“A compelling challenge to the traditional male-dominated narrative of the importance of personal computers and ARPANET in laying the groundwork for today’s digital world.” Maria Klawe, president of Harvey Mudd College
Description
Silicon Valley gets all the credit for digital creativity, but this account of the pre-PC world, when computing meant more than using mature consumer technology, challenges that triumphalism.
The invention of the personal computer liberated users from corporate mainframes and brought computing into homes. But throughout the 1960s and 1970s, a diverse group of teachers and students working together on academic computing systems conducted many of the activities we now recognize as personal and social computing. Their networks were centered in New Hampshire, Minnesota, and Illinois, but they connected far-flung users. Joy Rankin draws on detailed records to explore how users exchanged messages, programmed music and poems, fostered communities, and developed computer games like The Oregon Trail. These unsung pioneers helped shape our digital world, just as much as the inventors, garage hobbyists, and eccentric billionaires of Palo Alto.
By imagining computing as an interactive commons, the early denizens of the digital realm seeded today’s debate about whether the internet should be a public utility and laid the groundwork for the concept of net neutrality. Rankin offers a radical precedent for a more democratic digital culture, and new models for the next generation of activists, educators, coders, and makers.
Praise
“A compelling challenge to the traditional male-dominated narrative of the importance of personal computers and ARPANET in laying the groundwork for today’s digital world.” Maria Klawe, president of Harvey Mudd College
“The digital revolution…was brought to us by computer users, and that story―as vividly narrated by Joy Rankin…deserves to be better known.” George Dyson, author of Turing’s Cathedral
Details
| Language | English |
|---|---|
| Release Day | Oct 7, 2018 |
| Release Date | October 8, 2018 |
| Release Date Machine | 1538956800 |
| Imprint | Blackstone Publishing |
| Provider | Blackstone Publishing |
| Categories | History, Americas, Computers & Technology, Education & Learning, Computer Science, History & Culture, Nonfiction - Adult, Nonfiction - All |
Author Bio
Joy Lisi Rankin is assistant professor of the history of science and technology at Michigan State University. She served as a consultant for the documentaries The Birth of BASIC and The Queen of Code, and the television show Girls Code. Prior to entering the academy, Rankin had a successful career launching educational programs for students of all ages, which took her around the country. Her website is JoyRankin.com.
Narrator Bio
Bernadette Dunne is the winner of numerous AudioFile Earphones Awards and has twice been nominated for the prestigious Audie Award. She studied at the Royal National Theatre in London and the Studio Theater in Washington, DC, and has appeared at the Kennedy Center and off Broadway.
Overview
Silicon Valley gets all the credit for digital creativity, but this account of the pre-PC world, when computing meant more than using mature consumer technology, challenges that triumphalism.
The invention of the personal computer liberated users from corporate mainframes and brought computing into homes. But throughout the 1960s and 1970s, a diverse group of teachers and students working together on academic computing systems conducted many of the activities we now recognize as personal and social computing. Their networks were centered in New Hampshire, Minnesota, and Illinois, but they connected far-flung users. Joy Rankin draws on detailed records to explore how users exchanged messages, programmed music and poems, fostered communities, and developed computer games like The Oregon Trail. These unsung pioneers helped shape our digital world, just as much as the inventors, garage hobbyists, and eccentric billionaires of Palo Alto.
By imagining computing as an interactive commons, the early denizens of the digital realm seeded today’s debate about whether the internet should be a public utility and laid the groundwork for the concept of net neutrality. Rankin offers a radical precedent for a more democratic digital culture, and new models for the next generation of activists, educators, coders, and makers.
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