Langdon Winner

Winner is a social commentator, science writer, and technology professor. In his 1986 essay "Mythinformation," he argues against the notion that computers themselves have the capacity for a "revolution." Rather, he, along with predecessors such as Ted Nelson, looked to the computer, and the ways in which it could connect people, as a means for social progress. Still, he was very concerned about potential issues that computers, and computer networking presented, such as privacy rights.

Tele-information Services

In 1986, Jan Bordewijk and Ben van Kaam created a way to classify computer-related activities into various categories. They came up with four main categories: Allocution, Conversation, Consultation, and Registration. Allocution could be seen as traditional media-based broadcaster-receiver relationship, in which a main source disseminates information to multiple recipients. Conversation, logically, is the bi or multi-lateral communication between end-users of a system. An example of this is email. Consultation is the receiving of information from a source, which is facilitated by a service provider. An example of this would be watching HBO via your Time-Warner cable box and service. Registration, the final category, is an activity in which an end-user submits information to the service-provided. An example of this is when a user registers his copy of Microsoft Office when he first tries to install it on his computer.

Brenda Laurel

Brenda Laurel’s work from 1986 and 1991 is considered to be a classical view of computing. She seems it as a form of theatrical expression. She, like many other writers and scientists, saw computers and new technology as a means of exploring new opportunities in theater and entertainment.