Author: Giuseppe Primiero

Call for contributions
International symposium
Unix in Europe: between innovation, diffusion and heritage
Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, Paris, France – October 19 2017
http://technique-societe.cnam.fr/international-symposium-unix-in-europe-between-innovation-diffusion-and-heritage-913009.kjsp?RH=cdhte

The Unix system was born in the 1970s at the crossroads between two interacting worlds: industry (the Bell Labs at AT&T) and academia (the University of Berkeley computer science network). Its fast adoption throughout computer research and engineering networks across the world signaled the future success of the new system, fostering software experiments within its open, multi-user and multi-tasking system running on mini-computers – and later compatible with a larger part of computer hardware. In the European context, how was this American innovation propagated, adopted and adapted? Why was Unix of so much interest in this context, then and now? A solid culture of Unix users might also explain this success, as well as subsequent processes of appropriation and inheritance, due to the long and complex history of Unix versioning. The memory of Unix users is vivid indeed, fed by early accounts within the computer world (Salus, 1994) as well as preservation initiatives (Toomey, 2010). Moreover, the Unix system is a crucial reference in the history of computing, in particular in the field of free and open source software (Kelty, 2008), computer networks (Paloque-Berges, 2017), as well as in programming language philosophy (Mélès, 2013).
In order to explore the variety of these interrogations, this symposium encourages contributions from historians as well as philosophers, social science researchers, and heritage professionals interested in the history of computer open systems and software with a focus on Unix or who have a wider perspective. It will also welcome protagonists and witnesses of Unix culture and carriers of its memory. We wish to discuss and shed light on several aspects of the development of Unix in Europe (including in comparison or relation with the rest of the world) along three main lines: historical and sociological, philosophical and epistemological, and heritage- and preservation-oriented.

1/ Historical and sociological perspectives
Historically, the Unix system is linked to the promotion and development in research on open systems and computer networks. How does this fit in the context of industrial, scientific and technological policies defined at the national and European level? The history of Unix thus reaches at least three levels of interrogations: 1/ the forms, places and practices of innovation around Unix in R&D labs and computing centers in companies, schools and universities; 2/ planning, promoting and negotiating open systems (norms and standards) from the perspective of science and/or politics; 3/ international geopolitical relations, whether economical or geopolitical and even geostrategic (for example between Unix users, with users of other computer equipment or other hardware and software companies, the role of embargos in the shipping of mini-computers, of code, and military uses of Unix).
In parallel, how has the world of computer research welcomed, encouraged, negotiated and propagated uses and innovations related to Unix systems? This begs the question of how Unix-related research and development was legitimized – or played a part in the legitimization of computer science experimentalism in the scientific field and beyond. We would also like to highlight practices of resistance, the failure to acknowledge, ignorance of or even the limits of the Unix system, its software tools and hardware environment (beginning with the famous PDP and Vax machines from Digital Equipment where the first Unix versions were implemented). With a focus on occupational computer uses, we call for analysis which aims to explore and clarify:
– the role of developers, users, and user associations – from the point of view of pioneers as well as helpers, maintainers and other witnesses of the implementation of Unix;
– the context, process, and people who determined its propagation, appropriation, and development over time;
– the meaning of concepts of Unix philosophy and ethics such as “openness” and “autonomy”, from a social, political or economic point of view.

2. Philosophical and epistemological perspectives
We will foster research and reflection at the crossroad of the theoretical foundations of computer systems and engineering pragmatism, between the philosophy of computer systems and Unixian practices.

Protagonists in the conception and diffusion of Unix often claim to have a ‘Unix philosophy’ . But beyond statement of principle, what was the real influence of this idea on the technical choices underlying the system’s developments? What are the ethical, moral, and philosophical motivations – alongside the social, political or economic dimensions discussed earlier – underpinning the adoption of Unix or pretending to extend it (for instance in relation to the notions of sharing, modularity or freedom)? How is the idea of ‘openness’ attached to Unix practices and heritage (free software, open source) conceived? What are the theoretical developments to be drawn from it (for instance with the idea of open software)?

