Monday, December 22, 2008

Why The Soviet Union Didn't Build an Internet (of its own)



InterNyet: Why the Soviet Union Did Not Build a Nationwide Computer Network

Glerovitch, Slava. "InterNyet: Why the Soviet Union Did Not Build a Nationwide Computer Network." History and Technology 24:4 (December 2008): 335 - 350.

ABSTRACT: This article examines several Soviet initiatives to develop a national computer network as the technological basis for an automated information system for the management of the national economy in the 1960s-1970s. It explores the mechanism by which these proposals were circulated, debated, and revised in the maze of Party and government agencies. The article examines the role of different groups - cybernetics enthusiasts, mathematical economists, computer specialists, government bureaucrats, and liberal economists - in promoting, criticizing, and reshaping the concept of a national computer network. The author focuses on the political dimension of seemingly technical proposals, the relationship between information and power, and the transformative role of users of computer technology.


If anyone has access, this one looks like it'd be interesting to read and so if you could forward the paper...

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous3:06 AM

    http://web.mit.edu/slava/homepage/articles/Gerovitch-InterNyet.pdf

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