Our Friend the Computer Our Friend the Computer

Ana introduces the One Laptop Per Child scheme which auspiciously deployed millions of laptops to children in the Global South between 2005 - 2014. The girls discuss the impacts of the campaign, whether the charismatic idea of “fixing the world” via access to digital literacy actually translated to reality, the issues with constructivism, while analysing Morgan G. Ames’ study in Paraguay from her book “The Charisma Machine: The Life, Death, and Legacy of One Laptop per Child”. They kick things of with chatting about Camila’s online residency and Ana’s street demonstration.

Follow us on Twitter @OurFriendComp
And Instagram @ourfriendthecomputer

Main research for the episode was done by Ana who also audio edited.
Music by Nelson Guay (SoundCloud: fluxlinkages)

OFtC is a sister project of the Media Archaeology Lab at the University of Colorado at Boulder.  
References:
- Ames, Morgan G., “The Charisma Machine: The Life, Death, and Legacy of One Laptop per Child”, 2019, The MIT Press
- “The Charisma Machine: The Life, Death, and Legacy of One Laptop per Child, By Dr. Morgan G. Ames”, UNC African Studies Center, 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCeaQUPaze4
- Robertson, Adi, "OLPC's $100 laptop was going to change the world — then it all went wrong", 2018, The Verge, https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/16/17233946/olpcs-100-laptop-education-where-is-it-now
- “Nicholas Negroponte Interview - One Laptop per Child (OLPC)”, 2007, OLPCFoundation, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o97UD78s6iM
- Cortés, Mariana Ludmila, “OLPC Announces Partnership with Zamora Teran Foundation”, Laptop.org, 2015, http://blog.laptop.org/2015/09/03/olpc-announces-partnership-with-zamora-teran-foundation/#.ZAjnmezP3n4

After the girls discuss recent tech-art exhibitions they've seen in New York and London, Camila introduces Ana to some stories about the history of computer eduction in Australian schools. This months episode is a two-for-one! Firstly, we learn about a government plan to develop an especially Australian computer for use in schools with options for networking and for portable 'laptop-style' use. Then we hear about the rise and fall of the 'Microbee' computer—Australia's first home-grown personal computer. This computer, which was designed and manufactured in Australia, controlled a large portion of the primary school computer market not just in Australia but also Scandinavia and Russia, winning contracts over Apple!

Follow us on Twitter @OurFriendComp
And Instagram @ourfriendthecomputer

Main research for the episode was done by Camila. Ana audio edited.
Music by Nelson Guay (SoundCloud: fluxlinkages)
OFtC is a sister project of the Media Archaeology Lab at the University of Colorado at Boulder.  

References:
- Jones, Gemma. “BYTE CLUB - First computer museum for Gosford.” The Daily Telegraph, Jul 30, 2003
- Laing, Gordon. “Microbee.” Personal Computer World, October 2005.
- Laing, Gordon. “Secret of Project Granny Smith.” The Sydney Morning Herald, July 12, 2005.
- “MicroBee - A conversation with Owen Hill.” Youtube, uploaded by State of Electronics, Feb 9, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYNRcn9gg5A
- “Microbee - The Australian Educational Computer of the 80s.” Youtube, uploaded by The Centre for Computing History, Oct 26, 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Mp52Gb3aDs
- Tatnall, Arthur and Leonard, Ralph. “Purpose-Built Educational Computers in the 1980s: The Australian Experience.” IFIP WG 9.7 International Conference on History of Computing (HC) / Held as Part of World Computer Congress (WCC), Sep 2010, Brisbane, Australia. pp.101-111
- Tatnall, Arthur. “The Australian Educational Computer That Never Was.” IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, Volume 35, Number 1, January–March 2013, pp. 35-47
- Tatnall, Arthur. “The Beginnings of Government Support for Computers in Schools – The State Computer Education Centre of Victoria in the 1980s.” 12th IFIP International Conference on Human Choice and Computers (HCC), Sep 2016, Salford, United Kingdom. pp.291-302

Virtual Tamil Eelam doesn’t connect itself to a physical label. Instead, it petitions to be recognised as a nation-state by publishing its heritage and cultural histories, diverse news, forums, distinct map designs and symbols, and suggestions for communal activities on websites that date back to the 90s. Ana describes how the Tamils have found creative uses of the web’s varying information dispersal techniques, and the girls chat about how that addresses their national sentiments as autonomous, legitimate and independent.

