About SIGCIS - Summary

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 our website, sigcis.org.

SIGCIS has a set of community values that it expects all community members to uphold.

Activites at the SHOT annual meeting incling a lunch meeting, and a scholarly gathering on the final day of the SHOT conference, usually a Sunday. Anyone can register for these events as part of the SHOT registration. We present two prizes at the SHOT conference: the Computer History Museum Prize, for an outstanding book on the history of computing, and the Mahoney Prize, for an outstanding article in the history of computing and information technology. We also present travel awards to exceptional scholars participating in the SIGCIS conference, as a way to support their travel.

The SIGCIS website holds a variety of electronic resources, including guides to the History of Computing literature, a selection of work contributed by members, a growing collection of syllabi in the field, and pages describing our book prize, travel grants, and fund raising activities.

To join SIGCIS, please request a new account on this site. For additional information about this process, you may also contact our secretary via email at secretary@sigcis.org.

Membership in SIGCIS is open to all with a scholarly interest in the history of computing. This includes interested amateur historians as well as researchers with formal training in historical methods. There are no annual dues, but donations are welcomed and contributions toward SIG expenses are taken at the annual lunch meeting. SIGCIS members are encouraged but not required to join the Society for the History of Technology. All SIGCIS members are subscribed to our email distribution list, members@sigcis.org. Members are encouraged to post announcements and questions to the list, including news of new publications and research projects, grant opportunities, upcoming conference presentations, calls for papers and requests for participation in possible conference sessions. All members are able to send email directly to the distribution list. For additional details, please visit our Members Listserv information page.

We maintain an online Member Directory of SIG members. When you join an entry will automatically be created including your name and email address. However, you are encouraged to add further information to your online profile so that others with similar interests are able to locate you are your work. To create your own directory entry, visit our Join SIGCIS page. To update an existing directory entry, log in using the Member Login page and then select 'Edit'. SIGCIS organizes panel proposals every year for the SHOT annual meeting, and helps its members put together panels for other conferences such as the 4S (Society for Social Studies of Science) meeting, the Business History Conference, and the History of Science Society meeting. The email distribution list is also used to organize informal dinners of SIGCIS members at these and other conferences.