Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
What is a Computer?
Computers were originally people. “Computer” was a title that described those people—
mostly women—whose job it was to “perform the repetitive calculations required to com-
pute such things as navigational tables, tide charts, and planetary positions for astronomical
almanacs” (Kopplin 2010).
When I fi rst wrote this topic, the Macintosh computer was entering its fi fth year in
the marketplace. The personal computer was still a revolutionary device. Laptops, fi rst en-
visioned by Alan Kay as what he called the “Dynabook” (Kay 1972), were developed. The
Osborne Computer was designed in 1979 by Lee Felsenstein for Adam Osborne's company.
Lee's primary design criterion was that the Osborne 1 had to fi t under an airplane seat, and
it did. The Grid Compass—the fi rst successful “clamshell” portable—was released in 1981.*
Since those days, we have all seen an explosion of personal computing devices, from
laptops to tablets to smartphones and smart wrist-watches, and change will keep coming.
When I use the word “computer,” I am speaking of it in the way it is defi ned by the
Oxford
English Dictionary
(2013):
noun
an electronic device which is capable of receiving information (data) in a particular
form and of performing a sequence of operations in accordance with a predetermined
but variable set of procedural instructions (program) to produce a result in the form of
information or signals.
I am using the term specifi cally in the domain of personal computing. The OED defi nes
a personal computer as one that is designed for use by one person at a time. But if you con-
sider a networked application such as a massively multiplayer online game, that defi nition
may be misleading, since much of the processing is done on mainframe computers that are
handling interactions from many people simultaneously,
all in relation to one another. Where the code lives and
which device is doing the bulk of the processing is not
particularly relevant in my use of the term “computer.”
Most relevant to my argument are the representation
produced and the interface affordances that shape and
constrain human interaction with personal computers.
We will ignore the tiny hamsters that run them.
* A somewhat less successful clamshell was introduced in Australia only about four months before the Grid Com-
pass launched.
