Computer Network Histories

Hidden Streams from the Internet Past

Geschichte und Informatik – Histoire et Informatique (ISSN 1420-5955), Band 21
Broschur
2019. 124 Seiten, 9 Abbildungen s/w.
ISBN 978-3-0340-1539-4
CHF 38.00 / EUR 38.00 
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Before the rise of the Web and our contemporary digital cultures, computer networks had already been imagined, tested, and used worldwide. This special issue retraces some of the technological, cultural and social paths that shaped the development of networks in six different areas of the world. The papers and the final conversation between two leading scholars of this issue touch some crucial topics of network histories from a variety of cultural, geographical and disciplinary perspectives.
The issue combines studies and researches based on theoretical and empirical analyses in the U.S., Europe, Brazil and South Africa.  Among the most relevant case studies, the story of the Italian-­American pioneer Robert Fano, the early data activism networks in France, the role of telephonic infrastructures in the German network, the digital activism in South Africa during the Apartheid, the  communitarian and technical dimension of the first BBS in the U.S., as well as the origins of the Internet in Brazil. A final conversation among the two conference’ keynote speakers also contributes to compare the ways in which network histories are studied but also narrated in different areas of the world. All papers result from the two-day conference held at the Università della Svizzera italiana (USI) in Lugano on December 2017, which saw the participation of 22 researchers from 13 parts of the globe. Based on new and unpublished researches, the special issue explores six uncharted territories part of the complex Internet realm, linking and adding unveiled nodes to the network of stories and experiences that shaped the internet not only at global level, but also in national and local contexts.


is Postdoc Fellow and Lecturer in Communication and Media Studies at the Institute of Media and Journalism, USI Università della Svizzera italiana, Switzerland. His research focuses on the history of digital media and networking technologies and on the imaginaries and narratives of networks, supercomputing and artificial intelligence. On these topics, Paolo has published on international journals such as New Media & Society, Convergence and Internet Histories.


Aufsätze im Chronos Verlag


is a Sino Swiss Science and Technology Visiting Scholar at the School of Journalism and Communication at Peking University, Post-Doctoral Researcher Fellow and Assistant Editor at the China Media Observatory (CMO) at Università della Svizzera italiana (USI). He is author of The Internet in China (Palgrave, 2017) and member of the Global Internet Governance Academic Network (Giga-Net).


Aufsätze im Chronos Verlag


is Associate Professor in Media Studies at USI Università della Svizzera italiana, Switzerland. At the Faculty of Communication Sciences, he is also director of the China Media Observatory and vice director of the Institute of Media and Journalism. He is also Chair of ECREA Communication History Section. His main areas of research are media history, the history of telecommunications and digital media history. He is author, with Paolo Magaudda, of the book “History of Digital Media. An Intermedia and Global Perspective” (Routledge).


Aufsätze im Chronos Verlag


Artikel

Pressestimmen

«Die Beiträge des Sammelbands [gehen] dem Spannungsverhältnis zwischen Politik, Forschung, Kommerzialisierung und freier Kommunikation differenziert und spannend nach. Die im Band betrachteten Facetten und Regionen der Computergeschichte sind nicht nur für Technikhistorikerinnen und -historiker spannend, sondern liefern auch neue Einsichten in gesellschaftliche Aushandlungsprozesse und die mannigfache Mediennutzung in der Zeitgeschichte.»

Vollständige Rezension

H-Soz-Kult, 8. Januar 2021, Julia Gül Erdogan