What is a Geek?

So what is a Geek? Much like a "guru," a spiritual leader and teacher, I see true technology geeks as leaders and teachers.

Geeks are the folks that work on the open source code browsers at mozilla.org. Geeks are the folks that work on learning and perfecting other open source code products like Linux and Apache Web server. Geeks are really folks who do it for the "love of the game."

I learned BASIC back in 1975. (BASIC is an acronym from Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code.) The first computer I personally owned was a Commodore VIC-20, sometime around 1981. I've been told that makes me a Geek.

Inspired by the fact that I have been asked many times about the history of various technology topics I've decided to make the time to share some thoughts on the roots of the technology we all now take for granted.

The Genius of Thomas Alva Edison

While there have been some pretty fascinating people involved in the creation of the internet, If there was to be someone who symbolizes what it is to be a technology geek, it is without a doubt Thomas Alva Edison.

Check out the graphic on this page and you see a cartoon version on myself (I am the one on the right) and Thomas Alva Edison. If there is one geek I could go back in time and spend a day with, Edison would be on that list.

Most folks associate Edison's name with the invention of the lightbulb. The first electric light was actually invented in 1809 by Humphry Davy, an English chemist.  Edison's achievement was inventing a carbon filament incandescent electric light, as well as an electric lighting system that contained all the elements necessary to make the incandescent light practical, safe, and economical. Edison originated the concept of electric power generation and distribution to homes and business.

Edison is considered one of the most prolific inventors in history, holding over 1000 U.S. patents in his name. He is credited with numerous inventions that contributed to mass communication and, in particular, telecommunications.  

Thomas Alva Edison conceived the principle of recording and reproducing sound as a byproduct of his efforts to play back recorded telegraph messages and to automate speech sounds for transmission by telephone.

Edison was a geek a full century before the term was used to decribe someone in the technology field.

I hope GeekHistory.com will help folks to learn about some famous geeks.