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Summary all lectures and texts Histories of Digital Cultures
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Lecture week 2: Computers and computing cultures1. From computors to programmers
- computing = calculating/mathematics used to calculate
first done by humans, and often they were women: computors
- 1944: Harvard Mark 1: electric-machine calculator
programmed by punching code on a tape: punchcards
Grace Hopper was master programmer of this machine
- 1945/46: computers were invented ENIAC: first electronic computer, built for US army
huge computer, much faster than human labor
Division of work between planner
- planner: mathematician/scientist for example that would ‘build’ a coding plan
- coder: often women, would reproduce and code according to the planner’s coding plan
Programmers?
- late 50s/60s: programming languages invented (Fortran, ALGOL, COBOL)
- programming language = language/code is made human readable, instead of the early very
cryptical language (punchcards)
- compiler = provides automatic coding technology that would automatically translate from
programming language to machine code compiler replaced the coder’s job
Different types of computers
- many different computer types were produced
different compilers were also sold, that would translate the same code into multiple machines
software was now suddenly made independent from the hardware, and became a separate
commodity
IBM first decided to unbundle software and hardware, as business strategy
60s: Application + operating system (OS)
- OS decouples the hardware and application that runs on the hardware
- timesharing = idea that we all share the same resource; the hardware
- multitasking = OS can have multiple apps (paint, excel, browser, etc.)
writing software for an OS became very important
2. (Sharing) source code
Unix operation system
- OS that started in the 70s
- forking UNIX
BSD: took UNIX code, changed it a bit
NextStep (Jobs’ company) took UNIX BSD iOS based on this
MINIX: took UNIX and changed a bit (used to teach at uni)
Linux Android
2 important changes
1. Computers got smaller, so more people got access to computers
2. You don’t type on a punchcard anymore, but directly onto a disc/tape memory
made source code-writing easier
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, UNIX + C programming language
- you could buy UNIX or another OS
ppl started changing UNIX’s source code and sending it back to Bell Labs
legality problem: who owned the code if many ppl from outside Bell Labs also worked on it?
3. Computing identities
Computer bum/nerd/hacker
- bum worked at unis, while hackers worked from home/bedroom for instance, as the computers
became smaller
- since the computers became smaller, there were new opportunities for people like mothers,
who couldn’t go to work because they had to be a mother
they could subcontract and work from home
Beards, sandals, and other signs of rugged individualism – Esmenger (2015)
Computer bums vs computer nerds/hackers
- both terms for the same idea of computer programmers with certain characteristics
white, male, middle-class, uncomfortable in his body, awkward around women
- computer bum was the term used in the initial years of computer programming
- later, computer nerd was preferred, and it became an important part of American popular culture
Computer bums: Weizenbaum vs Brand
- they both had their own view on computer bums/computerization
- Weizenbaum: impersonal, bureaucratic and authoritarian
- Brand: saw revolutionary potential and the empowerment of individuals; not about
individualizations
Why are computer programmers a “he”?
- there’s the dominant assumption that there are certain intellectual and emotional characteristics
that are associated with computer programming ability that also just happen to be more prevalent in
males
they’re much more likely to be antisocial, antisensual, and attracted to the hard mastery of arcane
(geheimzinnig) technology
3 themes in history of the masculinization of computer programming
1. The computer industry was initially open to women, who were extraordinarily well represented in
computer programming
2. Significance of specific sites of practice (university computer labs; other masculine spaces)
3. Ways in which male programmers mobilized multiple, and sometimes even competing, visions of
masculine identity
Women and programming
- initially, programming was a female job
the characteristics of programming work – routine, repetitive, and highly amendable to
mechanization – meant that it was work more likely to be assigned to women than to men
- planner/coder distinction = distinction at the beginning of computer programming
- planner (male): did the intellectual labor of analyzing a problem and deciding on
mathematical approach to its solution
- coder (female): responsible only for transcribing the thoughts of the planner
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,Demographic shift in computer programming (from women to men)
- planner/coder distinction quickly broke down with the increase of the use of computers in business
life, which increased the use of difficult software
computer programming wasn’t about routine and repetition anymore; algorithms and
software had to be created
- as there was a higher demand for people that could program, the salaries rose and more men
applied for these jobs
they brought with them traditions from their old jobs into this new discipline and they didn’t want
their job to be associated with the former “easy” job of programming done by women
The rise of male programmers
- to fix the “problem” of programming as being associated with simple task done by women, male
programmers started emphasizing the degree of skill required to be a successful programmer
- beginning of 70s: programming was still very open to women
BUT there were also clearly masculine associations in the language and metaphors used to
describe the distinctive and temperamental character ascribed in programming professionals (e.g.
