Founded in the mid-1980s, SIGCIS is the leading international group for historians with an interest in the history of information technology and its applications. Our primary activities include meetings held in connection with our parent society, the Society for the History of Technology; and a range of online resources hosted from this website.
Recent News
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2015 Computer History Museum Prize
Winner: Rebecca Slayton, Arguments That Count: Physics, Computing, and Missile Defense, 1949-2012 (MIT, 2013). Prize Citation: Rebecca Slayton’s Arguments That Count advances the history of computing in several significant ways. Through careful, original research and clear writing, Slayton grants a wide audience access to the complex and highly controversial story of the role of computing…
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Did V.A. Shiva Ayyadurai Invent Email?
Did V.A. Shiva Ayyadurai Invent Email? A Computer Historian Responds Now includes both the original 2012 article comissioned by the Washington Post, a lengthy extension covering Ayyadurai’s susequent claims added in August 2012, a second update focused on Ayyadurai’s new book The Email Revolution: Unleashing the Power to Connect (Allworth, 2013), and a third update…
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SIGCIS 2015 Workshop
SIGCIS Workshop 2015: InfrastructuresnSunday, October 11, 2015 Albuquerque, New Mexicon nKeynote Speaker:Nathan Ensmenger (Indiana University)”The Materiality of the Virtual: An Environmental History of Computing”n nThe Special Interest Group for Computers, Information and Society (SIGCIS) will host our annual one-day scholarly workshop on Sunday, October 11, 2015 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This is immediately after the end of the…
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Mahoney Prize
The Mahoney Prize recognizes an outstanding article in the history of computing and information technology, broadly conceived. The Mahoney Prize commemorates the late Princeton scholar Michael S. Mahoney, whose profound contributions to the history of computing came from his many articles and book chapters. The prize consists of a $500 award and a certificate. For…
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Computer History Museum Prize
The Computer History Museum Prize is awarded to the author of an outstanding book in the history of computing broadly conceived, published during the prior three years. The prize of $1,000 is awarded by SIGCIS, the Special Interest Group for Computers, Information and Society. SIGCIS is part of the Society for the History of Technology. …
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2014 Computer History Museum Prize
Winner: Janet Abbate, Recoding Gender: Women’s Changing Participation in Computing (MIT Press, 2012) Prize Citation: Gender is an important but under-examined dimension of computing. Janet Abbate’s book, Recoding Gender, unveils the gendered conceptions that shaped past and current assumptions of what specific work practices, personalities, and talents are essential to the field. Early studies of gender…
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SIGCIS 2014 Workshop
Computing the Big Picture:Situating Information Technology in Broader Historical Narratives SIGCIS Workshop 2014November 9, 2014, Dearborn, Michigan Keynote Speaker: Jennifer S. Light, Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Special Interest Group for Computers, Information and Society (SIGCIS – http://www.sigcis.org) welcomes submissions for our annual one-day scholarly workshop to be held on Sunday, November 9 2014 in…
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2013 Computer History Museum Prize
Winner: Joseph A. November, Biomedical Computing: Digitizing Life in the United States (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012) Prize Citation In the mid-twentieth century, digital computers began to transform biomedicine. In Biomedical Computing, Joseph November presents an original and compelling account of the processes by which diverse communities in biology and medicine came to embrace digital…
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Comments on the 2013 SHOT Draft Report
Response to the Draft Report from the Ad Hoc Committee on Structure and Organization of SHOT from the Executive Committee ofSHOT’s Special Interest Group on Computers, Information and Society (SIGCIS) Our parent society, SHOT, recently issued a draft report offering ideas on the challenges it faces and changes that might strengthen it for the future.…
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Learning about Infrastructure, and Infrastructures for Learning: Insights on Pedagogy from the SIGCIS
As I mentioned recently on the listserve, this year there will be a panel on the main SHOT program discussing how SIG concerns are integrated into teaching. As part of SHOT’s new website launch, comments from this panel (and several other roundtables) are being made available in advance. I’ll be representing the SIGCIS at this…