2015 SIGCIS Keynote
October 06, 2015 #research
I was pleased to be asked to present this year’s keynote address at the annual Special Interest Group for Computers, Information and Society... <more>
Research Projects
IU Institute for Advanced Study Grant
May 01, 2015 #research
The Indiana University Institute for Advanced Study has awarded me an Individual Research Award Grant for work on my forthcoming book on the environmental history of computing. Many thanks to the awards committee at the IAS for... <more>
Annals of the History of Computing
December 05, 2014 #research
As of January 1, 2015 I will be taking over as the editor-in-chief of the IEEE Annals of the History of Computing. The Annals has served as the premier journal in the history of computing for thirty-five years, and... <more>
The Computer Boys in the News
October 20, 2014 #media #research
My first book, The Computer Boys Take Over, has been attracting attention in the news recently, largely because of its discussion of gender and computer programming. This article in Fastcompany on the “Evolution of Brogramming” discusses my work... <more>
The Cult of Masculinity in Computing
October 14, 2014 #research
Update: I titled my first book after its central characters, adopting a contemporary term for these new specialists — “the computer boys” — that for me neatly captured mixed sense of awe, mystery, suspicion, and derision with... <more>
When Good Software Goes Bad
September 20, 2014 #research #media
For the upcoming MICE (Mistakes, Ignorance, Contingency, and Error) Conference in Munich I have prepared a paper entitled “When Good Software Goes Bad: The Surprising Durability of an Ephemeral Technology.”
In theory,... <more>
Rob Kling Center for Social Informatics Fellowship
May 12, 2014 #research
The Rob Kling Center for Social Informatics has awarded me a Research Fellows Grant for the academic year 2014-2015. This grant will be used to fund research on my global environmental history of computing.
Computer Security and the Sociology of Risk
March 21, 2014 #research
At the heart of the discipline of computer security is the problem of risk: how to analyze and quantify risks that are for the most part invisible, intangible, and not immediately life-threatening; how to communicate risk to computer users, software... <more>
New appointment in the History & Philosophy of Science
February 20, 2014 #teaching #research
I am very pleased to announce that I have been appointed an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science. I am thrilled to be part of this lively and accomplished group of scholars!
Towards an Environmental History of Computing
May 20, 2013 #research
For the upcoming Society for the History of Technology Conference, I have been working on a paper that situates the history of computing in environmental history. This is about more than simply talking about the environmental consequences of computing... <more>
From Mechanical Brains to Philosophical Zombies
October 11, 2012 #research
From Descartes and Leibniz to Dennet and Searle, philosophers of the mind have struggled to understand the relationship between the mind and body. How did purely material structures and processes (the body)... <more>
Visualizing Complexity: Flowcharts as the Boundary Objects of Software Development
November 01, 2011 #research
From the very earliest days of electronic computing, “flow diagrams” (later “flowcharts”) have been used to represent the conceptual structure of... <more>
Is Chess the Drosophila of AI?
January 27, 2011 #media #research
A couple of years ago I presented a paper at the University of Minneapolis on my ongoing research project on computerized decision models. Although the paper was ostensibly about computer chess, the talk took... <more>
History of Software, European Styles
September 12, 2010 #media #research
On September 13 I will be giving a keynote address at the Software for Europe conference at the Lorentz Center for the Sciences in the Netherlands. The talk will focus on the work practices of computer... <more>
Society for the History of Technology: From Computer Operations to Operating Systems
October 15, 2009 #research
Like many terms of art in electronic computing, the concept of the “operating system” represents an appropriation of earlier, pre-computer processes and procedures. Today, of course, we think of an operating system – such as Windows, Linux, or OS X... <more>
On the Internet, Everyone is a Crypto-Fascist
April 15, 2009 #research
For a recent graduate seminar run by my friend and colleague John Tresch, I prepared an essay on the economic principles embedded in Godwin’s Law. The result was a very rough thought piece, but a lot of fun... <more>
Society for the History of Technology
October 22, 2008 #research
At the recent Society for the History of Technology conference, held this year in Lisbon, I presented a paper called “Fixing things that can never be broken: Software maintenance as heterogeneous engineering.” At some point in the near future... <more>
Gender and Computing Revisited
July 17, 2008 #research
A PDF version of my paper from the recent Gender and Computer conference at the Charles Babbage Institute is now available online.
Here is a brief abstract of the paper:
The first computer programmers were women. In... <more>
Gender and Computing Conference
April 23, 2008 #research
On May 30, 2008 the Charles Babbage Institute at the University of Minnesota will present a day-long public conference devoted to a much-needed examination of gender and computing. While the National Science Foundation and other policy actors have devoted... <more>
History of Computing - Software for Europe
January 30, 2008 #research
Just got back from the SOFT-EU Workshop in Grenoble. The workshop was part of a larger project called History of Computing - Software for Europe, which is in turn part of the larger Tensions of Europe: Technology and... <more>