From Brian.Randell at ncl.ac.uk  Thu Oct  1 11:26:33 2009
From: Brian.Randell at ncl.ac.uk (Brian Randell)
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 2009 16:26:33 +0100
Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Fwd: [ATY] Alan Turing Year news
Message-ID: <a0624080dc6ea79bcc2e1@[10.8.146.206]>

Hi:

Apologies if you all already know about the Alan Turing Year mailing 
list, and for any duplicate postings, but I thought I'd forward this 
message just in case.

cheers

Brian Randell

-----


>Many thanks to you all for signing up to the Alan Turing Year mailing list.
>
>_________________
>
>Just to reassure you, and anyone else you recommend to join the 
>list, here is how we mean to use it:
>
>1) We will not share this list with anyone else!
>
>2) We will be very glad to distribute your news and information 
>relevant to Turing, the 2012 centenary, or other Turing-related 
>issues and events.
>
>3) Emailings will be very simple, and not too frequent - we will try 
>not to trigger your spam filters or overfill your inbox. As far as 
>possible we will point to places on the web for full information and 
>nicer presentations of news. The Alan Turing Year Webpage will be 
>updated regulary:
>
>http://www.turingcentenary.eu/
>
>You can find there a list of useful links, including a "Turing 
>resource" page for those thinking of organising events.
>
>4) 2012 is going to be a fantastic year of Turing celebrations, and 
>for that we want ATY list-members to add to the buzz, and actual 
>organisation of activities leading up to the centenary. Let us know 
>if you need help, or want us to publicise your activities.
>
>Please do add the attached Alan Turing Year logo to your webpage. If 
>you want to link it to the ATY homepage, you could just copy this 
>into your html file:
>
><A HREF="http://www.turingcentenary.eu/"><IMG 
>SRC="http://www.amsta.leeds.ac.uk/~pmt6sbc/images/ATY.logo.126x100.jpg" 
>Height="100" Width="126"
>vspace=2 border=1 hspace=2 alt="ATYlogo" align="right"></A>
>
>_________________
>
>Today's great news is that Bletchley Park, where Turing did 
>groundbreaking cryptographic work anticipating early computer 
>development, may finally be getting the funding it needs - it's in 
>much of the UK press today, see:
>
>http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/news/docview.rhtm/592098
>
>The Bletchley Park press release quotes Stephen Fry very rightly 
>talking about this, and the "Prime Minister's apology on behalf of 
>the nation to Alan Turing last month", as just first steps in 
>getting proper acknowledgement for Turing and his historical role.
>
>Of course, the build-up to the Alan Turing Year fits in beautifully 
>with such developments. The growth in awareness of and public 
>support for all things Turing-related can bring tremendous benefits 
>- scientific, educational, cultural, social ...  A three-year window 
>of opportunity!
>
>All best wishes
>
>Barry Cooper
>for the Turing Centenary Advisory Committee (TCAC)
>
>__________________________________________________________________________
>  ALAN TURING YEAR                           http://www.turingcentenary.eu
>_________________
>  Prof S Barry Cooper      Tel: UK: (0113) 343 5165, Int: +44 113 343 5165
>  School of Mathematics    Fax: UK: (0113) 343 5090,  Int: +44 113 3435090
>  University of Leeds      Email: pmt6sbc at leeds.ac.uk, Mobile: 07590602104
>  Leeds LS2 9JT            Home tel: (0113) 278 2586, Int: +44 113 2782586
>  U.K.                     WWW: http://www.amsta.leeds.ac.uk/~pmt6sbc
>__________________________________________________________________________
>
>
>Content-Type: IMAGE/JPEG; NAME=ATY.logo.126x100.jpg
>Content-ID: <Pine.GSO.4.64.0909291346020.4824 at amsta>
>Content-Description:
>Content-Disposition: ATTACHMENT; FILENAME=ATY.logo.126x100.jpg
>


-- 
School of Computing Science, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne,
NE1 7RU, UK
EMAIL = Brian.Randell at ncl.ac.uk   PHONE = +44 191 222 7923
FAX = +44 191 222 8232  URL = http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/people/brian.randell
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From thaigh at computer.org  Thu Oct  1 15:36:50 2009
From: thaigh at computer.org (Thomas Haigh)
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 2009 14:36:50 -0500
Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] FW: Business History Conference Proposal Deadline
	Extended/October 10, 2009
Message-ID: <005701ca42ce$868352d0$9389f870$@org>

I send a previous announcement on this conference,
http://sigcis.org/pipermail/members/2009-September/000229.html. Note that
the deadline has been extended. I did not hear any interest in organizing a
SIGCIS panel, but it is still not too late.

 

Tom

 

From: Carol Lockman [mailto:clockman at Hagley.org] 
Sent: Monday, September 28, 2009 1:12 PM
To: Carol Lockman
Subject: BHC Proposal Deadline Extended/October 10, 2009

 

 

 

 

PROPOSAL DEADLINE EXTENDED UNTIL OCTOBER 10 FOR THE

Business History Conference Annual Meeting in Athens, Georgia, 25-27 March
2010,

"The Business History of Everything"

 

The deadline for receipt of all paper, panel and dissertation competition
proposals now is 10 October 2009.  The call for papers may be seen at
<http://www.thebhc.org/annmeet/call2010.html>
www.thebhc.org/annmeet/call2010.html.  Please send all proposals to
BHC2010 at Hagley.org.

 

Carol Ressler Lockman

BHC

Hagley Center

PO Box 3630

Wilmington DE  19807

Email:  clockman at hagley.org

Phone:  302-658-2400, x243

 

 

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From akeraa at rpi.edu  Thu Oct  1 20:11:03 2009
From: akeraa at rpi.edu (Atsushi Akera)
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 2009 20:11:03 -0400
Subject: [SIGCIS-Members]  Housing @ SHOT
In-Reply-To: <1637854CF482594C98D4ADA40F0FCC7A0EA47BF8CF@iu-mssg-mbx01.ads.iu.edu>
References: <p0611041fc686626c9736@[10.0.1.65]>
	<1637854CF482594C98D4ADA40F0FCC7A0EA47BF8CF@iu-mssg-mbx01.ads.iu.edu>
Message-ID: <005d01ca42f4$de2635e0$9a72a1a0$@edu>

Say, if anyone in SIG-CIS is interested in sharing a room to reduce the
costs of attending SHOT, feel free to let me know. I'll be happy to match
folks. (Please indicate what dates you will be staying / already have a room
booked for.)

Best wishes,

- Atsushi

=====================================
Atsushi Akera
Associate Professor, Department of Science and Technology Studies
Director, First Year Studies Program--Sage 5206
Rensselaer Polytechnic institute
110 8th Street
Troy, NY 12180  USA
ph: 518.279.9708/fx:518.276-2659/e:akeraa at rpi.edu /w:
http://www.rpi.edu/~akeraa

-----Original Message-----
From: members-bounces at sigcis.org [mailto:members-bounces at sigcis.org] On
Behalf Of Medina, Eden
Sent: Friday, July 17, 2009 1:38 PM
To: members at sigcis.org
Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] computers and management science

I knew this was the right group to ask.  

I too agree with the comments being made and thank everyone for their
thoughts on how best to address the claim.  Additional responses can be sent
to me off list unless their is extensive interest in this topic.  To bring
some closure to the topic I may have found a very easy way to address Beer's
statement.  It seems that the Pegasus machine he referred to was split
between United Steel and Sheffield University, thus throwing into doubt
claims that it was entirely dedicated to management science. 

Again, thanks for the help. 

Eden

________________________________________
From: Joel West [joelwest at ieee.org]
Sent: Friday, July 17, 2009 1:17 PM
To: Medina, Eden; members at sigcis.org
Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] computers and management science

Dear Eden,

I share many of Gerard's concerns about the unmeasurability of such claims
and even how dubious making them might be. (I also agree with Tom that
"management science" is too vague -- does he possibly mean operations
research?)

However, as a positivist (are there any others on this list?) I am inclined
to take the claim at face value and see what they might mean.

So while "first" is likely unprovable, I do think it would be interesting to
say "most computers were bought to do payroll or missile trajectories and
this one was bought to do management science." I suspect it would be
relatively easy to document the "typical" motivation or application for
computers in the era, even if the actual use (post hoc) is not easily
measured. (Ideally, you'd want a list of who had login accounts, and if
necessary assume each used their account proportionately).

But in some ways, the inputs question is less interesting than the outputs
question. If Beer was the first boy in the invisible college of his
discipline to have a new toy, what did he do with it? Is there any evidence
that this strategic foresight (or dumb luck) enabled him to advance his
field in ways that his less-endowed rivals could not?

I would find it terribly interesting if Beer has the best computing power
but the major advances in numerical approaches to management science were
being made elsewhere. IIRC, the field's major scientific prize (originally
from ORSA, now INFORMS) is named after a mathematician who made his most
important contributions before these sorts of computers existed.

Joel


On 6:25 PM +0200 7/17/09, Alberts, G. hath said:
>What in heaven would be the purport of such claim? Computers were not only
expensive, they involved major investments, certainly machines the size of
Pegasus. Hence, the legitimation for making such investment was seldomly
based on the single use for one field of application, or rather for one
department in an enterprise or university. Historians usually can trace the
considerations leading to the actual purchase in the company archives. Also
one may be able to guess where (in which subdepartment) the first initiative
to such deep investment in modernizing business originated.
>How the machine was in fact used, once installed, is much harder to
reconstruct. Did the administrative support staff actually get to use the
computer or were they pushed out by the scientific computers from the
laboratory departments. Were management scientists favored before the
statisticians and the down to earth daily bookkeeping? In the incidental
case where a logbook is preserved, or where a very early computing center
kept statistics, one may be able to tell something about who was using the
machine.
>So, what could be the meaning of "dedicated to"? Was that "dedicated" on
the level of legitimation of the purchase, or was it "dedicated" in terms of
seconds and minutes of use of the system? Let alone that we could judge the
claim of "entirely" or even "first".
>
>Rather, to us historians being aware of inclusion and exclusion mechanisms
around the use of computers, simply power struggles if you will, the claim
of "dedicated entirely" made in a first person account has a clear intent.
Other users, other interested parties, were succesfully made invisible, at
least in the account of the "management science" department. Probably
bookkkeeping use didnot count, or was counted under management science in
the first place, etcetera.
>
>Rather than investigating the claim, my suggestion would be to investigate
the fact that such claim was made, when and by whom.