Follow us on Twitter @OurFriendComp
And Instagram @ourfriendthecomputer

Main research for the episode was done by Ana who also audio edited.
Music by Nelson Guay (SoundCloud: fluxlinkages)
OFtC is a sister project of the Media Archaeology Lab at the University of Colorado at Boulder.  

References:
- Skawennati, Mikhel Proulx, Dragan Espenschied, “Rhizome Presents: CyberPowWow and Panel Discussion”, December 10 2022, Rhizome, New Museum, New York
- Christopher Kulendran Thomas, “Another World”, ICA, London, October 2022 - January 2023
- Christopher Kulendran Thomas, “New Eelam: Bristol”, in collaboration with Annika Kuhlmann. Installation view at Spike Island, Bristol, 2019
- “Christopher Kulendran Thomas Talk (audio) at the 2017 Verbier Art Summit“, Verbier Art Summit, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIrHCy_2MXc, Published Jan 26 2021
- “Australia puts Tamil Tigers on terrorist list”, Irish Times, https://www.irishtimes.com/news/australia-puts-tamil-tigers-on-terrorist-list-1.408157, Published Dec 21 2001
- “3/ Serendipity”, @BaytAlFann, https://twitter.com/BaytAlFann/status/1604405373011886081, Published Dec 18 2022
- “Spatial conceptions of URLs: Tamil Eelam networks on the World Wide Web”, Jillana Enteen, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1461444806061944, New Media & Society Journal, 2006
- TamilNet (www.tamilnet.com)
- EelamWeb (www.eelamweb.com)
- Ilankai Tamil Eelam Sangam (www.sangam.org)
- “Tamilnet blocked in Sri Lanka”, https://www.bbc.com/sinhala/news/story/2007/06/070620_tamilnet, BBCSinhala, 2007
- Bruno Latour, “We Have Never Been Modern”, 1993, Harvard University Press
- Banadict Anderson, “Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism”, 1991, London, Verso

Camila and Ana discover the infamous story of the 1983 failed Coleco Adam home computer and uncover the 1985 home computer crash, Ana learns the difference between Cabbage Patch Kids and Sour Patch Kids, and we all lose a $500 college scholarship voucher.

Follow us on Twitter @OurFriendComp
And Instagram @ourfriendthecomputer

Main research for the episode was done by Camila. Ana audio edited.
Music by Nelson Guay (SoundCloud: fluxlinkages)
OFtC is a sister project of the Media Archaeology Lab at the University of Colorado at Boulder.  

References:
- “Adam Coleco Vision Family Computer System (Boxed)” Nightfall Crew June 22 2015. https://www.nightfallcrew.com/22/06/2015/adam-coleco-vision-family-computer-system-boxed/
- Anderson, John J. “Coleco.” Creative Computing vol 10 no 3, March 1984 https://www.atarimagazines.com/creative/v10n3/65_Coleco.php
- Atwood, Jeff. “The Cult of Coleco Adam.” Coding Horror Blog, March 6 2006. https://blog.codinghorror.com/the-cult-of-coleco-adam/
- Bishop, Liz. “Cabbage Patch Dolls, ColecoVision: The rise & fall of a toy company with local ties” CBS 6 Rewind, September 28 2022. https://cbs6albany.com/news/local/cabbage-patch-dolls-colecovision-the-rise-fall-of-a-toy-company-with-local-connections-cbs6-rewind-jobs-unemployment-electronics-video-games-amsterdam
- “Coleco ADAM Adventures.” Youtube, uploaded by Vintage Geek, November 12 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msI9HrQ1izY
- “Coleco ADAM, the Computer That Could Have Been - First Look.” Youtube, uploaded by Newsmakers Tech December 3 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQHUSjsRvMs
- King, Andrew. “Joystick: The Untold Story of Ottawa’s Coke-Fueled 1980’s Video Game Industry” Ottawa Rewind, December 2018. https://ottawarewind.com/2018/12/02/joystick-the-untold-story-of-ottawas-coke-fueled-1980s-video-game-industry
- Noble, David. “The home computer is dead, we said in 1985. Oops.” Australian Financial Review Classic, March 21 1985, reposted January 18 2022. https://www.afr.com/technology/how-the-afr-called-the-death-of-the-home-computer-in-1985-we-were-wrong-20220117-p59oyn
- Potts, Mark. “Coleco Pulls Plug On Adam.” The Washinton Post, January 3 1985. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1985/01/03/coleco-pulls-plug-on-adam/e6ecdba7-a479-4b5d-a67e-e92e12341ece/
- Sanger, David E. “Coleco Gives up on the Adam.” The New York Times, January 3 1985. https://www.nytimes.com/1985/01/03/business/coleco-gives-up-on-the-adam.html
- Schrage, Michael. “Computer Industry Slump is Broad, Deep.” The Washington Post, June 30 1985. https://www.washingtonpost.co

