From thaigh at computer.org Wed Apr 1 01:59:33 2009 From: thaigh at computer.org (Thomas Haigh) Date: Wed, 1 Apr 2009 00:59:33 -0500 Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Computer History Museum Prize from SIGCIS Message-ID: <001001c9b28f$081f8280$185e8780$@org> Hello everyone, Today is the deadline for submissions to the Computer History Museum prize. A good number of books have been received already by the prize committee, but if you have one (published 2006-8) that hasn't been dispatched yet then now would be a good time to run to the post office with copies for each of our three inaugural judges: Tom Misa, Paul Ceruzzi, and Jen Light. The call is on our website at http://www.sigcis.org/?q=node/56 and in various other places around the Internet thanks to the promotion efforts of Jeffrey Tang, the SIGCIS secretary. (And no, this isn't an April Fools' Day prank). We talked about the prize a little bit at our lunch meeting in Lisbon back in October, but now it's really happening I wanted to share a few thoughts with the full SIGCIS membership. The prize is a small but significant step in the maturation of our field. As sociologists of science would tell you, the emergence of a new sub discipline relies on the creation of new institutions and practices to support new identities. Some of these came long ago to the field, such as Annals of the History of Computing and the CBI's Tomash fellowship. Others will take a great deal of enthusiasm and money to accomplish and remain projects for the distant future. But the CHM prize is now a reality and fills one of the most important of the remaining gaps. We now have a ceremony in which members of our SIG gather every year to celebrate an outstanding work of scholarship, chosen by their peers within that same community because it advances in some exciting way our collective project. Over the years the growing list of its recipients will document the future evolution of the field and showcase some of the best work in the history of technology. For this achievement there are some people who need to be acknowledged. Thanks to the vision and generosity of a donor who wishes to remain anonymous we have a pledge for indefinite support of the $1,000 a year cash prize plus an endowment amount of at least $20,000 in the event of the donor's death. That lets us launch the prize at a respectable level freeing up our homespun fundraising for other projects such as graduate student travel and workshop organization. SHOT seems to have taken the cash amounts out of its prize descriptions online, but it is comparable financially with many of our parent society's major awards. So thank you, Donor X. You've made a real difference. Things moved very quickly from tentative discussion at our 2007 lunch meeting of the possibility of SIGCIS initiating a prize. By early 2008 we had our funding pledge. SIGCIS does not have a significant fundraising operation and does not plan to develop one. So we are dependent on formal and informal collaboration with other organizations in the field. I am enormously grateful to veteran curator Doron Swade, who attended out 2007 meeting and took the idea back with him to the Computer History Museum where he was then working as a consultant. The museum's chairman, Len Shustek, brought the prize idea to the attention of our donor and sealed the deal. Without Len's willingness to use his charm and connections on our behalf the prize would still just be a vague prospect for the future. But it takes more than money to make a prize. We were determined to learn from best practices in the area and to make the prize as credible as possible. An ad-hoc steering committee consisting of Tom Misa (chair), Bill Aspray, Mike Mahoney, and Paul Ceruzzi was recruited and charged with setting up policies and procedures for the prize. Should it be for books or articles? Awarded every year? Open to popular books? What to call the field it recognizes? Drawing on a deep familiarity with the field and long service on other prize committees the committee answered these, and many other questions. This was Mike's last service to the SIG, and as always his advice guided us well. Tom and Paul also agreed to stay on as judges to give continuity from the policies set by the ad-hoc committee into their practical implementation. As their mailboxes fill with hefty volumes the judges have a good deal of reading ahead of them, and also deserve our thanks for the time this will require away from their own research and other commitments. I hope that as many of you as possible will be able to join us in Pittsburgh this autumn for the presentation of the first prize. Best wishes, Tom Haigh -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/attachments/20090401/68c34328/attachment.htm From fturner at stanford.edu Fri Apr 3 20:31:10 2009 From: fturner at stanford.edu (Fred Turner) Date: Fri, 3 Apr 2009 17:31:10 -0700 Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Fwd: The Future is Prologue ICA Pre-con References: <63EDB2102FD987458E94A93CA147744220B655E63B@lfcexchange07.lakeforest.edu> Message-ID: Hi All, The ICA is hosting another preconference this year that seems to be up our collective alley. It's "New Media, New Histories," with the program below. Check it out. -- Fred Turner > > See below for details regarding a pre-conference that will be part > of the offerings at the annual ICA conference