From Airline Reservations to Sonic the Hedgehog

From Airline Reservations to Sonic the Hedgehog PDF Author: Martin Campbell-Kelly
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262250276
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 389

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Book Description
A business history of the software industry from the days of custom programming to the age of mass-market software and video games. From its first glimmerings in the 1950s, the software industry has evolved to become the fourth largest industrial sector of the US economy. Starting with a handful of software contractors who produced specialized programs for the few existing machines, the industry grew to include producers of corporate software packages and then makers of mass-market products and recreational software. This book tells the story of each of these types of firm, focusing on the products they developed, the business models they followed, and the markets they served. By describing the breadth of this industry, Martin Campbell-Kelly corrects the popular misconception that one firm is at the center of the software universe. He also tells the story of lucrative software products such as IBM's CICS and SAP's R/3, which, though little known to the general public, lie at the heart of today's information infrastructure.With its wealth of industry data and its thoughtful judgments, this book will become a starting point for all future investigations of this fundamental component of computer history.

From Airline Reservations to Sonic the Hedgehog

From Airline Reservations to Sonic the Hedgehog PDF Author: Martin Campbell-Kelly
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262250276
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 389

Get Book Here

Book Description
A business history of the software industry from the days of custom programming to the age of mass-market software and video games. From its first glimmerings in the 1950s, the software industry has evolved to become the fourth largest industrial sector of the US economy. Starting with a handful of software contractors who produced specialized programs for the few existing machines, the industry grew to include producers of corporate software packages and then makers of mass-market products and recreational software. This book tells the story of each of these types of firm, focusing on the products they developed, the business models they followed, and the markets they served. By describing the breadth of this industry, Martin Campbell-Kelly corrects the popular misconception that one firm is at the center of the software universe. He also tells the story of lucrative software products such as IBM's CICS and SAP's R/3, which, though little known to the general public, lie at the heart of today's information infrastructure.With its wealth of industry data and its thoughtful judgments, this book will become a starting point for all future investigations of this fundamental component of computer history.

The Digital Hand

The Digital Hand PDF Author: James W. Cortada
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198037104
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 646

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Book Description
The Digital Hand, Volume 2, is a historical survey of how computers and telecommunications have been deployed in over a dozen industries in the financial, telecommunications, media and entertainment sectors over the past half century. It is past of a sweeping three-volume description of how management in some forty industries embraced the computer and changed the American economy. Computers have fundamentally changed the nature of work in America. However it is difficult to grasp the full extent of these changes and their implications for the future of business. To begin the long process of understanding the effects of computing in American business, we need to know the history of how computers were first used, by whom and why. In this, the second volume of The Digital Hand, James W. Cortada combines detailed analysis with narrative history to provide a broad overview of computing's and telecomunications' role in over a dozen industries, ranging from Old Economy sectors like finance and publishing to New Economy sectors like digital photography and video games. He also devotes considerable attention to the rapidly changing media and entertainment industries which are now some of the most technologically advanced in the American economy. Beginning in 1950, when commercial applications of digital technology began to appear, Cortada examines the ways different industries adopted new technologies, as well as the ways their innovative applications influenced other industries and the US economy as a whole. He builds on the surveys presented in the first volume of the series, which examined sixteen manufacturing, process, transportation, wholesale and retail industries. In addition to this account, of computers' impact on industries, Cortada also demonstrates how industries themselves influenced the nature of digital technology. Managers, historians and others interested in the history of modern business will appreciate this historical analysis of digital technology's many roles and future possibilities in an wide array of industries. The Digital Hand provides a detailed picture of what the infrastructure of the Information Age really looks like and how we got there.

From Mainframes to Smartphones

From Mainframes to Smartphones PDF Author: Martin Campbell-Kelly
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674729064
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
This compact history traces the computer industry from 1950s mainframes, through establishment of standards beginning in 1965, to personal computing in the 1980s and the Internet’s explosive growth since 1995. Martin Campbell-Kelly and Daniel Garcia-Swartz describe a steady trend toward miniaturization and explain its consequences.

Hacking Europe

Hacking Europe PDF Author: Gerard Alberts
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1447154932
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
Hacking Europe traces the user practices of chopping games in Warsaw, hacking software in Athens, creating chaos in Hamburg, producing demos in Turku, and partying with computing in Zagreb and Amsterdam. Focusing on several European countries at the end of the Cold War, the book shows the digital development was not an exclusively American affair. Local hacker communities appropriated the computer and forged new cultures around it like the hackers in Yugoslavia, Poland and Finland, who showed off their tricks and creating distinct “demoscenes.” Together the essays reflect a diverse palette of cultural practices by which European users domesticated computer technologies. Each chapter explores the mediating actors instrumental in introducing and spreading the cultures of computing around Europe. More generally, the “ludological” element--the role of mischief, humor, and play--discussed here as crucial for analysis of hacker culture, opens new vistas for the study of the history of technology.