On 11:11 AM -0400 7/17/09, Medina, Eden wrote:
>I am hoping that your collective wisdom might help me check out a claim.
The British cybernetician Stafford Beer claims that the Ferranti Pegasus 1
machine he bought in 1956 was the only computer at that time dedicated
entirely to applications in management science.  Do you know of any other
examples of computers fully dedicated to management science applications
during this time period?

--
Joel West, Ph.D.          http://www.JoelWest.org/
Professor, Innovation & Entrepreneurship
College of Business, San Jose State University
BT 555, One Washington Square, San Jose, CA 95192-0070
_______________________________________________
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 tangjd at jmu.edu  Thu Oct  1 23:20:09 2009
From: tangjd at jmu.edu (Jeffrey D. Tang)
Date: Thu,  1 Oct 2009 23:20:09 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Last Chance for SIGCIS Workshop Sign-up
Message-ID: <20091001232009.BQE82073@mpmail2.jmu.edu>

SIGCIS members,

This is a final reminder about the first SIGCIS Workshop, to be held Sunday, October 18 in Pittsburgh, PA at the SHOT conference hotel.  We have a full and exciting program covering a range of topics in the history of computing (http://www.sigcis.org/files/SIGCIS%202009%20Workshop%20Schedule%20--%202009-09-11.pdf).  Registration for the SIGCIS workshop has no additional charge beyond that for the main SHOT meeting.

If you want to attend but haven't yet registered, please e-mail me at secretary at sigcis.org as soon as possible.  Also, please indicate whether you would like to join us for informal meals at local restaurants on Sunday (indicate lunch, dinner, or both, along with any preferences for style of restaurant and price range) and whether you will be present for afternoon coffee.

The SIGCIS Workshop is technically part of the SHOT meeting, so if you haven't registered for the main SHOT conference you will need to do so.  If you are planning on attending ONLY the SIGCIS Workshop, SHOT is offering a very reasonable $30 one-day rate (ONLY available to those attending for a single day -- all others need the normal, full registration), though this is not listed on SHOT's registration form.  (This one-day rate will also be available on-site at the conference.)

We are currently finalizing our arrangements for the Workshop, so if you haven't yet registered but want to do so, please let me know ASAP.

We look forward to seeing many of you in Pittsburgh.

Cheers,
Jeffrey Tang
SIGCIS Secretary

***************************************
Dr. Jeffrey Tang
Asst. Prof. of Integrated Science and Technology (ISAT)
Coordinator, Minor in Science, Technology, and Society
James Madison University
800 South Main St.     MSC 4102     Harrisonburg, VA  22807
Phone: 540-568-2758     E-mail: tangjd at jmu.edu

From petpaju at utu.fi  Mon Oct  5 04:40:00 2009
From: petpaju at utu.fi (Petri Paju)
Date: Mon, 05 Oct 2009 11:40:00 +0300
Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] A new Scandinavian collection on IT history is out!
Message-ID: <4AC9B0E0.1090607@utu.fi>


Hi all,

Springer (Boston) just now published the second Nordic IT history 
conference book:

Impagliazzo, John & J?rvi, Timo & Paju, Petri (Eds.): History of Nordic 
Computing 2. Second IFIP WG 9.7 Conference, HiNC2, Turku, Finland, 
August 21-23, 2007, Revised Selected Papers. IFIP Advances in 
Information and Communication Technology 303. Springer, Boston 2009.

http://www.springerlink.com/content/978-3-642-03756-6.
(there's a link to an electronic version, too)

About the content:
the meeting focus was on applications and the years 1960-1980.  Authors 
include IT professionals, historians, and also some others, such as 
sociologists and a language specialist.

Here are some contributions (of which there are over 30 in total):

?Organizing the History of Computing
?Lessons Learned? at the Charles Babbage Institute? (by Thomas J. Misa)

?Provisioning of Safe Train Control in Nordic Countries?  (Harold ?Bud? 
Lawson)

?Computing and Computer Science in the Soviet Baltic Region? (Enn Tyugu)


?FORTRAN II ? The First Computer Language Used at the University of 
Iceland?  (Oddur Benediktsson)

?Computerized Typesetting and Other New Applications in a Publishing 
House? (Timo J?rvi)

?Lexicography for IBM : Developing Norwegian Linguistic Resources in the 
1980s? (Jan Engh)


Best regards,

Petri


PS. A next conference, HiNC3, is also planned for October 2010 in 
Stockholm, Sweden. More information to come on that later.


-- 
Petri Paju, FT, tutkija, Turun yliopisto
-- Ph.D. Researcher, Univ. of Turku
http://users.utu.fi/petpaju/

From petpaju at utu.fi  Tue Oct  6 04:25:37 2009
From: petpaju at utu.fi (Petri Paju)
Date: Tue, 06 Oct 2009 11:25:37 +0300
Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] A Favor to Each Other
In-Reply-To: <OFDB3A0BF7.A426A8A4-ON86257640.005C04F9-86257640.005E0B6C@us.ibm.com>
References: <000001c9838d$850fea90$0301a8c0@evan>
	<OF84AC3620.309BC094-ON8625754F.0053AE0E-8625754F.00540DF0@us.ibm.com>
	<498489AC.3020204@umn.edu> <alpine.WNT.1.00.0901311327480.4516@Tabatha>
	<8bc235380901311249u26f384ccyd77b7f1347384378@mail.gmail.com>
	<OFEF8B206F.DB85FB71-ON862575CE.005A5278-862575CE.005AB777@us.ibm.com>
	<153B413D3A9E054784CC218A3E719A51A65F12@kwek.ic.uva.nl>
	<63484.62.158.101.233.1244540136.squirrel@mail.deutsches-museum.de>
	<OFDB3A0BF7.A426A8A4-ON86257640.005C04F9-86257640.005E0B6C@us.ibm.com>
Message-ID: <4ACAFF01.50104@utu.fi>



I think I had an idea when responding to Jim on this issue of sharing 
bookshop information. Unfortunately I don't know any such (one) good 
bookshop to recommend for Finland (or alas, any other European country). 
Second hand bookshops (also on the net) might have something, but 
usually they don't (in Finland). Bookfinder.com is handy (first aid) for 
the big language & cultural areas in Europe.

But there's a second alternative: The public university libraries are by 
far the best sources and they loan books or deliver copies for a fee.

See (for Univ. of Turku)
http://kirjasto.utu.fi/en/borrowing/ill/index.html

Typically it's a big help to have a native speaker locating the 
materials from the databases, but it can be done without also.

Following this idea, maybe in addition to (or to replace) bookshops we 
should ask for the best (national/local) databases / univ. libraries (as 
these differ a lot) to turn to for each country?


For example, here's the national bibliography for Finland:
https://fennica.linneanet.fi/

There one can find just about anything published here. But the services 
are not that good and one needs to go to a regular univ. library for 
copying service:

For the IT history materials in Finland, the above mentioned is as good 
as any: http://kirjasto.utu.fi/en/


Sweden also has a nice national catalog: http://libris.kb.se/

Here's how to get the books: 
http://librishelp.libris.kb.se/help/getit_eng.jsp?open=getit

Best,

Petri




James Cortada wrote:
> Over the past 2 years I have been acquiring books and other publications 
> concerning the history of ICT from around the world, not just about the 
> USA, GB, and Japan as many of us have already done. And in the process 
> have had enormous difficulty in finding materials for all the usual 
> reasons: lack of bibliographies, lack of ISBN numbers, ignorance about 
> which book dealers to go to etc. When I find materials, it is often by 
> accident--clearly not a good way to gather materials. It seems that 
> every time I go to a new country on business, I discover materials that 
> are not listed in the normal places; recently while in Switzerland, I 
> came across a book on the history of IT in Swiss railroads, another on 
> Swiss banking, and heard of a book being published later this year on 
> the history of Swiss ICT.
> 
> *I would like to ask my colleagues if we each could share with everyone 
> else the names, addresses, and Internet location of the book stores in 
> your country that you find the most reliable for purchasing old and new 
> materials on the history of ICT.* I would be happy with one per country 
> where, for example, if I wanted all the key works on Finish or Polish 
> computing I could reach out to a book dealer, knowing that he or she 
> would find most if not all the materials. One per country would be 
> fantastic. And if we could collect enough names, perhaps we could find a 
> place to keep the list, such as at the CBI website. All of Europe, Latin 
> America and Asia need to be covered, regardless in what languages 
> publications appear.
> 
> As an example of the problem, we all are familiar with Simon Nora and 
> Alain Minc's 1978 report to the French Government on ICT; the one volume 
> was translated into English by MIT, and it also appeared in Spanish and 
> German. But I could not find the full set of 5 volumes that the French 
> government published originally here in the US or in by chance visiting 
> book shops in Paris until one day by accident I found the full set and 
> in reading that set, I uncovered a considerable amount of useful 
> information about ICT in countries not discussed in the one volume 
> summary that everyone has seen. These kinds of materials have to be 
> rescued, and used.
> 
> I feel a sense of urgency about this because I am now focusing on the 
> global history of ICT and find that the American university libraries 
> are missing a great many items and they are not showing up in the usual 
> Internet websites, such as abebooks.com, Alibris, etc. in sufficient 
> amounts. So I have to build my own collection. Furthermore, I would like 
> to build up a nice collection that, when I am finished with my research, 
> I can donate to CBI.
> 
> Thanks in advance for your help to me and to each other,
> 
> 
> Dr. Jim (James) W. Cortada
> IBM Institute for Business Value
> 2917 Irvington Way
> Madison, WI 53713 USA
> jwcorta at us.ibm.com
> 608-270-4462
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> _______________________________________________
> 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


-- 
Petri Paju, FT, tutkija, Turun yliopisto
-- Ph.D. Researcher, Univ. of Turku
http://users.utu.fi/petpaju/

From bbatiz64 at googlemail.com  Tue Oct 13 07:34:08 2009
From: bbatiz64 at googlemail.com (Bernardo Batiz-Lazo)
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:34:08 +0100
Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Two good recent TV programmes on the history of
	computing that are worth viewing.
Message-ID: <c9467610910130434k2d464286x1fc82a6105c08726@mail.gmail.com>

A heads up to Ken Tennet's Blog (he is part of the Business History
Unit at the London School of Economics):

http://kdtennent.blogspot.com/2009/10/recent-business-history-on-bbc.html

He comments on two recent tv programs on the history of computing. Not
sure if everyone will be able to download and play.But at least you
can get an idea from Ken and if really keen, then ask for a copy for
your uni's library.

You can keep up with Ken via Facebook.

