Plato, Aristotle, and other Greek philosophers began to categorize knowledge and create the ‘idea’ or a concept of an object separate from the reality of the object. Leibniz followed up on this abstraction of reality as described by Martin Davis in his book, The Universal Computer:

This project will look at some of the signs that occur in the computer ‘how to’ press. Without a doubt, the computer press has become a prolific publisher. A number of years ago there were no computer bookstores in Ottawa; now there are quite a few computer bookstores. While there was always a market for ‘how to’ books, the complexity of the computer, and its attendant software, has meant that books on ‘how to’ use computers are many.

In a study of computer adoption in Kenya and the Ivory Coast, Author Bennetta Jules-Rosette uses mostly the semiotic narrative program of A.J. Greimas to look at the symbolic progression of events. [2] This method is used "to interpret responses to the computer and its attributes in the workplace" [3] in Jules-Rosette’s book.

In semiotic analysis, one can look at the ideology of the signs. [4] In looking at the computer press, Rob Kling has identified the thread of utopian and anti-utopian meanings. [5] Some writers feel computers are good; and some writers feel computers are bad. In general, computer ‘how to’ books are written in the utopian theme. At least, if you get a computer to complete some goal by reading one of these books, that is productive, functional, and a good use of computers. Kling looked at the narrative truth of computer books and more particularly the social meaning in books about computers. This essay hopes to limit itself to computer ‘how to’ books not all books written about computers. The project will not look so much at the narrative although the analysis will not ignore the story these books tell. In a sense the ‘how to’ books are more practical than utopian.

There is an assumption with these books that the reader is learning ‘how to’ do something by reading. Reading then, is a way to learn. Obviously, these books support literacy. They support computer literacy. As my Partner on this project Dave Willson suggested, these books like the ‘Dummies’ guidebooks make it seem that the topics they cover can be learned by those who might be of limited intelligence. In a sense these book demystify the ‘Thinking Machine’.
 

There was an attempt early on to study the extent of the sales of these types of books but the publishers would not return calls and they claimed that sales figures were secret. Searches both with the help of a librarian and database searches of the microcomputer press index showed that this computer press explosion seems to have not been covered as of yet in the academy. Although the proliferation of literature in digital form has received quite a lot of study, the study of the explosion of literature about digital machines is still very much a new area. So, no large list of all computer ‘how to’ books was used.

As the computer is here to stay, it can be assumed there will always be books for learning ‘how to’ do things with computers. In addition, it is assumed that there are a finite number of titles. However, not having resources to study the whole of computer ‘how to’ books, I chose an easy sample of these books. In an article on fear of crime in the media, researchers looked at British films and newspapers. [6] They chose to look at a sample of all films and newspapers since 1945. The project at hand also uses a sample of all computer help books. The actual books chosen for analysis were books I own for four publishers. Here on the next page is a table of these books. This is a complete list, of the books I own for these four publishers: IDG, QUE, O’Reilly, and MIT. These books include a few books from MIT, a sort of high brow press. The IDG books include some none Dummy books. There is one QUE book that is not an Idiots Guide. O’Reilly typically publishes books for using UNIX
 
 
 
 

Table of Books I Own Published by Four Publishers
 
 
 
 
 
 

To "uncover some of the wider political and sociocultural factors relating to these texts"[7] is what Joyce Davidson’s, accounting of the method of the critical discourse analyst, Norman Fairclough suggests. I will now explore these factors a little before analysing the signs in these texts.

One factor that is most important to computers and the practical application of computers is the sociocultural workplace where these books are used. I suspect this near environment is very diverse. It could include High Technology Companies, Schools, and Businesses of other kinds. As well as, would be included, Charities, and Government. In this way these texts, affect both, social and business policy. As well as, this near environment, these texts, function in a near psychological realm as tools of education. Here I believe they empower the successful reader.
 
 

Book: MySQL & mSQL

Contents of Preface [section titles]

Contents of introduction [Section titles]

Taking a further sub sample of the books this is how I choose which books to analyse. For O’Reilly I left out Evil Geniuses in a Nutshell because it is a Cartoon book and not a ‘how to’ title. Only the Dummies Guide books for IDG were chosen. For QUE I used only the Complete Idiots Guide books, only two books. I did not cover the MIT books as these books were considered not ‘how to’ books in my opinion.

Here is a table for this part of the analysis.

I did not have time to analyse the books further in terms of words. I now turn to the analysis of the visual signs in the books.
 

Covers:

Note: see the attached web page print out of the some of covers.

The covers of the books use uniformity to establish the publisher’s brand. The covers of the Dummies and Idiots books used loud colours and simple graphic art. Whereas the O’Reilly books use prints and white space for their covers. It seems the O’Reilly covers must cost more money as each print must be licensed and is at least more complex to print than the Dummies and Idiots books.

Cartoons:

Both of the Dummies and Idiots books use cartoons at the beginning of each section or chapter. This seems to show the humor attempted in the narrative of these books. Cartoons are a sign that implies humor. The O’Reilly books do not use cartoons.

Margin drawings/icons.

The Dummies and Idiots books use icons and drawings. The icons are flashy cartoons. The drawings are generally formal in these books. The O’Reilly books also use drawings but humor is not implied.
 