Invisible Engines

Invisible Engines PDF Author: David S. Evans
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262550687
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 409

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Book Description
Harnessing the power of software platforms: what executives and entrepreneurs must know about how to use this technology to transform industries and how to develop the strategies that will create value and drive profits. Software platforms are the invisible engines that have created, touched, or transformed nearly every major industry for the past quarter century. They power everything from mobile phones and automobile navigation systems to search engines and web portals. They have been the source of enormous value to consumers and helped some entrepreneurs build great fortunes. And they are likely to drive change that will dwarf the business and technology revolution we have seen to this point. Invisible Engines examines the business dynamics and strategies used by firms that recognize the transformative power unleashed by this new revolution—a revolution that will change both new and old industries. The authors argue that in order to understand the successes of software platforms, we must first understand their role as a technological meeting ground where application developers and end users converge. Apple, Microsoft, and Google, for example, charge developers little or nothing for using their platforms and make most of their money from end users; Sony PlayStation and other game consoles, by contrast, subsidize users and make more money from developers, who pay royalties for access to the code they need to write games. More applications attract more users, and more users attract more applications. And more applications and more users lead to more profits. Invisible Engines explores this story through the lens of the companies that have mastered this platform-balancing act. It offers detailed studies of the personal computer, video game console, personal digital assistant, smart mobile phone, and digital media software platform industries, focusing on the business decisions made by industry players to drive profits and stay a step ahead of the competition. Shorter discussions of Internet-based software platforms provide an important glimpse into a future in which the way we buy, pay, watch, listen, learn, and communicate will change forever. An electronic version of this book is available under a Creative Commons license.

History of Technology Volume 28

History of Technology Volume 28 PDF Author: Ian Inkster
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350019097
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 186

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Book Description
Technical standards have received increasing attention in recent years from historians of science and technology, management theorists and economists. Often, inquiry focuses on the emergence of stability, technical closure and culturally uniform modernity. Yet current literature also emphasizes the durability of localism, heterogeneity and user choice. This collection investigates the apparent tension between these trends using case studies from across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The History of Technology addresses tensions between material standards and process standards, explores the distinction between specifying standards and achieving convergence towards them, and examines some of the discontents generated by the reach of standards into 'everyday life'. Includes the Special Issue "By whose standards? Standardization, stability and uniformity in the history of information and electrical technologies"

The Cambridge Companion to Video Game Music

The Cambridge Companion to Video Game Music PDF Author: Melanie Fritsch
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316999440
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 483

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Book Description
Video game music has been permeating popular culture for over forty years. Now, reaching billions of listeners, game music encompasses a diverse spectrum of musical materials and practices. This book provides a comprehensive, up-to-date survey of video game music by a diverse group of scholars and industry professionals. The chapters and summaries consolidate existing knowledge and present tools for readers to engage with the music in new ways. Many popular games are analysed, including Super Mario Galaxy, Bastion, The Last of Us, Kentucky Route Zero and the Katamari, Gran Turismo and Tales series. Topics include chiptunes, compositional processes, localization, history and game music concerts. The book also engages with other disciplines such as psychology, music analysis, business strategy and critical theory, and will prove an equally valuable resource for readers active in the industry, composers or designers, and music students and scholars.

History of Computing: Learning from the Past

History of Computing: Learning from the Past PDF Author: Arthur Tatnall
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 364215199X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 239

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Book Description
History of Computing: Learning from the Past Why is the history of computing important? Given that the computer, as we now know it, came into existence less than 70 years ago it might seem a little odd to some people that we are concerned with its history. Isn’t history about ‘old things’? Computing, of course, goes back much further than 70 years with many earlier - vices rightly being known as computers, and their history is, of course, important. It is only the history of electronic digital computers that is relatively recent. History is often justified by use of a quote from George Santayana who famously said that: ‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it’. It is arguable whether there are particular mistakes in the history of computing that we should avoid in the future, but there is some circularity in this question, as the only way we will know the answer to this is to study our history. This book contains papers on a wide range of topics relating to the history of c- puting, written both by historians and also by those who were involved in creating this history. The papers are the result of an international conference on the History of Computing that was held as a part of the IFIP World Computer Congress in Brisbane in September 2010.

From Underdogs to Tigers

From Underdogs to Tigers PDF Author: Ashish Arora
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191534617
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
In 1980 the Indian software industry was practically non-existent. By the 1990s the industry was one of the largest employers in manufacturing. Similar patterns of growth can be found in other emerging economies. So given that the software industry is commonly viewed as a high-tech industry, how is it that such spectacular growth has occurred in countries where high-tech industries would not seem likely to develop? This book examines the reasons behind this phenomenon, and asks whether it suggests a new model of economic development. The contributors explore the implications of the rise of these newcomers to the software market for the global industry, and whether there are things to be learnt about the role of human capital in economic growth, firm formation and capabilities, business and managerial models, and industry structure. Chapters include country studies on Brazil, China, India, Ireland, and Israel, and are complemented by cross-cutting chapters on some of the key issues highlighted by the growth patterns of software in these nations, most notably the role of the multinational companies, the globalization of the skilled worker flows, and the formation of firm capabilities. The novelty of the growth patterns in the regions that studied makes this book useful for understanding analytical and empirical issues underlying new microfoundations of economic growth in some emerging regions of the world.

Troublemakers

Troublemakers PDF Author: Leslie Berlin
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1451651503
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 512

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Book Description
A narrative history of the Silicon Valley generation that launched five major high-tech industries in seven years details the specific contributions of seven technical pioneers and how they established the foundation for today's tech-driven world.