History of Computing Founding Editor Martin Campbell-Kelly, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK Series Editor Gerard Alberts, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Advisory Board Jack Copeland, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand Ulf Hashagen, Deutsches Museum, Munich, Germany John V. Tucker, Swansea University, Swansea, UK Jeffrey R. Yost, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA
The History of Computing series publishes high-quality books which address the history of computing, with an emphasis on the externalist view of this history, more accessible to a wider audience. The series examines content and history from four main quadrants: the history of relevant technologies, the history of the core science, the history of relevant business and economic developments, and the history of computing as it pertains to social history and societal developments. Titles can span a variety of product types, including but not exclusively, themed volumes, biographies, profile books (with brief biographies of a number of key people), expansions of workshop proceedings, general readers, scholarly expositions, titles used as ancillary textbooks, revivals and new editions of previous worthy titles. These books will appeal, varyingly, to academics and students in computer science, history, mathematics, business and technology studies. Some titles will also directly appeal to professionals and practitioners of different backgrounds. For further volumes: http://www.springer.com/series/8442
Gerard Alberts Ruth Oldenziel Editors Hacking Europe From Computer Cultures to Demoscenes
Editors Gerard Alberts Korteweg-de Vries Institute for Mathematics University of Amsterdam Amsterdam, The Netherlands Ruth Oldenziel School of Innovation Sciences, History Department Eindhoven University of Technology Eindhoven, The Netherlands ISSN 2190-6831 ISSN 2190-684X (electronic) ISBN 978-1-4471-5492-1 ISBN 978-1-4471-5493-8 (ebook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-4471-5493-8 Springer London Heidelberg New York Dordrecht Library of Congress Control Number: 2014949198 Springer-Verlag London 2014 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. Exempted from this legal reservation are brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis or material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the Copyright Law of the Publisher s location, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Permissions for use may be obtained through RightsLink at the Copyright Clearance Center. Violations are liable to prosecution under the respective Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication, neither the authors nor the editors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
Preface This book had its genesis at the Lorentz Center research week on the History of Software held in Leiden, the Netherlands, in September 2010. The enthusiasm of the early career scholars at the workshop inspired us to shepherd the book to publication. Hacking Europe has been the outcome of a collaboration of two research projects: the Software for Europe and the European Ways of Life in the American Century. Both projects were part of the ESF-funded Eurocores program Inventing Europe: Technology and the Making of Europe, 1850 Present, which brought together a transatlantic community of scholars. We would like to thank Ron Kline, Nathan Ensmenger, and Valérie Schafer for their careful reading of the manuscript and Johan Schot for his leadership of the Inventing Europe program. We thank Dutch Science Foundation (NWO), European Science Foundation (ESF), the Lorentz Center, Foundation for the History of Technology in Eindhoven (SHT), and the Informatics Institute at the University of Amsterdam for their financial support, and Martijn van der Eerden for some last-minute assistance with the bibliography. Amsterdam, The Netherlands Eindhoven, The Netherlands Gerard Alberts Ruth Oldenziel v
Contents 1 Introduction: How European Players Captured the Computer and Created the Scenes... 1 Gerard Alberts and Ruth Oldenziel Part I Appropriating America: Making One s Own 2 Transnational (Dis)Connection in Localizing Personal Computing in the Netherlands, 1975 1990... 25 Frank C.A. Veraart 3 Inside a Day You Will Be Talking to It Like an Old Friend : The Making and Remaking of Sinclair Personal Computing in 1980s Britain... 49 Thomas Lean 4 Legal Pirates Ltd: Home Computing Cultures in Early 1980s Greece... 73 Theodoros Lekkas Part II Bastard Sons of the Cold War: Creating Computer Scences 5 Galaxy and the New Wave: Yugoslav Computer Culture in the 1980s... 107 Bruno Jakić 6 Playing and Copying: Social Practices of Home Computer Users in Poland during the 1980s... 129 Patryk Wasiak 7 Multiple Users, Diverse Users: Appropriation of Personal Computers by Demoscene Hackers... 151 Antti Silvast and Markku Reunanen vii
viii Contents Part III Going Public: How to Change the World 8 Heroes Yet Criminals of the German Computer Revolution... 167 Kai Denker 9 How Amsterdam Invented the Internet: European Networks of Significance, 1980 1995... 189 Caroline Nevejan and Alexander Badenoch 10 Users in the Dark: The Development of a User-Controlled Technology in the Czech Wireless Network Community... 219 Johan Söderberg Bibliography... 241 About the Authors... 257 Index... 261