Why is everything ORANGE?
Short answer: If you have to ask, well, you're probably not a PLATO person :-)
Long answer: For years many of the terminals connected to the PLATO system had
flat-panel "gas plasma" displays, and the light emitted in the monochrome pixels
of gas plasma displays was... orange!
Who owns and runs this site? Who's the webmaster?
Brian Dear, that's me. For contact info, use the link at the top.
I have a background in startups, social media, user communities, software design, user experience design,
as well as PLATO, CBT, CAI, eLearning,
editing, writing,
and am a member of the Society for the History of Technology and
the Association of Internet Researchers.
How do I buy a copy of the book?
The book's in development still. If all goes well it will be available for sale in 2012.
When will the book be finished?
Yes, it keeps being pushed back. I am funding the project entirely on my own. I hope to have it done in 2012. It's a huge project. Stay tuned.
How much information have you gathered while researching so far?
Book sources include: over 4 million words of typed transcripts from about 500 hours' of recorded
interviews, plus many thousands of emails, plus hundreds (maybe thousands, I've lost
count) of other materials including magazine and newspaper articles,
books, documents, pamplets, videos, photographs, and brochures.
Why are you writing this book?
Because there has never been a trade nonfiction book written about PLATO, the culture that surrounded it,
and the innovations and people that were involved with it. It's a fascinating story that's never been told.
And it's time to set the record
straight, once and for all.
Will you write my homework/thesis/dissertation for me?
I barely have enough time to do my own research let alone the research for others. So, sorry, I cannot
help you with that paper you're writing on PLATO. I will provide a full bibliography and end-notes when the
book comes out, and I hope this aids future researchers in exploring the PLATO story further.
More questions and answers will be added over time. But for now... back to work...
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This page was last modified: 6 Oct 2011
Copyright © 1997-2011 Brian L. Dear
