People's Computer Company (PCC) was an organization, a newsletter (the ''People's Computer Company Newsletter'') and, later, a quasiperiodical called the ''Dragonsmoke''. PCC was founded and produced by

Dennis Allison Dennis Allison is a lecturer at Stanford University, a position he has held since 1976. Allison was a founding member of the People's Computer Company. Allison in 1975 wrote a specification for a microcomputer interpreter (computing), interpre ...

Bob Albrecht Bob Albrecht is a key figure in the early history of microcomputers. He was one of the founders of the People's Computer Company and its associated newsletters which turned into '' Dr. Dobb's Journal.'' He also brought the first Altair 8800 to t ...

and George Firedrake in

Menlo Park, California Menlo Park is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County within the San Francisco Bay Area of California in the United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, and Stanford to the south; ...

in the early 1970s. The first newsletter, published in October 1972, announced itself with the following introduction:

"Computers are mostly used against people instead of for people; used to control people instead of to free them; Time to change all that - we need a... Peoples Computer Company."

It was published bimonthly. The name was chosen in reference to

Janis Joplin Janis Lyn Joplin (January 19, 1943 – October 4, 1970) was an American singer and musician. One of the most successful and widely known Rock music, rock stars of her era, she was noted for her powerful mezzo-soprano vocals and "electric" stage ...

’s rock group

Big Brother and the Holding Company Big Brother and the Holding Company is an American rock band that formed in San Francisco in 1965 as part of the same psychedelic music scene that produced the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and Jefferson Airplane. After som ...

. The newsletter ceased publication in 1981.

History

PCC was one of the first organizations to recognize the potential of

Tiny BASIC Tiny BASIC is a family of Programming language#Dialects, flavors and implementations, dialects of the BASIC programming language that can fit into 4 or fewer kilobyte, KBs of random-access memory, memory. Tiny BASIC was designed in response to th ...

in the nascent field of personal computing when it published that language's design specification in their newsletter. This ultimately led to the design of an interpreter that was published in a publication, which they named '' Dr. Dobb's Journal of Tiny BASIC Calisthenics and Orthodontia,'' dedicated to

. The newsletter's title was changed to ''Dr. Dobb's Journal of Computer Calisthenics & Orthodontia'' for the second issue; the popular reaction to it eventually led to the long-running computer

magazine A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...

''Dr. Dobb's Journal'' (DDJ) which continued publication until 2009. PCC was among the first organizations to recognize and actively advocate playing as a legitimate way of

learning Learning is the process of acquiring new understanding, knowledge, behaviors, skills, value (personal and cultural), values, attitudes, and preferences. The ability to learn is possessed by humans, animals, and some machine learning, machines ...

. It published arguably the first best-seller in microcomputer literature, ''My Computer Likes Me When I Speak BASIC'' and ''What to Do After You Hit Return''. The company was an early proponent of

software Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. At the lowest programming level, executable code consists ...

without

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...

, and published much of it in the above books, in DDJ and in another periodical. That magazine originally shared the company's name but it evolved and was later renamed ''Recreational Computing''. It focused on publishing code listings, mostly for

game A game is a structured form of play (activity), play, usually undertaken for enjoyment, entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator s ...

s, that users could hand type into their early-model (and some homebrew)

personal computer A personal computer (PC) is a multi-purpose microcomputer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user, rather than by a computer expert or tec ...

s. Because the code was without copyright, authors were free to study it, adapt, rewrite and build upon it. The same was true of the more systems-oriented code published in DDJ. This no-copyright practice was a significant boost to the growing body of microcomputer software and applications, and to the general base of knowledge and developing best practices in the young industry. PCC also fostered the activities of its child organization, ComputerTown USA! That formalized PCC's long-standing activism around general

computer literacy Computer literacy is defined as the knowledge and ability to use computers and related technology efficiently, with skill levels ranging from elementary use to computer programming and advanced problem solving. Computer literacy can also refer ...