Ana and Camila discuss the world’s first macintosh clone, the Mac 512 by Unitron, and how Apple threatened to start a trade war on Brasil due to their clone. Although Unitron was not doing anything wrong with the Brazilian law, Apple tried to get themselves out of financial worries and seized control of how their new hardware and software package (the first Mac) was being sold around the world. This led them to force Brasil to stop producing their Macs, and tighten up restrictions on licensing. The girls dig deeper into how such political rivalry was triggered by the problems of the US’s economic movement of financialization and the tech industry’s laissez-faire attitude of the 80s.

Follow us on Twitter @OurFriendComp
And Instagram @ourfriendthecomputer

Main research for the episode was done by Ana who also audio edited.
Music by Nelson Guay (SoundCloud: fluxlinkages)
References:
Time, "The New Rules of Play", 1968 - https://web.archive.org/web/20071114005733/https://time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,899963,00.html
Mac84, “The Rise and Fall of the Macintosh Clones - Part 1: The Original Apple Hackintosh”, 2021 - youtube.com/watch?v=lwMzYFEGoag, https://mac84.net/web/macintosh-clones/
Adam Rosen, The Cult of Mac, ”Meet Unitron Mac 512: World’s First Macintosh Clone”, 2014 - https://www.cultofmac.com/266710/meet-unitron-mac-512-worlds-first-macintosh-clone/
BrasilWire, “The 1980s Trade War between Brasil… and Apple”, 2015 - https://www.brasilwire.com/the-1980s-trade-war-between-brasil-and-apple/
Mark Fisher, “Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures”, 2014
Jecel Mattos de Assumpcao Jr, “Mac 512” - http://archive.retro.co.za/mirrors/apple/www.lsi.usp.br/~jecel/mac512.html

Back after a summer break, Camila and Ana delve into a project they discovered at the Centre for Computing History in Cambridge when Camila was visiting Ana in London. Called the BBC Domesday Project, this was a mid-80s attempt at an interactive survey of the entire country with data collected largely by school children. With the data contained on two Laserdisks and only accessible via specialised hardware, the system quickly suffered from a serious case of Digital Obsolescence. While a 2000s project called Domesday Revisited worked to save the data and create an emulation of the software, the book it was based on (the 1086 Domesday Book) has continued to be accessible as a printed book for 900 years.

Follow us on Twitter @OurFriendComp
And Instagram @ourfriendthecomputer

Main research for the episode was done by Camila. Ana audio edited.
Music by Nelson Guay (SoundCloud: fluxlinkages)

References
— “BBC: Domesday Project - 1985 1986.” Youtube, uploaded by Daniel Garcia August 14, 2013. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vn0oFJU5pxM 
— “The BBC Domesday Project - Panel Discussion.” Youtube, uploaded by The Centre for Computing History March 23, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZA8LRgv1iw
— “Digital Domesday book unlocked” BBC News, December 2, 2002. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2534391.stm
— “Domesday Project” The Centre for Computing History. http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/domesday/
— Evans, Claire L. ‘Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet’. Penguin Putnam Inc, 2018.
— Mackenzie, Iain. “Domesday Project reborn online after 25 years” BBC News, May 12 2011. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-13367398
— “Newsround - BBC Domesday Project Feature - November 1986.” Youtube, uploaded by The Centre for Computing History July 30, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMh1FqvleH8