[SIGCIS-Members] A response to a SIGCIS Command Line panel session presentation on PLATO

[Brian Dear]

The link below is my in-depth response to a presentation given by Dr. Joy Rankin entitled “Performing Gender on PLATO” at the recent SIGCIS Command Line conference held at the Computer History Museum this past March. 

     https://medium.com/@brianstorms/performing-history-on-plato-4c501b8f2068

Many assertions were made in that presentation that concerned me greatly and I felt it necessary to not only write up a detailed response based on my own decades’ worth of research into the history of the PLATO system and its community, but also I sought out and included comments from former PLATO people who were named in Dr. Rankin’s talk, about the presentation and the claims made therein. Every single PLATO person I contacted shared the same concerns.

I welcome thoughts from fellow SIGCIS members.

- Brian

Brian Dear
PLATO History Project
Santa Fe, NM
brian at platohistory.org