Best,
Bernardo
University of Leicester

From neil.barton at uclmail.net  Tue Oct 13 12:25:45 2009
From: neil.barton at uclmail.net (Roger Neil Barton)
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:25:45 +0100
Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Two good recent TV programmes on the history
	ofcomputing that are worth viewing.
References: <c9467610910130434k2d464286x1fc82a6105c08726@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <1A9A014FFC9A4C7DB797D3F28AED3B14@GreyBox>

IMHO the Bob Noyce telebio last night was as brilliant as the other 
programmes in the series in the series were terrible.  In fact most lasted 
only a few minutes before I switched off and I missed the second (or more if 
there were more) part of the drama about Sinclair and Acorn.

In Ken Tennet's blog he talks about "Acorn's descent into financial 
difficulty as the bank happily gives the company bigger loans for expansion, 
and it carries out an ill-advised stock exchange flotation."  Acorn was not 
a client and I didn't do the float but I did organise and host a conference 
('84 or 85?), on the paperless office (ha ha), at the NCC in Manchester to 
which I invited Acorn.  I don't remember now but Acorn were represented 
either by Chris Curry or Herman Hauser.  It was required by Stock Exchange 
rules then, and is legally obligatory now, not to make any statement that 
provides new information to the market without a formal statement to the 
Stock Exchange.  The Acorn presentation included the jaw dropping news that 
sales were down some massive number and that the company would miss 
expectations by miles.  By the end of the immediately following coffee break 
the share price had collapsed and they hurriedly departed.  I'm sorry now I 
didn't persist with the drama but perhaps I'll catch up on the iplayer.

kind regards
neil


Dr Roger Neil Barton
http://www.uclmail.net/~neil.barton/
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bernardo Batiz-Lazo" <bbatiz64 at googlemail.com>
To: <comban at sigcis.org>
Cc: <members at sigcis.org>
Sent: Tuesday, October 13, 2009 12:34 PM
Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Two good recent TV programmes on the history 
ofcomputing that are worth viewing.


>A heads up to Ken Tennet's Blog (he is part of the Business History
> Unit at the London School of Economics):
>
> http://kdtennent.blogspot.com/2009/10/recent-business-history-on-bbc.html
>
> He comments on two recent tv programs on the history of computing. Not
> sure if everyone will be able to download and play.But at least you
> can get an idea from Ken and if really keen, then ask for a copy for
> your uni's library.
>
> You can keep up with Ken via Facebook.
>
> Best,
> Bernardo
> University of Leicester
> _______________________________________________
> 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 G.Alberts at uva.nl  Tue Oct 13 12:53:46 2009
From: G.Alberts at uva.nl (Alberts, G.)
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:53:46 +0200
Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] CHOC 16-17 november, programming the ENIAC etc
References: <153B413D3A9E054784CC218A3E719A51A66236@kwek.ic.uva.nl>
Message-ID: <153B413D3A9E054784CC218A3E719A51A6623D@kwek.ic.uva.nl>

Dear SIGCIS members,
our Amsterdam colloquium has special attraction in November
Gerard Alberts
 

CHOC


Colloquium History of Computing


November 16-17, 2009, UvA Science Park 904, Room C0.110/A1.04


Programming, languages, linguistics and computability


Liesbeth de Mol, Gent

Maarten Bullynck, Paris

Janet Martin-Nielsen, Toronto

Karel van Oudheusden, Amsterdam

will appear in the Colloquium on the History of Computing and amongst them connect such diverging historical subjects as Von Neumann, Lehmer, Chomsky and Dijkstra.

Monday, November 16, 13:00-17:00h


Room C0.110

Liesbeth de Mol, Gent
'Programming the ENIAC before its rewiring. The case of the Lehmers' program'

Maarten Bullynck, Paris
'Curry's study of inverse interpolation on the ENIAC. From a concrete problem to the problem of program composition'

Janet Martin-Nielsen, Toronto
'"It was all connected": Computers and linguistics in postwar America'


Tuesday, November 17, 09:00-13:00h


Room A 1.04

09:00 discussion of ongoing research on "the Algol effort" in Software for Europe (Gerard Alberts, Amsterdam; David Nofre, Amsterdam; Helena Durnova, Brno)

11:00 Karel van Oudheusden, Amsterdam
'The Advent of Recursion & Logic in Computer Science'.


ABSTRACTS


Programming the ENIAC before its rewiring. The case of the Lehmers' program. Liesbeth de Mol, Gent (joint work with M. Bullynck) 

In 1943 John W. Mauchly and Prespert J. Eckert were contracted to build the ENIAC, the first U.S. electronic digital and (basically) general-purpose computer. 
A ``Computations Committee'' was assembled in 1945 to prepare for utilizing the machine after its completion. The Committee consisted of the number theorist D.H. Lehmer, the logician H.B. Curry, the astronomer L.B. Cunningham and the statistician F.L. Alt. Each developed their own test program to be run on the ENIAC after it was first presented to the public at Penn University February 15, 1946. The early (declassified) test programs are unique instances of ``programming'' a machine that had not the kind of logical design we know nowadays as the von Neumann architecture. Any kind of programming language was totally absent.For each new problem, the ENIAC had to be programmed directly and locally, setting the switches on each individual unit, laying the cables to interconnect these units and control the timing and sequencing of the units' operations. In this sense, programming the ENIAC in its original configuration thus came down to ``the design and development of a special-purpose computer out of ENIAC component parts.'' (B. Fritz)
The reconstruction of the early test programs demonstrates the difficulties involved with adapting computations made to human measure for a machine. They show the need for an intermediary language between man and machine. The current reconstruction of D.H. Lehmer's ENIAC program not only discloses the various problems involved with early programming but is furthermore a rare example of programming the non-rewired parallel ENIAC.

Curry's study of inverse interpolation on the ENIAC. From a concrete problem to the problem of program composition. Maarten Bullynck, Paris (joint work with L. De Mol)

As a member of the ENIAC's "Computations Committee" the mathematician and logician Haskell B. Curry from Penn State University devised two programs for the ENIAC, one in cooperation with W. Wyatt and one in cooperation with M. Lotzkin (both in the year 1946). The programs tried to tackle problems of higher order and inverse interpolation. The intricacy of the interpolation routine and the difficulties of putting on the ENIAC spurred Curry to consider the more general problem of how to compose a program from subroutines. Using concepts of the combinatorial logic he had developed in the 1930ies, Curry wrote two internal reports and one short paper on the "composition of programs" (1949-1952). In these texts Curry developed one of the first programming languages ever. However, the language was never implemented and the reports went unnoticed. In this talk we will discuss the development of the more logical technique of program composition out of the concrete problem of wiring the ENIAC as an inverse-interpolation-machine.

"It was all connected": Computers and linguistics in postwar America. Janet Martin-Nielsen, Toronto

As the history of postwar and Cold War human sciences is beginning to attract significant work, so too the history of linguistics is beginning to be explored in-depth. What was in the 1980s a field dominated by Whig interpretations of the rise of Noam Chomsky's linguistics program led to the emergence of revisionist histories in the 1990s and, more recently, to several rich history-of-science-based studies of theoretical linguistics in America. While still arguably the least-investigated of the postwar and Cold War human sciences, linguistics is slowly coming into its own within history of science. Importantly, the study of linguistics in this period provides novel and revealing insight into the history of computers. This talk aims to characterize the portrayal of the history of computers within the history of linguistics, to ascertain the character, role, and status of the computer within the linguistics story, and to pave the way for future work in the history of computers as it relates to linguistics. The talk comprises two main parts: the first part provides an overview of the relationship between computers and linguistics in the postwar and early Cold War period, and the second part identifies and investigates three areas in which computers and linguistics enjoyed an intimate interaction: concepts of scientific explanation, tools and projects, and funding.

 

http://www.science.uva.nl/history-of-computing/object.cfm/96654A68-1321-B0BE-6861EAE8D3413CE4/060460A8-1321-B0BE-A4757BB834A7A184

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From thaigh at computer.org  Wed Oct 14 11:01:21 2009
From: thaigh at computer.org (Thomas Haigh)
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 2009 10:01:21 -0500
Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] SHOT is Almost Upon Us. Reminders, events.
Message-ID: <003601ca4cdf$32a1e850$97e5b8f0$@org>

Hello everyone,

 

SHOT gets underway tomorrow evening in beautiful Pittsburgh. You?ve been
seeing a number of emails over the past few months from Jeff Tang and Joe
November, who have been doing a great job keeping things on track. Below is
a summary of the SIGCIS events planned for the conference, including our
very first SIGCIS Workshop (?Michael Mahoney and the Histories of
Computing(s)?) and the presentation of our Computer History Museum book
prize. There?s also a separate summary of non-SIGCIS panels relevant to the
history of computing. It?s shaping up as another record breaking SHOT in
terms of the volume and quality of history of computing activity.

 

But first, some reminders:

 

1.       If you are coming to the SIG Lunch on Friday and/or to the SIGCIS
Workshop on Sunday, please send Jeff Tang (secretary at sigcis.org) an updated
little biography for inclusion in the conference packet. 

2.       If you are attending the SIGCIS Workshop on Sunday and still did
not yet let Jeff Tang know that you are coming, please email him
(secretary at sigcis.org). If you are not registered for SHOT itself you will
need to buy a $30 one day registration on the door on Sunday. If you are
registered for SHOT there is no additional charge.

3.       The workshop program features two sessions (one works in progress,
one dissertations) with PRECIRCULATED papers. These sessions are at the same
time, so please pick one then read and bring with you the drafts shared by
participants to enable informed discussion. Find them online at
http://www.sigcis.org/?q=workshop09c. 

 

Also a NEWSFLASH regarding food at the workshop on Sunday:

 

If you are attending the workshop, we?ve made our choices for Lunch and
Dinner. These are paid directly to the restaurant. 

 

?         Lunch: Primanti Brothers. A local institution and sandwich shop,
with an extensive seating capacity. Varied menu, which should have something
to suit everyone who can eat bread or doesn?t mind salad.
http://www.primantibros.com/menu/city/marketsquare/ Also very affordable.
Just around the corner from the hotel.

?         Dinner: We are making the journey (20 mins walk or very short
taxi) over the bridge to the beautiful post-industrial Station Square
development. http://www.stationsquare.com/ There?s a great view and bits of
old technology lying around. The reservation is for 7pm at Buca di Beppo
http://www.bucadibeppo.com/ which is a mid priced chain Italian restaurant
specializing in large dishes intended for sharing. It is a nice area for a
drink afterwards if anyone wants one. This choice is actually very
appropriate for our conference theme, as Mike Mahoney had suggested this
chain for our dinner in Minneapolis a few years ago but it was too full to
accept our reservation.