. At a time when many computers still were kept in

clean room A cleanroom or clean room is an engineered space, which maintains a very low concentration of airborne particulates. It is well isolated, well-controlled from contamination, and actively cleansed. Such rooms are commonly needed for scientif ...

s, PCC was taking them to libraries, grade schools and elder communities. Their activities encouraged hands-on exploration and just trying things. The

Logo programming language Logo is an educational programming language, designed in 1967 by Wally Feurzeig, Seymour Papert, and Cynthia Solomon. ''Logo'' is not an acronym: the name was coined by Feurzeig while he was at Bolt, Beranek and Newman, and derives from the Gre ...

and

turtle graphics In computer graphics, turtle graphics are vector graphics using a relative cursor (the "turtle") upon a Cartesian plane (x and y axis). Turtle graphics is a key feature of the Logo programming language. Overview The turtle has three attribute ...

gave some users their first experience of controlling something on a computer display. Computer phobia was commonly perceived by PCC staff as a barrier to learning in a significant number of users, even in a large majority of some populations during those early years.

Apple Computer Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company b ...

's Community Affairs department used ComputerTown USA! to develop curriculum and to conduct intensive trainings for the non-profit recipients of computer hardware and software grants from Apple. As one of its core philosophical contributions, People's Computer Company recognized in personal computing a great potential for individual empowerment and social improvement. It saw that PCs could bring the same advantages to those hampered by race, class and circumstance as to those with more advantages. It believed a digital commons could lead to more intermingling of individuals from diverse social groups. It supported early models of networking personal computers using

telephone A telephone is a telecommunications device that permits two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most efficiently the human voice, into e ...

lines. It could, in hindsight, be regarded as among the first contributors to a form of what is known now as

network neutrality Network neutrality, often referred to as net neutrality, is the principle that Internet service providers (ISPs) must treat all Internet communications equally, offering users and online content providers consistent rates irrespective of co ...

and a fundamentally non-commercial, class-free

internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

. The history of PCC and its role in the evolution of the personal computer was described in

Steven Levy Steven Levy (born 1951) is an American journalist and Editor at Large for ''Wired'' who has written extensively for publications on computers, technology, cryptography, the internet, cybersecurity, and privacy. He is the author of the 1984 book ...

's book, '' Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution''. In Levy's book, some of the values and ethics of PCC's founders are examined, particularly the ethics common among members of the hacker community.

References

{{Reflist, refs= {{Cite book , title=Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution , title-link=Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution , author-last=Levy , author-first=Steven , author-link=Steven Levy , publisher= O'Reilly Media, Inc. , isbn=978-1-449-38839-3 , date=2010 , location=Sebastopol, CA, USA , edition=25th anniversary , chapter=Chapter 8: Revolt in 2100 {{cite book , author-last=Levy , author-first=Steven , author-link=Steven Levy , title=Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution , title-link=Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution , publisher=

Anchor Press Vintage Books is a trade paperback publishing imprint of Penguin Random House originally established by Alfred A. Knopf in 1954. The company was purchased by Random House in April 1960, and a British division was set up in 1990. After Random Hous ...

/ Doubleday , date=1984 , edition=1 , isbn=0-385-19195-2 {{cite magazine , author-link=Michael Swaine (technical author) , author-last=Swaine , author-first=Michael , title=Dr. Dobb's Journal @ 30 , date=January 2006 , volume=31 , issue=1 , id=#380 , magazine= Dr. Dobb's Journal , page=18 , url=http://www.ddj.com/architect/184406378 , access-date=2020-01-14

External links

Site that is the home of the history of the Peoples Computer Company

The PCC alumni pages

Digital Collection of People's Computer Company publications
Bimonthly magazines published in the United States Computer clubs Defunct computer magazines published in the United States Magazines established in 1972 Magazines disestablished in 1981 Magazines published in California Menlo Park, California

History

See also

References

External links