People's Computer Company
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The People's Computer Center (PCC) was an organisation, a newsletter, (the "People's Computer Company Newsletter") and later a quasiperiodical called the "dragonsmoke". The PCC was founded and produced by Bob Albrecht & George Firedrake in Menlo Park, California in the early 1970s.
The first newsletter 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."
The PCC was one of the first organisations to recognise the potential of "Tiny BASIC", for personal computing, when it published its design specification in their newsletter. This ultimately led to the design of an interpreter for it that was published in a publication dedicated to Tiny BASIC, which they called "Dr. Dobb's Journal of Tiny BASIC Calisthenics and Orthodonti". The newsletter's title was changed to Dr. Dobb's Journal of Computer Calisthenics & Orthodontia for the second issue. And the popular reaction to it eventually led to the still existing computer magazine Dr. Dobb's Journal.
The history of the PCC and its role in the evolution of the personal computer was described in Steven Levy's book, Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution[1]. In Levy's book, the some of the values and ethics of the PCC founders are examined - particularly the ethics that are common those of the hacker community.
[edit] See also
- What to Do After You Hit Return or P.C.C.'s First Book of Computer Games
- Hacker Ethic
- Community Memory