 

Lunch will be informal. For dinner, we could do with a final number to make
sure that everyone has a seat. So please update Jeff if you would now like
to join us for dinner on Sunday or if  there is any other shift in your
previously stated dinner status (No > Yes, Yes >No, Maybe > Yes, etc).  

 

Looking forward to seeing you there.

 

Tom

 

Here are the official SIGCIS events for SHOT:

 

Friday Oct 16

 

?         10am to 10:30am ? ?Meet the SIGs? ? view our amazingly great
poster and meet the SIG officers over coffee in the Balroom Lobby.

?         10:30am to 12:30pm ? Official SIGCIS Panel, Materiality Meets
Practice, Birmingham Room

 

Friday, 10.30 AM-12.30 PM

8. Materiality Meets Practice (SIGCIS Panel)

Birmingham Room

Chair: James W. Cortada (IBM)

Commentator: Gerard Alberts (University of Amsterdam, Netherlands)

Organizer: Thomas Haigh (University of Wisconsin?Milwaukee)

?         Thomas Haigh (University of Wisconsin?Milwaukee): Opening the
Beige Box:

Materiality and the Evolution of the IBM PC, 1981-95

?         Jeffrey Tang (James Madison University): Plug and Play:
Standardized Connectors and

Home Audio Reproduction

?         Allan Olley (University of Toronto, Canada): The Right Job for the
Tools:

Transitioning to the Computer Age

?         David Alan Grier (George Washington University), The Material
Origins of

Virtualization

 

?         12:30-2pm: SIGCIS LUNCH, Sterling?s 1 (Lobby Level, behind
elevators)

o   Informal mingling over pizza

o   Annual Book Auction

o   Presentation of the Computer History Museum Prize

o   Announcements

 

Saturday Oct 17

 

?         Official SIGCIS Panel, 10:30-12:30, Rivers Room

 

37. Paths Not Taken and Paths Retraced in the History of Information
Technology

Rivers Room (SIGCIS Panel)

Chair: Helena Durnova (Technical University of Brno, Czech Republic)

Commentator: Peter Meyer (US Bureau of Labor Statistics)

Organizer: Thomas Haigh (University of Wisconsin?Milwaukee)

?         Jonathan Coopersmith (Texas A&M University): Transmission Error:
Fax, Failure,

and Roads Less Traveled in the History of Technology

?         Paul E. Ceruzzi (National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian
Institution): Manned

Space Flight and Artificial Intelligence: ?Natural? Trajectories of
Technology and their

Implications for Historians

?         Chris McDonald (Princeton University): From Computer Utility to
Time-Sharing:

Politics and Technology in the 1960s American Computer Industry

?         Evan Koblentz (InfoAge Science Center): The Pre-History of
Portable Computers

 

Sunday Oct 18: All Day SIGCIS Workshop!

A Special Workshop on Michael Mahoney and the Histories of Computing(s)

 

9-10.45 AM

Plenary Session

Ft. Pitt Room

?         William Aspray, School of Informatics and Computing, Indiana
University

?         Gerard Alberts, University of Amsterdam

?         Thomas Haigh, School of Information Studies, University of
Wisconsin, Milwaukee

 

10.45-11 AM Coffee Break, East Lobby Concourse

 

11-12.30 PM, Sunday

Traditional Paper Session 1: The Computings of Science

Smithfield Room

Chair: Andrew Russell, Program in History, Stevens Institute of Technology

Commentator: Chigusa Kita, Kansai University

?         Joseph November, Department of History, University of South
Carolina: ?The

Computer as File Cabinet or Oscilloscope: Two Computings of Biomedical
Research?

?         Buhm Soon Park, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and
Technology: ?Chemistry

by Computer: Machines and Ideas for Computational Chemistry?

?         Scott M. Campbell, University of Waterloo: ?Agendas and the
Promise of Computer

Science at the University of Toronto?

 

Traditional Paper Session 2: The Computings of Management

Ft. Pitt Room

Chair: Janet Delve, School of Creative Technologies, University of
Portsmouth

Commentator: William McMillan, Eastern Michigan University

?         Lars Heide, Copenhagen Business School: ?Punched Cards in German
Management of

Resources in the Second World War?

?         David Anderson, University of Portsmouth: ?The Corridors of Power:
Patrick Blackett

and the Political Context of Early British Computing?

?         Jonathan Aylen, Manchester Institute of Innovation Research,
University of

Manchester: ??You?ve got to roll with it?: radical adoption of computers and
changes to

managerial routines at Llanwern steelworks, South Wales?

 

12.30-2 PM Lunch Break. (Head to lobby to walk around the corner to Primanti
Brothers, Market Square location). See below for map.

 

2-4 PM, Sunday

Dissertation Session

Smithfield Room

?         Cristina Turdean, Hagley Program, Department of History,
University of Delaware:

?Reimagining a Gambling Technology: The Digitization of the Slot Machine
(1970-2000)?

?         Christopher McDonald, Princeton University: ?A New Nervous System
of Society: The Technology and Politics of Mass Computer-Communications
Systems?

?         Hansen Hsu, Cornell University: ?Connections between the Software
Crisis and Object-Oriented Programming?

 

Works in Progress

Ft. Pitt Room

Chair and Commentator: Janet Abbate, Science and Technology Studies Program,

Virginia Tech

?         Rebecca Slayton, Stanford University: ?An Evolving Discipline: The
Political Economy of Software Engineering?

?         Pierre Mounier-Kuhn, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique:
?The Emergence of Computing as an Academic Discipline in France?

?         Anker Helms Jorgensen, IT University of Copenhagen: ?History of
User Interfaces to Computers ? A Mahoneyan Perspective?

?         Sten Henriksson, Computer Science Department, Lund University: ?A
brief history of the stack?

 

4-4.15 PM Coffee Break, East Lobby Concourse

 

4.15-5.45 PM, Sunday

Traditional Paper Session 3: Political Institutions in the Histories of
Computings

Smithfield Room

Commentator: Helena Durnov?, Department of Mathematics, Faculty of
Electrical Engineering and Communications, Brno University of Technology

?         Andrew Mamo, ?Computing Societies: Communications Technologies and
Social Science in the Cambridge Project?

?         Stephen Patnode, Temple University: ?The Impact of Computers on
Corporate Paternalism in the Post-war United States?

?         David Nofre, Informatics Institute, University of Amsterdam: ?The
Dutch politics of computing and the limits of international cooperation,
1945-65?

 

Traditional Paper Session 4: Computings as They Rose and Fell

Ft. Pitt Room

Chair: David Hemmendinger, Computer Science Department, Union College

Commentator: Paul Ceruzzi, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian
Institution

?         Dave Goodwin, Birkbeck College, University of London: ?Digital
Equipment Corporation: The mistakes that led to its downfall?

?         Larry Owens, University of Massachusetts Amherst: ?Walking Around
Computerville: The PC and the Encyclopedia of Computer Science, 1976-83?

 

6.30 PM Gather for dinner in the lobby for walk to dinner. (Dinner is 7:00pm
at Buca di Beppo in Station Square) ? see below for map.

 

 

 

Non-SIGCIS Panels Related to History of Computing

 

?         Friday, Oct 16: 8:30-10 am

 

3. Web 2.0 and the History of Technology

Ft. Pitt Room

Chair: Sheldon Hochheiser (IEEE History Center)

Commentator: Thomas J. Misa (Charles Babbage Institute)

Organizers: Michael N. Geselowitz (IEEE History Center) and Thomas J. Misa

(Charles Babbage Institute)

Stephanie H. Crowe (Charles Babbage Institute): Experimenting with Web 2.0
at the

Charles Babbage Institute

Suzanne Fischer (The Henry Ford): The History Museum as Communication
Platform

Michael N. Geselowitz (IEEE History Center): The IEEE Global History Network

5: Operating Technological Networks

Duquesne Room

Includes: Nathan Ensmenger (University of Pennsylvania): From Computer
Operations to

Operating Systems: The Hidden Costs of Business Computing

 

?         Friday, Oct 16, 10:30-12:30

 

9. Technological Shifts

Smithfield Room

Chair & Commentator: Glenn Bugos (NASA Ames Research Center)

Yasushi Sato (National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, Japan): An
Inconspicuous

Giant in the History of Japanese Computing: NTT and its Early Masterwork,
DIPS-1

14. Increasing Women?s Participation in Engineering and Computer Science:

Perspectives from the Field and from History - Roundtable

Rivers Room

Organizer: Jennifer Light (Northwestern University)

Participants: Allan Fisher (Laureate Education, Inc); Janet Abbate,
(Virginia Tech),

Marie Hicks (Duke University), Patricia L. Eng (U.S. Nuclear Regulatory

Commission), Ruth Schwartz Cowan (University of Pennsylvania)

 

?         Saturday, Oct 17, 8:30-10am

 

26. Navigating Virtual and Physical Landscapes: Geocaching, Locative Media,
and

Video Games

Ft. Pitt Room

Chair: Stephen H. Cutcliffe (Lehigh University)

Commentator: Hugh Slotten (University of Otago, New Zealand)

Organizer: Silas Chamberlin (Lehigh University)

Silas Chamberlin A High-Tech Easter Egg Hunt: Geocaching in Historical
Perspective

Nathan Schulman (California Institute of the Arts): Navigating the
Cityscape: Digital

Locative Media in the Modern City

Matthew Schandler (Lehigh University) [Robinson Prize Candidate]: Navigating

Virtual Worlds: Agency and Alternatives in the History of Video Games

 

30. Confrontation and Cooperation in the Cold War (I)

Duquesne Room

Chair & Commentator: Paul Josephson (Colby College)

Helena Durnova (Brno University of Technology, Czech Republic): Computers as
the

messengers of freedom in Soviet bloc countries

Anna Geltzer (Cornell University): Cybernetics without computers? Medical

cybernetics in the USSR

 

?         Saturday, Oct 17, 10:30-12:30

 

35. The Instability of Technological Identities

Benedum Room

Chair & Commentator: Edmund Russell (University of Virginia)

(includes)

Yasuo Deguchi (Kyoto University, Japan) and Chigusa I. Kita (Kansai
University,

Japan): Punched cards from accounting office to laboratory: Eckert and von
Neumann

 

36. Consumer Agency in the History of Technology

Duquesne Room

Chair & Commentator: Karin Zachmann (Deutsches Museum, Germany)

(includes)

Dov Lungu (York University, Canada) and Zbigniew Stachniak (York University,

Canada): The Toronto Region Association of Computer Enthusiasts (1976-85): A
case

study in the evolution of the Computer Hobbyist Movement in Canada

 

38. Robots in Practice

Forbes Room

Chair: Roger D. Launius (National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian
Institution)

Commentator: Lisa Nocks (New Jersey Institute of Technology)

Organizer: Frank Dittmann (Deutsches Museum, Germany)

Hironori Matsuzaki (Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Germany)

[Robinson Prize Candidate]: M.A Humanoid robots and the borders of the
social

world. A cross-cultural analysis between Europe, the USA, and Japan

Ralf Spicker (Deutsches Museum, Germany): Between Science Fiction and

technological concepts: An Overview over the History and (near) Future of
industrial

robots

Catarina Caetano da Rosa (RWTH Aachen University): Can medical robots act?