in Chicago this May. > Entitled "The Future is Prologue: New Media, New Histories?," this > preconference brings together scholars who are interested in > considering new media in terms of history, and vice versa. There is > still room for those who wish to attend this pre-conference, and we > welcome all interested parties. > > Registration for the ICA conference and this pre-con can be found > here: > http://www.icahdq.org > [the pre-conference is called PC3 in the registration system] > > And let's hear it for my co-planners, Nick Jankowski and Steve Jones. > > Thanks, > Dave Park > > > The Future is Prologue: > New Media, New Histories? > > An ICA Pre-Conference Organized by: New Media & Society, The > University of Illinois at Chicago, And The Communication History > Interest Group of the ICA > > Chicago, 21 May 2009 > University of Illinois at Chicago > Lecture Center C1 > > Schedule > > 8:00: Bus pickup at Marriott Hotel. Buses depart at 8:10 a.m. for > UIC > > 8:30 a.m.-9:00 a.m.: Opening remarks > > 9:00 a.m.-10:15 a.m.: Roundtable 1: Storage and New Media: Beyond > the Container Metaphor > The idea of storage operates as one of a number of > helpful-though also constraining-visions of how information > operates. New media connect the controversies connected to this > idea of storage to long-standing disputes concerning the social role > of information. How do media connect with different modes of > storage? And how do issues relating to storage in turn connect with > historiographical concerns? These will be the animating ideas of > this roundtable. > Devon Powers, "What Was Popular? New Media, History, and the > Problem of > the Music Charts" > Sabryna Cornish, "Correcting History: The Perils of New > Media Correction in a > Digital Age" > Adriana de Souza e Silva and Daniel M. Sutko, "Mobile > Locative Interfaces as > Potentiality: Actualizing Information in Space and > Space as Information" > Megan Sapnar, "From Old to New and Back Again: Broadcast > Histories, > Software Studies, and the Work of Web Historiography" > Deborah Leiter, "Hidden in Plain Sight?: The Exigence of > (Electronic) Visibility > for Print Materials" > Erik Glyttov, "Mediated Realities: Virtual Worlds as New > Media and the > Preservation of Digital Ancestry" > > 10:15 a.m.-10:45 a.m.: Coffee Break > > 10:45 a.m.-12:00 p.m.: Roundtable 2: The Theoretical in the > Historical: De-Centering New Media History > Media historians are often trained to avoid tendencies > like technological determinism and Whig history. Related to these > tendencies is the practice of reifying technologies and media, > setting them aside as if they were naturally separate 'things'. > This roundtable pulls together papers that exemplify the practice of > de-centering new and old media through grounded understandings of > social praxis, understood through varying theoretical lenses. > D. Travers Scott, "The Utility of Sound Studies' Theory and > Method for Histories > of New Media and Communication Technologies" > Peter D. Schaefer, "Reflections on the Sliding Signification > of 'Interface'" > Klaus Bruhn Jensen & Rasmus Helles, "The Internet as a > Cultural Forum: > Implications for Research" > Josh Lauer, "Surveillance History and the History of New > Media" > Benjamin Peters, "Media We Do Not Yet Know How to Talk > About: History as > New Media" > Lance Porter, "A Multi-Method Examination of the Move from > Print to New > Media of Online Sports Reporters and Fans" > Dawn Shepard, "The Closet and the House-Tops: Communication > Technologies and the Paradox of Privacy" > > 12:00 p.m.-1:00 p.m.: Lunch > > 1:00 p.m.-2:15 p.m.: Roundtable 3: Doing History: New Media > Historiography, and the History of History > Historiography-understood as the methods of history and > as the history of history-is of particular importance to those who > take an historical approach to new media. How do new media-as > storage tools and as analytic devices-intersect with the methods we > use to do media history? And what methodological adjustments can we > see in new media research? > Jaako Suominen, "Gaming Legacy?: Four Approaches to the > Relation Between > Cultural Heritage and Digital Technology" > Mark Brewin, "A History of the History of Objectivity" > Simon Popple & David E. Morrison, "Opening the Archive: The > BBC, New Media, > and Media History" > Meghan Dougherty, Jamaica Jones, and Steven M. Schneider, > "911 at 10: > Collaboration across Fields to Challenge Formats for > New Media History" > Michael Dick, "Writing a Prologue for 'Web Science': > Situating an Evolving > Discipline-and the New Media at its Core-Within > Determinist- Constructivist Discourse and Medium > Theory" > Jan Fernback, "Knowledge Capital, ICTs, and the Academic > Community" > > 2:15 p.m.-2:30 p.m.: Break. > > 2:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m.: Keynote address by speaker TBA > > 3:30 p.m.-3:45 p.m.: Break. > > 3:45 p.m.