The logical and mathematical foundations of Unix should be readdressed. Do the fundamental concepts of Unix have an ontological or metaphysical significance beyond the sole research aim of technical efficiency? What role do aesthetics play in the formulation of general principles and technical choices? How can we analyze programming languages such as C and its successors, scripts, software, and generally speaking, the proliferating source codes of Unix? How do we consider the system, the software environment, as well as the hardware in which Unix is implemented and executed?

Such philosophical questions also cover the modalities of the transmission of Unix, extending to the investigation of the respective roles of theory and practice in the teaching of the system, the teaching of knowledge and tools underlying the system or supporting the system.

3. Unix heritage and ‘heritagization’

France is now the home to multiple initiatives taking place to build and preserve a material and immaterial heritage of computer science and technology – such as ‘Software Heritage’ at INRIA, a global software archive in progress. The Museum of Arts et Métiers gave impetus to the MINF initiative (‘Pour un Musée de l’informatique et du numérique’) and coordinates the ‘Patstec Mission’ dealing with contemporary scientific and technological heritage preservation, including computer science. At an international scale and with a grassroots perspective carried by the community of Unix users, the TUHS (The Unix Heritage Society) demonstrates the current interest in the specific heritage linked to Unix. We encourage reflections on this heritage and its specific features:

– What is the place of Unix in the construction of computer science heritage? Is it possible to map Unix systems and their heritage, from the standpoint of machines, languages and software? What has already been collected? What corpus, data bases, and/or platforms with a patrimonial mission are concerned with Unix and to what purpose?
– How are the questions of training, constitution and diffusion of a Unix culture incorporated in the effort to collect heritage? How do we evaluate and put forward the importance of immaterial heritage attached to Unix, considering the effects of community and memory in its history and for the writing of its history?
– What are the practices and modalities advocated by the unixian heritage itself? What has been its influence on the field of computer engineering and research as well as diverse fields such as: popularization of science and technology, ‘hacker’ movements and many ‘maker’ practices today (Lallement, 2016)?
Communications and discussions will be held in French or English.

*Schedules*
Please send a one-page abstract (maximum 500 words) with a short biography by June 30, 2017 to: camille.paloque-berges@cnam.fr; loic.petitgirard@cnam.fr. Accepted contributions and speakers will be notified by July 15, 2017.

*Organizing committee*
Isabelle Astic (Musée des arts et métiers)
Raphaël Fournier-S’niehotta (Cédric, Cnam)
Pierre-Eric Mounier-Kuhn (CRM, Paris 1)
Camille Paloque-Berges (HT2S, Cnam)
Loïc Petitgirard (HT2S, Cnam)

*Scientific committee*
François Anceau (UMPC-LIP6)
Pierre Cubaud (Cédric, Cnam)
Liesbeth de Mol (STL, Lille 3)
Claudine Fontanon (CAK, EHESS)
Gérald Kembellec (DICEN, Cnam)
Baptiste Mélès (Archives Henri Poincaré, CNRS)
Giuseppe Primiero (Middlesex University)
Lionel Tabourier (LIP6, Paris 6)

*Partners*
– Project « Hist.Pat.info.Cnam », HT2S, Cnam – Research program supported by the Excellence laboratory History and Anthropology of Knoweldge, Technics and Beliefs (HASTEC), and in partnership with the laboratories CEDRIC (Cnam), DICEN (Cnam), and the Center Alexandre Koyré (EHESS).
– Musée des arts et métiers and « Histoire de l’informatique » (« History of computing » seminar) seminar.
– « Source code » seminar (CNRS, Cnam, Université Paris 6).
With support from the DHST/DLMPST for the History and Philosophy of Computing (HAPOC)

*Bibliography*
Kelty, Christopher M. 2008. Two Bits: The Cultural Significance of Free Software. Durham: Duke University Press Books.

Lallement, Michel. 2016. L’âge du faire, Seuil.

Mélès, Baptiste. 2003. « Unix selon l’ordre des raisons : la philosophie de la pratique informatique ». Philosophia Scientiæ 17 (3): 181‑98.