Frank Dittmann (Deutsches Museum): Service Robots ? The Brownies of

the 21st Century?

 

?         Saturday, Oct 17, 2-3:30pm

 

40. Girls Buy Dresses; Boys Buy Video Games: Gender, Technology, and

Consumption in Twentieth-Century America

Smithfield Room

Chair & Commentator: Regina Lee Blaszczyk

Organizer: Deirdre Clemente (Carnegie Mellon University)

(includes)

Racquel Gonzales (University of Texas at Austin) [Robinson Prize Candidate]:
This

is a Man?s Man?s Man?s World?: The Gendering of Video Games through
Television

Advertising

 

41. Making Technologies Public

Ft. Pitt Room

Chair & Commentator: Alex Roland (Duke University)

Organizer: Jason Young (York University, Canada)

(includes)

Andrew Meade McGee (University of Virginia) [Robinson Prize Candidate]: A
Sort

of Breathing IBM Machine: The Social Security Administration, Publicized

Technology, and Promotion of the Public?s Role in an Information System,
1936-79

 

 

?         Saturday, Oct 17, 4-5:30pm

 

51. Technological History of the ?Third Industrial Revolution?

Benedum Room

Chair & Commentator: Steven Usselman (Georgia Tech)

Co-organizers: Hyungsub Choi (Chemical Heritage Foundation) and Andrew L.

Russell (Stevens Institute of Technology)

(includes)

Hyungsub Choi: The Long Tail of the Third Industrial Revolution: Technology

Platform and Supply Chain Relationships at SEMATECH

 

 

 

Map: How to get to Lunch on Sunday

 



 

Map: How to get to Dinner on Sunday

 



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From thaigh at computer.org  Wed Oct 14 11:12:58 2009
From: thaigh at computer.org (Thomas Haigh)
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 2009 10:12:58 -0500
Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Don't forget the Book Auction! Bring along your
	spare copies.
Message-ID: <003c01ca4ce0$d2c40f10$784c2d30$@org>

Hello everyone,

 

This is a short message, but I didn't want it to get mixed up in all the
detail in my other one.

 

As usual, we will be holding a short auction of book on the history of
computing. Last year we raised a total of $840 at the lunch meeting, between
cash donations and the proceeds of the auction. Many of the books were
donated by MIT Press, but around half came from ordinary SIG members.
Together with our income from other sources this has funded our operations
for the year, allowing us to make four awards of $200 each as supplemental
graduate student travel funding, to subsidize the cost of this year's lunch
for graduate students, to buy coffee for the workshop on Sunday, and to
print the poster SHOT has asked us to provide for the "Meet the SIGs
session."

 

This is a fun event, which lets us build some community spirit, expand our
libraries affordably, and help the development of the field.

 

So please, if you have accumulated spare copies of any relevant books
(review copies, desk copies, author's copies, accidental double purchases)
then squeeze them into your bulging bags and bring them along to the SIGCIS
lunch meeting on Friday. 

 

Deductions to SHOT (i.e. books you give us) are tax deductible for US
residents to the amount allowed by law. 

 

Tom

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From james.sumner at manchester.ac.uk  Fri Oct 16 03:22:02 2009
From: james.sumner at manchester.ac.uk (James Sumner)
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 2009 08:22:02 +0100
Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Two good recent TV programmes on the history
 of computing that are worth viewing.
In-Reply-To: <1A9A014FFC9A4C7DB797D3F28AED3B14@GreyBox>
References: <c9467610910130434k2d464286x1fc82a6105c08726@mail.gmail.com>
	<1A9A014FFC9A4C7DB797D3F28AED3B14@GreyBox>
Message-ID: <4AD81F1A.4000105@manchester.ac.uk>

Thanks to Bernardo for the heads-up, and to Neil for the first-hand 
recollection. The historical material in the BBC4 'Electric Revolution' season 
seems to be attracting a lot of interest: I hope it'll soon be available outside 
the UK.

I thought I would chip in with some thoughts on _Micro Men_, as I research 
(slowly) in this area and have an interest in how technologies, and 
technologists, are portrayed for more general audiences. What fascinated me 
about _Micro Men_ is that it seemed to be two concepts welded together: a broad 
comedy about a caricatured version of Clive Sinclair, and a relatively careful 
attempt to make drama out of techie business history.

I'd be interested to know what others made of this. It seems reasonable to 
assume that the piece was commissioned on the strength of the appeal of a 
favourite national myth (such were Sinclair's triumphs and disasters in the 
1980s that he remains recognisable, I'd guess, to most people in the UK aged 
30+). 'Factual' content in popular broadcast media is almost generally deemed to 
require some sort of sugar-coating: the approach used here arguably has some 
merits over the usual alternative, which is to tell very loud and breathless 
stories about how whatever is under discussion has 'changed the world'.

The melding certainly had its problems. The pure farce scenes (Mensa groupies?) 
jarred with the plot, and the genre-clash was sometimes awkward. I particularly 
noticed the (non-)characterisation of Nigel Searle, who, as MD of Sinclair's 
firm, was perched on the interface between the Comedy Clive material and the 
attempt to portray real industrial developments. Conventional comedy logic would 
require Searle to be a stock henchman; strict representation, on the other hand, 
would have given no obvious grounds to differentiate him from the Acorn people 
with whom the narrative sympathises. In order to fit both halves, the fictional 
Searle became a cipher, relaying messages and influencing nothing. Meanwhile, 
the personalities assigned to the Acorn staff (Hauser as cosmic bluffer; Furber 
and Wilson as dull-and-duller; Curry, very improbably, as wide-eyed everyman) 
were as much inventions as Comedy Clive, and rather less upfront about it.

As to names, places and chronology, however, this was closer to the documented 
evidence than the vast majority of drama-docs. More importantly, there were 
earnest and sometimes very successful attempts to represent an episode in 
technological identity-forming and the trajectories of the businesses involved, 
rather than going down the easy legend-making route. Capital, in this drama, was 
raised not by self-evident visionary brilliance, but by pandering to the bank 
manager's prejudice. There was no hint of the 'lone developer' myth. Tension was 
wrung from overoptimistic sales projections. Above all, the fictional Clive 
Sinclair mirrored his real-life counterpart in rating the microcomputers which 
defined his public identity as a distinctly secondary concern.

It's in the nature of these productions to truncate, telescope and omit. There 
was only one simplification which I found seriously distorting: the virtual 
absence, until the closing scene, of the USA. Sinclair's principal rival from 
around 1982 was not Acorn but Commodore; the ill-fated Acorn Electron was an 
attempt to carve a share of a sector defined as much by Commodore as by 
Sinclair, while the even more ill-fated Sinclair QL was at some level a response 
both to the emerging office dominance of the IBM PC, and to Apple's visible 
commitment to promoting alternatives. Acorn's unreleased business machines, and 
both firms' adventures in the American retail market (via Timex, in Sinclair's 
case) further complicate the tale. Oddly, the show's closing caption -- "The 
home computer market is now dominated by giant American companies" -- presents 
the sloppiest message in the whole production.

Cheers
James


Roger Neil Barton wrote:
 > IMHO the Bob Noyce telebio last night was as brilliant as the other 
programmes in the series in the series were terrible.  In fact most lasted only 
a few minutes before I switched off and I missed the second (or more if there 
were more) part of the drama about Sinclair and Acorn.
 >
 > In Ken Tennet's blog he talks about "Acorn's descent into financial 
difficulty as the bank happily gives the company bigger loans for expansion, and 
it carries out an ill-advised stock exchange flotation."  Acorn was not a client 
and I didn't do the float but I did organise and host a conference ('84 or 85?), 
on the paperless office (ha ha), at the NCC in Manchester to which I invited 
Acorn.  I don't remember now but Acorn were represented either by Chris Curry or 
Herman Hauser.  It was required by Stock Exchange rules then, and is legally 
obligatory now, not to make any statement that provides new information to the 
market without a formal statement to the Stock Exchange.  The Acorn presentation 
included the jaw dropping news that sales were down some massive number and that 
the company would miss expectations by miles.  By the end of the immediately 
following coffee break the share price had collapsed and they hurriedly 
departed.  I'm sorry now I didn't persist with the drama but perhaps I'll catch 
up on the iplayer.
 >
 > kind regards
 > neil
 >
 >
 > Dr Roger Neil Barton
 > http://www.uclmail.net/~neil.barton/
 > ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bernardo Batiz-Lazo" 
<bbatiz64 at googlemail.com>
 > To: <comban at sigcis.org>
 > Cc: <members at sigcis.org>
 > Sent: Tuesday, October 13, 2009 12:34 PM
 > Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Two good recent TV programmes on the history 
ofcomputing that are worth viewing.
 >
 >
 >> A heads up to Ken Tennet's Blog (he is part of the Business History
 >> Unit at the London School of Economics):
 >>
 >> http://kdtennent.blogspot.com/2009/10/recent-business-history-on-bbc.html
 >>
 >> He comments on two recent tv programs on the history of computing. Not
 >> sure if everyone will be able to download and play.But at least you
 >> can get an idea from Ken and if really keen, then ask for a copy for
 >> your uni's library.
 >>
 >> You can keep up with Ken via Facebook.
 >>
 >> Best,
 >> Bernardo
 >> University of Leicester
 >> _______________________________________________
 >> 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
 >>
 >
 > _______________________________________________
 > 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 
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From bbatiz64 at googlemail.com  Sun Oct 18 04:25:12 2009
From: bbatiz64 at googlemail.com (Bernardo Batiz-Lazo)
Date: Sun, 18 Oct 2009 09:25:12 +0100
Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Two good recent TV programmes on the history
	of computing that are worth viewing.
In-Reply-To: <4AD81F1A.4000105@manchester.ac.uk>
References: <c9467610910130434k2d464286x1fc82a6105c08726@mail.gmail.com>
	<1A9A014FFC9A4C7DB797D3F28AED3B14@GreyBox>
	<4AD81F1A.4000105@manchester.ac.uk>
Message-ID: <c9467610910180125n1e70c15lcc620d00e09382de@mail.gmail.com>

Hi James

I think you are spot on regarding -Micro Men-. Little for me to add
which I will do from the perspective of an ex-pat who actually owned a
Timex circa 1980.

