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 online at
http://www.sigcis.org/?q=workshop10.
Here are some updates:
1. The deadline for submitting session and paper proposals is JULY 1. Please make your submissions via our website before that date. We're open to a very broad range of topics and formats including work in progress. We're particularly interested in getting graduate students to submit draft or in-progress dissertation proposals for discussion and have some money to help them attend (see 3 below). Draft chapters can also be submitted for a works in progress session.
2. Paul Edwards will give a keynote address in the opening plenary session, discussing aspects of his work on cyber infrastructure and his hot new book A Vast Machine Computer Models, Climate Data, and the Politics of Global Warming related to the theme. Paul's been involved with the history of computing community for many years, but his work has won acclaim from a diverse array of audiences and we're very excited to have secured him for the workshop.
3. We've raised more money to help support the travel costs of graduate students, the unemployed, and recent graduates in temporary positions without travel funds. In addition to the $1,000 or so we raised last year for this purpose via the book auction and cash donations (thank you MIT Press for so many books) we've received pledges from the IT History Society for an extra $200 and Harvard Business School Professor Richard S. Tedlow for an extra $1,000 to give grants in honor of the Computer History Museum. So that brings the budget to over $2,000 from which we plan to make awards of up to $500 depending on need and the volume of applications.
Preference will be given to those presenting only at our workshop, and hence unable to apply for the main SHOT travel grant program. However if funds remain we may also be able to make supplemental contributions to those who are presenting on the main SHOT program and at the SIGCIS workshop to cover need unmet by SHOT and other sources.
4. SHOT Secretary Bernie Carlson has confirmed arrangements on our behalf with the stylish and modern conference venue, the Hotel Murano. He's been able to secure us access to two meeting rooms for the full day at no extra charge to SHOT or SIGCIS.
5. This means we will not need to impose an additional fee for the workshop beyond regular SHOT registration (or a discounted 1 day registration if you are unable to attend the rest of SHOT). Just make sure you indicate your plans to attend the workshop when you register for SHOT. What a bargain! We will just pass our money cup during the event to help cover the cost of the coffee breaks. More details and reminders later on this.
Please spread the word to anyone you know who might be interested.
Best wishes,
Tom Haigh
