welcome. We hope to run special sessions featuring dissertations in progress and other works in progress. The workshop is a great opportunity to get helpful feedback on your projects in a relaxed and supportive environment. All proposals will be subject to a peer review process based on abstracts. Suggested Formats: Individual contributions can fit one of a variety of formats 1. Traditional 20 to 25-minute presentations followed by a question and answer session with the SIGCIS community. In this case a one-page abstract (maximum 400 words) will be reviewed and included in the electronic conference program. Abstracts should address the paper's topic, argument, evidence used, and contribution to the existing literature. A full version of the paper should be sent to the session commentator at least a week prior to the meeting. 2. Dissertation proposals. We hope to include a dissertations in progress session, in which individuals will present their ongoing dissertation work and seek feedback from the history of computing community. In this case submit your dissertation proposal, which will be included in the electronic conference program if accepted. Participants will be encouraged to read this prior to the session. You will have five to ten minutes to introduce the material, leaving the bulk of time available for discussion. 3. Works in progress. This is your chance to receive informal and expert discussion of draft dissertation chapters, journal articles, or book chapters. Submit a one page abstract (maximum 400 words) including discussion of the current state of the work and any specific kinds of feedback you are seeking. If your proposal is accepted you will need to supply the draft for discussion by 1 September for inclusion in the electronic program for the workshop. You will have five to ten minutes to introduce the material, leaving the bulk of time available for discussion. 4. Proposals in other formats are also welcome. For example round table discussions, demonstrations of software of interest to historians of computing, or "author meets critics" sessions. We follow the normal format for a history meeting. That is: selection on abstracts rather than full papers, no submission of full papers for regular sessions (although works in progress and dissertation proposals must be submitted in advance for inclusion on the workshop website), and no publication of proceedings (presenters are welcome to submit their work the SIGCIS Member Contributions collection). However presenters in regular sessions will be required to share some version of their paper at least two weeks in advance with the session commentator so that he or she can prepare insightful and helpful remarks. Submission Procedure: All submissions should be made online via the SIGCIS website. People already scheduled to participate on the main SHOT program are welcome to submit an additional proposal to the SIGCIS workshop, but should make sure that there is no overlap between the two presentations. However program committee may choose to give higher priority to submissions from those not already presenting at SHOT. The same person should not be included as a panelist or speaker in more than one proposal to the SIGCIS Workshop, though it is OK to appear both as a speaker/panelist in one session and a chair or discussant in another. Individual submissions should be made at http://www.sigcis.org/workshop11a. Note that this requires a one page curriculum vitae as well as the proposal itself in the form described above. Proposals for complete sessions should be made at http://www.sigcis.org/workshop11b. They should include: * a description of the session that explains how individual papers contribute to an overall theme) * the names and email addresses of each presenter) * an abstract and title for each presentation (in the form described above) * a one-page c.v. for each presenter and other participant (including commentator or chair if named) Travel Support: The top financial priority of SIGCIS is the support of travel expenses for graduate students, visiting faculty without institutional travel support, and others who would be unable to attend the meeting without travel assistance. The submission includes a box to check if you fall into one of these categories and would like to be considered for an award. These is no separate application form, though depending on the volume of requests and available resources we may need to contact you for further information before making a decision. Details on our travel grant program are at http://www.sigcis.org/travelaward. Funding sources include donations from SIGCIS members at our annual meeting, income from the Mahoney Fund http://www.sigcis.org/mahoney and support from MIT Press for our annual book auction. Please note that the SHOT does not classify workshop presentations as participation in the SHOT annual meeting and so acceptance by SIGCIS does not realistically make you eligible for the main SHOT travel grant program. Last Year's Workshop: This is the third annual SIGCIS workshop. The 2010 event featured a plenary session with a distinguished keynote speaker followed by six further sessions grouped into two tracks. Around sixty people attended, many staying an extra night and attending a group dinner in the evening after the workshop. You can see last year's program at http://www.sigcis.org/mahoney and a report from the Charles Babbage Institute at http://www.cbi.umn.edu/newsletter/article5.html. We expect to follow a similar format this year. Questions should be addressed to Marie Hicks who is serving as chair of the workshop program committee. Email meh20@duke.edu.