_Micro Men_ was indeed in need of a  better introduction which briefly
told about US/IBM dominance and Wilson's 'white heat'.

In my view the combination of comedy and factual in _Micro Men_ seems
to have made their errors and omissions more palatable. Certainly when
compared with claims made in _Podfather_  which positioned Noyce as
Godfather of Sillicon Valley and the digital revolution. I am not
disclaiming Noyce's importance, but a brief browse at Analee
Sexenian's work might have helped to tone down some of their more
outrageous claims (i.e. Noyce single handedly inventing Sillicon
Valley and venture capitalism).

Reducing the genealogy of Fairchild Corp to Apple and Google (when the
producers did try to produce some form genalogy-tree graph) is the
kind of simplistic representation that media people are guilty of time
and again.

It was interesting to see that the industry-university link and
communities of practice (as opposed to the lonely entrepreneur) were
strongly portrayed in _Micro Men_  while they were mute in
_Podfather_.

When comparing both programs I was left wondering the extent to which
their distinctive treats were random or purposeful attempts to cater
to different audiences (with _Micro Men_ for the UK and _Podfather_
for the US).

But in spite of their shortcomings, I did not mind at all ending
Friday and Saturday night with respectively _Micro Men_ and
_Podfather_.

Best
Bernardo

2009/10/16 James Sumner <james.sumner at manchester.ac.uk>:
> Thanks to Bernardo for the heads-up, and to Neil for the first-hand
> recollection. The historical material in the BBC4 'Electric Revolution' season
> seems to be attracting a lot of interest: I hope it'll soon be available outside
> the UK.
>
> I thought I would chip in with some thoughts on _Micro Men_, as I research
> (slowly) in this area and have an interest in how technologies, and
> technologists, are portrayed for more general audiences. What fascinated me
> about _Micro Men_ is that it seemed to be two concepts welded together: a broad
> comedy about a caricatured version of Clive Sinclair, and a relatively careful
> attempt to make drama out of techie business history.
>
> I'd be interested to know what others made of this. It seems reasonable to
> assume that the piece was commissioned on the strength of the appeal of a
> favourite national myth (such were Sinclair's triumphs and disasters in the
> 1980s that he remains recognisable, I'd guess, to most people in the UK aged
> 30+). 'Factual' content in popular broadcast media is almost generally deemed to
> require some sort of sugar-coating: the approach used here arguably has some
> merits over the usual alternative, which is to tell very loud and breathless
> stories about how whatever is under discussion has 'changed the world'.
>
> The melding certainly had its problems. The pure farce scenes (Mensa groupies?)
> jarred with the plot, and the genre-clash was sometimes awkward. I particularly
> noticed the (non-)characterisation of Nigel Searle, who, as MD of Sinclair's
> firm, was perched on the interface between the Comedy Clive material and the
> attempt to portray real industrial developments. Conventional comedy logic would
> require Searle to be a stock henchman; strict representation, on the other hand,
> would have given no obvious grounds to differentiate him from the Acorn people
> with whom the narrative sympathises. In order to fit both halves, the fictional
> Searle became a cipher, relaying messages and influencing nothing. Meanwhile,
> the personalities assigned to the Acorn staff (Hauser as cosmic bluffer; Furber
> and Wilson as dull-and-duller; Curry, very improbably, as wide-eyed everyman)
> were as much inventions as Comedy Clive, and rather less upfront about it.
>
> As to names, places and chronology, however, this was closer to the documented
> evidence than the vast majority of drama-docs. More importantly, there were
> earnest and sometimes very successful attempts to represent an episode in
> technological identity-forming and the trajectories of the businesses involved,
> rather than going down the easy legend-making route. Capital, in this drama, was
> raised not by self-evident visionary brilliance, but by pandering to the bank
> manager's prejudice. There was no hint of the 'lone developer' myth. Tension was
> wrung from overoptimistic sales projections. Above all, the fictional Clive
> Sinclair mirrored his real-life counterpart in rating the microcomputers which
> defined his public identity as a distinctly secondary concern.
>
> It's in the nature of these productions to truncate, telescope and omit. There
> was only one simplification which I found seriously distorting: the virtual
> absence, until the closing scene, of the USA. Sinclair's principal rival from
> around 1982 was not Acorn but Commodore; the ill-fated Acorn Electron was an
> attempt to carve a share of a sector defined as much by Commodore as by
> Sinclair, while the even more ill-fated Sinclair QL was at some level a response
> both to the emerging office dominance of the IBM PC, and to Apple's visible
> commitment to promoting alternatives. Acorn's unreleased business machines, and
> both firms' adventures in the American retail market (via Timex, in Sinclair's
> case) further complicate the tale. Oddly, the show's closing caption -- "The
> home computer market is now dominated by giant American companies" -- presents
> the sloppiest message in the whole production.
>
> Cheers
> James
>
>
> Roger Neil Barton wrote:
> ?> IMHO the Bob Noyce telebio last night was as brilliant as the other
> programmes in the series in the series were terrible. ?In fact most lasted only
> a few minutes before I switched off and I missed the second (or more if there
> were more) part of the drama about Sinclair and Acorn.
> ?>
> ?> In Ken Tennet's blog he talks about "Acorn's descent into financial
> difficulty as the bank happily gives the company bigger loans for expansion, and
> it carries out an ill-advised stock exchange flotation." ?Acorn was not a client
> and I didn't do the float but I did organise and host a conference ('84 or 85?),
> on the paperless office (ha ha), at the NCC in Manchester to which I invited
> Acorn. ?I don't remember now but Acorn were represented either by Chris Curry or
> Herman Hauser. ?It was required by Stock Exchange rules then, and is legally
> obligatory now, not to make any statement that provides new information to the
> market without a formal statement to the Stock Exchange. ?The Acorn presentation
> included the jaw dropping news that sales were down some massive number and that
> the company would miss expectations by miles. ?By the end of the immediately
> following coffee break the share price had collapsed and they hurriedly
> departed. ?I'm sorry now I didn't persist with the drama but perhaps I'll catch
> up on the iplayer.
> ?>
> ?> kind regards
> ?> neil
> ?>
> ?>
> ?> Dr Roger Neil Barton
> ?> http://www.uclmail.net/~neil.barton/
> ?> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bernardo Batiz-Lazo"
> <bbatiz64 at googlemail.com>
> ?> To: <comban at sigcis.org>
> ?> Cc: <members at sigcis.org>
> ?> Sent: Tuesday, October 13, 2009 12:34 PM
> ?> Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Two good recent TV programmes on the history
> ofcomputing that are worth viewing.
> ?>
> ?>
> ?>> A heads up to Ken Tennet's Blog (he is part of the Business History
> ?>> Unit at the London School of Economics):
> ?>>
> ?>> http://kdtennent.blogspot.com/2009/10/recent-business-history-on-bbc.html
> ?>>
> ?>> He comments on two recent tv programs on the history of computing. Not
> ?>> sure if everyone will be able to download and play.But at least you
> ?>> can get an idea from Ken and if really keen, then ask for a copy for
> ?>> your uni's library.
> ?>>
> ?>> You can keep up with Ken via Facebook.
> ?>>
> ?>> Best,
> ?>> Bernardo
> ?>> University of Leicester
> ?>> _______________________________________________
> ?>> 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
> ?>>
> ?>
> ?> _______________________________________________
> ?> 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
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> 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 durnova at feec.vutbr.cz  Mon Oct 19 08:25:12 2009
From: durnova at feec.vutbr.cz (=?utf-8?b?RHVybm92w6E=?= Helena)
Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:25:12 +0200
Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] CfP: 4th ToE plenary conference, June 17-20, 2010,
	Sofia, Bulgaria
Message-ID: <20091019142512.1592769f9skeif1k@email.feec.vutbr.cz>

Dear all,

attached please find the call for proposals for the 4th Tensions of  
Europe plenary conference and the "Inventing Europe" closing  
conference, to be held jointly in Sofia (Bulgaria), June 17-20, 2010.  
(Apologies for cross-posting.)

Best regards,
Helena

-- 
Helena Durnova
durnova at feec.vutbr.cz
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From bbatiz64 at googlemail.com  Wed Oct 21 08:36:36 2009
From: bbatiz64 at googlemail.com (Bernardo Batiz-Lazo)
Date: Wed, 21 Oct 2009 13:36:36 +0100
Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] A Favor to Each Other
In-Reply-To: <4ACAFF01.50104@utu.fi>
References: <000001c9838d$850fea90$0301a8c0@evan>
	<OF84AC3620.309BC094-ON8625754F.0053AE0E-8625754F.00540DF0@us.ibm.com>
	<498489AC.3020204@umn.edu>
	<alpine.WNT.1.00.0901311327480.4516@Tabatha>
	<8bc235380901311249u26f384ccyd77b7f1347384378@mail.gmail.com>
	<OFEF8B206F.DB85FB71-ON862575CE.005A5278-862575CE.005AB777@us.ibm.com>
	<153B413D3A9E054784CC218A3E719A51A65F12@kwek.ic.uva.nl>
	<63484.62.158.101.233.1244540136.squirrel@mail.deutsches-museum.de>
	<OFDB3A0BF7.A426A8A4-ON86257640.005C04F9-86257640.005E0B6C@us.ibm.com>
	<4ACAFF01.50104@utu.fi>
Message-ID: <c9467610910210536h2e65696fi83697f12133eaf7a@mail.gmail.com>

Dear Jim

In my short experience dealing with Mexico leads me to agree with
Petri. Part of the issue is that local production is on a very small
scale (even smaller than in Spain). So it is very hard to find things
if you miss the first time around. Having said that, I've found
"Marcial Pons" in Madrid at delivering stuff (as long as it is in
their catalogue):

http://www.marcialpons.es/

As for history of computing in Mexico, I think the 'Annals' printed a
piece on this failed microcomputer. Tom Haigh and I are working on
something (which is currently on his lap!). The only item I am aware
of which is of some value is

Cantarell, A. and Gonzalez, M. (2002) Historia de la computacion en
Mexico (three volumes), Mexico DF: Hobbiton Ediciones SA

If you then google  "historia de la computacion en mexico" you get a
number of websites at the National University and the Polytecnic. This
is where it seems some body of knowledge is building up.

