Submitted by cfmcdonald on Thu, 12/02/2010 - 21:24
A major figure in the history of computing, Britain's Maurice Wilkes, died this past Monday. Obituaries can be found at the Guardian and the Independent; the latter was written by SIGCIS' own Martin Campbell-Kelly.
SIGCIS has created personal blogs on the request of several of its members. Content from these is sometimes promoted to our front page, but visit the blogs directly to see their full content.
Currently our featured bloggers are Marie Hicks and Chris MacDonald, who have agreed to help keep the SIGCIS website supplied with new and exciting material, and Dag Spicer who will be keeping us up to date with events at the Computer History Museum. If you would like a blog of your own please let us know.
Submitted by cfmcdonald on Tue, 11/23/2010 - 20:06
Last month's Wired magazine contained a story and interview with novelist Jane Smiley, whose recent book, The Man Who Invented the Computer, purports to finally reveal the true author of that device. Hint: The answer rhymes with Batanasoff. I have not had a chance to read the book, but based on the interview Smiley, an alumna of and former professor at John Atansoff's own Iowa State, appears to portray him as a wronged genius, exploited by a devious John Mauchly.
Submitted by cfmcdonald on Tue, 11/23/2010 - 19:56
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!).
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 the amount of work they can do with a given input. Information systems transform data (among other things) into information and knowledge. Computational friction opposes this transformation; it expresses the resistance that must always be overcome, the sociotechnical struggle with numbers that always precedes reward.
Submitted by Dag Spicer on Wed, 09/01/2010 - 17:53
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.
SIGCIS 2010 Workshop:
Materiality & Immateriality in the History of Computing
Sunday October 3, 2010, Hotel Murano, Tacoma, Washington
New! Workshop photos available online.
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).
Submitted by Admin on Tue, 06/15/2010 - 14:59
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:
Submitted by Admin on Tue, 06/15/2010 - 14:56
Pages
Copyright
2023 SIGCIS | e-mail webmaster | SIGCIS is affiliated with the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT)