Edelman Digital - Authenticities

In common practice, most undergrad communications programs offer some kind of history course as a lower-level requirement. At Saint Mary's, my alma mater, it was called "Communications History & Society".

The thing is, when many talk about "communications history", they tend to refer to items like the following:

As many of you know, I hail from Silicon Valley. Over there, there is a strong reverence for the history of that region, that is, if you seek out the right people.

In my opinion, the invention of the integrated circuit is at least as groundbreaking as that of the radio or telegraph. However, I suspect that these names are passed up in communications history course because they are what many would call "technology history" not "communications history".

Fact is, you can't have one discussion without the other. While there's an unfortunate tendency to conflate the term "technology" with "that which is possible through the integrated circuit" — guitarist Allan Holdsworth once countered that "technology" can be "a string stretched across a hole" — many seem to forget that "history" is one of the few things we're making more of. "Technology" — as popularly, connotatively defined — is an ever-greater part of that.

In a modest effort to remedy this, here's a brief (in no way complete) list of folks whose contributions I believe should be part of any communications history course.

(Update: Per Karen's comment, added Grace Murray Hopper. A longtime favorite of mine, actually that I'm surprised I missed.)

Tags: education history pr public relations

Comments (6)

Karen Russell:

Ummmm, Phil? All these guys are guys.

Posted by Karen Russell | April 29, 2008 3:15 PM

Posted on April 29, 2008 15:15

Phil Gomes:

Sorry for the oversight... Actually, I added Adm. Grace Murray Hopper. (And I'm very surprised I neglected her.)

Others?

Posted by Phil Gomes | April 29, 2008 6:14 PM

Posted on April 29, 2008 18:14

Warren Sukernek:

Karen,

Thanks for motivating Phil to add Grace Hopper. A little she passed, she spent some time at Digital Equipment (DEC) when I was starting out. I had the pleasure of being in a few meetings with her. Man, was she a hoot! And sharp as a tack. I still remember her talk about nanoseconds, 20 years later. One of the real pillars of the technology industry.

Posted by Warren Sukernek | April 29, 2008 7:34 PM

Posted on April 29, 2008 19:34

Note that the conversation continues on PROpenMic here: http://propenmic.ning.com/forum/topic/show?id=2048023%3ATopic%3A11080

(Members only, of course.)

Posted by Phil Gomes | April 30, 2008 9:37 AM

Posted on April 30, 2008 09:37

Thanks, Phil. I'd add others but I don't even know the people already on your list. Which only proves your point. ;)

Posted by Karen Russell | April 30, 2008 10:04 AM

Posted on April 30, 2008 10:04

Michael Allison:

Phil,

For my human-computer interaction class we read Sara Keisler's Culture of the Internet. Don't let the date (1997) or the date of the studies (early 90s -- it is history after all) fool you. As long as human nature remains the same, the conclusions from these studies will remain solid.

I believe one of the studies on email use was used by Google for their development of Gmail.

Amazon Link: http://tinyurl.com/6menwf

Posted by Michael Allison | April 30, 2008 1:14 PM

Posted on April 30, 2008 13:14

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