Salus, Peter H. 1994. A quarter century of UNIX. Addison-Wesley. Reading.

Toomey, Warren. 2010. « First Edition Unix: Its Creation and Restoration ». IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 32 (3): 74‑82.

Summer School: On Computer Simulation Methods
September 25-29, 2017, High Performance Computing Center Stuttgart (HLRS)
Website: https://regi.hlrs.de/2017/summer-school/index.jsp

Organizers: Michael Resch, Viola Schiaffonati, Giuseppe Primiero, Andreas Kaminski

Second Call for Applications

Topic

The transformation of science through computer simulation is often considered to be a methodological one. A lot of literature has been dedicated to determining the relationship between computer simulation, experiments or theories as the classical sources of knowledge. This relation is both methodologically and technically complex. On the one hand, it is difficult for philosophers, social scientists, and historians to gain detailed insight into the methods used among practitioners. On the other hand, for computer scientists and practitioners in general, the methodological limitations and design constraints that simulation techniques impose on hypothesis formulation and testing may not be obvious. The summer school addresses these problems by offering lectures and tutorials on computer simulation methods for scholars from the humanities, social sciences, and computer science.

Schedule

The morning sessions will include lectures by faculty members, focusing on the philosophical, methodological, and technical aspects of different simulation techniques (including numerical methods, software techniques, visualization, agent-based modelling, and computational experiments). These will be followed by project presentations by participants. The afternoons will be dedicated to hands-on tutorials by practitioners. Finally, in the evenings, distinguished scholars will offer lectures on the most inspiring and exciting issues in this increasingly important research area.

Instructors (confirmed and requested)

Nicola Angius (Sassari), Petra Gehring (TU Darmstadt), Andreas Kaminski (Stuttgart), Johannes Lenhard (Bielefeld), Giuseppe Primiero (London), Michael Resch (Stuttgart), Viola Schiaffonati (Milan), Angelo Vermeulen (Delft)

Who is it for?

Researchers (especially but not exclusively postgraduates) from the humanities and social sciences who are interested in learning more about the methodological dimensions of computer simulation;

Computer scientists and practitioners in simulation who are interested in deepening their knowledge on the foundations, methods, and implications of their techniques.

Prerequisites for participation?

Technical skills (knowledge of programming languages, simulation experience) are helpful, but not required. Acquaintance with the literature in contemporary philosophy of science is useful, but will not be assumed.

How to apply?

The number of participants is limited to 20. To apply, email kaminski@hlrs.de.

All proposals must be submitted by May 30, 2017 and include:

short curriculum vitae;

description of your research (max. one page);

questions or topics you are interested in regarding the summer school (just a few lines).

Participants will be notified by June 30, 2017.

What are the costs?

There is no fee, but participants will have to cover their travel and hotel expenses. The organizers will happily help participants organize their journey and hotel stay.

The DHST/DLMPST Interdivision Commission on the History and Philosophy of Computing (www.hapoc.org) will offer two bursaries of $250 each to support travel and accommodation costs of young researchers. To apply for this funding, please forward your application to

Liesbeth de Mol liesbeth.demol@univ-lille3.fr

Giuseppe Primiero G.Primiero@mdx.ac.uk

by May 31, 2017. Applicants will be informed of decisions pertaining to both funding and proposal submission at the same time (June 30, 2017).

Call for Papers
(De)constructing Digital History, MESHS, Lille
27-29 November, 2017
https://dhnord2017.sciencesconf.org/

dhnord2017 is the fourth edition of the annual Digital Humanities conference organized by the Maison européenne des sciences de l’homme et de la société (MESHS). This year’s edition is co-organized with the Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C2DH) of the University of Luxembourg. The theme is: “(De)constructing Digital History”. The conference will take place in November 27-29, 2017 in Lille, France.

