It often surprises my students when I tell them that as much as 60-80% of all software development effort (time and money) goes into software maintenance. After all, software is not a technology that we think of as “breaking down” — at least in the conventional sense of wearing out, needing parts replaced, or requiring a new coat of paint or some additional lubrication. Nevertheless, since the mid-1960s software maintenance has loomed large in the minds (and budgets) of any organization using or developing software systems.

The problem of maintenance is a ubiquitous but neglected element of the history of technology. All complex technological systems eventually break down and require repair (some more so than others), and, in fact, as David Edgerton has suggested, maintenance is probably the central activity of most technological societies.¹ But maintenance is also low-status, difficult, tedious and risky. Engineers and inventors do not like maintenance (and therefore generally do not do maintenance), and therefore historians of technology have largely ignored it.

This coming weekend I will be attending The Maintainers: A Conference, a meeting of historians, social scientists, artists, activists, and engineers, all of whom “share an interest in the concepts of maintenance, infrastructure, repair, and the myriad forms of labor and expertise that sustain our human-built world.” I will be talking about the history of software maintenance, but the conference program is full of fascinating papers and presentations.

If you happen to be in the vicinity of NYC this weekend, the Stevens Institute of Technology is going to be the place to be!

Update: The public response to the Maintainers conference has been extraordinary and international. The organizers Lee Vinsel and Andrew Russell published an essay in Aeon that subsequently got reported on and reposted across the Internet. The conference has also been covered internationally in the French newspaper Le Monde and on Australian national radio.

On March 12 at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, TX, I will be presenting as part of a panel on the untold history of women in computing. If you happen to be in Austin for SXSW, come see our panel Fact Check: Tech Has Never Been Just a Man’s World at 3:30! The venue is sponsored by Capital One, and is located at Antoine’s.

Also, one of my fellow panelists will be the documentary film maker Robin Hauser Reynolds of the fabulous CODE: Debugging the Gender Gap, which will be screening at the IU Cinema at 7:30 on Monday, March 7. Robin will be there and will be answering questions afterwards, so this is an excellent opportunity!

One of the most far-reaching and influential aspects of my research on the labor history of computing has been my work on women in computing. In a recent article entitled “Beards, Sandals, and Other Signs of Rugged Individualism”: Masculine Culture within the Computing Professions, published in Osiris, the annual journal of the History of Science Society, I explore the flip-side of this history: namely, on the ways in which male programmers constructed both a professional and a masculine identity for themselves. I am thrilled to have this article finally available, in part because it has been years in the making (the original workshop on scientific masculinities hosted by Osiris was in 2012), but also because this research is so relevant to contemporary phenomenon.

I was pleased to be asked to present this year’s keynote address at the annual Special Interest Group for Computers, Information and Society workshop. The theme this year was on infrastructures and so was a perfect fit for my new project on the global environmental history of computing.

The goal of this project is to explore the physical infrastructure that makes our online interactions possible, and to suggest that “computer power” is more than just a metaphor. From Bitcoin “mines” to server “farms” to data “warehouses,” computing requires the input of a range of materials and resources, from lithium and rare earth elements to coal, oil, gas, and uranium. Just as with more traditional forms of technological and industrial development, the information economy can be resource-intensive, pollution-producing, and potentially damaging to the environment, to humans, and to social and political relationships. In the SIGCIS presentation of this material, I outlined several approaches to integrating the methods and insights of environmental history into the history of computing.

For more information about this project and its future research agenda, see the Dirty Bits project site.

This fall I will be teaching for the first time our core I202: Introduction to Social Informatics course. This is a course that challenges students to think critically about technological change and acquire a more sophisticated understanding of the political, economic, and social considerations that underlie technological development. For more information, see the syllabus.

In addition, I will be once again offering I222: The Information Society.

Watch the trailer

The CODE documentary, directed by Robin Hauser, exposes the dearth of American female and minority software engineers and explores the reasons for this gender gap. CODE raises the question: what would society gain from having more women and minorities code?

CODE takes a hard look at the pipeline question in technology: why aren’t there more women and minority graduates in computer science? What is stopping them from getting to the threshold? CODE follows the various challenges faced by a new generation of women programmers and the ingenious ways they are using their skills, drive, intellect and vision to disrupt the traditional, male-dominated tech world.

CODE looks to the past, delving into the history of computing to highlight women like Ada Lovelace and Grace Hopper who set the stage for today’s technology. CODE acknowledges that women have been an important part of computing since the genesis of computers, but have since been written out of this history.

First screened at the Tribeca Film Festival, the CODE documentary has been showing to audiences across the country.

I was pleased to play a small role in the development of CODE, and appear briefly as a talking head. Filmed right here at the IMU!

On May 20, 2015 I will be presenting my work on the history of masculinity in the computing professions at the UCLA Historicizing Masculinities Colloquium.

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 sponsoring this research.

The public radio show Backstory devoted an entire show to the history of Women at Work. One of the segments is called Binary Coeds: The Secret History of Women in Programming and features me and my work in this area. For more on this topic, you might also check out this recent post on The Computer Boys Take Over blog.

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 has published articles by the finest historions, computer scientists and pioneers, and industry leaders in the world.

If you are a scholar working in the history of computing or information technology, consider submitting your work to the Annals.