Excited for tonight's talk at @datasociety by Dr. Charlton McIlwain (@cmcilwain) on his new book, "Black Software - The Internet and Racial Justice from the Afronet to Black Lives Matter". Gonna thread some tweets here.
@datasociety @cmcilwain Writing a history of black software was a scary thing to do, explains @cmcilwain - you can get lost in archives and never find your way out... which is a bad thing when you've got a book due. #databites
@datasociety @cmcilwain The starting point for @cmcilwain's book: #BlackLivesMatter . Success of this movement - the simple fact that people know what the movement stands and fights for is a testament to its power and visibility... last time we talked about these issues in depth in the US was the 1960s
@datasociety @cmcilwain Who drove BLM and what tools did they use to drive it? Where did BLM come from? Those were @cmcilwain's starting points. Back to the 1990s... In 1995, when we talk about black folk online - "digital divide". This narrative erased 5.2m black folk online in 1995.
@datasociety @cmcilwain The story of those 5.2 million black folks online in the US in 1995 - who were they? - became @cmcilwain's obsession. An early title of the book was "Remember when the internet was Black?" A declaration, a revelation and a provocation...
@datasociety @cmcilwain Where are the origins of "black software" @cmcilwain tells the story of William, the only black owner of a computer store in Cambridge, MA, and his marketing of inclusive clip art... and how he walked away from NASA JPL to start his venture in Roxbury.
@datasociety @cmcilwain The story of black software involves leaders who wanted foremost to make money, and those who wanted to advance the Black community - and the tensions between those sides, explains @cmcilwain #databites @datasociety
@datasociety @cmcilwain In 1965, as the civil rights act was being signed, the department of labor was warning about automation and computerization. We were set on a collision course between civil rights and the computer revolution, explains @cmcilwain #databites
@datasociety @cmcilwain This path eventually leads us to predictive policing, which also has its origins in the 1960s...
@datasociety @cmcilwain In a narrative twist, @cmcilwain explores Silicon Valley's heavy cocaine use, which helped fuel technological revolutions, and the move of cocaine from SF to LA, where crack emerged... "black software" is both about innovation and about nullifying Black agency. #databites
@datasociety @cmcilwain In writing "Black Software", @cmcilwain explains that the people he interviewed inevitably reacted with, "Oh, I've been WAITING to tell this story..." Unpacking these narratives and honoring these voices was the narrative challenge in structuring the book.
@datasociety @cmcilwain Asked about @owasow and Black Planet, @cmcilwain acknowledges their centrality to the emergence of black software, but isn't in the book because he wanted to bring gender balance into the book... so the emphasis is on @farai Chideya and her emergence from that space.
