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59-399: The West Coast Computer Faire was an annual computer industry conference and exposition most often associated with San Francisco , its first and most frequent venue. The first fair was held in 1977 and was organized by Jim Warren and Bob Reiling . At the time, it was the biggest computer show in the world, intended to popularize the personal computer in the home. The West Coast PC Faire

118-475: A Saturday breakout session, titled "THE IBM PERSONAL COMPUTER", with eight talks delivered in a three-hour period. One of these was (as listed in the program): At its peak, all available spaces for exhibits were rented out, including the balcony of Civic Auditorium, and the hallway to the restrooms in Brooks Hall (where Bob Wallace ("Quicksoft") introduced " PC-Write "). The 8th West Coast Computer Faire

177-699: A bachelor's degree and a year of assembly language experience. Contact Paul Allen at (505) 262-1486, or write to them at 300 San Mateo NE, Albuquerque, NM 87108. Microsoft is the leader in microcomputer systems programming. I've applied myself, by the way." One of Bob's club projects was to hold a Personal Computer Fair at the Pacific Science Center . The April 1978 show drew over 5000 people and had over 60 computers on display for visitors to use. Shortly after that show, Bob finished his degree and joined Microsoft in Albuquerque, New Mexico . The Fair

236-618: A business context, the Information Technology Association of America has defined information technology as "the study, design, development, application, implementation, support, or management of computer-based information systems". The responsibilities of those working in the field include network administration, software development and installation, and the planning and management of an organization's technology life cycle, by which hardware and software are maintained, upgraded, and replaced. Information services

295-542: A complete computing machine. During the Second World War , Colossus developed the first electronic digital computer to decrypt German messages. Although it was programmable , it was not general-purpose, being designed to perform only a single task. It also lacked the ability to store its program in memory; programming was carried out using plugs and switches to alter the internal wiring. The first recognizably modern electronic digital stored-program computer

354-475: A component of their 305 RAMAC computer system. Most digital data today is still stored magnetically on hard disks, or optically on media such as CD-ROMs . Until 2002 most information was stored on analog devices , but that year digital storage capacity exceeded analog for the first time. As of 2007 , almost 94% of the data stored worldwide was held digitally: 52% on hard disks, 28% on optical devices, and 11% on digital magnetic tape. It has been estimated that

413-450: A more efficient manner are usually seen as "just the cost of doing business." IT departments are allocated funds by senior leadership and must attempt to achieve the desired deliverables while staying within that budget. Government and the private sector might have different funding mechanisms, but the principles are more-or-less the same. This is an often overlooked reason for the rapid interest in automation and Artificial Intelligence , but

472-631: A notice about a new computer club in Seattle. Bob Wallace was listed as a contact person. The Northwest Computer Club held meetings at the Pacific Science Center (near Seattle's Space Needle .) Bob wrote a column for the newsletter called "Bob's Bits". From the February 1978 column: "Microsoft is hiring systems programmer to work on APL , BASIC , COBOL , and FORTRAN for the 8080 , Z-80 , 6502 , and 8086 as well as operating systems and other interesting projects. Applicants should have at least

531-473: A particular letter; possible delays in message delivery (up to several days); limits on the size of one message and on the total size of messages in the mailbox (personal for users). A software and hardware complex with a web interface that provides the ability to search for information on the Internet. A search engine usually means a site that hosts the interface (front-end) of the system. The software part of

590-405: A search engine is a search engine (search engine) — a set of programs that provides the functionality of a search engine and is usually a trade secret of the search engine developer company. Most search engines look for information on World Wide Web sites, but there are also systems that can look for files on FTP servers, items in online stores, and information on Usenet newsgroups. Improving search

649-464: A technology now obsolete. Electronic data storage, which is used in modern computers, dates from World War II, when a form of delay-line memory was developed to remove the clutter from radar signals, the first practical application of which was the mercury delay line. The first random-access digital storage device was the Williams tube , which was based on a standard cathode ray tube . However,

