Author: Henri

We are pleased to announce that, through the auspices of the Commission for History and Philosophy of Computing (HAPOC), we will be convening the Working Group on Data Sharing starting this October. The new HAPOC working group will meet online to discuss (your!) work-in-progress, classic texts and recently published works. We invite researchers and curious minds from all backgrounds to join us in order to explore the historical and evolving concepts of data, sharing, and (historically rooted, socially contested, politically supported) aspects of data sharing.

We invite you to offer your draft article, dissertation chapter or book chapter for discussion. Our first meeting takes place on Thursday 17 October at 4pm GMT. Please send an email to Vassilis.Galanos@stir.ac.uk to get access links, details and ask questions. The first meeting is to discuss a classic text and decide together on the dates of upcoming events.

We wish to create an inclusive hub for interdisciplinary collaboration among early career researchers to foster a deeper understanding of the significant role that data sharing plays within and beyond computerised contexts. Throughout our first year, we hope to delve into various perspectives on the concept of data, aiming for a comprehensive understanding that spans digital and pre-digital eras.

Our events are convened roughly every two months for 1-1.5h. They provide a platform for thoughtful dialogue among historians, philosophers, technologists, STS and media scholars. Embodying a spirit of informality and cheerfulness, our sessions are designed to be engaging and insightful, offering regular participants networking opportunities. We provide multiple ways to get involved – whether by circulating your full paper confidentially prior to the event or present to get and offer real-time feedback. In addition, we are planning occasional guest invited talks and interactions with other colleagues exploring data-related themes. Although we do not offer scholarships or funding, your engagement – as part of your academic commitments or sparked by pure curiosity – will open doors to valuable cross-national and cross-disciplinary collaborations.

Please get in touch! Your participation is key to enriching our collective understanding of data sharing, its enabling technologies, and its impacts. If you know of people who might be interested to participate and get involved in this new HAPOC working group, please do circulate this announcement.

Our initiators, Barbara Hof (Lausanne), Vassilis Galanos (Stirling), Apolline Taillandier (Cambridge), Xiao Yang (Edinburgh), and George Zoukas (Sheffield), are excited to extend this invitation to you!

Call for contributions

Deadline: 15 August 2024

We are delighted to announce the 6th Workshop on the History and Philosophy of Programming (HaPoP-6). We invite contributions on the history and philosophy of programming broadly understood, including different conceptual and practical aspects of programming, the relation of programming practices to other social and scientific practices, the aesthetics of programming, the development of programming languages and others.

In addition to general aspects of programming, this year’s workshop will focus on conceptions of ‘fairness’ and ‘bias’ in the history and philosophy of programming. Practices of coding and the evaluation of computer programs have changed with the rise of machine learning and so-called ‘artificial intelligence’ (AI). The increasing automation of programming has led to questions about programming practices, transparency, and evaluative standards in programming in general. In particular, there has been an increasing concern with ‘fairness’ and ‘bias’ within a wide range of programs and applications, affecting practitioners, decision-makers and users. In parallel, these questions have (re-)emerged in philosophy, computational linguistics, media theory, sociology, political theory and related fields.

At the 6th HaPoP workshop, we want to develop a deeper understanding of strengths and limitations of conceptions of ‘fairness’ and ‘bias,’ within a reflection on programming at large. We hope to develop these concepts from a historical, philosophical, and technical perspective, bringing into view the epistemological standpoints and material histories involved. This call is anchored in the conviction that a new kind of foundational research is needed to come to terms with the social implications of and in programming, which cannot be addressed by any single discipline. We strive for accessible presentations as the workshop will be open to people from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds.

We invite abstracts on the history and philosophy of programming, including, but not restricted to the following topics:

• Histories and Philosophy of Programming
• Conceptions of fairness and bias in programming
• Error, correctness, evaluation, and accountability in programming practices
• Programming at the crossroads of formal, empirical, and social sciences
• Labour conditions in and around programming
• Programming and the law
• Histories of feminist or emancipatory practices of programming
• Histories of critical code studies
• Teaching Programming

We particularly invite graduate students and early career researchers from underrepresented communities and disadvantaged backgrounds. Travel funding will be available for graduate students and researchers without permanent employment. Requests for travel funding of up to 250 EUR should be directed to treasurer@hapoc.org. Final decisions on the allocation of travel funds will be made by September 25.

Abstracts of a maximum of 500 words (including sources) should be sent to cambridge-2024@hapoc.org by August 15. Final decisions will be announced by September 15.

Download the full call for contributions to HaPoP-6

Organisers

Amira Moeding (PhD Student in History, University of Cambridge), Nanna Saeten (PhD Student in POLIS, University of Cambridge), Dr Richard Staley (History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge)

Access

If you have specific accessibility needs for this event please get in touch with the organisers.

The Japanese Association for the Philosophy of Science (JAPS) and History of Science Society in Japan (HSSJ), correspondents to DLMPST and DHST respectively (the international associations both of which HAPOC is a commission) have invited us to participate to their joint conference on June 14-16, 2024, at Waseda University, Tokyo. Henri Stephanou, our Treasurer and Council Member, will give a talk in a keynote session on June 16 at 15-17H JST (8-10H CET) on “Automation v Augmentation: the two forms of technology at work” alongside Pr. Mai Sugimoto, from HSSJ, who will give a talk on “`Low-Grade Human Labor’ and Computers: Discourses on Technological Unemployment in the Mid-20th Century”. Attached of the poster of the event, which will be retransmitted by zoom. A link will be available shortly.

This event has been organized by Mitsuhiro Okada, Jun Otsuka (from JAPS), Mai Sugimoto (from HSSJ), Alberto Naibo (from HaPoC).

Henri will also present HAPOC activities to our Japanese colleagues. He will also give a preparatory talk on June 14 on “What is Automation? Organized work processes and computer procedures”.