The Friendly Orange Glow

640 pages

English language

Published Dec. 29, 2017

ISBN:: 978-1-101-87155-3
Goodreads:: 34373814

(1 review)

At a time when Steve Jobs was only a teenager and Mark Zuckerberg wasn’t even born, a group of visionary engineers and designers—some of them only high school students—in the late 1960s and 1970s created a computer system called PLATO, which was light-years ahead in experimenting with how people would learn, engage, communicate, and play through connected computers. Not only did PLATO engineers make significant hardware breakthroughs with plasma displays and touch screens but PLATO programmers also came up with a long list of software innovations: chat rooms, instant messaging, message boards, screen savers, multiplayer games, online newspapers, interactive fiction, and emoticons. Together, the PLATO community pioneered what we now collectively engage in as cyberculture. They were among the first to identify and also realize the potential and scope of the social interconnectivity of computers, well before the creation of the internet. PLATO was the foundational model for every online …

At a time when Steve Jobs was only a teenager and Mark Zuckerberg wasn’t even born, a group of visionary engineers and designers—some of them only high school students—in the late 1960s and 1970s created a computer system called PLATO, which was light-years ahead in experimenting with how people would learn, engage, communicate, and play through connected computers. Not only did PLATO engineers make significant hardware breakthroughs with plasma displays and touch screens but PLATO programmers also came up with a long list of software innovations: chat rooms, instant messaging, message boards, screen savers, multiplayer games, online newspapers, interactive fiction, and emoticons. Together, the PLATO community pioneered what we now collectively engage in as cyberculture. They were among the first to identify and also realize the potential and scope of the social interconnectivity of computers, well before the creation of the internet. PLATO was the foundational model for every online community that was to follow in its footsteps.

The Friendly Orange Glow is the first history to recount in fascinating detail the remarkable accomplishments and inspiring personal stories of the PLATO community. The addictive nature of PLATO both ruined many a college career and launched pathbreaking multimillion-dollar software products. Its development, impact, and eventual disappearance provides an instructive case study of technological innovation and disruption, project management, and missed opportunities. Above all, The Friendly Orange Glow at last reveals new perspectives on the origins of social computing and our internet-infatuated world.

1 edition

Thom reviewed The Friendly Orange Glow by Brian Dear

Review of 'The Friendly Orange Glow' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Started this thick volume on April 1, and had to check twice to make sure I wasn't being fooled. This is the story of computing both ahead of it's time and mostly ignored by the mainstream. The information is interesting, if too complete, and the history scattered at times.

The first 200 pages are an excellent history of the PLATO (Programmed Logic for Automatic Teaching Operations) terminal and the principal figures. Just the right amount of technical detail balances with history and even philosophy (of education). The next few hundred pages rambles some, covering a lot of territory. Topics such as games and network communities are discussed with relevance to PLATO. Firm editing and a few less anecdotes may have helped here.

The final section of the book covers the inevitable downfall of the company and the terminal, for a variety of reasons. The investments in Russia and Iran were …

Started this thick volume on April 1, and had to check twice to make sure I wasn't being fooled. This is the story of computing both ahead of it's time and mostly ignored by the mainstream. The information is interesting, if too complete, and the history scattered at times.

The first 200 pages are an excellent history of the PLATO (Programmed Logic for Automatic Teaching Operations) terminal and the principal figures. Just the right amount of technical detail balances with history and even philosophy (of education). The next few hundred pages rambles some, covering a lot of territory. Topics such as games and network communities are discussed with relevance to PLATO. Firm editing and a few less anecdotes may have helped here.

The final section of the book covers the inevitable downfall of the company and the terminal, for a variety of reasons. The investments in Russia and Iran were unpredictably poorly timed, the overpricing of new hardware could have been avoided, but in reality the juggernaut of personal computers would have been impossible to avoid. The author clearly has some strong feelings about this topic. The book then concludes with some short bios of famous names connected to PLATO and an extensive bibliography and index.

I liked it and learned a lot. It is comparable to Stephen Levy's [b:Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution|56829|Hackers Heroes of the Computer Revolution|Steven Levy|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1435697935s/56829.jpg|1407224] and Walter Isaacson's [b:The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution|21856367|The Innovators How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution|Walter Isaacson|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1410191571s/21856367.jpg|41129225].