In January 1962, one of Ferranti-Canada's system engineers, Paul Dixon, proposed that the Federal Reserve Banks further improve their check-processing operations by purchasing a general-purpose computer from Ferranti-Canada.30 “The use ...

Author: John N. Vardalas

Publisher: MIT Press

ISBN: 9780262264983

Category: Technology & Engineering

Page: 421

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The forces that shaped Canada's digital innovations in the postwar period. After World War II, other major industrialized nations responded to the technological and industrial hegemony of the United States by developing their own design and manufacturing competence in digital electronic technology. In this book John Vardalas describes the quest for such competence in Canada, exploring the significant contributions of the civilian sector but emphasizing the role of the Canadian military in shaping radical technological change. As he shows, Canada's determination to be an active participant in research and development work on advanced weapons systems, and in the testing of those weapons systems, was a cornerstone of Canadian technological development during the years 1945-1980. Vardalas presents case studies of such firms as Ferranti-Canada, Sperry Gyroscope of Canada, and Control Data of Canada. In contrast to the standard nationalist interpretation of Canadian subsidiaries of transnational corporations as passive agents, he shows them to have been remarkably innovative and explains how their aggressive programs to develop all-Canadian digital R&D and manufacturing capacities influenced technological development in the United States and in Great Britain. While underlining the unprecedented role of the military in the creation of peacetime scientific and technical skills, Vardalas also examines the role of government and university research programs, including Canada's first computerized systems for mail sorting and airline reservations. Overall, he presents a nuanced account of how national economic, political, and corporate forces influenced the content, extent, and direction of digital innovation in Canada.

In this book John Vardalas describes the quest for such competence in Canada, exploring the significant contributions of the civilian sector but emphasizing the role of the Canadian military in shaping radical technological change.

Author: John N. Vardalas

Publisher: MIT Press (MA)

ISBN: 0262285460

Category: Computers

Page: 409

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The forces that shaped Canada's digital innovations in the postwar period.

Computers on the Job is a pioneering study of the impact of widespread computer use on Canadian society.

Author: Heather Menzies

Publisher: Lorimer

ISBN: PSU:000008335869

Category: Computers

Page: 161

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Written as the computer revolution dawned on Canadian society, Computers on the Job introduces the effects of technological change on people in their homes and workplaces. Heather Menzies explains, in clear, nontechnical terms, how the microcochip unleashes the full potential of computers, allowing employers to automate many routine jobs and transform others--sometimes for the benefit of employees, sometimes not. She traces the effects of computerization on office work, on the service industry and on traditional blue-collar occupations, forecasting changes that, in many cases, have come to pass. Computers on the Job is a pioneering study of the impact of widespread computer use on Canadian society.

Information Technology Spending and Output per Capita , Selected OECD Countries , 1991 GDP per capita , 1991 ( dollars ) 24,000 22,000 20,000 18,000 ITALY 16,000 CANADA JAPAN FRANCE UNITED KINGDOM GERMANY 14,000 12,000 150 200 250 300 ...

Author: Daniel E. Sichel

Publisher: Brookings Institution Press

ISBN: 0815723539

Category: Business & Economics

Page: 172

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During the 1980s and into this decade, U.S. businesses poured billions of dollars into computers and other information technology. Yet the productivity performance of the U.S. economy in the 1980s remained lackluster--especially in the service sector--leading many observers to suspect that companies were not getting their money's worth from these high-tech investments. At the same time, academic research found little evidence of a productivity payoff. But have the tables now turned? With an apparent improvement in productivity in recent years, much academic and popular opinion now suggests that the payback is at hand or just around the corner. As the nation embarks on a major effort to develop an Information Superhighway, it is critical for policymakers, opinion leaders, and others to understand the contribution and role of information technology in the economy during recent decades. This book provides a straightforward guide to the economic issues underlying the debates about these issues, using quantitative and historical analysis, supplemented with interviews of small and large service-sector companies. To set the stage, Daniel Sichel reviews the debates over the role of computers and summarizes the essential facts about computer use, with a particular emphasis on software. Going beyond basic facts, Sichel describes an economic framework for assessing the aggregate economic impact of computers in recent decades and for looking ahead at this impact in the future. Quantitative estimates from this framework, along with supporting historical and interview evidence, place limits on the contribution of computers to the overall economy. When compared to the size of the slowdown in productivity growth in the early 1970s, the overall impact of computers appears relatively modest, in part because the share of computers in the nation's capital stock is surprisingly small. Looking ahead, Sichel also raises questions as to whether computers are likely to solve the nation's productivity woes in the future.

Perspectives on the Computer Revolution Second Edition Edited with commentaries by Zenon W. Pylyshyn University of Western Ontario , London , Canada and Liam J. Bannon Aarhus University , Aarhus , Denmark A ABLEX PUBLISHING CORPORATION ...

Author: Zenon W. Pylyshyn

Publisher: Intellect Books

ISBN: 0893913693

Category: Computers

Page: 570

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This is a completely revised and updated edition of this text designed to introduce students to the historical, intellectual and social context of computers. Although the majority of the chapters in this edition are new, the original criteria for selecting essays has been retained. The text retains the historical pieces and adds new material on artifical intelligence, the human-computer interface, the intellectual importance of computing, and the social imapct of computer technology.

