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This introductory chapter discusses the theme of this volume which is about the history of computer software and the intersection between the history of software and the larger social history of the computer revolution of the mid- to late twentieth century. The focus of this volume is on computer programmers, consultants, analysts, operators and other technical specialists who build software, and the ways in which these specialists constructed for themselves a unique occupational identity based on their control over the nascent technology of electronic computing. This volume traces the history of the so-called “computer boys” as they struggled to establish a role for themselves within traditional organizational, professional, and academic hierarchies.

This chapter reviews the technological and industrial development within semiconductors, computer hardware, and computer software. It also highlights the important and constructive role played by federal policy. The striking characteristic of federal policy was the fact that it extended beyond the “conventional” technology policy tool of research and development (R&D) spending to include military procurement, intellectual property rights, and antitrust policies. Although these various dimensions were not coordinated or formulated with any coherent strategy in mind, they had the effect of supporting both the “supply” of knowledge, know-how, trained personnel, and the “demand” for adoption of the technologies emerging from the R&D process. The chapter furthermore shows how the federal R&D and other policies were of great importance to the development of economically vibrant semiconductor and computer hardware and software industries.

This chapter focuses on government policies on computer software. It examines how a government can develop a framework that facilitates the competitive interactions between open source and proprietary software in a manner that boosts efficiency and innovation. It analyzes arguments for why the government should support open source software and suggests that when it comes to regulation, governments should encourage vigorous competition between open and proprietary software. This chapter also argues that the government should play a lead role in providing information about the features of different types of software to consumers.

This chapter charts the complex dynamics of the movement of technical talent in the world economy and assesses broadly the impact of such mobility on both sending and receiving countries. Based on secondary data and primary information from the Indian and Japanese information technology industries, the study presents a global view of the movement of talent and its development and policy implications. By synthesizing disparate data and the multifaceted processes and outcomes of international mobility, the chapter examines some of the distributional issues of gains and losses in both sending and receiving countries.

This chapter examines the importance of computer software, particularly open source software, in economic development. It analyzes how open source software fit into the framework of growth theory and explains that software’s reach extends far beyond the software industry. It also mentions that much of the innovation in software sprang from firms in other industries that have embodied software into products and processes and discusses the potential of open source model of software development to solve the conundrum of the new growth theory as it applies to software.

This chapter examines the interoperability debate in the European Union and the U.S. before 1995. It considers the issues concerning the unprotectability of interface specifications and the permissibility of reverse engineering for computer software. It reviews several relevant cases including Whelan v. Jaslow, Computer Associates v. Altai, and Atari v. Nintendo and Sega v. Accolade. It argues that the triumph of interoperability will benefit both the information technology industry and computer users around the world.

This chapter examines moral rights in two contrasting manifestations of information technology. First, it discusses the place of moral rights in works of new technology that are now accepted subject-matter for copyright protection. It looks at the paradigmatic case of computer software and databases. Second, it explores the collision of new technology with the world of the arts and considers three aspects of the problem. It considers the moral rights implications of new kinds of artistic works; creative works that are created by new technological methods; and artistic creation that represents a combination of the two. In many ways, information technology represents a test case for moral rights in the digital context. Computer software has been integrated whole heartedly into copyright law. At the same time, software and related technologies challenge copyright at a fundamental level.

This introductory chapter discusses the theme of this volume which is about the potential impact of open source software on economic development. This volume examines whether certain types of computer software promote the growth of a software industry or the growth of a nation leads it turn to a given set of software. It also addresses several relevant questions. These include the differences between software and other technologies when it comes to promoting economic development, motivations for contributing to open source projects, management of the trade-offs between proprietary and open source projects and government policies required to ensure fair competition between proprietary and open source software.

This chapter discusses the history of epidemiological methods. It provides a personal account of how the three authors view the evolution of study designs, statistical methodology, and the development of epidemiological computer software that aided progress in the field. Whenever appropriate, emphasis is given to the view from the Americas. However, in the interest of providing a seamless historical perspective, key scientific developments from other continents are also included.

Self-evaluation provides a method for child welfare agencies to structure and implement programs and practice. Today, self-evaluation is not simply a reflective exercise but a practiced methodology for assessment, planning, and operation. This chapter discusses some of the challenges and successes encountered by university technical assistants, child welfare agency administrators, frontline workers, and community partners as they have worked together toward using data to improve their social work practices. It discusses the basic aspects of self-evaluation, including review of the organizational culture, attitude adjustment, intra-agency cooperation, and the recasting of personal opinions. It also discusses computer software that can assist in mapping and geographic study and some new possibilities for gathering and analyzing data. A team concept for agency organization and the consequent improvement of delivery of services by using neighborhood targeting and better assignment of case workers is presented.

From mathematics, attention is turned to the analysis of students' responses to scientific inquiry in order to discover other effective techniques to facilitate learning. Similar to what the previous chapter mentioned, this section depicts valuable styles for teaching using computer frameworks. Such instruction methods channel the gap between student perceptions and computer software, and enhance learners' scientific knowledge. This attempt is employed due to the substantial proof that students encounter hardship in comprehending and absorbing scientific concepts and theories. In order for learners to adapt to the newly introduced conceptual and theoretical changes, they must not only become conscious of and be disappointed with their old notions, they must also regard the new ideas of scientists to be rational, applicable and beneficial in their daily lives. Included here are some suggestions on how to convince the learners, or to make them dissatisfied with their previous inclinations.

