Catalysts for Change

Chapter 1 Catalysts for Change

• Even though information technology has existed for millennia, the invention of com-

puters and high-speed communication have made information far easier to collect, store, manipulate, and distribute, legitimizing the use of the term Information Age to describe the present era.

• Mathematical tables constructed manually invariably contained errors, stimulating the

invention of automated devices to do the computations and typeset the results.

• A similarity between the growth of the mechanical calculator market in the second

half of the nineteenth century and the growth of the personal computer market in the second half of the twentieth century is that in both cases inventors and entrepreneurs were able to capitalize on relatively recent developments in technology. Advances in machine tools and mass-production methods made mechanical calculators possible.The invention of microprocessors made personal computers possible.A dierence between the growth of the mechanical calculator market and the growth of the personal computer market is that the demand for mechanical calculators came from large corporations with middle managers who needed access to information in order to make decisions, whereas the demand for personal computers came in large part from antiwar and anti-establishment activists who were interested in providing individuals with a powerful tool out of the control of large corporations and the government.

• Both the Burroughs Adding Machine Company in the 1890s and IBM in the 1960s had

strong sales and marketing operations that helped them achieve dominant positions in their respective markets.

• Three advances in computing stimulated by the development of radar are electrostatic

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2CHAPTER 1. CATALYSTS FOR CHANGE

memory (exemplied by the Williams Tube), semiconductor memory (exemplied by the transistor), and graphical user interfaces (exemplied by Doug Engelbart's oNLine System).

• The Minuteman II ballistic missile program was the largest customer of integrated

circuits in the United States between 1962 and 1965. During this time companies learned how to make much-more-powerful integrated circuits, paving the way for the invention of the microprocessor, which is at the heart of every personal computer. In this way the Cold War helped bring about the personal computer.

• The semaphore telegraph was adopted more rapidly on the continent of Europe than

in the British Isles because the system only works when atmospheric conditions allow good visibility between stations. Since fog and rain are more common in the British Isles, the semaphore telegraph was not as practical.

• Cellular networks are an important category of wireless network. Cellular networks

have provided telephone service to billions of people who never had access to tradi- tional wired telephone networks. The telephone created the rst \on line" commu- nities. Today, on line communities thrive with many having access through WiFi or other wireless Internet technologies. Morse's telegraph put the Pony Express out of business. Text messaging available through wireless networks made telegrams obsolete.The telephone blurred the traditional boundaries between private life and public life.Today's smart phones continue to test our boundaries regarding when it is appropriate to consult a digital device.

• Tim Berners-Lee chose to construct his hypertext system, the World Wide Web, on

top of the TCP/IP protocol, rather than one vendor's proprietary network protocol.This decision helped ensure the success of the Web, because it enabled the Web to span computers made by dierent manufacturers running dierent operating systems.

• Examples of how a social condition inuenced the development of a new information

technology:

The need for large amounts of timely information by corporate managers in the late nineteenth century fueled the growth of the manual calculator market.The need to store and manipulate large amounts of data prompted the invention of punched-card tabulation and data-processing systems.A demand for less expensive access to computers stimulated the development of time sharing. 2 / 4

3 BASIC became popular because there was a demand for an easy-to-learn pro- gramming language.An interest in accessing and sharing information led to the rapid adoption of the World Wide Web created by Tim Berners-Lee.(Other examples are possible.)

• Examples of a social change brought about by the adoption of a new information

technology:

The transcontinental telegraph system put the Pony Express out of business.The adoption of the telephone erased traditional boundaries between work and home.The telephone also make possible the rst on-line communities, through party lines.Manual calculators led to the \de-skilling" and eminization" of bookkeeping.Time-sharing systems gave many more people access to computers, which they used for both educational and entertainment purposes.Television broadcasts may have inuenced the outcome of the U.S. Presidential election of 2000.(Other examples are possible.) 3 / 4

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