5 Cf. Friedl, “SCAMP: The Missing Link in the PC's Past?”, 190–7. ... 7 Cf. Bleackley and LaPrairie, Entering the Computer Age. ... 4 For more information on Control Data Canada, see Vardalas, The Computer Revolution in Canada.

Author: Zbigniew Stachniak

Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP

ISBN: 9780773581470

Category: Computers

Page:

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Inventing the PC details the invention and design of the MCM/70 computer and the prolonged struggle to bring it to market. Zbigniew Stachniak offers an insider's view of events on the front lines of pioneering work on personal computers. He shows what information and options PC pioneers had, how well they understood what they were doing, and how that understanding - or lack thereof - shaped both their engineering ingenuity and the indecisiveness and over-reaching ambition that would ultimately turn a very promising venture into a missed opportunity. Providing comprehensive historical background and rich photographic documentation, Inventing the PC tells the story of a Canadian company on the cutting-edge of the information age.

T.G. Coughlin, “Alouette II — Canada's Second Satellite Probes the Mysteries of Outer Space,” Sentinel, ... See also Iohn Vardalas, The Computer Revolution in Canada: BuildingNational Technological Competence (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, ...

Author: Andrew B. Godefroy

Publisher: UBC Press

ISBN: 9780774819619

Category: History

Page: 258

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The Cold War space race between the United States and the Soviet Union is well documented, but few are aware of Canada's early activities in this important arena of global power. Defence and Discovery represents the first comprehensive investigation into the origins, development, and impact of Canada's space program from 1945 to 1974. Meticulously researched, it demonstrates the central role of the military in Canada's early space research, illuminating a significant yet understudied period in Canada's growth as a nation.

Computer Science and Society in the ACM Thomas J. Misa ... Ultimately, the Canadian computer industry resisted government or selfimposed regulations of computer utilities or transborder data flow, ... The Computer Revolution in Canada.

Author: Thomas J. Misa

Publisher: Morgan & Claypool

ISBN: 9781970001860

Category: Computers

Page: 422

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Communities of Computing is the first book-length history of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), founded in 1947 and with a membership today of 100,000 worldwide. It profiles ACM's notable SIGs, active chapters, and individual members, setting ACM's history into a rich social and political context. The book's 12 core chapters are organized into three thematic sections. "Defining the Discipline" examines the 1960s and 1970s when the field of computer science was taking form at the National Science Foundation, Stanford University, and through ACM's notable efforts in education and curriculum standards. "Broadening the Profession" looks outward into the wider society as ACM engaged with social and political issues - and as members struggled with balancing a focus on scientific issues and awareness of the wider world. Chapters examine the social turbulence surrounding the Vietnam War, debates about the women's movement, efforts for computing and community education, and international issues including professionalization and the Cold War. "Expanding Research Frontiers" profiles three areas of research activity where ACM members and ACM itself shaped notable advances in computing, including computer graphics, computer security, and hypertext. Featuring insightful profiles of notable ACM leaders, such as Edmund Berkeley, George Forsythe, Jean Sammet, Peter Denning, and Kelly Gotlieb, and honest assessments of controversial episodes, the volume deals with compelling and complex issues involving ACM and computing. It is not a narrow organizational history of ACM committees and SIGS, although much information about them is given. All chapters are original works of research. Many chapters draw on archival records of ACM's headquarters, ACM SIGs, and ACM leaders. This volume makes a permanent contribution to documenting the history of ACM and understanding its central role in the history of computing.

Telecommunications, Computers, and Governments in Canada Laurence B. Mussio ... The nature of the computer revolution in Canada, at least in its early phases, can be summarized by its rapidity of diffusion, its essentially imported ...

Author: Laurence B. Mussio

Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP

ISBN: 9780773569140

Category: Technology & Engineering

Page: 328

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Laurence Mussio examines how federal and provincial public policy tried to keep pace with the diffusion of telecommunications, consumer demand, and a rising tide of technological innovation. Telecommunications regulation struggled to maintain a balance between producer and consumer in an increasingly complex field and policy makers were compelled to defend the national interest in international telecommunications arrangements or by making far-reaching decisions about transcontinental microwave systems and satellites. By the late 1960s national policy makers had embraced the arrival of the computer - especially once it began to be wired into Canada's communications infrastructure. Telecom Nation explores the impact of the computer on government policy and the first attempts to build a "national computer utility" - the beginnings of the Internet - twenty-five years before it became a reality. Based primarily on the rich and largely untapped sources at the National Archives of Canada, Cabinet records, provincial archives, and private sector repositories, Telecom Nation provides an essential background to contemporary public policy issues by examining how governments reconciled technological change, private enterprise, consumer demand, and the public good in communications. It will be required reading for students and specialists interested in telecommunications, public policy, and technological change.

The Software Development and Computer Services Industry : An Overview of Developments in the 1990s , Ottawa , Cat . ... Manufacturing Industries of Canada ; National and Provincial Areas 1998. ... The Computer Revolution in Canada .

Author: Jorge Niosi

Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP

ISBN: 9780773572430

Category: Business & Economics

Page: 184

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While aerospace and aircraft form two poles in Montreal and Toronto, Ottawa is Canada's centre for semiconductor and telecommunication innovation. Niosi explores how these regional configurations are shaped by national and provincial public policy incentives.