Nearly through reading @xiaochang.bsky.social brilliant new book Divination Engines!! This is the best historical study on Natural Language Processing, & imo, the most insightful monograph on AI history! CBI was so fortunate have Xiaochang as a keynote at our 2023 "Automation by Design" symposium!

Just Code is an Open Access book thanks to a grant to CBI from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation!! The link is here: press.jhu.edu/books/title/...

Just Code

Power, Inequality, and the Political Economy of IT

press.jhu.edu

It was an absolute joy & honor to work w Con & such amazing chapter authors on Just Code!! THANKS to T&C's reviewer Ricky Wichum! J.C.'s authors on Bsky: @histoftech.bsky.social @mysdick.bsky.social @shreeharsh.bsky.social @dmulvin.bsky.social @janakis.bsky.social muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...

New from Interfaces, a review essay I just published on STS of blockchain with RMIT's Dr. Kelsie Nabben's insightful book Decentralised Digital Security as the centerpiece. Also discusses work of @ntnsndr.in others.. #histtech #eth #ethereum #cybersecurity #ethnography share.google/F55gFHqTfnnm...

Terrific UL, UMN article on Nappi Archives & CBI Project Archivist of Maureen Nappi Papers Jennifer Shaw-Spence. Dr. Nappi a NYC artist, multimedia, was videographer of concerts at Greenwich Vill. Pepperment Lounge in 80s--videos of Ramones, REM, Sonic Youth, Black Flag... z.umn.edu/CBI-Nappi

Painting on the Art Speak Machine: CBI acquires the collection of Computer Artist Maureen A. Nappi - UMN Libraries News & Events

The digital world would be entirely opaque without screens and graphics, without computer artists and designers, without people like Maureen Nappi.

z.umn.edu

Book Cover Out! The Midterms fight will be vital & no better timing for this bk in Con Diaz & my JHUP Computing & Culture bk series, UVA Anthro. Bryan Pfaffenberger's Machining the Vote out this Fall! #democracy #histtech #anthropology Machining the Vote | Hopkins Press share.google/Mbh9PeYTXBWu...

Machining the Vote

The Forgotten Story of the Mechanical Voting Machine, and Why It Matters

share.google

Congratulations to CBI Senior Research Fellow Prof. David Nye on his just published The Great Energy Transition: America from 1876 to 1929!! MIT Press. Here is a short article on it. "American Progress was an Optical Illusion" from @mitpress.bsky.social thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/american-pro...

American Progress Was an Optical Illusion

The turn-of-the-century energy transition dazzled the nation — while concealing segregation, extraction, and ruin.

thereader.mitpress.mit.edu

My article on SIGCIS 2026. Org. Cmt: Morgan Ames, @babintsevak.bsky.social, @honghongtinn.bsky.social, Jason Ludwig, @cperold.bsky.social, & Gili Vidan. Honored to Chair session of @bethmsemel.bsky.social, @maidino.bsky.social, @lukestark.bsky.social & Kelsey Ichikawa! cse.umn.edu/cbi/news/sub...

A Sublime SIGCIS Meeting in Berkeley (SIGCIS 2026)

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (06/24/2026) — The Special Interest Group in Computing, Information and Society (SIGCIS) held its annual meeting at the Information School at the University of California, Berke...

cse.umn.edu

So glad to be at the '26 SIGCIS Meeting! @sigcisconf.bsky.social @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social I-School. Grateful to the incredible Organizing Committee, a terrific program! @honghongtinn.bsky.social @babintsevak.bsky.social @cperold.bsky.social Jason Ludwig, Gili Vidan, Morgan Ames. #histtech

CBI is thrilled to host "The Problem with Personalization." A talk by UPenn Annenberg School of Comm. Prof. Joseph Turow. June 30th 1pm Central. Via Zoom. Register for this free event at the link. #mediastudies #privacy cse.umn.edu/cbi/events/p...

The Problem with Personalization: A Talk with Joseph Turow

CBI is pleased to host Joseph Turow, Robert Lewis Shayon Professor of Media Systems & Industries at the Annenberg School for Communication, as he presents a lecture from his recently published book, T...

cse.umn.edu

Congratulation to CBI's 2026 Norberg Travel Grant Recipients Cornell University's Andra Sonia Petrutiu & Jordan Ali, and Harvard University's Max Kwass-Mason! Read about their fascinating dissertation projects in the short article in CBI Bits & Bytes. #histtech #sts cse.umn.edu/cbi/news/jor...

Thrilled to announce Prof. of Media Study, SUNY, Buffalo, Andrew Lison CBI Book Launch Lecture for his MIT Press book, entitled, "100% Utilization." Wed. June 3, '26. 1 PM Central Online. #histtech umn.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

"We fail to diagnose a societal illness like what is happening right now with the global buy-in to AI. But let it be noted here: the delusions of the Oligarchs might at first manifest as infrastructure, but we will later have to analyse them as societal ruins." #datacenters #environment

Mél Hogan / The Data Fix@melhogan.bsky.social · 3mo ago

disjunctionsmag.com/articles/end...

CBI is thrilled to announce @andrewlea.bsky.social has won CBI's 2026 Human-Computer Interaction History Prize for his masterful book Digitizing Diagnosis (JHUP). Award made possible by HCI pioneer @benbendc.bsky.social #humancomputerinteraction #hci #ai #aihistory cse.umn.edu/cbi/news/and...

