Re: History of the IT industry

[Geoff Lane <geoff -at- gjctech -dot- co -dot- uk>]

On Monday, June 2, 2008, Michael West wrote;

> No, Merriam-Webster's citation date is for the first documented use
> of the term in the sense given. Lexicographers date words and
> meanings, not events.
---

I know that, you know that, but I suspect the person I quoted wrongly
ascribed the etymological date to the event that started IT. He seemed
to use that date as evidence that IT couldn't have started with the
invention of the slide rule.

My post was a (sort of) reductio ad absurdum to show that IT could not
have started in 1978, that "information technology" existed long
before that phrase was coined, and that looking upon the the invention
of the slide rule as a starting point is as good as any of several
milestones along the way to where IT is today.

Hopefully, this clears things up!

-- 
Geoff

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