What is digital history? The term has been coined since at least 1999 (Ayers, 1999) and was further generalized by 2005 (Lines Andersen 2002, Lee 2002, Cohen & Rosenzweig 2005). Broadly defined, digital history is “an approach to examining and representing the past that works with the new communication technologies of the computer, the internet network, and software systems” (Seefeldt & Thomas 2009). In other words, it describes historical inquiry that is based on primary sources available as electronic data, whether digitized or born-digital, and the narratives that are constructed through such inquiries (Lee 2002).

The rise of digital history is in general perceived as the phase defined by the democratization of the personal computer technology, network applications and the development of open-source software (Thomas 2004, Cohen & Rosenzweig 2005, Graham, Milligan & Weingart 2015). With slight differences in periodization, medium-centered (e.g. relying on the use of the computer) genealogies see digital history at least partly as a descendant of quantitative and computational history, tracing its beginnings through the end of the 40s to the 60s (Thomas 2004, Graham, Milligan & Weingart 2015). Broader approaches insist instead on the heritage of public and oral history (Noiret 2011, Scheinfeldt 2014). Digital history participated greatly to the rise and development of the field of digital humanities since the mid-2000s (Schreibman et al. 2004, Kirschenbaum 2010, Gold 2012). However, specific disciplinary objects, sources and approaches continue to be present within the connected use of methods and tools that takes place under the digital humanities big tent. A typology of digital history projects identifies three main fields: academic research, public history, and pedagogy projects, of which the last two categories are considered particularly specific to historians within the digital humanities field (Robertson 2016).

We therefore propose to address digital history through this triple spectrum: academic research, public history, and pedagogy, in order to trace continuities and transformations in history as a discipline; and contribute to explore the broader digital humanities field through this case study.

1/ Academic research

It is understood that scholarly research in history has been affected by the digitization of sources, methods and the environment in which research is conducted, produced and disseminated (Clavert & Noiret 2013). Nonetheless, there also seems to be a tension between the potentiality of digital history and the actual delivery of argument-driven scholarship (Blevins 2016). In the last two decades, a significant number of digital history projects have been elaborated and, furthermore, digital history has been institutionalized through the creation of specialized departments in several universities. We should then be able to identify the impact of mutations in the ways historical research is driven and communicated, on the one hand; the novelties in objects, methods and analysis tools, and the eventual issues they raise, on the other.

In this sense, what is called the data revolution (Kitchin 2014) is one important component to take into account and to explore further. The massive production of digitized/born-digital historical data challenges historians’ existent approaches and methods of research and analysis, as recent debates on the longue durée approach have shown (Guldi & Armitage 2014, Annales 70 2/2015) or the transnational turn (Putnam 2016), just to mention a few. Moreover, it raises issues on how historians relate with present time and what their role is in digital preservation matters as showcase social media and other web-based ephemeral data (Webster 2015, Rosenzweig 2003). What is essentially at stake is inter-/transdisciplinary cooperation, even the dependency of history on input from other disciplines, whether from human, social or computer science (computational linguistics, visual analytics…), engineering, library and information science. Indeed, the use of connected methodologies as historians adopt new epistemologies (data mining and visualization, GIS, encoded critical edition), sheds light on the need to adapt historians’ literacy through the development of a shared culture with computer science and mathematics (Genet 1986, Lamassé & Rygiel 2014).

Furthermore, the ecology of scientific data raises some important interdisciplinary issues related to their collection, storage, archiving, dissemination and the correspondent infrastructures. What kind of scientific sovereignty can be exercised once data storage and infrastructures are externalized, and what is its impact on access and sustainability of scientific research and its output? How can disciplinary needs for effective organization and description of historical information be met (e.g. specific ontologies) in a global environment of structured interoperable data? Moreover, old problems of biases concerning the access of primary sources are updated as the result of digitization and its possible impact on availability or, instead, underrepresentation of certain types of archives (Putnam 2016, Milligan 2013). Let’s consider, for example, the impact of institutional decision-making and constraints (such as financial ones) on the digitization of sources, new actors in the web ecosystem such as digitization companies, or even digital fractures and inequalities at national and transnational levels, just to evoke some of the most probable biases. Last but not least, one should not forget the biases that algorithms and software can generate during the collection and analysis of historical data.

