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Transnational (Dis)Connection in Localizing Personal Computing in the Netherlands, 1975–1990

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Hacking Europe

Part of the book series: History of Computing ((HC))

Abstract

Examining the diffusion and domestication of computer technologies in Dutch households and schools during the 1980s and 1990s, this chapter shows that the process was not a simple story of adoption of American models. Instead, many Dutch actors adapted computer technologies to their own local needs, habits, and cultural settings. For one, actors developed different views about the relations between Dutch users and North American suppliers. This chapter identifies different types of producer-user relations and the varying ways in which Dutch users and North American suppliers viewed their relationships. Dutch computer hobbyist considered themselves equal partners with their trans atlantic counterparts and the coproducers of the computer technologies. This relationship involved production of technologies for local markets and lowering of corporate boundaries by a “computer Esperanto” to facilitate software exchange. By contrast, governmental computer literacy programs tried to de-link from US producers. When introducing computers in schools, policies favored national computer industries. Local practices of cracking and copying of software, showed how computer users found themselves at safe distance from legal procedures by U.S. Commercial companies against their “illegal” copying. In computer users’ view, their practice did not harm the wealthy foreign manufactures across theAtlantic. The chapter shows how in these interactions views of American producers implicitly and explicitly played a role.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Alfred D. Chandler Jr. 2007. Inventing the electronic century: The epic story of the consumer electronics and computer industries. New York: The Free Press; Martin Campbell-Kelly. 2003. From airline reservations to sonic the hedgehog, a history of the software industry. Cambridge MA/London: MIT Press.

  2. 2.

    William H. Gates III. 1995. The road ahead. New York: Penguin; Jeffrey S. Young, and William L. Simon. 2005. iCon Steve Jobs, the greatest second act in the history of business. Hoboken: Wiley; Steve Wozniak. 2006. iWoz, computer geek to computer icon. New York: W.W. Norton and Company.

  3. 3.

    Leading histories of computing underline this view with a very strong focus on the American influence in computer development: Martin Campbell-Kelly, William Aspray, Nathan Ensmenger, and Jeffrey R. Yost. 2014 [1996]. Computer: A history of the information machine. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Paul E. Ceruzzi. 2003 [1988]. A history of modern computing. Cambridge, MA/London: MIT Press; James W. Cortada. 2004. The digital hand: How computers changed the work of American manufacturing, transportation, and retail industries. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

  4. 4.

    Nelly Oudshoorn, and Trevor J. Pinch (eds.). 2003. How users matter. The co-construction of users and technologies. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press; Adri Albert de la Bruhèze, and Ruth Oldenziel (eds.). 2009. Manufacturing technology, manufacturing consumers. The making of Dutch consumer society. Amsterdam: Aksant.

  5. 5.

    An overview of transnational studies in technological development in Erik van der Vleuten. 2008. Toward a transnational history of technology: Meanings, promises, pitfalls. Technology and Culture 49(4): 974–994. The methodological approach builds on notions of technology and knowledge circulation in the context of business innovation. These studies show how innovation is supported by the development of (inter)national networks that allow information and technology flows. More on this in Arjan van Rooij, Eric Berkers, Mila Davids, and Frank Veraart. 2008.National innovation system and international knowledge flows: An exploratory investigation with cases from the Netherlands. Technology Transfer and Strategic Management 20(2): 149–168.

  6. 6.

    Mel van Elteren. 1994. Imagining America, Dutch youth and its sense of place. Tilburg: Tilburg University Press.

  7. 7.

    More on the development of American computer amateurs and clubs in relation to social critics, in Steven Levy. 1984. Hackers: Heroes of the computer revolution. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press/Doubleday; Campbell-Kelly e.a., Computer and Ceruzzi, A history of modern computing.

  8. 8.

    Veraart, Vormgevers, 71–83.

  9. 9.

    “Microprofessor,” Elektuur (March 1976): 322.

  10. 10.

    Electronics TOP International was the Dutch edition of Electronics Today International, Veraart, Vormgevers, 79.

  11. 11.

    These magazines were Computable, De Automatiseringgids, Radio Electronica, and Radio Bulletin.

  12. 12.

    Ed van Eeden. 2002. Allemaal enen en nullen, 52–68. Utrecht: AW Bruna; Veraart, Vormgevers, 67–91.

  13. 13.

    The Hacker culture was widely studied by sociologists in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. These studies show the diversity of hacker cultures but also the common values of peer learning, knowledge sharing, and competition. Sherry Turkle. 1984. The second self: Computers and the human spirit. New York: Simon & Schuster; Tove Håpnes. 1996. Not in their machines. How hackers transform computers into subcultural artifacts. In Making technology our own? Domesticating technology into everyday life, ed. Merete Lie and Knut Sørensen, 121–150. Oslo/Stockholm/Copenhagen/Oxford/Boston: Scandinavian University Press; Pekka Himanen. 2001. The hacker ethic: A radical approach to the philosophy of business. New York: Random House. Levy, Hackers.

  14. 14.

    Ceruzzi, A history of modern computing, 232–236; Campbell-Kelly e.a., Computer, 240–244.

  15. 15.

    Thomas Lean. 2014. ‘Inside a day you’ll be talking to it like an old friend’: The making and remaking of Sinclair personal computing in 1980s Britain. In Hacking Europe. From computer cultures to demoscenes, ed. Gerard Alberts and Ruth Oldenziel, 49–71. New York: Springer.

