When Computers Were Amateur

Author

Gotkin, Kevin

Author_Institution

Univ. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

Volume

36

Issue

2

fYear

2014

fDate

Apr.-June 2014

Firstpage

4

Lastpage

14

Abstract

This article examines the records of the Amateur Computer Society (1966-1976), a hobbyist organization whose newsletters chronicle an important corner in the history of computing. It argues for amateurism as an important foil to histories firmly ensconced in the firm or lab, often focused on technological artifacts. The author offers two readings of the newsletters: one that looks at the discussion of schematics as a contested representation of amateur expertise and the other that reveals the crucial links between amateur practice and domesticity. In addition to this portrait of early computer building hobbyists, the article sketches the amateur as a meaningful analytic category for the history of computing.

Keywords

history; social aspects of automation; Amateur Computer Society; amateur domesticity; amateur expertise; amateur practice; amateurism; computing history; early computer building hobbyists; technological artifacts; Computers; Hardware; History; Organizations; amateurism; history of computing; hobbyist organization; microcomputers; personal computers;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Annals of the History of Computing, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1058-6180

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/MAHC.2014.32

Filename

6828557