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Steven K. Roberts

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Steven K. Roberts (born September 25, 1952) is an American journalist, writer, cyclist, archivist, and explorer. He first gained public attention as a pioneering digital nomad, before the term became widely used, when from 1983 to 1991, Roberts toured the United States on three different heavily modified, computerized, Avatar recumbent bicycles: the Winnebiko from 1983 to 1985, the Winnebiko II from 1986 to 1988, and then the BEHEMOTH. He pulled a trailer equipped with solar panels and other electronic equipment. His journey is documented in his book, Computing Across America.[1][2]

Steven K. Roberts
Born (1952-09-25) September 25, 1952 (age 72)
Pennsylvania, U.S.
Occupation(s)Journalist, writer, archivist, explorer
BEHEMOTH Bicycle on display at the Computer History Museum on 6-26-2024 from the front

The first year and a half of his bike tour covered over 10,000 miles.[3][4] He wrote articles in his tent and filed the pieces via pay phone submitting them to publications like Time and Newsweek. The bike, also known as the BEHEMOTH,[5][6] had an estimated $300,000 of equipment on it, mostly donated, including satellite email retrieval, a mobile amateur radio station (callsign N4RVE), and a paging system that would page him if an urgent email arrived while he was away from the bike.[7][8][9][10]

After he was featured on the front page of The Wall Street Journal, media coverage accelerated and included a full one-hour appearance on The Phil Donahue Show.[11]

As press attention mounted, he shifted his efforts and built a computerized trimaran. He worked on various iterations of the trimaran for years.[9]

As of 2017, he had turned his efforts into digitizing records and was living aboard a 50-foot power boat equipped with a 3-D printer, weather station, virtual reality system, electronic piano, 10 ham radios, and more, around 50,000 pounds worth, in Friday Harbor, WA.[9]

Books

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  • Industrial Design With Microcomputers (ISBN 978-0134594613) 1982
  • Creative Design With Microcomputers (ISBN 978-0131893177) 1984
  • Computing Across America: The Bicycle Odyssey of a High-Tech Nomad (ISBN 978-0938734185) Steve describes the wild results of his drastic break with suburban life on his 10,000-mile journey across the United States of America on his computerized bicycle. 1988
  • From Behemoth to Microship Steve's journey from computerized recumbent bicycles, Winnebiko and BEHEMOTH to system design and early adventures with the Microships that are amphibian pedal/solar/sail networked folding micro-trimarans. (ISBN 978-1929470006) 2000.
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References

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  1. ^ Krieg, Martin. "History of the Modern Day Recumbent". Retrieved December 26, 2022.
  2. ^ Smith, G (1988). "Review of Computing Across America: The Bicycle Odyssey of a High-Tech Nomad". Earth Island Journal. 3 (3): 50. ISSN 1041-0406. JSTOR 43882009.
  3. ^ AINSWORTH, JAMES (August 21, 1987). "A high-tech nomad is wandering through Ithaca". USA TODAY (USA).
  4. ^ Price, Symea A. (October 26, 1987). "NOMAD RIDES ON 'HIGH TREKNOWLEDGY'". Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA). p. 31.
  5. ^ Cassidy, Mike (May 23, 1993). "CYCLIST PEDALS HIS VISION OF END TO COMMUTING". The Mercury News (San Jose, CA). pp. 1B.
  6. ^ O'Brien, Danny (June 3, 2001). "On the road and always on; This virtual life". The Sunday Times [London, England]. p. 30.
  7. ^ Berg, Bailey (October 6, 2021). "The Original Digital Nomad Turned His Bike into a Mobile Office in 1984". Fast Company. ISSN 1085-9241. Retrieved December 26, 2022.
  8. ^ Anzovin, Steven (February 1991). "Happy Trails of a Rolling Computer Nomad". Compute!. Retrieved December 26, 2022.
  9. ^ a b c Day, Haley (August 2017). "Friday Harbor Boater Houses Floating Computer Lab". The Journal of the San Juan Islands. Friday Harbor, WA. Retrieved December 26, 2022.
  10. ^ Carroll, Paul (April 21, 1992). "A Restless Loner on a Custom Bike: It's HAL on Wheels". The Wall Street Journal. New York, NY: Dow Jones & Company. Retrieved December 26, 2022.
  11. ^ "Bicycle-bound Computer Genius". The Phil Donahue Show. September 6, 1993. CBS.
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