2/ Digital history and public history

From a vast literature on the synergies between digital and public history (see Noiret 2011, Cauvin 2016), we chose to focus on topics that shed light on the blurred frontiers between public and scholarly history, especially the osmosis between scholars, cultural heritage institutions, private sector and citizens. From this point of view, we propose to explore three main thematic unites. First, ways in which technology is used in the cultural heritage sector in order to engage the public with history: uses of social media, augmented and virtual reality, development of tools for the public to explore patrimonial data and collections, game industry and history, private sector digitization and engagement with history… Second, historical memory and the way it emerges at individual, collective and institutional levels to show using facts the relation of people to history and the multiple ways the present affects the perception of the past. Finally, the documentation of present-time events that actually builds primary sources and archives for future historians: crowdsourced archives, social and political movements documentation (such as Spanish 15M, Nuit débout, Women’s March), political uses of technology (social media propaganda, institutional use of social media, political use of game industry as in the case of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict etc). How is authority conceived and how does the role of historian persist in such diversified multi-actor contexts?

3/ Pedagogy

During the last few years, several digital history departments have been created in various universities in different countries. Furthermore, even in traditional history departments, teaching now integrates components of digital culture or associated skills. There are specialized tutorial blogs (The Programming Historian, La boîte à outils des historiens) providing for skill transfers between historians; digital transdisciplinary schools (such as the Digital Methods Initiative of the University of Amsterdam); an array of online services or/and software for one to easily explore and analyze data (Düring et al. 2011, Nodegoat, AnalyseSHS…). However, few systematic approaches allow to have an overall view of how historians get on with the digital transformations of their profession (Heimburger & Ruiz 2011) and even less from a transnational perspective. How are historians to teach digital history in these contexts and how are traditional and DH teaching articulated? What skills and methods do teachers need to develop for themselves, in order to teach them, and for their students to acquire them? How to better fit teaching to specific research interests so that students are able to acquire a method than simply become able to manage tools (Mahoney, Pierazzo 2012)? How are modules organized and how do students react to the teaching of digital history? How can a minimum skillset be defined in order to assure research of an acceptable quality and corresponding level publications but also a balance between a historian’s basic training and the acquisition of this skillset? Although there have been works developing the discussion (and solutions) regarding mainly the web resources (Cohen, Rosenzweig 2006), there is less focus on the ways interdisciplinarity is embedded in digital history teaching and even less on how to deal with born-digital data (e.g. social media data) use and analysis as primary sources for historians in specific modules.

Possible areas of interest for proposals include, but are not limited to, the following:

Academic research
Natural language processing and text analytics applied to historical documents
Applications of GIS
Social Network Analysis
Image analysis
Analysis of longitudinal document collections
Entity relationship extraction, detecting and resolving historical references in text
Digitizing and archiving
Applications of Artificial Intelligence techniques to History
Handling uncertain and fragmentary text and image data
OCR and transcription
Epistemologies in the Humanities and Computer Science
Novel techniques for storytelling
Historical ontologies
Historical data management and infrastructures
Software and applications development

Digital public history
Museums and exhibiting the past
Oral history and community projects
Digital media, the Internet and participatory knowledge
Moving images and documentaries
Re-enactments and living history
Historic preservation and community cultural heritage
Public archaeology
Social media, mobile app and user-generated contents
Public policies and applied history
Historical memory construction and the Web
Teaching public history

Pedagogy
Introduction of digital research methods in classrooms
Designing digital history curricula
Digital teaching materials
Digital media as alternative to text-based student theses and research papers
Methods for digital student assessment
Teaching digital literacy
Teaching the history of the “Digital Age”
Digital history teaching commons

Proposals (up to 1000 words) can be submitted until May 31, 2017 in English or in French. All proposals will be considered. Travel expenses can receive financial support. For further questions please contact dhnord[at]meshs[dot]fr

Summer School: On Computer Simulation Methods
September 25-29, 2017, High Performance Computing Center Stuttgart (HLRS)
Organizers: Michael Resch, Viola Schiaffonati, Giuseppe Primiero, Andreas Kaminski