As for university catalogues:
(Public)

Universidad Nacional Aut?noma de M?xico
+cat?logo general
www.dgbiblio.unam.mx/

+Biblioteca Nacional de M?xico
http://132.248.77.3:8991/F

+Biblioteca de las Americas
http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/portal/bnm/pcuartonivel.jsp?nomportal=bnm&conten=catobras

Instituto Polit?cnico Nacional,
http://azul.bnct.ipn.mx/

(Private)
Instituto Tecnol?gico Aut?nomo de M?xico,
http://hammurabi.itam.mx/F/-/?func=bor-info


Universidad Iberoamericana,
http://www.bib.uia.mx/sitio/

Others include: Universidad Panamericana,  Universidad An?huac,
Universidad An?huac del Sur, Universidad Metropolitana, and Mexico
City and Monterrey campii of the Instituto Tecnol?gico y de Estudios
Superiores de Monterrey.

From pne at umich.edu  Wed Oct 21 09:04:46 2009
From: pne at umich.edu (Paul Edwards)
Date: Wed, 21 Oct 2009 09:04:46 -0400
Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Three faculty positions @ the UM School of
	Information
Message-ID: <CEE777B7-8D49-4E0A-AAA5-34B6E9BEB8D6@umich.edu>

All - none of these is a history of technology or computing job per  
se, but both the open position and the Digital Humanities position  
could be a fit for the right person.

Please forward widely, and publish in journals or newsletters as  
appropriate.

- Paul N. Edwards



Faculty Position Postings
2009-10 Faculty Search Assistant/Associate/Full Professor

The School of Information at the University of Michigan seeks three  
(3) outstanding faculty candidates. One position is open to candidates  
at any level of seniority and in any area that complements and extends  
our existing strengths. The other two candidates are targeted hires  
which are part of the University of Michigan Interdisciplinary Junior  
Faculty Initiative. For each of the targeted hires, other  
collaborating units on campus are also hiring in related areas.

One targeted position is in Digital Environments. For that position,  
we seek someone whose research and teaching interests are at the  
intersection of digital arts and humanities, digital literacies, and  
social computing. Research foci should involve arts and humanities  
scholarship, scholars, or content and can be in a variety of areas,  
such as (but not limited to) virtual collaboration, credibility, and/ 
or digital curation. This position is at the assistant professor level.

A second targeted position is in Information and Communication  
Technology for Development (ICT4D). For that position, we seek someone  
with research and teaching interests including some combination of  
information system design, computer-supported cooperative work,  
environmental informatics, communication studies, development policy  
and sociology, anthropology, and/or a related field applicable to the  
design and study of information systems for developing-world contexts.  
This position is at the assistant professor level.

For the open position, we aspire to establish and reinforce areas of  
excellence and seek faculty whose research interests complement and  
extend our existing strengths. This position is open rank.

For more information or to apply for one of these positions, please  
see the UM School of Information Faculty Position Postings website.






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From thaigh at computer.org  Wed Oct 21 15:30:56 2009
From: thaigh at computer.org (Thomas Haigh)
Date: Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:30:56 -0500
Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Thanks to everyone -- the SIGCIS lunch at SHOT was
	a big success
Message-ID: <000601ca5285$0401df40$0c059dc0$@org>

Hello everyone,

I had a great time at SHOT in Pittsburgh last weekend, and hope you did too.
It was a very important meeting for SIGCIS as we successfully held our first
annual one day workshop, sponsored two sessions on the main program, and
presented the Computer History Museum book prize
(http://www.sigcis.org/?q=node/56) for the first time. Look for separate
reports on those activities soon.

However I have been getting some messages from people eager to know how what
the final tally was from our official lunch meeting. 

For those of you who have not yet been able to attend one, our annual lunch
meetings at the main SHOT conference are a combination of informal mingling,
announcements, introductions of new members, presentation of prizes and
grants and annual general meeting. SIGCIS has no dues, so we rely on
donations made at the lunch and the proceeds from our auction of donated
history of computing books to cover our annual operating expenses.

We had 53 registered guests for the lunch. They set a new fundraising record
for SIGCIS (and I suspect for any SHOT SIG). This was thanks in large part
to the energy and enthusiasm of David Anderson as auctioneer and the
generosity of MIT Press (in the person of Margurite Avery) in providing a
large consignment of books to supplement those carried by our individual
members). The auction is great fun, helps make people aware of new titles,
and sometimes offers some bargains. The out of print CBI/MIT reprint edition
of Wilkes, Wheeler and Gill, which is unavailable via Amazon for any price,
sold for just $35! (The only option Amazon does have right now is $400 for
the first edition).

MONEY RAISED from the 2009 MEETING:

We raised a total of $1,117. That handsomely beat our target of $1,000 and
was a significant advance over previous years (approx $830 in 2008, $360 in
2007, and $150 in 2006). Of that total about $350 was placed into the money
cup as general donations, and the remainder came from the book auction. SHOT
matches the first $300 of expenditure by the SIGs, which gives us a total
income regular income of $1,417 (not counting capital contributions to the
Mahoney Fund).

MONEY SPENT for the 2009 MEETING:

This year we have spent:

. $800 on making four MIT Press/Michael S. Mahoney supplemental travel
grants (http://www.sigcis.org/?q=node/55) of $200 each to graduate students
and other needy scholars (Stephen Patnode, Evan Koblentz, Christopher
McDonald, Hansen Hsu).
. $400 on coffee for the SIGCIS workshop (two coffee breaks x 40 people x $5
a person!). 
. $35 to print the poster we were asked to display at the new "Meet the
SIGs" coffee break
. $150 (estimate - we didn't get the total yet) to subsidize graduate
student registration for the SIGCIS lunch

So we spent about $1,385 total. The great thing about being part of SHOT is
that we did not have to pay for the meeting rooms or projectors we used for
the workshop, or to invest the time needed to handle the logistics for a
free standing meeting. So we can accomplish a great deal on a financial base
that, while growing, is still negligible. Your money goes further with
SIGCIS! 

SUMMARY:

Our income covered the outgoings with a few dollars left to add to the
account. So we successfully executed our plans for the workshop, book prize,
and travel grants without having to dip into the Mahoney Fund ($2,550 as of
September) to support the workshop or use up the surplus ($1,600) we'd saved
in our operating account from previous years. As Mr Micawber memorably
observed in David Copperfield: "Annual income twenty pounds, annual
expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual
income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result
misery."

If you were not able to attend the meeting but would like to ensure the
SIG's continuing happiness in years to come, you might consider making an
online donation to the Mahoney Fund. http://www.sigcis.org/?q=mahoney. If
you were at the meeting then my thanks again for making it another record
breaking year. 

Best wishes,

Tom Haigh
www.tomandmaria.com/tom




From dave.walden.family at gmail.com  Fri Oct 23 10:26:26 2009
From: dave.walden.family at gmail.com (Dave Walden)
Date: Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:26:26 -0400
Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Anecdotes for _IEEE Annals of the History of
	Computing_
Message-ID: <4ae1bd02.04c2f10a.1829.ffff9797@mx.google.com>

Hello all,

As Anecdotes Editor of the _IEEE Annals of the History of Computing_,
I am always seeking stories from the history of computing.  Our
Anecdotes are 3,000 words or less and are not peer reviewed but, if
accepted, are edited as appropriate in collaboration with the
author.  Typically our Anecdotes are first person accounts, but they
can also be secondary accounts.  Perhaps you have stumbled on a story
you think is worth recounting but it doesn't fit in a more scholarly
report you are doing.  Or perhaps you know a historical participant
who has a good story to tell; if so, please refers him or her to me
(or just tell me about him or her and the topic).

Dave Walden
dave at walden-family.com
www.walden-family.com




--
home address: 12 Linden Rd., E. Sandwich, MA 02537; ph/fax=508-888-7655/4168
email address:  dave at walden-family.com; 
website(s):  http://www.walden-family.com/ 


From dave.walden.family at gmail.com  Sun Oct 25 10:11:16 2009
From: dave.walden.family at gmail.com (Dave Walden)
Date: Sun, 25 Oct 2009 10:11:16 -0400
Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] An event commemorating a bit of computer history...
Message-ID: <4ae45c72.04c2f10a.1837.ffffce38@mx.google.com>

...See
      http://www.tug.org/tug2010/
and "Guests of Honor" at
      http://www.tug.org/tug2010/program.html

Because it will be the 2**5 (32nd) anniversary of TeX, Donald Knuth 
and other members of the Stanford team that originally developed TeX 
are planning to participate, on June 30, 2010, in the TeX Users Group 
2010 annual conference (June 28-30).



--
home address: 12 Linden Rd., E. Sandwich, MA 02537; ph/fax=508-888-7655/4168
email address:  dave at walden-family.com; 
website(s):  http://www.walden-family.com/ 


From yostx003 at umn.edu  Thu Oct 29 17:38:59 2009
From: yostx003 at umn.edu (Jeff Yost)
Date: Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:38:59 -0500
Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] CBI Tomash Fellowship and Norberg Travel Grants
Message-ID: <4AEA0B73.2080601@umn.edu>

Dear SIGCIS members,

Please find below the 2010-2011 Erwin and Adelle Tomash Fellowship 
Announcement (for doctoral students only) and the Arthur L. Norberg 
Travel Fund Announcement (open to all researchers). If you have any 
questions on either, please contact me. The application deadline (for 
both the Tomash Fellowship and Norberg Travel Fund) is January 15, 2010.

Jeff

Jeffrey R. Yost
Associate Director, Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota
Editor in Chief, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing

*********************************************************


    The Adelle and Erwin Tomash Fellowship in the History of Information
    Technology

The Charles Babbage Institute is accepting applications for the 
2010-2011 Adelle and Erwin Tomash Graduate Fellowship. The fellowship 
will be awarded to a graduate student for doctoral dissertation research 
in the history of computing.

The fellowship may be held at the recipient's home academic institution, 
the Charles Babbage Institute, or any other location with appropriate 
research facilities. The stipend is $14,000. It is intended for students 
who have completed all requirements for the doctoral degree except the 
research and writing of the dissertation.

Preference will be given to applicants indicating a need to use CBI 
materials, planning research in residence at CBI, and willing to make a 
brief presentation of their research findings to CBI staff. Questions 
pertaining to collection content and access can be directed to R. Arvid 
Nelsen, CBI Archivist, at nels0307 at umn.edu <mailto:nels0307 at umn.edu>.