“tinkering” was seen as masculine approach to technology use)
End of 60s: programming guru as distinctively masculine
- by the end of the 60s, a stereotype of the programming guru has emerged that was distinctively
masculine
- Darwinian selection mechanisms: selection of computer industry hiring practices, which were tests
that were very gendered, which also helped with the masculinization of programming
they were looking for characteristics (antisocial, mathematically inclined, male) which were
gendered
group of the computer scientist emerged, which were characterized by their individual
aptitude, machine-specific techniques, and arcane knowledge they didn’t want to be associated
with the computer bum
Computer labs as social spaces
- without the computer lab, the computer bum wouldn’t have existed
here you can find the combination that is needed for the bum: technology, culture, and
environment
3 features of the academic computer center that contributed to formation of its unique culture
1. Computer center was an isolated, therefore largely unsupervised environment
they could do what they wanted, because they had the space and equipment to do so
2. The students who used the computer center were sheltered from the economic realities – and
consequences – of their actions
they could pursue their own interests, agendas and aesthetics there
3. Despite the stereotype of the computer person as individualistic, the computer center was a
profoundly social space
it was all about impressing your peers there, and learning from others
Computer center as homosocial environment
- in part this was simply a reflection of the demographics of the student population
- but even as female enrollments in formal academic computer science programs increased, their
participation in the informal computer center culture did not
70s: end of the computer bums
- it was replaced by the computer hacker
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, associated not with university computer center, but access to own device in privacy of often his
bedroom
- hackers, unlike bums, were potentially dangerous they sometimes actually did harm
- like earlier stereotypes: white, male, focused on computer, BUT almost always an adult
From the 70s: the adolescent male hacker and how some didn’t want to be associated with this
- introduced yet another layer of masculine identities and practices to increasingly male-dominated
computing subculture
crisis of masculinity = in 19th and 20th century, there was this crisis in which young men turned to
the mastery of technology as means of demonstrating their fitness and potential, in a world which
was decreasingly about physical strength
- most important to hacker culture: it was hegemonic it became increasingly difficult to distance
oneself from the connotations associated with popular representations of hacker culture
problem for female programmers: for many women, in computing, the concept of the
computer hacker became a metaphor for all the things they didn’t like about computer science
- many male programmers are also uncomfortable with the hacker stereotype for those who
aspired to be computer scientists or software engineers, the character and habits of the hacker were
an embarrassment
Conclusions
- the practices of bumming, pranking, and other forms of technical display that originated in the
university computer labs of the 70s form the basis for a rich culture of masculinity within computing
communities
- although there were some downsides to being categorized as bum/hacker etc., this identity
nevertheless provided programmers with many benefits of professionalization too: the
establishment of barriers to entry to the discipline, possession of a monopoly of competence,
mastery over an esoteric body of knowledge
one might argue that computer programmers, rather than being insufficiently masculine
(antisocial, thin, nerdy), have elevated the performance of masculinity to an extreme
Recoding gender – Abbate (2012)
Combining career and family: an enduring drama
- labor legislation of the 60s was well-meant back then in regard of women, but had consequences
for later generations of women
women had special laws because of their assumed physical weakness and childbearing role
women entering the computing workforce from WW2 through the 70s faced
discrimination, which was a consequence of these earlier legislations
- if you took a break to have a baby, you lost your professional identity, because it was
normal that one got fired if one was having a baby
Professional women with families suffered from gender roles and workplace ideals in 3 ways
1. The “ideal worker” role was unrealistic for anyone, male or female, who had to balance work with
any other significant commitments
2. Part-time work was not usual as one’s desire for it was seen as a lack of commitment
3. Mothers weren’t taken seriously as professionals because the image of motherhood was culturally
at odds with the image of the ideal worker
The rise of software services industry: new opportunities
- before mid-60s: software wasn’t provided as off-the-shelf applications, but companies rather had
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