Steven K. Roberts Explained

Steven K. Roberts
Birth Date:	25 September 1952
Birth Place:	Pennsylvania, U.S.
Occupation:	Journalist, writer, archivist, explorer

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 he rode his computerized bicycle, a modified Avatar 2000, pulling a trailer with solar panels and a laptop across the United States of America. His book, Computing Across America, documents his journey.^{[1] [2]}

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.

As of 2017, he had turned his efforts in to 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.

Books

• Industrial Design With Microcomputers 1982
• Creative Design With Microcomputers 1984
• Computing Across America: The Bicycle Odyssey of a High-Tech Nomad 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. 2000.

External links

• Nomadic Research Labs
• Holloway.com – Part III: A Brief History of Nomads 2022
• Astro.com/astro-databank
• Computer History Museum
• BikePacking.com: STEVE ROBERTS: COMPUTING ACROSS AMERICA
• YouTube.com: It'll Never Work (BBC) - BEHEMOTH Bicycle 1994

Notes and References

1. Web site: History of the Modern Day Recumbent . Krieg . Martin . 2022-12-26 .
2. Smith . G . 1988 . Review of Computing Across America: The Bicycle Odyssey of a High-Tech Nomad . Earth Island Journal . 3 . 3 . 50 . 43882009 . 1041-0406.
3. News: AINSWORTH . JAMES . August 21, 1987 . A high-tech nomad is wandering through Ithaca. . USA TODAY (USA).
4. News: Price . Symea A. . October 26, 1987 . NOMAD RIDES ON 'HIGH TREKNOWLEDGY' . 31 . Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA).
5. News: Cassidy . Mike . May 23, 1993 . CYCLIST PEDALS HIS VISION OF END TO COMMUTING . 1B . The Mercury News (San Jose, CA).
6. News: O'Brien . Danny . June 3, 2001 . On the road and always on; This virtual life. . 30 . The Sunday Times [London, England].
7. The Original Digital Nomad Turned His Bike into a Mobile Office in 1984 . Fast Company . October 6, 2021 . Berg . Bailey . 1085-9241. 2022-12-26 .
8. Anzovin . Steven . February 1991 . Happy Trails of a Rolling Computer Nomad . Compute! . 2022-12-26.
9. News: Day . Haley . August 2017. Friday Harbor Boater Houses Floating Computer Lab . The Journal of the San Juan Islands . Friday Harbor, WA . 2022-12-26 .
10. News: Carroll . Paul . A Restless Loner on a Custom Bike: It's HAL on Wheels . The Wall Street Journal . New York, NY . Dow Jones & Company . April 21, 1992 . 2022-12-26.
11. Bicycle-bound Computer Genius. The Phil Donahue Show. CBS . September 6, 1993 . English.