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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More Blog Activity Forthcoming
Dear SIGCISers, I’ve recently taken up the vacant position of Member Communications for SIGCIS. Expect this blog to be more frequently updated with information and commentary that is (hopefully) of interest to this community. Marie Hicks has also agreed to help me with this task from time to time (thank you!). I will be keeping…
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2010 Workshop: Edwards Keynote Abstract
Friction: Rethinking Speed, Power, and Possibility in the History of Information Infrastructures Tropes involving computers’ “speed” and “power” have dominated discourses about computing from the earliest days of electronic machines. Metaphors of friction may provide a different lens, one that focuses attention on the materiality of information processing. Machines transform energy into work; friction reduces…
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R|evolution: The First 2,000 Years of Computer History
Dear friends, CHM is completing construction of its signature 25,000 sq ft, $17 million dollar on the history of computing. Due to open in January 2011, R|evolution will be accessible to the general public and technical audiences alike and will feature over 1,000 artifacts from CHM’s world-beating historical collection. See: http://www.computerhistory.org/exhibits/revolution/ for more information. I…
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SIGCIS 2010 Workshop
SIGCIS 2010 Workshop: Materiality & Immateriality in the History of Computing Sunday October 3, 2010, Hotel Murano, Tacoma, Washington New! Workshop photos available online. The Society for the History of Technology’s Special Interest Group for Computers, Information and Society (SIGCIS –www.sigcis.org) announces its 2010 workshop with the theme Materiality and Immateriality in the History of…
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Login Troubles
If you experience difficulty logging into your account, your browser cookies may need refreshing due to recent updates of the SIGCIS website. For more information on how to delete the SIGCIS cookie, please see http://www.aboutcookies.org/Default.aspx?page=2 (the cookie is called sigcis).
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SIGCIS Workshop Updates: CFP deadline July 1, Edwards will keynote, other news
Planning work is going well on the SIGCIS 2010 workshop on “Materiality and Immateriality in the History of Computing,” to be held in conjunction with the SHOT annual meeting in Tacoma, Washington on October 3. This is our second annual workshop. The first one drew around 50 people. Full details and the submission forms are…
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Bletchley Park WWII archive to go online
Might be of interest – http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/10239623.stm
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2009 Computer History Museum Prize
Christophe Lécuyer, Making Silicon Valley: Innovation and the Growth of High Tech, 1930-1970 (MIT Press, 2006) Prize Citation Christophe Lécuyer’s Making Silicon Valley is a meticulously researched and carefully crafted study that sheds new light on the archetypical “high tech” region. It provides a deep and balanced re-interpretation of Silicon Valley as a major innovation…
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Computing in Japan
Compiled by Chigusa Kita Jump to: Institutions | Online Resources Institutions Information Processing Society of Japan’s Virtual Computer Museum: http://museum.ipsj.or.jp/en/index.html (in English) http://museum.ipsj.or.jp/index.html (Japanese original) This is the authoritative resource for Japanese history of computing maintained by the largest academic institution of computer science. It contains personal information of pioneers, history of hardware, and oral histories. Japanese…
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World War II computer Colossus that cracked Nazi code
Short video showing working model of Colossus at Bletchley Park http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8486345.stm Full story http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8492762.stm