Difficulties in introducing and accepting revised means of teaching take place when learners are not informed about the advantages of engaging with new surroundings or are vigorously attached with the conventional “things.” This chapter supports this assumption through an investigation of students' behavior, possible mental processes and performance outcome with the presence of the mathematical software known as The Geometric Supposers. This is a simulation of teachers who strive to encourage students to participate in school activities. Having collected sufficient information, the author focuses on three teaching activities: facilitating interactive class discussion; inferring from the language of learners and linking it with the standards of the discipline; and exploring mathematics and science in general with respect to student inquiry. Although academic exploration does not necessarily imply understanding, this enterprise is believed to play a vital role in the comprehension of complex mathematical and scientific concepts by learners.

Proposals on dynamic educational practice suggest that learning is not limited to the four corners of the classroom, but can be acquired through socialization and experience off the academe. In this regard, Schwartz and Perkins formulated the notion of “metacurriculum,” a collection of thoughts and tasks, derived from empirical evidences, supplementing the standard (or the “traditional” so to speak) lesson module. “Metacourse” is an intervention strategy that offers metacognitive and metaconceptual assistance in the course of mastering a subject. This theory is applied and tested to the starting students of the computer software named BASIC to enhance the learners' understanding of algebra. Suggestions on how to be more “semantic” (that is, concerned with the importance of a task and its relationship with an individual's development) and less “syntactic” (that is, memorized and short-term kind of learning) are demonstrated in the latter part of this chapter.

This chapter, written by Lev Manovich, discusses digital visualizations of Dziga Vertov’s films. Manovich argues that Vertov’s desire for a ‘graphic language’ anticipates the recent work of a number of data visualization designers and artists who use computational analysis and computer graphics to visualize patterns in artistic works, including literary texts and films. Yet Manovich’s work also explores how new visualization techniques can help us comprehend cinema differently, revealing patterns and dimensions that are hard or impossible to study through established film analysis methods. Like a digital counterpart to what Vertov theorized as the Kino-Eye, the digital photography and software applications Manovich manipulates collectively extend and transform the capacities of the human eye and its relation to film. Manovich thus reveals a whole new science and aesthetics of cinema in the data sets, maps, patterns, and graphics that lie latent in the celluloid image.

To conduct a meta-analysis, a researcher will need software to perform all but the simplest calculations. Three types of software can be used, depending on user needs: a spreadsheet, a general purpose statistical package, and a program developed expressly to carry out meta-analysis. This chapter first reviews the stand-alone programs, then discusses the general purpose software, and finally briefly reviews two programs that can extract the data underlying a graphical display. Readers need to keep in mind that software features, cost, and availability all change fairly rapidly over time; while some of the specific information provided may soon be out of date, the general issues and principles discussed in choosing software for meta-analysis will have a longer half-life. Web searches, the Methods sections of recent research syntheses, and professional meetings where research synthesis results and methods are presented, are good resources for keeping up with both software availability and developments in methodology.

Before liability is incurred under the Consumer Protection Act 1987, a product containing a defect must cause damage. Section 1(2) of the Act provides a definition of ‘product’. It states that ‘product’ means ‘any goods or electricity and … includes a product which is comprised in another product, whether by virtue of being a component part or raw material or otherwise’. Notwithstanding the short title of the Act, the definition of product is sufficiently broad to have a wider application than merely to consumer goods. For example, disasters resulting from chemicals or aircraft could be litigated under the Act, as could asbestos and other toxic substances which have given rise to much litigation in the United States.

N. Katherine Hayles’ essay is concerned with the transposition of the paradigmatic onto the syntagmatic in Only Revolutions. Pointing to the proliferation of different kinds of data in the text, Hayles claims that it manifests a ‘deterritorialized spatial dynamic’, involving ‘a profound shift from narrative as a temporal trajectory to an element of a topographic plane upon which a wide variety of interactions and permutations are staged.’ Hayles highlights how the text’s distinctive topography is only made possible by the use of sophisticated computer software; thus although technology is literally absent from the narrative of Only Revolutions, it permeates the text in her view: ‘nowhere present within the narrative diegesis, digital technologies are everywhere apparent when we consider the writing-down system as a whole.’

What if potential buyers don’t know about our market and its specific elements? This chapter deals with one way of tackling that problem: the organization of trade fairs. Although the central attempted activity in the marketplace is the transaction, trade fairs are mainly about presenting products to potential buyers. Based on the study of a trade fair for computer software in the USA, we discuss the reasons for organizing a trade fair, illustrate the process of trade fair organization, and describe the effects of the trade fair on the emergent market. The trade fair organization has led to several effects on the market other than increasing buyer awareness: cooperation among competitors, product innovation in buyer–seller relationships, and industrial espionage.