Sat, 12 Sep 2009
STSC 160: The Information Age
The new semester started for me this past Thursday, and once again I created a wordle map for my Information Age course. Click on the image above for the full version and the syllabus. This year I experimented with something new to occupy the time while we got 250+ students squeezed into a room that only holds 240, and the resulting video can be found on YouTube here. The video is basically a graphical overview of the themes that we will be exploring over the course of the semester.
Here are the most recent versions of the syllabi for my Information Age and Cyberculture courses.
category: /teaching
Thu, 06 Aug 2009
Fulbright Fellows Program
Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions was the best-selling academic book of the 20th Century, selling over one million copies in sixteen languages. As part of their introduction to the United States, a group of forty-one Fulbright Scholars from thirty countries is studying Kuhn at Penn this summer. I gave the introductory lecture on SSR, which was great fun. I rarely get to do philosophy of science anymore. The slides are here, but the animated version is even better: lots of astronomy and epicycles, along with a cameo by Homer Simpson.
category: /media
Wed, 05 Aug 2009
Engineering a Professional Identity
This week I will be attending the IEEE Conference on the History of Technical Societies. This is part of a larger celebration of the IEEE's 125th Anniversary. I gave a talk entitled "Engineering a Professional Identity: The Place of Professional Societies in the History of Computing."
category: /misc
Wed, 24 Jun 2009
Bigfoot!
My friend and fellow former grad student Josh Buhs has a new book out called Bigfoot: The Life and Times of a Legend. So far it has gotten great reviews, and in places books on the history of science are rarely ever covered, including the Washington Post, Mail Tribune, Telegraph, NPR, and New York Times.
Josh and I spent many hours working on our dissertations together, often alone in the office because we both arrived early. His turned out to be an exemplary dissertation, and was later published as The Fire Ant Wars
Nature, Science, and Public Policy in Twentieth-Century America.
category: /misc
Fri, 05 Jun 2009
Information Technology, Organizations, and Work Processes
This week I will be in Copenhagen to comment on papers for a conference on information technology and work processes. An excellent program of papers on everything from software development practices to the history of computing in the banking industry. The full program can be found here.
category: /misc
Mon, 13 Apr 2009
Women of Power Documentaries
On Tuesday, April 14, I will be responding to a screening of the documentary "To Dream Tomorrow," which is about computing pioneer Ada Byron Lovelace.
The film is been shown as part of a series called
More information about the Lovelace documentary and its filmmakers can be found here
category: /media
Thu, 05 Mar 2009
University of Minneapolis
On February 26, 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 a conceptual turn, and focused on what I am calling the "politics of the algorithm."
In any case, the slides that I used illustrate the talk attracted a lot of attention, and I am posting them here as an experiment in making aspect of my research more widely available.
category: /media
Sat, 20 Dec 2008
HSSC 564: History of Technology
This graduate-level reading seminar explores the different ways of thinking historically
about the role that technology has played in western history. The
underlying assumption is that technology is simultaneously a reflection
of social and cultural values, and a factor in
shaping the continuous developments and transformations of those
values. Our goal is
to become familiar with the scholarly research traditions in the
discipline, to explore relationships with other disciplinary
sub-fields -- particularly the history of science and the history of
medicine, and to explore new historiographical horizons.
Download the most current version of the HSSC 564 syllabus in PDF form
category: /teaching
Fri, 12 Dec 2008
SAS Frontiers Magazine
The current issue of School of Arts & Science Frontiers magazine features a review of my recent work on the Internet and American commerce.
The article is written by B. Davin Stengel, and is called "Doctors Without Modems? Technology Historian Nathan Ensmenger checks the pulse of the e-health revolution."
The article includes audio of my discussing the Science, Technology, and Society major, as well as my forthcoming book "The Computer Boys Take Over" (MIT Press)
category: /media
Open Source Teaching
The Open Source Teaching Project represents an attempt to use Web 2.0 technologies and social networking to "create freely interactive media platforms which integrate academic and social content focused on critical thinking, college, and careers."
Listen here to my interview with OST, where I discuss such divers topics as "what is the history of technology," "choices and technology," "the problems with digital media," and "doing research as an undergradute."
It was a pleasure working with the OST. I regularly teach about open source projects, and have written a little about the lessons of open source for historians, but this is my first real open-source project.
category: /media
Wed, 22 Oct 2008
Society for the History of Technology
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 I hope to transform this short essay into a full-length paper. For the time being, here is the conference version.
category: /research
Thu, 28 Aug 2008
STSC 160: The Information Age
Classes start on Wednesday of next week, and I have been preparing for my Information Age course. This year it will be larger than ever -- 150 210 students -- which is more than twice last year's enrollment. This is a little intimidating, and I have been busy at work making sure everything goes just right.
As an experiment, I created a wordle map of my introductory lecture. It turns out be a good reflection of the course content -- and quite good looking as well.
Click on the image for a larger version. The course syllabus can be found here.
category: /teaching
Fri, 18 Jul 2008
HSSC 550: The Information Sciences
Important note about my graduate seminar for the Fall 2008 semester:
Instead of teaching the HSSC 677 seminar on careers in science, technology, and medicine, I will be offering instead HSSC 550: The Information Sciences. This seminar will meet on Monday afternoon from 12:30-3:30 in Claudia Cohen (formerly Logan) Hall, room 362.
HSSC 550: The Information Sciences
This graduate seminar explores the emergence and widespread
adoption in the early Cold War-period of a set of interrelated
tools, techniques, and discourses organized around the concept
of ``information.'' These emerging information science
included not only new disciplines such as cybernetics,
information theory, operations research, and ecology, but also
some traditional physical sciences -- such as biology and
chemistry -- as well as a broad range of social sciences,
including economics, political science, sociology, and urban
planning. The focus of the course will be on tracing the
important structural changes in post-war science that
encouraged the adoption of the rhetoric of information (if not
its substance), as well as on extending the relevance of these
developments to a wide range of topics in the history of
science, medicine, and technology.
Download the HSSC 550 syllabus in PDF form
category: /teaching
Thu, 17 Jul 2008
Gender and Computing Revisited
A PDF version of my paper from the recent Gender and Computer conference at the Charles Babbage Institute is now available online.
category: /research
Wed, 23 Apr 2008
Gender and Computing Conference
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 immense resources to increasing women's participation in computing, over the past two decades there has been a striking drop in women's participation in computing education and a corresponding tail-off in the U.S. workforce. Clearly, an important "missing piece" is yet to be discovered. This international conference examines gender and the diverse uses of computing in offices, libraries, schools, mass media, and the computing profession.
I will be presenting a paper called "Making Programming Masculine."
Registration for the conference is open until 20 May 2008. More information can be found here.
category: /research
Tue, 04 Mar 2008
The Mechanical Body: Building Humans, Challenging Humanity
This Tuesday, March 4, I will be giving a talk called "Cyborgs, Artificial Intelligences, and Meat Machines: Computers and the Reinvention of the Body" at Drexel University as part of their Great Works Symposium. The talk is from 3:30-4:50 in Curtis Hall, Room 340
The video of this talk is now available.
category: /media
Sun, 10 Feb 2008
The Internet & American Business
It's finally here! The Internet and American Business has arrived via MIT Press. From the jacket blub: "Tracing the impact of the commercialized Internet since 1995 on American business and society, the book describes new business models, new companies and adjustments by established companies, the rise of e-commerce, and community building; it considers dot-com busts and difficulties encountered by traditional industries; and it discusses such newly created problems as copyright violations associated with music file-sharing and the proliferation of Internet pornography."
My contribution is called "Resistance is Futile? Reluctant and Selective Users of the Internet." It explains why a series of industries -- including healthcare and higher education -- have not yet been radically transformed by the Internet.
category: /publications
Wed, 30 Jan 2008
History of Computing - Software for Europe
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
category: /research
Fri, 30 Nov 2007
STSC 260: Cyberculture
Free speech, free software, MOOS, MUDs, anime and cyberpunk. All of these are elements of a broad set of social, technical and political phenom- ena generally associated with the emergence of a nascent "cyberculture." In this seminar we explore the ways in which recent developments in information technology -- the computer and the Internet in particular -- relate to changing contemporary notions of community, identity, property, and gender. By looking at an eclectic collection of popular and scholarly resources, including film, fiction and the World Wide Web, we will situate the development of "cyberculture" into the larger history of the complex relationship between technology and Western society.
category: /teaching
Thu, 29 Nov 2007
STSC 003: Technology & Society
"We shape our technologies; thereafter they shape us."
This course surveys the ways in which technology has shaped our societies and our relations with the natural world. We will examine the origins and impact of technical developments throughout human history and across the globe --- from stone tools, agriculture, and cave painting to ancient cities, metallurgy, and aqueducts; from windmills, cathedrals, steam engines and electricity to atom bombs, the internet, and genetic engineering. We will pay attention to the aesthetic, religious, and mythical dimensions of technological change, and consider the circumstances in which innovations emerge and their effects on social order, on the environment, and on the ways humans understand themselves.
category: /teaching
Sat, 10 Nov 2007
Computers & Ethics
Nathan Ensmenger, "Computers as Ethical Objects," IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 29:3 (2007), 86-88.
category: /publications
Tue, 04 Sep 2007
Beauty and the Geek
One of our recent graduates is on television! Will was actually a CS major, but he minored in our
No doubt Will will do us all proud in his appearance Beauty and the Geek this fall.
category: /misc
Mon, 16 Jul 2007
Top-Secret Rosies
I just finished filming a segment for a documentary by local film-maker LeAnn Erikson. I was just one of the talking-head historians. The real heroes of the film are the women who worked as mathematicians and "human computers" during the Second World War (including those who programmed the ENIAC computer right here at the Moore School of Electrical Engineering).
