Polygamer - A Podcast of Equality & Diversity in Gaming & Video Games
  • About
  • Episodes
  • Guests
  • Subscribe
  • Contact

Tag Archives: University of Minnesota

Polygamer #66: Charles Babbage Institute on historical diversity & representation

Posted on May 24, 2017 by Ken Gagne

The Charles Babbage Institute at the University of Minnesota is an archive and research center dedicated to preserving the history of information technology. Instead of physical hardware and software, the CBI preserves the culture and stories of the IT industry, as told by both those who created it and those whom it impacted. Its extensive collection on Social Issues in Computing exemplifies the many challenges that have arisen as the result of the evolution and proliferation of technology, including gaming.

In this episode, I chat with CBI’s current and former archivists, Amanda Wick and Arvid Nelsen. The archive has a growing collection of video game materials, leading me to ask: does the larger technology industry have the same issues of diversity and representation as gaming? Is gaming uniquely a bellwether, or an exemplar, for social issues? Is technology inherently neutral or even positive, as the industry often purports? In what ways are marginalized voices excluded from the authorship of IT’s history? And what does the archive have to say about the classic survival game Oregon Trail, created right in CBI’s home state of Minnesota?

Stream the audio edition of this interview below or from Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Overcast, Pandora, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive. Click past the jump for links to resources mentioned in this episode.

Links mentioned in this episode:

Continue reading →
https://media.blubrry.com/polygamer/www.polygamer.net/wp-content/uploads/podcast/pg66-charles_babbage_institute.mp3

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:20:29 — 37.7MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Pandora | iHeartRadio | TuneIn | RSS | More

Posted in Podcast | Tags: Amanda Wick, archive, Arvid Nelsen, CBI, Charles Babbage Institute, library, Minneapolis, UMN, University of Minnesota |

Subscribe

Get our free email newsletter for updates on equality, diversity, podcasts, and more!
Send voicemail

Leave us a message, and we'll answer it on a future episode!

My Tweets

My Tweets

Recent Posts

  • Polygamer #128: Reflecting on Eight Years
  • Polygamer #127: Helene Utterback on polyamory
  • Polygamer #126: Aenne Schumann of Arcade Spirits
  • Polygamer #125: Game to Grow
  • Polygamer #124: Cyndi Wiley, Iowa State University’s Digital Accessibility Lead

Other podcasts

  • Character Reveal
  • Checkpoint
  • Ethics and Video Games
  • Feminist Frequency Radio
  • Spawn On Me
  • The Weekly Cooldown

Archived podcasts

  • +7 Intelligence
  • Diversi
  • Engage!
  • Fresh Out of Tokens
  • Gayme On
  • Girl on Guy
  • Less Than or Equal
  • Not Just a Game
  • Nuchallenger
  • Take This

CyberChimps WordPress Themes

Creative Commons License Polygamer by Gamebits is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Based on a work at https://www.polygamer.net/. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at https://www.polygamer.net/about/.