D-Lib Magazine's featured site this month deals with history (albeit recent history), technology and culture. The site is Making the Macintosh: Technology and Culture in Silicon Valley.

The producer and principal author of "Making the Macintosh" is Dr. Alex Soojung-Kim Pang. In addition to his work on this ongoing project, which was begun in July 2000, Dr. Pang works on other online projects focusing on the history of Silicon Valley and Stanford's Science, Technology and Society Program. (Below are two graphics developed by Dr. Pang to illustrate the geographic distribution of Mac users and user groups in the mid-1980's.)

Images courtesy of "Making the Macintosh".
Stanford University Library Special Collections.
Used with permission.

A site as rich with primary materials as this one, however, is achieved through the work and contributions of many individuals and organizations (see Credits).

As fascinating as the materials are at "Making the Macintosh", the collection is also useful for illustrating an effective way to present such online archives effectively. The collection "is organized around several primary subjects. In each, readers will first find an introductory essay that explains the significance of the subject; provides some background necessary to make sense of the archival collection; and contains suggestions regarding how to get started in the documents. There is also a complete list of documents, interviews, and images for each section. The site takes this approach because the character of the collection makes it possible for the documents—and the people who created them—to speak for themselves, without the usual intermediary scholarly apparatus of interpretation and explication." In addition, those who may be planning similar online projects are encouraged to read the Historiographic Approach to creation of "Making the Macintosh"

The primary subjects around which the site is organized include:

• Computing and the Counterculture
• The Early Macintosh, 1979-1981
• The Macintosh Mouse
• Technical Writing and the Macintosh
• The Macintosh Marketing Campaign
• User Groups and the Macintosh

Although many of the resources at the site focus specifically on the development history of the Macintosh computer, the scope of materials goes beyond that of describing a particular technology, to providing a view of a unique time and place in American culture.

"Making the Macintosh: Technology and Culture in Silicon Valley is located at <http://library.stanford.edu/mac/index.html>.

Copyright^© 2002 Corporation for National Research Initiatives

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DOI: 10.1045/october2002-featured.collection