Thomas Haigh

Remembering the Office of the Future: The Origins of Word Processing and Office Automation

Historians have not yet explored word processings development, and so to provide a rounded treatment, we examine the story from multiple perspectives. We review the conceptual development of word processing and office automation; the development of word processings constituent hardware and software technologies; the relationship of word processing to changes in the organization of office work; and the business history of the word processing industry. Word processing entered the American office in 1970 as an idea about reorganizing typists, but its meaning soon shifted to describe computerized text editing. The designers of word processing systems combined existing technologies to exploit the falling costs of interactive computing, creating a new business quite separate from the emerging world of the personal computer

The chromium-plated tabulator: institutionalizing an electronic revolution, 1954-1958

The computer promised business of the 1950s an administrative revolution. What it delivered was data processing-a hybrid of new technology and existing punched card machines, people, and attitudes. The author examines how first-generation computers were sold and purchased, and describes the occupations (analyst, programmer, and operator) and departments that emerged around them. This illuminates claims of a more recent electronic revolution in business.

Software in the 1960s as concept, service, and product

Packaged application software established a small but important corporate niche during the 1960s. The author charts the shifting meaning of the word software, situates the first software companies within the overall computer services market, and probes the attractions and limitations of the first packages from the viewpoint of their potential purchasers: managers of data processing.

Actually, Turing did not invent the computer

Separating the origins of computer science and technology.

How Data Got its Base: Information Storage Software in the 1950s and 1960s

Generalized report generation and file maintenance programs were widely used in the 1950s, standardized by the Share user group with 9PAC and Surge. By the 1960s the first recognizable DBMS systems, such IMS and IDS, had evolved to address the challenges of disk drives and MIS projects. Finally, in the late 1960s Codasyls Data Base Task Group formulated the DBMS concept itself.

Histories of the Internet: Introducing a Special Issue of Information & Culture

We explore the gap between broad conceptions of the Internet common in daily life and the rather narrow framing of most existing work on Internet history. Looking at both scholarly histories and popular myths, we suggest that the expanding scope of the Internet has created a demand for different kinds of history that capture the development of the many technological and social practices that converged to create today’s Internet-based online world. Finally, we summarize the articles in this special issue that collectively demonstrate that there is more than one history of the Internet.

We have never been digital

Reflections on the intersection of computing and the humanities.

Engineering Change: The Appropriation of Computer Technology at Grupo ICA in Mexico (1965–1971)

The Mexican civil engineering firm ICA installed its first computer, an IBM 1130, in 1966. By documenting the development of ICAs computing efforts over almost 15 years, the authors trace the influence of personnel and company practices, examine the development of technical and administrative applications, and explore the computer centers story within the broader history of ICA.

Computing the American Way: Contextualizing the Early US Computer Industry

Drawing on work from business, social, and labor history, this article reinterprets the early domestic US computer industry in its broader economic and political context. Contrary to popular imagination, the early computer industry emerges as one devoted primarily to government business, liberal in its political leanings, and with a paternalist corporate culture profoundly shaped by the threat of unionization.

The Commercialization of Database Management Systems, 1969–1983

Database management systems were the most important commercial software packages of the 1970s. The authors reconstruct their early history by examining the evolution of their capabilities and installed base. They also document early user experiences, including the sources from which potential users learned about these new technologies, new roles such as the database administrator, and new concepts such as the data dictionary.