  16. 16.

    Hans G. Janssen (ed.). 1984. Basicode-2, 9–17. Hilversum: Nederlandse Omroep Stichting; “Hobbyscoop boekt succes in binnen en buitenland”, in Viditelgids, (August 1984): 80–81 (documentation and library of Dutch National Broadcasting Co-operations); “A look back at Basicode,” Beebug, 3 (1984): 8–9. For more on Basicode development, see Frank Veraart. 2008a. Basicode: Co-producing a microcomputer Esperanto. History and Technology 28: 129–147.

  17. 17.

    More on developments in other European countries: for UK, see Leslie G. Haddon. 1988a. The home computer, the making of a consumer electronic. Science as Culture 2: 7–51; Leslie G. Haddon. 1988b. The roots and early history of the British home computer market: Origins of the masculine micro. PhD thesis, University of London; and Lean, Inside a day you’ll be talking to it like an old friend; for Finland, see: Petri Saarikoski. 2005. The role of club activity in the early phases of microcomputing in Finland. In History of Nordic computing, IFIP international federation for information processing, ed. Janis A. Bubenko Jr., John Impagliazzo, and Arne Sølvberg, 277–287. Berlin: Springer; for Greece, see: Theodore Lekkas, Legal Pirates Ltd: Greek home computing cultures in early 1980s Greece, in Alberts and Oldenziel, Hacking Europe, 73–103.

  18. 18.

    The concept of software players was introduced by Haddon, The roots and early history of the British home computer market.

  19. 19.

    Bill Gates. 1976. Open letter to hobbyists. Homebrew Computer Club Newsletter (Letter dated February 3, 1976). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Letter_to_Hobbyists. Accessed 31 Dec 2011.

  20. 20.

    Henk Wevers. 1980. Softtalk. HCC Newsletter 18, June/July, 23.

  21. 21.

    “Kopiëren van Software,” (Copying software) HCC Newsletter no. 29 (June 1981): 4–7.

  22. 22.

    On the shift in status, see Frank Veraart. 2011. Losing meanings: Computer games in Dutch domestic use, 1975–2000. IEEE Annals for the History of Computing 33(1): 52–65.

  23. 23.

    PC-private programs became massive in the 1990s. At festive events, businesses would give out thousands of PCs to their employees. By 2000, 35 % of Dutch employers had PC-private programs. The system was abolished in August 2004. More on these programs see: Veraart, Vormgevers, 230–233.

  24. 24.

    On the shift in status, see Veraart, Losing meanings.

  25. 25.

    Many European countries were exploring policies for the information society. For Sweden, see: Thomas Kaiserfeld. 1996. Computerizing the Swedish welfare state: The middle way of technological success and failure. Technology and Culture 37(2): 249–279.

  26. 26.

    Another example of such views is British case is given by Lean, Inside a day you’ll be talking to it like an old friend.

  27. 27.

    Translation of the Queen’s following words: “Hoeveel onzekerheid toekomststudies ook in zich bergen, een aantal ontwikkelingen tekent zich voor de jaren tachtig duidelijk af. Daartoe behoort dat het kunnen beschikken over en omgaan met informatie in snel toenemende mate aan betekenis wint. Dat zal in de samenleving grote gevolgen krijgen.” Carla van Baalen, Anne Bos, Jan Willem Brouwers, Peter van Griendsven, Ron de Jong, and Jan Ramakers. 2005. Koningin Beatrix aan het woord, 25 jaar troonredes, officiële redevoeringen en kersttoespraken. Den Haag: Sdu.

  28. 28.

    Christopher McDonald. 2010. Technology in the political landscape. IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 32(2): 87–88; Kenneth Lipartito. 2003. Picturephone and the information age: The social meaning of failure. Technology and Culture 44(1): 50–81.

  29. 29.

    Advertisement in HCC Newsletter no. 23 (March 1983) advertorial supplement.

  30. 30.

    Gerrit J. Carleer, and H.D. Valkenburg. 1985. Burgerinformatica, meer dan computers alleen, resultaat van het Landelijk Onderzoek Burgerinformatica en Evaluatie-onderzoek 100-scholenproject. Den Haag: Ministerie van Onderwijs en Wetenschappen; Projectgroep Burgerinformatica. 1985. Burgerinformatica of informatiekunde, 9–10. Report of a national conference on informatics for citizens held in May 1985 in Apeldoorn. Enschede: Stichting voor de Leerplanontwikkeling. More detailed information in Veraart, Vormgevers, 245–266.

  31. 31.

    James Sumner. 2008. Standards and compatibility: The rise of the PC platform. History and Technology 28: 101–127.

  32. 32.

    Recently, the rate has dropped slightly to 75 % in September 2013. Statcounter at http://gs.statcounter.com/. Accessed Sept 2013.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Foundation of the History of Technology (SHT), Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

    Frank C. A. Veraart

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  1. Frank C. A. Veraart
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Correspondence to Frank C. A. Veraart .

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  1. Korteweg-de Vries Institute for Mathematics, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Gerard Alberts

  2. School of Innovation Sciences, History Department, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

    Ruth Oldenziel

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Veraart, F.C.A. (2014). Transnational (Dis)Connection in Localizing Personal Computing in the Netherlands, 1975–1990. In: Alberts, G., Oldenziel, R. (eds) Hacking Europe. History of Computing. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-5493-8_2

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