Douglas' discussion of the impact of the Titanic disaster and the Navy's later interest in radio highlight an ongoing theme in many stories of technological development in the U.S. That theme has to do with coopting the innovations and interests of "amateurs," and asserting the need for control at the federal level. How would you characterize the debates surrounding the issues of militarization and regulation of wireless technology? Could wireless have "worked" in an environment absent of regulation? An alternative question: How are Douglas' conceptualizations of amateurs in the wireless domain different from those of Marvin in the electrical domain? How does the press figure into popular understandings of the amateur? ::::::::::::: I found fascinating the cooptation of the innovations, practices, and interests of amateurs by corporations, the navy, or the goverment. And I was struck by the similarities with the hacking culture of today A theme about power, power to organize and survive in a capitalist society Who has the right to control, to have property, to own. A matter of order and control. Who does it. Owning the ether :: the electromagnetic spectrum. >> struggle for controling the ether. Who owns the airwaves? NAvy Vs the amateurs Press Vs the amateurs Gov Vs the amateurs Recurrent theme also of the amateurs as spacegoats. Similarities with hackers, hacking culture. HAving a playground to build, experiment, explore, but not being able to claim property, rights. Involved in interactive communication : active audience, community the ether was for them "an exciting new frontier in which men and boys could congregate, compete, test their mettle, and be privy to a range of new information." (214) for the amateurs ether belonged to "the people" >>. democratic rethoric amateurs ignored the boundaries around and within the ether >> overpopulation, overuse >> affects other users. There are also certain practices that became marginalized in a guetto because they were not useful for the capitalist enterprise. For instance, the idea of recycling, adaptative reuse, The role of the press in this cooptation is crucial. They journalistic rhetoric was able to put the amateurs in the bad side. The press, as did it with the inventor hero, did it also with the amateur boys. In fact the amateur boy was just another hero in the casting of the american popular culture. Choosing popular icons, celebrities, public personalities >>> role models in society MAsculinity and popular culture >> young boys boy hero >>> american tradition in dime novels boy-inventor hero middle class control of technology experimentation loved contacting other people, stranges, through space >> fraternity, community innovators>> tuning system developed a proprietary attitude toward the airwaves they had been working in for the past five years. grassroots network subculture marginal guetto "active, committed, and participatory audience" (205) 1906-1912 "1st radio boom" >> amateur operators : engaged with enthusiasm There is the journalistic press, the newspapers. They first celebrated the amateurs and then blame them. Popular fiction and magazines and newspapers celebrated the amateurs during 1906 to 1912 >> larger tha life represntation of amateurs in popular culture "popular culture articulated the hopes and dreams invested in wireless" There is also the print pop culture that focused on the amateurs as an audience during the radio boom that Douglas describes. Children's books, wireless manuals, magazines, boy scouts . The press that was directed to the amateuers. Amateurs as a community of practice. Promotion of the hobby. Amateurs in the wireless domain seem to be more pop. They are different to the amateurs of the electric domain. difference with more gadgets, more machines Douglas does not explore the language of the amateurs thoroughly Could be interesting to know what kind of sci fi Gernback was writing. Or the language amateurs where using when speaking of themselves MArvin's conceptualization of electricians are more literate. They are a textual community. MAstered the language. Technical language. Discussion. Based on the language. Was more elitist, exclussive, not as popular electrical experts and their publics projected their social worlds into technology "electricians" >> earliest users and observers of electric media >> involved in the field of cultural production and technical production >>> have families, class, community, gender relations >>>electric community spokes persons and interpreters. lettered communities claim to public authority skill interpreting technical documents :: "technological literacy" documetntary procedures replacing the skills of the tinkerer and craft mechanic circles of expertise popular press diseminated exchanges to larger audiences "effort of electrical professionals to invent themselves as an elite in the late nineteenth century." 15 they were the insiders not the outsiders textual cues for recognizing outsiders/insiders