Designing Educational and Home Computers in State Socialism: The Polish and Czechoslovak Experience.
This article investigates the design of two comparable microcomputers that were built under state socialism in neighboring countries: Poland (Elwro Junior) and Czechoslovakia (Didaktik Gama). Both computers were "clones" of the highly popular British ZX Spectrum computer. In our article, we discuss...
| Publicado en: | Journal of Design History Vol. 36; no. 4; pp. 377 - 394 |
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| Autores principales: | , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
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Oxford University Press / USA
Dec2023
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=176558493&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 176558493 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 09524649 BII jtl: Journal of Design History issn: 09524649 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Dec2023 vid: 36 iid: 4 pid: 622 pub: Oxford University Press / USA artinfo: ui: 176558493 10.1093/jdh/epad027 ppf: 377 ppct: 17 formats: tig: atl: Designing Educational and Home Computers in State Socialism: The Polish and Czechoslovak Experience. aug: au: Wasiak, Patryk Švelch, Jaroslav affil: Adjunct Professor Institute of History, Polish Academy of Sciences , Rynek Starego Miasta 29/31, 00-272 Warsaw , Poland Assistant Professor Department of Media Studies, Charles University , Smetanovo nábřeží 6, Prague 11000 , Czechia su: Computer engineering Personal computers Design science Computer users Domestic architecture sug: subj: Computer engineering Personal computers Design science Computer users Domestic architecture keyword: communism computer design computers technology user culture ab: This article investigates the design of two comparable microcomputers that were built under state socialism in neighboring countries: Poland (Elwro Junior) and Czechoslovakia (Didaktik Gama). Both computers were "clones" of the highly popular British ZX Spectrum computer. In our article, we discuss the decisions that informed the design of the local "clones" of the British computer, and how both endeavors were supposed to solve specific problems identified by the communities involved in their design. We argue that different configurations of power—in which the actors that took part in the design of both computers were embedded—were the primary reason why these similar products, the ZX Spectrum clones, were "scripted" in a substantially different manner. The Junior was designed as an "educational computer" envisaged as an aid to schooling, while the Gama was a more flexible "home computer." Our investigation focuses on how their designers projected, or "scripted," possible forms of computer use, and who they imagined would be the users of these machines. We also compare both computers with the high-profile One Laptop Per Child project to demonstrate the wider relevance of our study and the usefulness of our investigative toolset to the intersection of design studies and science and technology studies. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y dt: @attributes: year: 2023 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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