[SIGCIS-Members] Teaching PC/internet history

[James Sumner]

Dear all

This is an excellent discussion. Like some of the other contributors, I 
don't have an answer to the literal question Paul raised. The undergrad 
teaching pattern here doesn't generally favour studying whole books: I 
have one wide-ranging required purchase (Campbell-Kelly and Aspray’s 
_Computer_) supplemented with individual papers or extracts. Most of the 
book extracts are copied under a licensing deal which allows only one 
chapter per volume per course, so we have to be quite wide-ranging in 
our selection.

This approach is not ideal for all topics, but for the PC and mass 
internet I suspect it's the best approach right now. I'd echo Tom Haigh 
in recommending Lindsay's "From the shadows"; and, for British context, 
the intelligent pop history in Chapter 3 of Francis Spufford's _Backroom 
Boys_ (London: Faber 2003). _Accidental Empires_ and _Hackers_ (and, 
indeed, _Fire in the Valley_) are perhaps most valuable when used 
selectively and reflexively, pulling out a chapter or two to address 
both the content and presentation of computer history. Maybe this 
approach could be extended to first-hand accounts such as _Stan Veit's 
History of the Personal Computer_ (Asheville, NC: WorldComm 1993), or 
the various (and highly variable) platform-specific histories.

Tom Lean, who works on personal computing in the UK, is still preparing 
publications, but Frank Veraart has an English-language chapter on 
Basicode across Europe which is new in print -- details to follow shortly.

Internet/web: I used Tom Haigh's chapters in the Aspray and Ceruzzi ed 
vol successfully with my undergrads this year. They will perhaps not 
enthuse a reluctant student, but they are great for providing engaged 
students with solid bridges from the world described in the 
well-established historical literature to the world they know from 
first-hand experience. In particular, "Protocols for profit" usefully 
clarifies how much "internet" culture has its roots outside the formal 
internet (eg, in proprietary content services such as CompuServe). I 
like to build up the paths-not-taken side by pointing to Ted Nelson, 
videotex, and Philip Frana’s 2004 _Annals_ piece on Gopher.

Lastly, I find that using plenty of primary source material, including 
documentary video and emulated software, scores well in the "exciting 
for undergrads" dept. They may start out by laughing at the unfulfilled 
predictions / meagre technical specs/ notion that anyone would play 
SpaceWar all night, but some of them get hooked. And points that would 
be hard to write up become obvious when you show actual footage of an 
early dial-up user websurfing (if you can find it: I use footage from 
_The Net_, a 1994 BBC magazine show), or use sample issues to show how 
_Byte_ changed over a 20-year period.

Hope this helps! I'd be interested to hear from any other listmembers 
teaching in this area.

Best
James

Paul Edwards wrote:
> All -
> 
> I'm getting ready to teach an undergrad course (juniors and seniors) on 
> "History of Computers and the Internet" for the first time in 7 years.
> 
> I'm looking for suggestions on three things:
> 
> 1) A recent book on the history of personal computers that's 
> well-written and exciting for undergrads. I used to use Fire in the 
> Valley, but that's very dated now. 
> 
> 2) On history of the Internet, I've been using Janet Abbate's Inventing 
> the Internet for years. It's a great book but somewhat inaccessible for 
> undergrads, and now a bit dated.
> 
> 3) Books or articles -- again, exciting for undergrads -- on history of 
> the WWW. Please, not Tim Berners-Lee's awesomely self-centered memoir.
> 
> Thanks for any and all.
> 
> - Paul
> —————————————————
> Paul N. Edwards, Assoc. Professor of Information
> 
> School of Information
> 3078 West Hall
> University of Michigan
> 1085 South University Ave.
> Ann Arbor, MI  48109-1107
> (734) 764-2617 (office)                  
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> http://www.si.umich.edu/~pne/
> 
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