O’Reilly books aim their covers at a higher status reader. The use of white space and prints suggests an art gallery. The prescribed reader section of these books seems to match this with a higher employment status for these books. It seems that these books are tools in the job market as well. The requirements of employment ads in the newspaper seem to match the topics of the books. I think one of the hidden or not so hidden factors that are sociocultural is the ability of these books to improve one’s employability. These books impart skills in the computer work field. The fact, that these books use humor and the ‘any user’ status indicate to me that there are a diverse set of users of computer these days. These books must be usable and readable by a wide array of personalities. The humor used opens these books to a wider audience. The humor also allows the access to computers to a wider set of people. Computer work in the late seventies was boring. Now days as the computer saturates the working world it needs to be less boring more user friendly. It seems the computer press has also become friendlier to match.
 
 

M. Davis, The Universal Computer, The Road from Leibniz to Turing (New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 2000) at 5.

² B. Jules-Rosette, Terminal Signs, Computers and Social Change in Africa (New York, N.Y.: Mouton de Gruyter, 1990) at 28.

³ Jules-Rosette, Ibid. at 29.

⁴ J. Bignell, Media Semiotics, an introduction (Vancouver, B.C.: Manchester Press, 2002) at 24.

⁵ R. Kling, Reading "All About" computerization, in ed. Arge, P. E., & Schuler, D., Reinventing Technology, Rediscovering Community: critical explorations of computing as a social practice (Greenwich, CT: Ablex Publishing Corporation, 1997) at 20.

⁶ R. Reiner, S. Livingstone, J. Allen, No more happy endings? The media and popular concern about crime since the Second World War, in eds. Hope, T. and Sparks, R., crime, risk and insecurity pp. 107-125, (New York, N.Y.: Routledge, 2000) at 110.

⁷ J. Davidson, All in the Mind?: Women, Agoraphobia, and the subject of Self-Help, in Davidson, J. et al. Subjectivities, Knowledges, and Feminist Geographies, The Subjects of Ethics and Social Research (New York, N.Y.: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2002) at 17-18.
 
 

Davidson, J., All in the Mind?: Women, Agoraphobia, and the subject of Self-Help, in Davidson, J. et al., Subjectivities, Knowledges, and Feminist Geographies, The Subjects of Ethics and Social Research (New York, N.Y.: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2002).

Davis, M., The Universal Computer, The Road from Leibniz to Turing (New York, N.Y.: W.W. Norton & Company, 2000).

Jules-Rosette, B., Terminal Signs, Computers and Social Change in Africa (New York, N.Y.: Mouton de Gruyter, 1990).

.

Kling, R., Reading "All About" computerization, in eds. Arge, P. E., & Schuler, D., Reinventing Technology, Rediscovering Community: critical explorations of computing as a social practice (Greenwich, CT: Ablex Publishing Corporation, 1997).

Reiner, R., Livingstone, S., Allen, J., No more happy endings? The media and popular concern about crime since the Second World War, in eds.. Hope, T. and Sparks, R., crime, risk and insecurity, pp. 107-125, (New York, N.Y.: Routledge, 2000).
 
 

Bignell, J., Media Semiotics, an introduction (Vancouver, B.C.: Manchester Press, 2002).

Davidson, J., All in the Mind?: Women, Agoraphobia, and the subject of Self-Help, in Davidson, J. et al., Subjectivities, Knowledges, and Feminist Geographies, The Subjects of Ethics and Social Research (New York, N.Y.: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2002).

Davis, M., The Universal Computer, The Road from Leibniz to Turing (New York, N.Y.: W.W. Norton & Company, 2000).

Caesar, M., Umberto Eco: philosophy, semiotics and the work of fiction (Cambridge, MA: Polity Press, 1999)

Eco, U., Travels in hyper reality: essays, trans: William Weaver (San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1986)

Jules-Rosette, B., Terminal Signs, Computers and Social Change in Africa (New York, N.Y.: Mouton de Gruyter, 1990).

.

Kling, R., Reading "All About" computerization, in eds. Arge, P. E., & Schuler, D., Reinventing Technology, Rediscovering Community: critical explorations of computing as a social practice (Greenwich, CT: Ablex Publishing Corporation, 1997).

Provenzo, Jr., E. F., Beyond the Gutenberg Galaxy, Microcomputers and the Emergence of Post-Typographic Culture (New York, N.Y.: Teachers College Press, 1986).

Rawlins, G. J. E,. Moths to the flame: the seductions of computer technology (Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 1996).

Rawlins, G. J. E., Slaves of the machine, the quickening of computer technology (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1997)

Reiner, R., Livingstone, S., Allen, J., No more happy endings? The media and popular concern about crime since the Second World War, in eds.. Hope, T. and Sparks, R., crime, risk and insecurity, pp. 107-125, (New York, N.Y.: Routledge, 2000).

Roszak, T., The Cult of Information, The Folklore of Computers and the True Art of Thinking (New York, N.Y.: Pantheon Books, 1986).

Spiller, N., Cyber_Reader, Critical writings for the digital era (New York, N.Y.: Phaidon Press Limited, 2002).
 

Last Updated 03/10/02
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