IT Conversations: John Markoff (Part 1 of 2) – SDForum Distinguished Speaker Series Great discussion based around the history of computing as put forward in a book by John Markoff: What the Dormouse Said: How the 60s Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer.
This is a great two part podcast! Listening to it I hear some geniuses time are there talking about an incredible revolution in communication. Many of the people I have blogged about there in the past get a mention – and are there! Doug Englebart is one. Ivan Illich gets a mentionI
This podcasts takes me back to the 60s and I realise how much that counterculture influenced me at the time. It must have been through the Whole Earth Catalogue that I found Illich – and that led to Four Avenues – School Without Walls. It is through this sort of thing that I feel a connection with the nostalgia that comes through in this history.
I really liked the comment that one speaker makes: “We need a Pedagogy of Interactive Media” – wow. I have a real enthusiasm for that. In a way this blog is about that – a psychology of interactive media – my “psyber-” is related and a prerequisite for the pedagogy. A pedagogy can’t be designed without a psychology.
So, I am deeply attuned to the discussions in this podcast and delighted to see how computing emerged in its origins not out of the money culture but the counterculture – people trying to make the world a better place is the key motivation I hear in this podcast. I recommend it.