View the trailer online.
category: /media
The Research Channel II
Case Files in the History of Computing
This is the second in a series of symposium hosted by the Franklin Institute and the History & Sociology of Science department celebrating the opening of a new section of the electronic case files archives.
The focus of the presentation was on the early history of the computing industry, featuring key individuals including Hollerith, Burroughs, Eckert, Mauchly, Bardeen, Brittain, and Shannon. Professor Ensmenger provided a general overview of the history of computing.
The full video can be is running on the Research Channel.
category: /media
The view from my window
A few years ago, in the middle of a snowstorm, a peacock showed up on our side porch. He has been living in our backyard ever since. When I work outside on my laptop, he displays for me for hours at a time. My kids gave him a first name, but that seemed to familiar for such a formal guy, so now we just call him Mr. Peacock.
category: /misc
Wed, 11 Jul 2007
STSC 160: The Information Age
Certain new technologies are greeted with claims that, for good or ill, they must transform our society. The two most recent: the computer and the Internet. But the series of social, economic, and technological developments that underlie what is often called the "Information Revolution" include much more than just the computer. In this course, we examine what made this series of develop- ments seem so revolutionary, who said what about them, and why. We chart changing perceptions of information technologies as people begin to experience them as a part of everyday life and work. We will explore both the technologies themselves as well as their larger social, economic, and political context.These perspectives will inform our discussion of current issues such as life and censor- ship in 'cyberspace'.
category: /teaching
Tue, 10 Jul 2007
STSC 060: Nerds in America: Technological Enthusiasm in American History
Technological enthusiasm has served as a cornerstone of American economic, social, and political life since the founding of the Republic. From Thomas Edison to Bill Gates, the inventor hero has achieved an almost mythical stature in contemporary culture. In this course we will explore the history of the "nerd" -- and the central role of technology in American life past and present -- from a variety of historical and popular culture perspectives.
category: /teaching
Thu, 10 May 2007
STSC 465: Computers, Ethics, and Society
This course will explore the various social implication of information technology: social, cultural, political, and economic. By considering by a wide variety
of perspectives on the Information Revolution, we will examine the relationship between new information technologies and changing notions of community, identity, property, and democracy. Topics will include intellectual property
rights, Linux and the free software movement, cyber libertarianism, and the rise
and fall of the dot.com economy.
Download the STSC 465 syllabus in PDF form
category: /teaching
University of Wisconsin
On February 20th, 2007, Dr. Ensmenger will be giving a talk at the University of Wisconsin entitled "Neither Luddites nor Sages: Physicians and Professors as Reluctant Users of the Internet."
The seminar is funded by the UW-Madison Holtz Center for Science and Technology Studies, and sponsored by the UW-Madison School of Library and Information Studies.
See the full poster.
category: /media
Resistance is Futile
Nathan Ensmenger, "Resistance is Futile? Reluctant and Selective Users of the Internet" in P. Ceruzzi and W. Aspray, The Commercialization of the Internet and Its Impact on American Business (MIT Press, forthcoming)
Download the pdf of the draft version of this paper.
category: /publications
Wed, 18 Apr 2007
STSC 352: Technological Innovation and Business History
This course will explore the relationship between technological innova- tion and business history. By looking at a series of case studies of tech- nologically driven firms -- both U.S. and international -- we will develop a more sophisticated and historically informed model of the relationship between technological, economic, legal, and political developments in the late 19th and 20th centuries.
category: /teaching
Wed, 13 Dec 2006
Society for the History of Technology Annual Conference 2006
This paper was based on some research that I am currently developing on the history of decision technologies.
From the paper:
"It is also clear that no-one quite knows what to do with software; computer science focuses on software as algorithm; history of computer science is often told as old-style intellectual history; this is obviously insufficient, software sits uncomfortably between science technology; not a thing, an yet clearly constructed; invisible, ethereal, often ephemeral; also not clear what exactly constitutes software; programs, practices, people; software is perhaps the ultimate heterogenous system...
