Events and Sightings

SHOT, 4S, and HSS Collocated Conference Report

The Society for the History of Technology (SHOT), Society for the Social Studies of Science (4S), and History of Science Society (HSS) collocated their annual meetings in Cleveland, Ohio, on 2-6 November 2011. More than 1,100 people registered for the 4S meeting alone, and the meetings marked an important gathering of scholars of science and technology.

The HSS meeting saw few talks on the history of computing, but there was one session to note: "New Views of the Antikythera Mechanism: A Geared Astronomical Computing Machine from the Second Century BCE" chaired by James Voelkel (Othmer Library of Chemical History). The talks in the session explored the machine's mechanics, the science embedded in its model of the heavens, and Hellenistic calendars. The HSS also had some individual papers directly related to computing concerns. For example, Stephanie Dick (Harvard University) presented on automated theorem proving, and three talks included cybernetics as a major theme.

The 4S conference had more than 200 sessions, more than 15 of which studied issues around information technology, and several sessions focused on digital methodology for science and technology studies. In addition, 20 individual papers were on computing issues in other sessions.

Some sessions concerned themselves with computers or the computer industry itself, such as the "ICTs, Economics and Market" session chaired by Isaac Quinn DuPont (University of Toronto), which focused on practices in the computer business. More often, IT was discussed in terms of its applications in other fields. A dramatic example was the "Mediating War after 1945" session chaired by Paul Edwards (University of Michigan) that dealt with the use of IT in military and security fields in the recent and not-so-recent past. The application of computers in the sciences was a popular topic with, for example, two sessions on IT in biomedicine. Finally, sessions such as "The Physicality of the Virtual" chaired by Matt Burton (University of Michigan) discussed the use of IT networks as a new social medium for information sharing or as part of political and social debates and action. Social networking was a popular topic; four papers in various sessions included references to the social network Twitter.

Lastly, the SHOT conference included several sessions on IT history. SHOT's Special Interest Group on Computers, Information, and Society (SIGCIS) held its long-standing lunch on Friday and the third annual SIGCIS post-SHOT workshop all-day Sunday.

The main program of the SHOT conference included two sessions sponsored by SIGCIS: "Geographies of Computing: Straddling the Divide Between the Global and the Local" organized by Gerard Alberts and David Norfe (University of Amsterdam) and "Coded Narratives: Memory, Practice and Community in the History of Software" organized by Thomas Haigh (University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee).

The SHOT program also contained the session "Superconductivity: From New Materials to New Devices" organized by Ann Johnson (University of South Carolina). This session included papers on developments in superconductivity research as a material for computers and other electronics. There were also several sessions on communications technology from various periods. In addition, approximately 11 papers were related to the history of IT, mostly covering hardware such as flat-panel displays.

The SIGCIS workshop entitled "Cultures and Communities in the History of Computing" consisted of a keynote, six presented papers, six works in progress, and a closing plenary discussion. The keynote by Thomas J. Misa (Charles Babbage Institute) entitled "Designing and Using Cyberinfrastructure: Challenges and Opportunities for History" examined the adoption of FastLane by the US National Science Foundation as an electronic means

Online Resources

History of Science Society (HSS): http://www.hssonline.org/Meeting/index.html

Society for the Social Studies of Science (4S): http://www.4sonline.org/meeting/11

Society for the History of Technology (SHOT): http://www.historyoftechnology.org/cleveland/cleveland_meeting.html

SHOT's Special Interest Group on Computers, Information, and Society (SIGCIS): http://www.sigcis.org/workshop11

of submitting grant proposals. The talk revealed some of the complexities of the project and the difficulties with documenting its impact.

The works in progress consisted of five-minute presentations by individual researchers followed by a general discussion of precirculated...