[Lawrence: Garland Encyclopedia Project]

[Tom Warren <TWARREN -at- OSUVM1 -dot- BITNET>]

Forwarded for any interested. Respond as indicated below.  Tom

----------------------------Original message----------------------------

Garland Encyclopedia of Popular Culture Project
A call for contributors from John Lawrence at H-PCAACA.

Background information: in 1995 or 1996, the Garland Company is
publishing an encyclopedia of popular culture. One of its major
sections under "Electronic Media" is "Computers." I, John
Lawrence, Co-moderator of H-PCAACA, am the sub-editor for this
part of the encyclopedia. I am now recruiting authors who can
submit sprightly written articles in the following categories by
June 1, 1994. This is not a reasonable deadline!! (This section
was brought in late  to the project, just like me. I can't change it.
I will have to shoot stragglers, dropping their topic or doing it
myself.)

PAY PER WORD. This is a pay per word project (5 to 10 cents
depending on the contract you sign with us). Those who are
seriously interested can get in touch with me. I can provide a
contract and sample entries to guide literary style and citation.
By the nature of this solicitation, several people will ask for
the same entry. I will try to spread the writing
opportunities/responsibilities as widely as possible.

READERS. I want to emphasize that this project is to be read by
persons who have some sense of what has been happening in
American culture--BUT are not especially interested
in/knowledgeable about computers. Our entries are in no way
instruction in the use of computers or programs. The principal
purpose is to provide readers with a sense of the excitement and
focus of American culture on computer technology and computer
mediated experiences. Jane and Michael Stern's ENCYCLOPEDIA OF
POPULAR CULTURE is instructive, though it is weaker in scholarly
citation than we intend the Garland project to be.

WRITING STYLE.  The writing should be lively,
anecdotal. Perhaps the ideal reader to imagine--as my good
colleague and editor (Peter Rollins) above me says--is someone sitting
in an airport who would like to know more about the thrill of computer
technology, entrepreneurs, the fads, the hobbyists who have
constantly transformed American experience in the years since the
first appearance of the computer. This reader is not interested
so much in the miraculous technology of the CD-Rom itself as in the
cornucopia of "edutainment" that is now flowing out of it--
encyclopedias, image banks, jazz histories, children's games,
hypermedia porn, etc. We are not writing for nerds. We are probably the
nerds ourselves.

HOW TO REACH ME. My e-mail address is

JSL001 -at- chief -dot- morningside -dot- edu

If you are interested, send me a message indicating which items
you have an interest in and what your background is. You must
send me a snailbox address as well, since some background
materials must be sent that way.

I will be going to the meetings of the Popular Culture/American
Culture Associations from April 6-10. At that time, I will make a
shorter list of left-overs that I distribute among members of the
associations.
========================================================
The Architecture of "Computers" and the Word Limits

I. Introduction.
An essay of 3000 words written by myself. It will reference all
computer related entries that appear in the encyclopedia.


II. Terms to be covered & word limits

 A. Major personalities, creators and places (500 words)

    1. Silicon Valley
              Route 128 (Boston area)
              Nolan Bushnell (Atari, Pong)
                 Christopher Evans (author of THE MICROMILLENIUM)
                        William Gates (Microsoft Basic, MS-DOS)
       William Gibson (creator of cyber- terminology)
       Steve Jobs (Apple, nexT founder)
       Tracy Kidder (SOUL OF A NEW MACHINE)
       Ted Nelson
       John Sculley
       Jack Tramiel (Commodore Computers)
       Thomas Watson
       Steve Wozniak (Apple)

 B. Technological Aspects (both soft- and hardware)--250 words
     ARCHIE
     ASCII TEXT
     BITNET
     clock speed (in MHZ of a microprocessor)
     CD-Rom
     CD-I (compact disk-interactive)
     Commodore 64
     CP/M operating system
     DISK (and sizes)
     Fiber optics
     floppy drive
     Gopher
     File transfer
     FTP
     GUI (graphic user interface--Macintosh, Windows)
     Graphics programs
     hard drive
     help screens
     hypermedia
      hypertext
      Intel (chips..8088, 8086, 80286, 80386, 80486, Pentium)
     Interface
     Internet (should incorporate gopher, Veronica, Archie, WAIS)
     Usenet
     Telnet
     Internet address
     Laptop computer
     Languages (BASIC, FORTRAN, Pascal, etc.)
     listserver
     Menu system
     microchip, microprocessor
     Midi interface
     modem (+ fax modem)
     Motorola (chips..68000, 68020, 68030, 68040)
     mouse
     MS Dos Operating System
     Notebook computer
     online databases
     Portable computer
     Programming
     Printer (dot matrix, inkjet, laser, color variants)
     RAM, ROM
     S 100 bus
     Scanners
     software
     soundcards
     spread sheet ( Visicalc, Lotus 1-2-3 )
     telecommuncations program
     touch screen
     (LANS) local area networks
     Unix
     Virtual reality
     Virus
     WAIS
     wide area networks (WANS)
     word processing (Macwrite, Microsoft Word, WordPerfect,
     Wordstar)


C. Business Aspects    (250 words)
Apple II computer
BBS bulletin boards (commercial)--America on Line,
Compuserve, Prodigy, etc.
Bundling (of software)
BYTE magazine
clone
COMPUTER SHOPPER (the magazine)
copy protection
DEC, Vax
Dell Computers
Documentation, manuals
E-mail
Gateway 2000
groupware
Hewlett Packard
IBM Computer  [ie the PC]
IBM 360
Information Highway, NREN
INFOWORLD (the magazine)
Lotus
Macintosh Computer
magazines (growth of computer magazines)
Mead Data Central (Lexis, Nexis)
Osborne Computer
Radio Shack & TRS
Reverse engineering
Screen savers
shareware
software
software piracy
support lines
upgrades
vaporware

D. Fads, Trends  (250 words)

cyber- prefix (cyberspace, cybersex, etc.
E-publishing, E-journals
Edutainment (CD encyclopedias, image banks, etc.)
Internet
flaming
Green movement (monitors, power consumption)
H-Net
H-PCAACA
hackers, hacking (should reference Steven Levy's HACKERS)
IBM, as Big Blue
Internet
language (effect of computer terminology on general language
usage)
movies (computers as characters in)
Nerds, computer
Netiquette
Nintendo
Pac Man, Ms. PacMan (received entry in Sterns' Encyc)
scholarly networks
Super Mario Brothers
THINK (the IBM advertising slogan)
Video arcades
Videogames
The Well (San Francisco)
Westlaw