-5:00 p.m.: Roundtable 4: Historicizing New Media: > Applying Historical Approaches to New Media Practice > The future assumes numerous forms in media practice. The > idea of the future-and the sense of possibility and flexibility that > often comes with it-is of particular importance to new media > practice. The papers collected here address the ideas of emergence > and flexibility as they relate to new media. > > Holly Kruse, "Internet Gambling and the Changing Meanings of > Domestic Space" > Charles van den Heuvel, "Web 2.0 and the Semantic Web in > Research from a > Historical Perspective: The Designs of Paul Otlet > (1868-1944) for Telecommunication and Machine > Readable Documentation to Organize Research and > Society" > Stephanie Schulte, "Blogging into the Future: The Internet > as Unmediated Proxy > of the Self" > Deb Aikat, "Digitally Inspired: Classic Concepts, Texts and > the Pioneers Who > Shaped the Evolution of Computing in 1833-1945" > Carolyn Kane, "Digital Art and Experimental Color Systems at > Bell Laboratories, > 1965-1984: Restoring Interdisciplinary Innovations > and Color Systems to Media History" > Patricia T. Whalen, "The Tipping Point for Newspapers: A > Snapshot of an Industry > in Denial" > > 5:00 p.m.-6:30 p.m.: Closing Reception, featuring guided visit to > the Electronic Visualization Laboratory. > Though space for the EVL tours may be limited, there > will be a chance for groups of approximately 25 attendees to take > this tour sequentially. > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/attachments/20090403/e4a58bfa/attachment-0001.htm From thaigh at computer.org Fri Apr 10 16:02:00 2009 From: thaigh at computer.org (Thomas Haigh) Date: Fri, 10 Apr 2009 15:02:00 -0500 Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Reminder - SIGCIS list has a DIGEST option. Message-ID: <001301c9ba17$363cfaf0$a2b6f0d0$@org> Hello everyone, We now have more than two hundred people on the list, not all of whom have history of computing as their primary interest. So if you like to stay in the loop but don't want to have your e-mail box filled with too much SIGCIS material you might consider the Digest subscription mode. This will consolidate all list messages from a day into a single email for you to read when convenient. (The downside: you have to look inside the message to see the subject headings). While the list is generally pretty quiet, we do sometimes have flurries of email when discussion breaks out. (Just a reminder -- anyone on this list is able to post directly by sending a message from the address at which they receive SIGCIS messages to members at sigcis.org. For the acceptable use policy see http://www.sigcis.org/?q=node/14). To set digest mode, go to http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members and scroll down to the "Members Subscribers" section at the bottom of the page. Enter your email address in bottom field and click the adjacent "Unsubscribe or edit options" button. The system will then prompt you for the password you were provided when you subscribed (or when we shifted hosting to sigcis.org). That e-mail was titled "Welcome to the 'Members' mailing list." If you forgot or cannot find your password, click the "Remind" button at the bottom of the same login page. You will promptly receive your password via e-mail. After logging in, you will be able to change your subscriber options. To enable digest mode, scroll down to "Set Digest Mode" and set it to "On." Then scroll down further to the bottom of the page and click "Submit My Changes." Also don't forget that that you can catch up with the list archives at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/. It's great to see traffic on the list, but I wouldn't want anyone to be scared away. Tom From bbl4 at btinternet.com Fri Apr 17 15:39:54 2009 From: bbl4 at btinternet.com (Bernardo Batiz-Lazo) Date: Fri, 17 Apr 2009 19:39:54 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] ATM research feature In-Reply-To: <439DB4BD66E08F40903F804806A77AB3A61734A497@EXC-MBX1.cfs.le.ac.uk> References: <439DB4BD66E08F40903F804806A77AB3A61734A497@EXC-MBX1.cfs.le.ac.uk> Message-ID: <372865.51318.qm@web86608.mail.ird.yahoo.com> Dear friends A recent article in our in-house magazine http://www2.le.ac.uk/ebulletin/features/2000-2009/2009/04/nparticle.2009-04-17.5659164097 Kind regards, Bernardo Senior Lecturer in Business and Accounting History School of Management University of Leicester Tel: 0116 252 5647 Email: b.batiz-lazo at le.ac.uk Times Higher Education University of the Year 2008/09 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/attachments/20090417/8546602e/attachment.html From bbl4 at btinternet.com Sat Apr 18 11:56:32 2009 From: bbl4 at btinternet.com (Bernardo Batiz-Lazo) Date: Sat, 18 Apr 2009 15:56:32 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Contemporary history on the Web today Message-ID: <580260.29947.qm@web86605.mail.ird.yahoo.com> Might be of interest - Bernardo (University of Leicester) The University of Luxembourg (Master's in Contemporary European History) and the Virtual Resource Centre for Knowledge about Europe (CVCE) are organising a Symposium to be held in October 2009, whose theme will be 'Contemporary history in the digital age'. The use of the computer and Internet in the methods, techniques and work of historians is coming under ever-wider examination. However, contemporary history as a subject has remained relatively detached from the use of digital applications for academic purposes ? excepting word processing and electronic mail ? and from those methodological studies linked to it. Nonetheless, information and communication technologies can offer a number of possibilities to contemporary history studies in terms of publication, the collection of primary and secondary sources, networking, data visualisation, etc., not to forget that the