Andrew Lea Receives 2026 CBI Human-Computer Interaction History Prize

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (05/12/26) — Andrew Lea’s Digitizing Diagnosis Medicine, Minds, and Machines is a deeply researched, elegantly written, and highly insightful prehistory and history of the appli...

cse.umn.edu

Grateful to Purdue University, Junto Conf., & to session colleagues. Saturday, I participated in the "Computing, Power & Politics" session (on Critical AI, Cybernetics & Blockchain) w past Tomash Fellow Aaron Mendon-Plasek, Erin Wilcox, Daniel Melbert. #aistudies #blockchain

CBI in @cse.umn.edu is thrilled to host ASI President, CBI Research Fellow, TEDx speaker Dr. Molly Steenson @maximolly.bsky.social for "Generating AI History Through Architecture" May 6th at noon (free lunch, 11:45am), Andersen Lib. Rm 120C. #ai #sts #histech Register at: z.umn.edu/SteensonAITalk

Call for Papers for CBI's MOSAICS Symposium: cse.umn.edu/cbi/call-pap... Thrilled to announce this & to work with Sareeta Amrute, @babintsevak.bsky.social, @anitachan.bsky.social & Gerardo Con Diaz!! MOSAICS Symposium: October 15-16, 2026 Proposal Deadline: May 29, 2026 #AIstudies #histtech

New Interfaces article!! (link below) Insightful article on the history of Indian supercomputing by Cornell U. STS scholar Andra Sonia Petrutiu "Disrupting Flattening Universal Ambitions: The Case of Supercomputing in India." #histsci #supercomputing #india #history cse.umn.edu/cbi/interfaces

Past CMU Vice Provost, American Swedish Inst. CEO, & CBI Research Fellow Molly Steenson just delivered a fascinating & insightful lecture on AI History to @honghongtinn.bsky.social "Digital World" UMN class. So glad to attend!!

For the Minnesotans out there, see post below for upcoming book talk! My host, @justcode.bsky.social, wrote a lovely review of my book right when it came out. Also it's the final days of the @dukepress.bsky.social Fall book sale (thru Nov 9). Use FALL25 code on the press website to get 50% off!

An Ethnographic Sublime in The Land of the Unreal (Review Essay)

Intro-In the mid-1980s communication scholar Joshua Meyerowitz argued electronic media was leading to No Sense of Place. Over the next few decades, the Web and social platforms provided to the masses ...

blockchainandsociety.com

Jeffrey Yost@justcode.bsky.social · 9mo ago

CBI & UMN Anthro are delighted to host Nov. 14th lecture (noon to 1pm, Andersen Lib. 120) by Yale U. Prof. of Anthropology & CBI Research Fellow @lmesseri.bsky.social Lisa Messeri!! "IN THE LAND OF THE UNREAL" Free talk & lunch, reg. req. Registration: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... #HISTSCI

CBI is absolutely delighted to announce that thought-leading scholars University of Illinois' @anitachan.bsky.social & Indiana University's @rachelplotnick.bsky.social have just joined us as new CBI Research Fellows. Below is the link to the article. #histsci cse.umn.edu/cbi/news/cbi...

CBI Names Anita Say Chan and Rachel Plotnick as the Institute’s New Research Fellows

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (10/09/2025)—The Charles Babbage Institute for Computing, Information and Culture (CBI) is delighted to announce the addition of University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana’s Anita...

cse.umn.edu

Just published in Interfaces-- tremendously insightful & timely essay by U. of Toronto's @hopelatta.bsky.social "People-in-Progress: 'Debate Escrow,' and the Language of Delay in Tech Research on Adolescent Digital Health." #histsci cse.umn.edu/cbi/interfaces

2/2 Just Code Power, Inequality, and the Political Economy of IT Edited by Jeffrey R. Yost and Gerardo Con Díaz Table of Contents

1/2 Just Code Power, Inequality, and the Political Economy of IT Edited by Jeffrey R. Yost and Gerardo Con Díaz Table of Contents

"One of the throughlines in the history of technology is that big, new infrastructural technologies often make more uncompensated labor. People may have to do more things to essentially shepherd those technologies along and make sure that they don’t break down..." www.fastcompany.com/91384078/not...

Historian Mar Hicks on why nothing about AI is inevitable

The author of Programmed Inquality peers through the AI hype by recalling the rise of past technologies.

fastcompany.com

New Interfaces Essay, Aug. 2025. A super creative & insightful essay by Eóin Phillips, a Prof. of History and Sociology of Sci/Tech/Econ at La Salle-Ramon Llull Univ. "Computational Schemes and Technological Routines: A Wet History of the Phillips Machine." #histsci cse.umn.edu/cbi/interfaces

Sharing a book review of Thomas S. Mullaney The Chinese Computer that I just published in the British Journal of the History of Science. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Copies of JUST CODE just arrived! Partnering w Con & teaming w 19 brilliant STS authors on the vital topic of code/codes & inequality was so special! Authors (full list ToC below) On bsky: @mysdick.bsky.social @histoftech.bsky.social @dmulvin.bsky.social & blurb from @anitachan.bsky.social #histtech

Delighted to announce CBI Research Fellow (& close friend & collaborator) Prof. Gerardo Con Díaz's (Con's) stellar new book is out (got to read it early & blurb it). Everyone Breaks These Laws: How Copyright Made the Online World. Congrats Con! #histtech yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...

Everyone Breaks These Laws

Copyright’s profound impact on the online world as we know it   This book is a captivating exploration of the profound impact of American copyright law on...

yalebooks.yale.edu