Following the tip to Stephenson's article, here's also a really good book, 'The Victorian Internet: The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century's On-line Pioneers'.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Victorian-Internet-Remarkable-Nine...

Tom Standage's "The Victorian Internet" has a lot of great detail about the culture of the telegraph operator and how it compares to the internet culture today.

"Wandering workers who went from job to job were known as 'boomers.' There were no formal job interviews; applicants were simply sat down on a busy wire to see if they could handle it. Since they could find work almost anywhere, many boomers had an itinerant lifestyle; a great number of them suffered from alcoholism or mental health disorders. In a sense, the telegraph community was a meritocracy --- it didn't matter who you were as long as you could send and receive messages quickly --- which was one of the reasons that women and children were readily admitted to the profession." p. 140

"Indeed, despite the strange customs and the often curious lifestyle of many operators, telegraphy was regarded as an attractive profession, offering the hope of rapid social advancement and fueling the expansion of the middle class. Courses, books, and pamphlets teaching Morse to beginners flourished. For the ambitious, it provided an escape route from small towns to the big cities, and for those who liked to move around, it meant guaranteed work wherever they went." p.143

Substitute some current computer language for Morse and you could definitely be talking about the present.

http://www.amazon.com/Victorian-Internet-Remarkable-Nineteen...