Tomash Fellowship recipients must remain students in good standing 
throughout the term of their fellowship, but there is no restriction on 
holding other fellowships, scholarships, or awards concurrent to the 
Tomash Fellowship.

To Apply:

Applicants should send to CBI a curriculum vitae and a five-page 
(single-spaced) statement and justification of the research project 
including a discussion of methods, research materials, evidence of 
faculty support for the project, and bibliography (bibliography does not 
count toward page count).

Applicants should also arrange for three letters of reference and 
certified copies of graduate school transcripts to be sent directly to CBI.


      Materials must be postmarked no later than January 15, 2010.

Charles Babbage Institute: Tomash Fellowship
211 Andersen Library
University of Minnesota
222 - 21st Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55455

Please direct questions about the Tomash Fellowship to Jeffrey Yost, CBI 
Associate Director, yostx003 at umn.edu <mailto:yostx003 at umn.edu>, 612.624.5050

******************************************************


  Arthur L. Norberg Travel Fund

The Arthur L. Norberg Travel Fund provides short-term grants-in-aid to 
help scholars with travel expenses to use archival collections at the 
Charles Babbage Institute. Each year we plan to award two $750 grants.

The Charles Babbage Institute (CBI) is an internationally recognized 
research center and archives focused on the history of information 
technology. CBI conducts major research projects; publishes books and 
articles; and collects, processes, and provides open public access to 
the most diverse and extensive collection of archival materials on 
computing, software, and networking in the world. CBI collections 
include the records of corporations, technical and trade associations, 
personal papers, industry publications, oral histories, photographs, 
film/video, and an extensive reference library. The Norberg Travel Fund 
is named for CBI?s founding director, Arthur L. Norberg, and is funded 
by generous gifts from his friends and colleagues 
<http://www.cbi.umn.edu/research/ntravelfundcontributors.html>.

To Apply:

Applicants should send a 2-page CV as well as a 500-word project 
description that describes the overall research project, identifies the 
importance of specific CBI collections, and discusses the projected 
outcome (journal article, book chapter, museum exhibit, etc.). 
Applicants are strongly encouraged to examine the extensive on-line 
finding guides to CBI?s 200-plus archival collections at 
www.cbi.umn.edu/collections/archmss.html 
<http://www.cbi.umn.edu/collections/archmss.html>. Applicants should 
estimate how many days they plan to use CBI collections during their 
visit (travel should generally be in the calendar year of the award). To 
be eligible, scholars will reside outside the Twin Cities metropolitan 
region.

Notification of awards will be made within four weeks, and travel can 
commence directly thereafter. Questions pertaining to collection content 
and access can be directed to R. Arvid Nelsen, CBI Archivist, at 
nels0307 at umn.edu <mailto:nels0307 at umn.edu>. Please direct questions 
about the Arthur Norberg Travel Fund to Jeffrey Yost, CBI Associate 
Director, yostx003 at umn.edu <mailto:yostx003 at umn.edu>, 612.624.5050. For 
additional information, see www.cbi.umn.edu <http://www.cbi.umn.edu>.


      Materials must be submitted by email to cbi at umn.edu
      <mailto:cbi at umn.edu> or postmarked no later than January 15, 2010.

Charles Babbage Institute: Norberg Travel Fund
211 Andersen Library
University of Minnesota
222 - 21st Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55455



From edenm at indiana.edu  Thu Oct 29 18:24:09 2009
From: edenm at indiana.edu (Medina, Eden)
Date: Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:24:09 -0400
Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] mellon postdoctoral fellowship
Message-ID: <1637854CF482594C98D4ADA40F0FCC7A0F2BC53AA7@iu-mssg-mbx01.ads.iu.edu>

Postdoctoral Fellowship

Andrew W. Mellon Sawyer Postdoctoral Fellowship at Indiana University

Call for 2010-11 Mellon Sawyer Fellowship - Rupture and Flow: The Circulation of Technoscientific Facts and Objects



Receipt deadline: March 1, 2010



The Sawyer Seminar and the Institute of Advanced Study at Indiana University will award one Andrew W. Mellon Sawyer Postdoctoral Fellowships for a one-year appointment beginning July 1, 2010. The Fellow will receive a stipend of $40,000 per year, as well as health insurance and an allowance for relocation. This Sawyer Seminar is based in science and technology studies and focuses specifically on how facts and technologies circulate among diverse communities of producers and consumers, acquiring or losing credibility and utility as they move. We will explore questions including: How has the treatment of failure and errors changed the practice of science across disciplines and over time? How and why do cultural, social and material forces interrupt or thwart the circulation of technoscientific knowledge and objects, and with what consequences for what kinds of communities? How do social, cultural, political, and legal barriers influence technological change historically and geographically? How is the increasing use of lay-produced science shifting what is acknowledged and implemented in scientific practice and policy? Applicants for this postdoctoral fellowship must have research projects that speak to the concerns raised by the circulation of technoscientific knowledge and objects, and the possibilities and consequences of interrupting, reorienting, or preventing this circulation. Besides pursuing his or her own research, the fellowship recipient will play an active role in the intellectual life of the Sawyer Seminar by helping to organize an ongoing seminar series and four workshops. There will be no teaching responsibilities.



Selection Process

Each proposal will be evaluated by the conveners of the Sawyer Seminar, an interdisciplinary group of IU faculty. The primary evaluation criteria will be intellectual fit with the core ideas of the Seminar, and the promise of the proposed research project, including prospects for publication and significant advances in tangible research. We strongly recommend applicants read the full proposal, available at http://sawyer.indiana.edu<http://sawyer.indiana.edu/> before beginning their application. Applicants will be notified of fellowship decisions in May 2010.



Requirements

Applicants should have completed the Ph.D. in STS, Sociology, Informatics, Geography, History, English, Anthropology, Philosophy, Comparative Literature, or other related fields no earlier than June 30, 2005 and no later than August 1, 2010. We require proof that the fellow has received a Ph.D. degree before taking up residence. Applicants are welcome to send paper copies by mail or delivery to -



Ivona Hedin, Institute for Advanced Study,
Poplars 335, 400 E. 7th Street , Indiana University
Bloomington, IN 47405

The application should include:

 *   1000-word research project proposal and one-page bibliography, in language appropriate for a multi- disciplinary panel. Please double-space and use 12-point type.
 *   250-word statement of the project's potential contribution to Indiana University's Sawyer seminar
 *   Curriculum vitae
 *   Three letters of recommendation

Fellowship recipients cannot currently hold a tenure-track position.

Indiana University is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity employer. Scholars who are members of traditionally under-represented groups are encouraged to apply. There is no citizenship requirement or restriction for this fellowship. Non-U.S. nationals are welcome to apply. Employment eligibility verifications requested upon hire.

--
Eden Medina
Assistant Professor of Informatics
Adjunct Assistant Professor of History
School of Informatics and Computing
Indiana University, Bloomington
edenm at indiana.edu<mailto:edenm at indiana.edu>
http://www.informatics.indiana.edu/edenm

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From dave.walden.family at gmail.com  Fri Oct 30 10:55:26 2009
From: dave.walden.family at gmail.com (Dave Walden)
Date: Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:55:26 -0400
Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] Val Schorre
Message-ID: <4aeafe4f.151bf30a.0806.285f@mx.google.com>

Hi,
I have in mind a small history project relating to Meta II developed 
by Val Schorre.  Does anyone have contact information for him, or 
know if he has passed on?  He wrote a now classic 
paper:  http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=808896
Thanks, Dave


--
home address: 12 Linden Rd., E. Sandwich, MA 02537; ph/fax=508-888-7655/4168
email address:  dave at walden-family.com; 
website(s):  http://www.walden-family.com/ 


From jwcorta at us.ibm.com  Sat Oct 31 16:04:13 2009
From: jwcorta at us.ibm.com (James Cortada)
Date: Sat, 31 Oct 2009 15:04:13 -0500
Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] A Missing website
In-Reply-To: <4ACAFF01.50104@utu.fi>
References: <000001c9838d$850fea90$0301a8c0@evan>
	<OF84AC3620.309BC094-ON8625754F.0053AE0E-8625754F.00540DF0@us.ibm.com>
	<498489AC.3020204@umn.edu>
	<alpine.WNT.1.00.0901311327480.4516@Tabatha>
	<8bc235380901311249u26f384ccyd77b7f1347384378@mail.gmail.com>
	<OFEF8B206F.DB85FB71-ON862575CE.005A5278-862575CE.005AB777@us.ibm.com>
	<153B413D3A9E054784CC218A3E719A51A65F12@kwek.ic.uva.nl>
	<63484.62.158.101.233.1244540136.squirrel@mail.deutsches-museum.de>
	<OFDB3A0BF7.A426A8A4-ON86257640.005C04F9-86257640.005E0B6C@us.ibm.com>
	<4ACAFF01.50104@utu.fi>
Message-ID: <OFBFB28A1F.3C9CFBEE-ON86257660.006DE24B-86257660.006E4012@us.ibm.com>


Any body know where and what happened to this Italian website on the
history of Italian computing?  http://www.area.pi.cnr.it/virmuseum. It
seems to have disappeared. Has it got a new Web address?  I tried writing
to the authors of the 1999 Annals article on early Italian computing about
it since they cited the site but the e-mail did not go through.  If this
does not exist but someone knows of another that has material on Italian
computing, share with everyone.  I already cleaned out the Banco D'Italia's
web site which only had three articles of a quasi-historical nature.

Thanks in advance for your help.


Dr. Jim (James) W. Cortada
IBM Institute for Business Value
2917 Irvington Way
Madison, WI 53713 USA
jwcorta at us.ibm.com
608-270-4462
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From Meyer.Peter at bls.gov  Sat Oct 31 17:35:08 2009
From: Meyer.Peter at bls.gov (Meyer, Peter - BLS)
Date: Sat, 31 Oct 2009 17:35:08 -0400
Subject: [SIGCIS-Members] conference on "open source innovation beyond
	software" at U of Strasbourg, France, Feb 25-26 2010
Message-ID: <C3C1925D945BF844911C8EEA752666AE1B8D81F3@psbexmb2.psb.bls.gov>

I believe historical work will be welcomed at this conference.
Historical cases per se are relevant, as are comparisons of them to
recent open source phenomena.  Links between science and industry are
relevant.  Many attendees will be from business schools.
Details are here:   http://www.dime-eu.org/open-source-innovation   I
know one of the organizers and you can ask me or them.
-- 
Peter B. Meyer       Research economist      202-691-5678
Office of Productivity and Technology, U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics


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