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A people's history of computing in the United States / Joy Lisi Rankin.

By: Material type: TextTextLanguage: English Publication details: Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, 2018.Description: 325 Pages : illustrations ; 25 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780674970977
  • 0674970977
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 004.0973 23
LOC classification:
  • QA 76.17 R211p 2018
Contents:
Introduction: People computing (not the Silicon Valley mythology) -- When students taught the computer -- Making a macho computing culture -- Back to BASICS -- The promise of computing utilities and the proliferation of networks -- How the Oregon Trail began in Minnesota -- Plato builds a plasma screen -- Plato's Republic (or, the other arpanet) -- Epilogue: From personal computing to personal computers.
Summary: Does Silicon Valley deserve the credit it gets for digital creativity and social media? Joy Lisi Rankin questions this triumphalism by revisiting a pre-PC world where schools were not the last stop for mature consumer technologies but flourishing sites of innovative collaboration. A People's History of Computing in the United States reveals a forgotten time when students taught computers, rather than the other way around, and visionaries dreamed of networked access for all. The invention of the personal computer undoubtedly 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. Rankin draws on detailed records to explore how users exchanged messages, programmed music and poems, fostered communities, and developed computer games, including The Oregon Trail. No less than the male inventors, garage hobbyists, and eccentric billionaires of Palo Alto, these unsung pioneers helped shape our digital world. 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 national and international debates over 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.-- Provided by publisher
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Holdings
Item type Current library Home library Collection Shelving location Call number Copy number Status Date due Barcode
Libro Libro Biblioteca Juan Bosch Biblioteca Juan Bosch Recursos Regionales Recursos Regionales (2do. Piso) QA 76.17 R211p 2018 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) 1 Available 00000163097
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PR 2807 D786h 2017 Hamlet Globe to globe / PR 2987 S527D 1999 Shakespeare for dummies® / PR 9369.3 C673d 1999 | 322 PR 9369.3 C673d 1999 Disgrace / QA 76.17 R211p 2018 A people's history of computing in the United States / QC 903 A416 2021 All we can save : truth, courage, and solutions for the climate crisis / QR 41.2 M626 2004 | 4 ed. Microbiology : a human perspective / R GV 884 R961N 2005 Bill Russell : a biography /

Includes bibliographical references (pages 294-310) and index.

Introduction: People computing (not the Silicon Valley mythology) -- When students taught the computer -- Making a macho computing culture -- Back to BASICS -- The promise of computing utilities and the proliferation of networks -- How the Oregon Trail began in Minnesota -- Plato builds a plasma screen -- Plato's Republic (or, the other arpanet) -- Epilogue: From personal computing to personal computers.

Does Silicon Valley deserve the credit it gets for digital creativity and social media? Joy Lisi Rankin questions this triumphalism by revisiting a pre-PC world where schools were not the last stop for mature consumer technologies but flourishing sites of innovative collaboration. A People's History of Computing in the United States reveals a forgotten time when students taught computers, rather than the other way around, and visionaries dreamed of networked access for all. The invention of the personal computer undoubtedly 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. Rankin draws on detailed records to explore how users exchanged messages, programmed music and poems, fostered communities, and developed computer games, including The Oregon Trail. No less than the male inventors, garage hobbyists, and eccentric billionaires of Palo Alto, these unsung pioneers helped shape our digital world. 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 national and international debates over 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.-- Provided by publisher

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