Alternative computing technologies.

I finally got around to putting the slides for a presentation I gave on how computing systems can fit E. F. Schumacher's concept of appropriate/alternative technologies in Martha Whitney Langford's excellent Science Technology And Society class in 2004 online. Get them here (pdf, 6MB).

One particular novel insight offered is how Free Software seems to fit Schumacher's criteria of alternative technology, but is experiencing the most success in a context that is the antithesis of Schumacher's ideas of where alternative technology is most appropriate.