A few places are still available for the following, which I would be grateful if could be brought to the attention of colleagues and customers who may have an interest.

Full details and registration form at www.cross-connexions.org.uk.

Apologies for any cross-postings

David Hay
Head of BT Heritage



Cross-connexions: Communications, Society and Change
11th -13th November 2005, Science Museum, London, UK

There is no more graphic example of the relationship between science, technology and society than the telecommunications explosion of the last century and a half. The history of telecommunications and its connections to political, economic and social history present a vibrant and fertile research subject and an important point of access to modern history of technology and science.  

Cross-connexions: Communications, Society and Change is a wonderful opportunity to develop academic research and debate in the history of telecommunications. It is also an opportunity to develop knowledge of the relationship and connections cutting across many traditional disciplines. The social significance of telecommunications makes such research an indispensable task facing historians, scientists and society. This international conference will bring researchers together to help discover and articulate a long-term research agenda and network for historians, students and the public. 

Programme

The conference consists of forty-five papers spread over three days at two locations in the Science Museum. The themes addressed on Friday 11th November are: 
*	Understanding perceptions of health risk from mobile telephony
(symposium)  
*	Obsolete technologies in history (including Videotex and email
standards)  

Among the themes on Saturday, 12th November are: 
*	Data transmission and the market
*	Politics and policy (Marconi scandal of 1912, Frequency allocation
conferences, EC policy)
*	Consumers and the growth of the internet
*	The spread of telegraphy	
*	Alec Reeves
*	Museum collections in historical and contemporary contexts
*	Path dependence in the history of telecommunications (symposium)
*	Business histories in telecommunications
*	Telecoms satellite technology

Among the themes on Sunday, 13th November are:
*	Early telegraphy and telephony (including William Preece)
*	Gender and telephony
*	Consumer electronics and communications
*	Business practice and the telephone
*	Convergence of telephony and computing/IT 
*	Acoustics and multiplexing
*	Cultural impacts of telecommunications
*	Digitization and standards (including System X) 

Please note that the timetable is subject to change

Speakers

There is an international array of speakers drawn from academic historians, museum curators and engineers. Speakers include (subject to change):
 
Professor Kurt Jacobsen (Copenhagen Business School); Professor Albert Kündig (professor Emeritus, ETH Zurich); Dr Adam Burgess (University of Kent); Dr Jack Rowley (GSM Association); Dr Jack Stilgoe (Demos); Dr Tilly Blyth (Curator of Computing, Science Museum, London); Dr Birgitte Wistoft (Director, PTT Museum Copenhagen); Dr Janneke Hermans (Museum of Communications, The Hague, Holland); Dr Jonathan Coopersmith (Texas A&M University); Dr Anthony Constable (author); Dr Arthe van Laer (University of Louvain); Dr Aristotle Tympas (University of Athens); Dr Gregory Radick (University of Leeds); Dr Kai Jakobs (Aachen University); Dr Graeme Milne (University of Liverpool); Dr Tim Boon (Head of Collections, Science Museum); Doug Millard (Curator of Space Technology, Science Museum) ; Jean-Marie Dilhac (LAAS - CNRS, Toulouse) ; Andrew Russell (Johns Hopkins University); John Liffen (Curator of Communications, Science Museum); Mark Steadman (PTT Museum Copenhagen); Alison Taubman (Curator of Telecommunications, National Museum of Scotland); Roland Wittje (Norwegian University of Science and Technology).


In addition, there will be a series of events, receptions and a conference dinner, which will be held on Saturday 12th November in the revolving restaurant at the BT Tower. 

To register, please download the registration form at www.cross-connexions.org.uk. The four-page leaflet and poster are also available in PDF format along with the programme listing.
 
For enquiries, please contact Chris Chilvers, BT Connected Earth Senior Research Fellow, Science Museum, Exhibition Road, London, SW7 2DD, UK. Telephone +44 [0]20-7942-4183; email: [log in to unmask] . 

The conference is sponsored by: BT Connected Earth, Science Museum, Newcomen Society, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), International Association of Transport and Communications Museums (IATM),
The Communications Network.