Designing Educational and Home Computers in State Socialism: The Polish and Czechoslovak Experience
The result's identifiers
Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11230%2F23%3A10473911" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11230/23:10473911 - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
<a href="https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=7MSqfcHm07" target="_blank" >https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=7MSqfcHm07</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jdh/epad027" target="_blank" >10.1093/jdh/epad027</a>
Alternative languages
Result language
angličtina
Original language name
Designing Educational and Home Computers in State Socialism: The Polish and Czechoslovak Experience
Original language description
This article investigates the design of two comparable microcomputers that were built under state socialism in neighboring countries: Poland (Elwro Junior) and Czechoslovakia (Didaktik Gama). Both computers were "clones" of the highly popular British ZX Spectrum computer. In our article, we discuss the decisions that informed the design of the local "clones" of the British computer, and how both endeavors were supposed to solve specific problems identified by the communities involved in their design. We argue that different configurations of power-in which the actors that took part in the design of both computers were embedded-were the primary reason why these similar products, the ZX Spectrum clones, were "scripted" in a substantially different manner. The Junior was designed as an "educational computer" envisaged as an aid to schooling, while the Gama was a more flexible "home computer." Our investigation focuses on how their designers projected, or "scripted," possible forms of computer use, and who they imagined would be the users of these machines. We also compare both computers with the high-profile One Laptop Per Child project to demonstrate the wider relevance of our study and the usefulness of our investigative toolset to the intersection of design studies and science and technology studies.
Czech name
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Czech description
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Classification
Type
J<sub>imp</sub> - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database
CEP classification
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OECD FORD branch
50802 - Media and socio-cultural communication
Result continuities
Project
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Continuities
I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace
Others
Publication year
2023
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů
Data specific for result type
Name of the periodical
Journal of Design History
ISSN
0952-4649
e-ISSN
1741-7279
Volume of the periodical
36
Issue of the periodical within the volume
4
Country of publishing house
GB - UNITED KINGDOM
Number of pages
17
Pages from-to
377-393
UT code for WoS article
001025649100001
EID of the result in the Scopus database
2-s2.0-85190149463