Web is itself becoming an archive. The application of digital technology to the study of contemporary history is therefore destined to increase, and our discipline certain to change drastically with it. This Symposium will focus on a simple question, but one offering complex answers: 'Will the Web provide us with a better understanding of history?' The Symposium will bring together contributions and workshop activities in three areas: 1. Contemporary history on the Web today: resources and tools; 2. Contemporary history on the Web today: methods and writing; 3. Contemporary history on the Web tomorrow: 'what will be the future digital environment for researchers in contemporary history?' Download the call for contributions. Deadline for application: 30 May 2009. Website: http://symposium.cvce.lu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/attachments/20090418/b6632b98/attachment.htm From evan at snarc.net Mon Apr 20 18:29:07 2009 From: evan at snarc.net (Evan Koblentz) Date: Mon, 20 Apr 2009 18:29:07 -0400 Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Vacuum Tube Development Committee Message-ID: <49ECF733.8070900@snarc.net> Last week I visited Harvard's archives of the Radio Research Lab, and found some meeting minutes of the Vacuum Tube Development Committee (1943-1945 timeframe) .... I can't find much online that nicely summarizes this committee and its activity / purpose. Can someone here point me to a good overview? From evan at snarc.net Tue Apr 21 07:34:22 2009 From: evan at snarc.net (Evan Koblentz) Date: Tue, 21 Apr 2009 07:34:22 -0400 Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Martin Weik? Message-ID: <49EDAF3E.2070703@snarc.net> I recently read some of Martin Weik's reports on early computing in the military. Is it possible to reach him? I've been unsuccessful so far in my quest to learn the details of ENIAC's move from Penn to Aberdeen, and have exhausted most resources. (Although I have not yet visited the NARA archives at College Park, Md. where there may be Project PX / ENIAC documents.) I suspect that Weik, if accessible, can answer some of my questions. From grier at gwu.edu Tue Apr 21 09:57:10 2009 From: grier at gwu.edu (grier) Date: Tue, 21 Apr 2009 09:57:10 -0400 Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Martin Weik? In-Reply-To: <49EDAF3E.2070703@snarc.net> References: <49EDAF3E.2070703@snarc.net> Message-ID: <235A7558-2112-49CE-8E53-DA2D95A8E825@gwu.edu> Evan, There was an article in the Annals about ENIAC's move to Aberdeen, though it dealt less with the issue of the move itself than the reconfiguration of the machine. It was by Hans Neukom and was entitled "Second Life of ENIAC". It was in the October 2007 issue. The records of the Aberdeen Proving Ground are actually in the Philadelphia office of NARA. They are in a bit of a mess but they do contain more of the day to day operations of the machine and hence may have more material on the move. (They have a card index file that promises to have a tremendous amount of information but it is badly scrambled and nearly impossible to use.) The Smithsonian has the log book, or at least the parts that survive in public hands. And you are right, the Army's central records on the project at at NARA. David On Apr 21, 2009, at 7:34 AM, Evan Koblentz wrote: > I recently read some of Martin Weik's reports on early computing in > the > military. Is it possible to reach him? > > I've been unsuccessful so far in my quest to learn the details of > ENIAC's move from Penn to Aberdeen, and have exhausted most resources. > (Although I have not yet visited the NARA archives at College Park, > Md. > where there may be Project PX / ENIAC documents.) > > I suspect that Weik, if accessible, can answer some of my questions. > _______________________________________________ > This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion > list of SHOT SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/ > and you can change your subscription options at http://sigcis.org/mailman/listinfo/members From evan at snarc.net Mon Apr 27 01:06:35 2009 From: evan at snarc.net (Evan Koblentz) Date: Mon, 27 Apr 2009 01:06:35 -0400 Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Slightly off-topic: question about writing books.... Message-ID: <49F53D5B.60904@snarc.net> I have a question about how to write history. I hope it's not inappropriate or too elementary to ask here. The vast majority of my writing is hard news and feature articles for technology trade magazines using AP style. So it's very difficult for me to break the habit of writing "he said" (or similar) after most sentences. But as I write the manuscript for my first computer history book, I'm encountering situations where that is clearly not the best approach, because it interrupts the flow of the story. How do those of you who write computer history books handle the attribution when telling a never-before-told story? Put another way, what are good ways to footnote a whole paragraph or section without littering the page? The manuscript is full of what I can't help calling "scoops" because the journalistic approach is all I know how to do, so I feel it's necessary to cite the source of everything before readers question why they haven't heard these stories before. Quite frankly, it's important to me that what I publish is considered credible by SIGCIS members! :) Thanks in advance -- - Evan