Call for Applications
Topic
The transformation of science through computer simulation is often considered to be a methodological one. A lot of literature has been dedicated to determining the relationship between computer simulation, experiments or theories as the classical sources of knowledge. This relation is both methodologically and technically complex. On the one hand, it is difficult for philosophers, social scientists, and historians to gain detailed insight into the methods used among practitioners. On the other hand, for computer scientists and practitioners in general, the methodological limitations and design constraints that simulation techniques impose on hypothesis formulation and testing may not be obvious. The summer school addresses these problems by offering lectures and tutorials on computer simulation methods for scholars from the humanities, social sciences, and computer science.

Schedule
The morning sessions will include lectures by faculty members, focusing on the philosophical, methodological, and technical aspects of different simulation techniques (including numerical methods, software techniques, visualization, agent-based modelling, and computational experiments). These will be followed by project presentations by participants. The afternoons will be dedicated to hands-on tutorials by practitioners. Finally, in the evenings, distinguished scholars will offer lectures on the most inspiring and exciting issues in this increasingly important research area.

Instructors (confirmed and requested)
Nicola Angius (Sassari), Petra Gehring (TU Darmstadt), Andreas Kaminski (Stuttgart), Johannes Lenhard (Bielefeld), Giuseppe Primiero (London), Michael Resch (Stuttgart), Viola Schiaffonati (Milan), Angelo Vermeulen (Delft)

Who is it for?
Researchers (especially but not exclusively postgraduates) from the humanities and social sciences who are interested in learning more about the methodological dimensions of computer simulation;
Computer scientists and practitioners in simulation who are interested in deepening their knowledge on the foundations, methods, and implications of their techniques.

Prerequisites for participation?
Technical skills (knowledge of programming languages, simulation experience) are helpful, but not required. Acquaintance with the literature in contemporary philosophy of science is useful, but will not be assumed.

How to apply?
The number of participants is limited to 20. To apply, email kaminski@hlrs.de.
All proposals must be submitted by May 30, 2017 and include:
(1) short curriculum vitae;
(2) description of your research (max. one page);
(3) questions or topics you are interested in regarding the summer school (just a few lines).
Participants will be notified by June 30, 2017.

What are the costs?
There is no fee, but participants will have to cover their travel and hotel expenses. The organizers will happily help participants organize their journey and hotel stay.
The DHST/DLMPST Interdivision Commission on the History and Philosophy of Computing (www.hapoc.org) will offer two bursaries of $250 each to support travel and accommodation costs of young researchers. To apply for this funding, please forward your application to
Liesbeth de Mol liesbeth.demol@univ-lille3.fr
Giuseppe Primiero G.Primiero@mdx.ac.uk
by May 31, 2017. Applicants will be informed of decisions pertaining to both funding and proposal submission at the same time (June 30, 2017).

Website: https://regi.hlrs.de/2017/summer-school/index.jsp

Call for informal presentations

Computability in Europe 2017, June 12-16, Turku, Finland
http://math.utu.fi/cie2017/

Important dates
• Submission deadline: May 1, 2017
• Notification of acceptance: Within two weeks of submission

There is a remarkable difference in conference style between computer science and mathematics conferences. Mathematics conferences allow for informal presentations that are prepared very shortly before the conference and inform the participants about current research and work in progress. The format of computer science conferences with pre-conference proceedings is not able to accommodate this form of scientific communication.

Continuing the tradition of past CiE conferences, also this year’s CiE conference endeavours to get the best of both worlds. In addition to the formal presentations based on our LNCS proceedings volume, we invite researchers to present informal presentations. For this, please send us a brief description of your talk (one page) by the submission deadline May 1st.

Please submit your abstract electronically, via EasyChair <https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=cie2017>, selecting the category “Informal Presentation”.

You will be notified whether your talk has been accepted for informal presentation within two weeks after your submission.

Jarkko Kari and Ion Petre (PC co-chairs of CiE 2017)