RE: History of the IT industry

["Andrew Warren" <awarren -at- synaptics -dot- com>]

Michael West [mailto:mbwest -at- bigpond -dot- com] wrote:

> > professional software engineers and computer designers don't
> > identify themselves as working in the "IT industry".
> 
> As I responded to Gene, the main reason they don't is because they
> do fact work in many other industries -- banking, insurance,
> aerospace, etc etc. "Profession" and "industry" mean different
> things.

    No.  I'm talking about engineers who work for computer companies,
    software companies, electronics companies, etc.  They don't call
    their industry "IT".

> I'd bet that software engineers who work for Microsoft, IBM or Sun
> know what industry they work in.

    I'd take that bet.  How much?

    I have the home phone numbers of at least half a dozen software
    engineers who are current or former employees of Microsoft, IBM,
    or Sun.  It's too late to call them now, but I can ask them
    tomorrow whether they work in the IT industry.

> I don't know when the term "Information Technology" began to be used
> as an umbrella term for those things you mention; Merriam Webster says
> 1978 but I'd have guessed earlier.

    M-W says 1978 because that's when corporations started to need
    network administrators and helpdesk people to manage and maintain
    their collections of personal computers.  Those people weren't
    programmers, operators, designers, or analysts... They were
    technicians, performing a new job function that only existed
    because low-cost microprocessor-based computers were suddenly
    available.

    "Information Technology" describes that new function, NOT the
    programming and design functions that engineers had been doing since
    the 60s and continue to do today.

> I myself can remember when computer programming was considered a branch
> of electrical engineering. There may be some other old-timers here who
> can vouch for that. Now of course it is considered an engineering
> discipline in its own right. None of the software developers I work
> with consider themselves electrical engineers. But then, they don't
> have to handle vacuum tubes and soldering irons to do their jobs, as
> programmers used to do.

    Funny, most of the software developers I work with DO consider
    themselves electrical engineers... And they can all handle soldering
    irons, and most have oscilloscopes on their desks.  I'll admit that
    no one but me has used vacuum tubes much -- and I only have because
    I've written embedded software for a couple manufacturers of high-end
    audio equipment -- but we can all design more-or-less competently
    with solid-state components.

> today when you read about the "IT industry" in the Wall Street Journal
> or Business Week magazine, you're reading about companies whose primary
> business involves the things I've mentioned above.

    I'm not sure that's true... But regardless, the people IN the
    industry don't call it that, so who cares what some journalist
    likes to call it?

    -Andrew

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