<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=windows-1252"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;">that’s the only way it will be done, unfortunately. The fortunate thing for the rest of us is that you’re sufficiently motivated and qualified<div><br></div><div>Ciao</div><div><br><div><div>On Jun 23, 2015, at 7:48 AM, Brian Dear <<a href="mailto:brian@platohistory.org">brian@platohistory.org</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=windows-1252"><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class="">Well, he got the acronym wrong in the his Abbreviations glossary :-) (It’s a common error: Automatic not Automated.)<div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Thing is, books like Misa’s are by their nature limited to brief overviews of any one computing system or company. He gave PLATO and CDC about what anyone would reasonably expect to be sufficient prominence given the scope of his project. What’s been missing is a book (cinderblock-heavy if necessary) that explores PLATO in depth. I’ve been wanting to curl up in a chair and devour such a book for years. I got tired of waiting for someone else to write it, so I’m doing it. </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">- Brian</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""><div><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On Jun 22, 2015, at 11:39 PM, Chuck House <<a href="mailto:housec1839@gmail.com" class="">housec1839@gmail.com</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class=""><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=windows-1252" class=""><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class="">Brian, I certainluy concur that the Plato “story” or more properly “stories” are very worthy of inclusion lots of places, and in general they get short shrift. Curious, do you think Thomas Misa in “Digital State” gave it sufficient prominence?<div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Best, Chuck</div><div class=""><br class=""><div class=""><div class="">On Jun 22, 2015, at 1:21 PM, Brian Dear <<a href="mailto:brian@platohistory.org" class="">brian@platohistory.org</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;"><div class="">Portions of the book may be, but Isaacson's glaring omission of *any* mention, in Chapter Ten (“Online”) or anywhere in the book for that matter, of the PLATO system, its thriving online community, and the level of sophistication PLATO people had reached as early as ’73-’74 is inexcusable and for me utterly unforgivable. </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">It’s nothing new, the inadvertent and, face it, sometimes deliberate omission of PLATO. Pretty much every single book in the “vast array of historical books on the history of digital technology” has also omitted PLATO. It is in my opinion one of the greatest mysteries of the history of technology. The repeated omission, year after year, article after article, book after book, conference after conference, has become the norm. Indeed, to bring up PLATO nowadays is to not be taken seriously. Nevertheless, there it is, this huge gap in the historical timeline, this elephant in the room. It’d be like if one of the forty-four U.S. Presidents was never mentioned, had no biographies or presidential library, was never brought up in conversation or in the media, and this had gone on so long that nobody ever thought that it was the slightest bit odd and to dare to mention it was considered rude.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">In Isaacson’s case, the omission of PLATO is particularly infuriating because he and his publisher try very hard to pass their book off as the definitive chronicle of how “digital culture” came into being. To watch the recent YouTube video of him being interviewed by John Hollar, CEO of the Computer History Museum, and neither of them ever mentioning PLATO (when in reality CHM was the venue for my two-day PLATO@50 conference in 2010 that Hollar was very much a part of) is just surreal.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Suffice to say, I am doing my part to right this wrong by writing a book on the big sprawling crazy history of the PLATO system — I’ve spent years on it — and if it winds up prompting a bunch of publishers and historians to revise their work and rethink the way things happened in computing, well, I reckon my effort will have been worth it. Stay tuned.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">- Brian</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Brian Dear</div><div class="">PLATO History Project</div><div class="">Santa Fe, NM</div><div class=""><a href="mailto:brian@platohistory.org" class="">brian@platohistory.org</a></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><br class=""><div class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On Jun 9, 2015, at 9:45 AM, Daniel Ferrell <<a href="mailto:returnofjayhawk@hotmail.com" class="">returnofjayhawk@hotmail.com</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class=""><div class="hmmessage"><div dir="ltr" class=""><font face="Times New Roman,sans-serif" color="#666666" class="">SIGCIS members,</font><div class=""><font color="#666666" face="Times New Roman, sans-serif" class=""> I have recently began reading Walter Isaacson's<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i class="">The Innovators</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>chronicling the history of the digital revolution. In a vast array of historical books on the history of digital technology, do you feel Isaacson's contribution is legitimate? <br class=""></font><div class=""><br class=""><br class=""><div class=""><b class="" style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 12pt;">-Daniel Ferrell</b></div><div class=""><font face="Garamond" class=""><br class=""></font><div class=""><font face="Garamond" class=""><i class="">Home Acceptance Corporation<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i>(NMLS #1151715)<i class="">. </i><br class="">65 S. Outer Rd.<br class="">P.O. Box 72<br class="">Benton, MO 63736</font></div></div></div></div></div></div>_______________________________________________<br class="">This email is relayed from members at<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://sigcis.org/" class="">sigcis.org</a>, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/" class="">http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>and you can change your subscription options at<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org" class="">http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org</a></div></blockquote></div><br class="">_______________________________________________<br class="">This email is relayed from members at<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://sigcis.org/" class="">sigcis.org</a>, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/" class="">http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>and you can change your subscription options at<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org" class="">http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org</a></div></blockquote></div><br class=""></div></div></div></blockquote></div><br class=""></div></div></blockquote></div><br></div></body></html>