Wednesday, October 01, 2003

The ease of the net
This is why I love the internet. This morning I got an email from Brad King, one of the authors of Dungeons and Dreamers, blogger and teacher of New Media History at University of Texas in Austin. He had read my blogpost, and didn't quite understand how I could read the book the way I did.

I'll not get into all of the letter as I think disagreements are just fine. It would be horrible if we all wanted, liked and understood the same things - I think that's pretty close to hell on earth for me. But he asked me something which I cannot contribute to, but which really should be researched. Are there any significant women they have missed? Is there a history of women's computing culture which should have been written?

I am of the opinion that if there isn't, well, that should be properly documentet. We all hear from the mythmakers that no, there were no women. Where is the study that explains why? The work that discusses the connections between priviledge, power, gender and technology? The critical view on a formative period of the development of a dominant technology, while that development is still in our near past?

That doesn't mean I think Brad King needs to write it. Dungeons and Dreamers does an exellent job as it is, exposing the need to ask different questions.

No comments: