Re: History of the IT industry

[Ned Bedinger <doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com>]

Geoff Lane wrote:
> On Saturday, May 31, 2008, Fred Ridder wrote;
> 

> I'm not sure about networks being necessary for IT (unless you include
> sneaker-net and snail-mail). However, the technology is 19th Century
> with Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine and Ada Lovelace's creation
> of what many consider the first computer program. 


The Jacquard loom WAS built in the 17th C.

http://www.victorianweb.org/technology/textiles/jacquard.html


Babbage designs have now been built. Nathan Myhrvold owns one!

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-9915667-52.html


Andrew Carol must be from the other Endians.

http://acarol.woz.org/


I think the singularity--the arrival of the electrical or electronic age 
--should be the demarc where the modern concept of IT began. Electric IT 
is to manual/steam/water-powered tech what electromagnetic medical 
imaging is to palping. We've turned a corner and reinvented ourselves 
while inventing IT, so let's call anything before it not it.

FWIW, I think IT in our context means what we use it to signify. It 
appears to be well on the way to meaning IT organization (not the 
industry), but I believe I remember when the organization was called IT 
Support.

IT Support has such an arcane ring to it, like three inches of dust on 
it. No one with any hint of the mutation that spawns jargon would say 
the full name more than two or three times, especially not after hearing 
someone else shorten it to IT. Everyone seems to refer to it as IT, like 
"the people IT are the keepers of the IT zoo."

Have fun,

Ned Bedinger
doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com

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