The first business computer: a case study in user-driven innovation

In 1949, the world's first business computer application was rolled out. The host for the application was a British catering and food-manufacturing company, which had developed and built its own computer, designed for business data processing. The author traces the endeavour's history and presents an analysis of how and why the company-J. Lyons & Co.-was in a natural position to take on the challenge, the precursor of the information revolution we see toda

Review: The Technical and Social History of Software Engineering

In his recent book The Technical and Social History of Software Engineering, Capers Jones promises to fill a long-standing need for a text that gives readers an understanding of the history of software engineering. In this paper, I examine the extent to which Jones succeeds in meeting that promise

Early History of the Information Systems Discipline in the UK: An account based on living through the period

In 2012, the Association for Information Systems (AIS) decided to establish the history of IS as a major study domain and, in 2013, appointed Professor Ping Zhang from Syracuse University as AIS Historian. One of her first acts was to set up a panel at each of the major AIS-sponsored conferences to examine aspects of IS history. The first conference with a history panel was the June 2013 ECIS in Utrecht. The panelists chosen by Professor Zhang had all contributed to the early developments of IS as practitioners and academics. They included Professor Carol Saunders from the USA, Professor Phillip Ein-Dor from Israel, Professor Niels Bjorn-Andersen from Denmark, and Professor Frank Land from the UK. The panel was chaired by Professor Ping Zhang, who also acted as mediator. This paper is based on my contribution to the panel

TECHNOLOGIES THAT TRANSFORM BUSINESS AND RESEARCH: LESSONS FROM THE PAST AS WE LOOK TO THE FUTURE

What are the technologies that will transform business and drive the research agenda for the IS field in the years to come? Which innovations, platforms, and paradigms will become dominant, and which others will ultimately pass into obscurity? In this panel discussion, we will seek answers to these questions from those with a unique and unmatched perspective. The leaders who have witnessed the birth and development of the IS field during the past 40- 50 years will draw on their experiences and their deep knowledge of the field to identify the characteristics of technologies that have changed business in the past. They will also explain how and why today’s innovations will change both research and practice going forward. Their insights have the potential to identify topics for researchers to examine now and in the years to come

ICIS 2008 Panel Report: Design Science in Information Systems: Hegemony, Bandwagon, or New Wave?

In the past few years, design science has become a topic of increasing importance, especially in the North American academic IS community. Some observers see a new hegemony forming. Others dispute that but suggest that design science is merely the latest bandwagon rolling through the IS domain. A panel at the 2008 International Conference on Information Systems debated views of design science prevalent in the IS community. This paper reports on the panel discussion and attempts to position design science from various perspectives, including North American and European views, the latter with a long tradition of design-based IS scholarship