This fall, I'll be teaching a course on the history of computing. One of my learning objectives for the class is to show students the how the conception of the computer user varied with the social context of the cold war labs where new ways of interacting with computers were invented (e.g. IPTO versus SRI versus PARC).  I feel like this helps me bring out in class (a) the importance of patronage (which students could care less but that's another matter) and (b) the idea that early computer users (e.g of ARPANET) were often elites and thereby were able to shape the technology quite actively. 

Last year I assigned Bardini and Horvath's "The Social Construction of the Personal Computer User"--which, I think, does a great job at bringing out these issues.  Unfortunately, the text itself is quite abstruse and my sense is that students were left shaking their heads.  (I paired it with a small section from Neal Stephenson's "In the beginning was the command line ...")

Many thanks in advance, 

Shreeharsh