"And so his paper represents an attempt to think seriously about software as a material artifact, as a technology embedded in systems of practice, networks of exchange..."
category: /media
Wed, 09 Aug 2006
Research Channel I
The History of Communications in America
The Franklin Institute offers an electronic presentation of its Case Files, a collection of primary source documents that exists as an unknown repository of the history of science and technology. The University of PennsylvaniaÕs Department of History and Sociology of Science hosted a Symposium to discuss the historical, scientific, and educational merit of the Case Files, which date from the 1820s, as a modern day resource for undergraduate, graduate, and professional scholars, as well as K-12 students.
category: /media
Tue, 18 Apr 2006
STSC 213: Cyberculture
Free speech, free software, MOOS, MUDs, anime and cyberpunk. All of these are elements of a broad set of social, technical and political phenom- ena generally associated with the emergence of a nascent "cyberculture." In this seminar we explore the ways in which recent developments in information technology -- the computer and the Internet in particular -- relate to changing contemporary notions of community, identity, property, and gender. By looking at an eclectic collection of popular and scholarly resources, including film, fiction and the World Wide Web, we will situate the development of "cyberculture" into the larger history of the complex relationship between technology and Western society.
category: /teaching
Tue, 10 May 2005
Radio Odyssey - WBEZ Chicago
The Social History of Computers
Paul Edwards -- Associate Professor, School of Information; University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Nathan Ensmenger -- Assistant Professor of History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania
As rapidly as computer technology has changed, so have our hopes for -- and fears about -- its potential. How do we imagine the place of computers in our lives?
Historians of science and technology Nathan Ensmenger and Paul Edwards join Chicago Public Radio's Gretchen Helfrich for the discussion. Ensmenger writes and researches on the history of software, artificial intelligence, and the information age. Edwards is author of The World in a Machine: Computer Models, Data Networks, and Global Atmospheric Politics.
category: /media
Is Chess the Drosophila of AI? Exploring the Moral Economy of Artificial Intelligence
The title of this paper derives from a quote by the legendary computer scientist John McCarthy: " In 1965, the Russian mathematician Alexander Kronrod said, 'Chess is the Drosophila of artificial intelligence.' However, computer chess has developed much as genetics might have if the geneticists had concentrated their efforts starting in 1910 on breeding racing Drosophila. We would have some science, but mainly we would have very fast fruit flies.
McCarthy and his colleagues in AI this metaphor was appropriate because they saw chess, like the drosophilia, as an ideal vehicle through which to reveal objective truths about the natural world. Historians of science, however, view the drosophila from a different perspective. Building on the work of Robert Kohler, this paper explores the moral economy of the AI community and the unique ways in which the experimental technology of chess shaped the program of AI research in the decade of the 1970s.
category: /research
Sun, 21 Nov 2004
Open Source's Lessons for Historians
Nathan Ensmenger, "Open Source's Lessons for Historians," IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 26:4 (2004), 103-104.
category: /publications
Toward a Social History of Computing
Nathan Ensmenger, "Power to the people: toward a social history of computing," IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 26:1(2004), 95-96.
category: /publications
Fri, 18 Apr 2003
Letting the Computer Boys Take Over
Nathan Ensmenger. Letting the 'computer boys' take over: Technology and the politics of organizational transformation. International Review of Social History, 48(S11):153-180, 2003.
category: /publications
Fri, 10 May 2002
Software as Labor Process
In April 2000, the International Conference on the History of Computing hosted a special conference on the history of software. The goal was to set an agenda for future scholarship in the history of information processing. The conference was held at the largest history of computing museum in the world, the Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum in Paderborn, Germany. This paper was one of the five papers commissioned for the conference. It has since been published in in Mapping the History of Computing: Software Issues, U. Hashagen, R. Keil-Slawik, A. Norberg, eds. (New York: Springer-Verlag, 2002).
Download the pdf of the draft version of this paper.
category: /publications
Wed, 21 Mar 2001
The Question of Professionalism
Nathan Ensmenger. "The 'question of professionalism' in the computer fields." IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, 4(23):56-73, 2001.
category: /publications
Wed, 10 May 2000
About Nathan Ensmenger
Nathan Ensmenger teaches courses in the history of technology in the History and Sociology of Science department. He also teaches courses on engineering ethics and professionalism in the School of Engineering and Applied Science.
His current research interests are aimed at reintegrating the history of the "information revolution'' -- very broadly defined to encompass a wide range of 19th and 20th century scientific, technological and social developments -- into mainstream American social and cultural history.
In addition to his work on the social and cultural history of software and software workers, he has studied the disciplinary history of artificial intelligence and artificial life; the formation of a distinctive computing subculture and programming "aesthetic;'' and the crucial and often misunderstood role of women in computing. He has also developed and taught courses on the computer and internet "revolutions,'' and on the relationship between technological innovation and social change.
For more information, see his curriculum vitae.
category: /about
Subscribe via RSS