View source for Convivial Tools Narrative

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The following narrative presents the main themes of this website in more-or-less chronological order.

==[[:Category:Historical Roots]]==
The ideas developed by [[Ivan Illich]] in [[Tools for Conviviality]] follow on a long tradition of criticism of industrial technology and of a search for viable alternatives. The [[Historical Roots]] of the idea of [[Convivial Tools]] extend back to the eighteenth century French Enlightenment and the philosophy of [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]]. Twentieth-century precursers include philosophers such as [[Lewis Mumford]] and [[Jacques Ellul]], and counter-culture movements such as [[Whole Earth]] and [[Appropriate Technology]].

==[[:Category:Post-War Cybernetics]]==
During and after the Second World War, emerging tendencies in scientific thought coalesced into a new field which [[Norbert Wiener]] called [[Cybernetics]], formed at the crossroads of computer science, electrical engineering, biology and social science. [[Post-War Cybernetics]] exercised a major influence on thinking about society, information, the environment and the use of computers. The concepts of [[Cybernetics]] were taken up by the [[Whole Earth]] movement. More recently, the arrival of the Internet spawned derivative terms such as [[Cyberspace]] and [[Cybernaut]].

==[[:Category:Whole Earth]]==
The [[Whole Earth]] movement began with the publication of the first [[Whole Earth Catalog]] by [[Stewart Brand]] in 1968. The [[Whole Earth Catalog]], which appeared regularly until 1972 and periodically thereafter, served as the center of an informal community of users and contributors. Due to their interest in [[Cybernetics]], the [[Whole Earth]] community spawned influential network-based spin-offs, such as the Internet community called the [[WELL]] and the cyber-magazine [[Wired]].

==[[:Category:Appropriate Technology]]==
[[Appropriate Technology]] was first introduced as [[Intermediate Technology]] in the mid-nineteen-sixties by [[E.F. Schumacher]], who is best-known for his book [[Small is Beautiful]].

==[[:Category:Convivial Tools]]==
[[Ivan Illich]] coined the term [[Convivial Tools]] in his 1973 book [[Tools for Conviviality]]. [[Convivial Tools]] can be defined as tools which allow the user to operate with independent efficiency. 

In an earlier book [[Deschooling Society]], Illich looked for ways that citizens could take back the control of their own learning processes. He thus proposed the development of computerized "learning webs," at a time before the Internet existed. In [[Tools for Conviviality]] he looked for ways that citizen's could take back the control of technology, and imagined tools that would be developed and maintained by a community of users. This vision influenced members of the [[Hacker Generation]], who developed the first personal computer in the 1970s. One of these was inventor [[Lee Felsenstein]], who helped form the [[Homebrew Computer Club]] as a community of do-it-yourself computer developers. This vision of community tool development is embodied in more recent movements such as [[Free and Open Source Software]], [[Wiki]]s, [[Open Design]] and the whole of [[Web 2.0]].

==[[:Category:Hacker Generation]]==
The [[Hacker Generation]] of the late 1970s was formed by the individuals and communities that created the hardware and software of the personal computer. It includes people such as [[Steve Wozniak]] and [[Steve Jobs]], who created the [[Apple Computer]], and [[Lee Felsenstein]], an electronic engineer who along with Wozniak and Jobs was a member of the [[Homebrew Computer Club]].

==[[:Category:Cyberspace]]==
The emergence of the Internet lead to the development of a new culture shared by the denizens of [[Cyberspace]], which became mainstream with the development of the [[World Wide Web]] in the early 1990s.

==[[:Category:FOSS]] - Free and Open Source Software==
[[Free and Open Source Software]] (FOSS) is a comprehensive term encompassing both the [[Free Software]] and [[Open Source Software]] movements. The [[Free Software]] movement was created in the early 1980s by [[Richard Stallman]], a member of the [[Hacker Generation]]. It went mainstream when the offshoot [[Open Source Software]] was formulated nearly two decades later by a group that formed around [[Eric S. Raymond]].

==[[:Category:Open Source]] Culture==
The new licences developed by the [[Free and Open Source Software]] movement inspired interest in the use of [[Open Source]] licenses in all fields of creative activity.

==[[:Category:Open Design]]==
[[Open Design]] is the application of the principles of [[Free and Open Source Software]] (FOSS) to the design of physical objects such as machines and computer hardware. Open Design is a general term covering a number of specific [[Open Source]] movements, such as the [[Open Source Hardware]] movement for Open Design of microcomputer chips, and the [[Open Source Tool Design]] movement which concerns primarily the Open Design of machines.

==[[:Category:Convivial Product]]==
The [[Convivial Product]] is a [[Convivial Tool]] offered for public use, either by sale or by gift (see [[Gift Economics]]). The basic characteristic of the [[Convivial Product]] is [[Usability]].

==[[:Category:Convivial Websites]]==
[[Convivial Websites]] are those which demonstrate the characteristics of the [[Convivial Product]]. They may notably include [[Review Sites]], [[How-to Websites]], and other useful websites. Other types of [[Convivial Websites]] include [[wiki]] websites and [[Social Software]] sites (see [[Web 2.0]]).

==[[:Category:Web 2.0]]==
The Internet has evolved rapidly since the birth of the original [[World Wide Web]] in the early 1990s. It has reached a stage that [[Tim O'Reilly]] has called [[Web 2.0]], characterized notably by such phenomena as [[Social Software]], [[Virtual Worlds]] and [[Massively Distributed Collaboration]].

==[[:Category:Web 3.0]]==
What is the web evolving towards? Some say that [[Web 3.0]] will be a [[Semantic Web]], providing machine-facilitated understanding of information to help users perform more productive [[Data Mining]] for their own personal profit.

[[Category:Root]]