The thing that bothered me third-most about that lede, after its flagrant inaccuracy and sexism, is that the issue of who invented the Internet is irrelevant to the article's content. Venture capitalists don't invent anything--they tend to leave that to the folks on the payroll. So that makes the lede inaccurate, sexist, and a red herring--a trifecta of terribleness. ~DEEN PS. You may be interested in the recent edited volume "Race After the Internet" (eds. Lisa Nakamura and Peter Chow-White), which contains an entire section on "The History of Race and Information." On 6/5/2012 1:28 PM, Conley, Tara wrote:
Hi list members,
In case you haven't already seen David Streitfeld's controversial NYTimes piece this weekend, here it is<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/03/technology/lawsuit-against-kleiner-perkins-is-shaking-silicon-valley.html?_r=4&pagewanted=1&seid=auto&smid=tw-nytimes>. The controversy stems from his lede, "MEN invented the Internet'. You may also be interested in the response from tech journalist Xeni Jardin<http://boingboing.net/2012/06/03/nyt-men-invented-the-inter.html> .
I also wrote a response piece about the controversy from an historical perspective for Ms. Magazine<http://msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2012/06/04/the-women-and-people-of-color-who-invented-the-internet/> today.
Interesting to think about the history of the Internet in terms of gender and 'race' consciousness, no?
Also, if any list members could recommend further reading on Internet history (including computing) that includes discussions about gender, 'race', and so forth, I'd appreciate it!
Tara
-- Deen Freelon, Ph.D. Assistant Professor American University School of Communication Office: Asbury 228A dfreelon@gmail.com http://dfreelon.org