[Air-L] 'MEN Invented the Internet'?

Thomas Jones tajone02 at syr.edu
Tue Jun 5 11:19:37 PDT 2012


I disagree with the title of the article.

It should read: 'GEEKS Invented the Internet'  (Along with the US Army, and AT&T for the most part)

Three very good books on the invention of the Internet are:

Where Wizzards Stay Up Late
Who Controls the Internet: Illusions of a Borderless World
The Master Switch 


Thomas Jones | Graduate Student | School of Information Studies
http://about.me/othertomjones

Syracuse University
Hinds Hall
Syracuse, New York 13244
t 919.809.9454 e tajone02syr.edu

ischool.syr.edu

THE CAMPAIGN FOR SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY
campaign.syr.edu

________________________________________
From: air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org [air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org] on behalf of Deen Freelon [dfreelon at gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2012 2:15 PM
To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
Cc: tlc2132 at tc.columbia.edu
Subject: Re: [Air-L] 'MEN Invented the Internet'?

The thing that bothered me third-most about that lede, after its
flagrant inaccuracy and sexism, is that the issue of who invented the
Internet is irrelevant to the article's content. Venture capitalists
don't invent anything--they tend to leave that to the folks on the
payroll. So that makes the lede inaccurate, sexist, and a red herring--a
trifecta of terribleness. ~DEEN

PS. You may be interested in the recent edited volume "Race After the
Internet" (eds. Lisa Nakamura and Peter Chow-White), which contains an
entire section on "The History of Race and Information."

On 6/5/2012 1:28 PM, Conley, Tara wrote:
> Hi list members,
>
> In case you haven't already seen David Streitfeld's controversial NYTimes
> piece this weekend, here it
> is<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/03/technology/lawsuit-against-kleiner-perkins-is-shaking-silicon-valley.html?_r=4&pagewanted=1&seid=auto&smid=tw-nytimes>.
> The controversy stems from his lede, "MEN invented the Internet'. You may
> also be interested in the response from tech journalist Xeni
> Jardin<http://boingboing.net/2012/06/03/nyt-men-invented-the-inter.html>
> .
>
> I also wrote a response piece about the controversy from an historical
> perspective for Ms.
> Magazine<http://msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2012/06/04/the-women-and-people-of-color-who-invented-the-internet/>
>   today.
>
> Interesting to think about the history of the Internet in terms of gender
> and 'race' consciousness, no?
>
> Also, if any list members could recommend further reading on Internet
> history (including computing) that includes discussions about gender,
> 'race', and so forth, I'd appreciate it!
>
> Tara
>


--
Deen Freelon, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
American University School of Communication
Office: Asbury 228A
dfreelon at gmail.com
http://dfreelon.org

_______________________________________________
The Air-L at listserv.aoir.org mailing list
is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org
Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org

Join the Association of Internet Researchers:
http://www.aoir.org/





More information about the Air-L mailing list