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708-487: Is a term somewhat loosely applied to a variety of IT-related services offered by commercial companies, as well as data brokers . The field of information ethics was established by mathematician Norbert Wiener in the 1940s. Some of the ethical issues associated with the use of information technology include: Research suggests that IT projects in business and public administration can easily become significant in scale. Work conducted by McKinsey in collaboration with

767-433: Is also worth noting that from a business perspective, Information technology departments are a " cost center " the majority of the time. A cost center is a department or staff which incurs expenses, or "costs", within a company rather than generating profits or revenue streams. Modern businesses rely heavily on technology for their day-to-day operations, so the expenses delegated to cover technology that facilitates business in

826-566: Is commonly held in relational databases to take advantage of their "robust implementation verified by years of both theoretical and practical effort." As an evolution of the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML), XML's text-based structure offers the advantage of being both machine- and human-readable . Data transmission has three aspects: transmission, propagation, and reception. It can be broadly categorized as broadcasting , in which information

885-768: Is generally an information system , a communications system , or, more specifically speaking, a computer system — including all hardware , software , and peripheral equipment — operated by a limited group of IT users, and an IT project usually refers to the commissioning and implementation of an IT system. IT systems play a vital role in facilitating efficient data management, enhancing communication networks, and supporting organizational processes across various industries. Successful IT projects require meticulous planning, seamless integration, and ongoing maintenance to ensure optimal functionality and alignment with organizational objectives. Although humans have been storing, retrieving, manipulating, and communicating information since

944-507: Is one of the priorities of the modern Internet (see the Deep Web article about the main problems in the work of search engines). Companies in the information technology field are often discussed as a group as the "tech sector" or the "tech industry." These titles can be misleading at times and should not be mistaken for "tech companies;" which are generally large scale, for-profit corporations that sell consumer technology and software. It

1003-424: Is still widely deployed more than 50 years later. IMS stores data hierarchically , but in the 1970s Ted Codd proposed an alternative relational storage model based on set theory and predicate logic and the familiar concepts of tables, rows, and columns. In 1981, the first commercially available relational database management system (RDBMS) was released by Oracle . All DMS consist of components, they allow

1062-417: Is transmitted unidirectionally downstream, or telecommunications , with bidirectional upstream and downstream channels. XML has been increasingly employed as a means of data interchange since the early 2000s, particularly for machine-oriented interactions such as those involved in web-oriented protocols such as SOAP , describing "data-in-transit rather than... data-at-rest". Hilbert and Lopez identify

1121-560: The Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics , EcstasyData , Black Rock Arts Foundation, and a number of other projects. Unexpectedly, he died of pneumonia in San Rafael, California at the age of 53. On hearing of Wallace's death, Paul Allen was quoted as saying, "I remember Bob as a gentle soul who was soft-spoken, but creative, persistent and meticulous in his programming and thinking." The March 1976 issues of Byte magazine had

1180-454: The Internet , which was equivalent to 51 million households. Along with the Internet, new types of technology were also being introduced across the globe, which has improved efficiency and made things easier across the globe. Along with technology revolutionizing society, millions of processes could be done in seconds. Innovations in communication were also crucial as people began to rely on

1239-622: The University of Oxford suggested that half of all large-scale IT projects (those with initial cost estimates of $ 15 million or more) often failed to maintain costs within their initial budgets or to complete on time. Bob Wallace (computer scientist) Bob Wallace was born in Arlington, Virginia . He first worked on computers as a member of an Explorer Scout troop sponsored by Control Data Corp. in Bethesda, Maryland . His father

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1298-531: The University of Washington . Wallace worked at the Retail Computer Store in Seattle where he learned about Microsoft after Bill Gates put up a sign advertising for programmers. He joined Microsoft in 1978 as the 9th employee and his first project was to connect a computer to an IBM Selectric typewriter so the company could print software manuals. He was a key developer of TI BASIC . In

1357-666: The Z-80 SoftCard , which gave the Apple II CP/M capabilities. The 6th West Coast Computer Faire was held on April 3–5, 1981, notable for being the venue where Adam Osborne introduced the Osborne 1 . The 7th West Coast Computer Faire saw the introduction of the 5 MB Winchester disk drive for IBM PCs by Davong Systems . It was held on March 19–21, 1982, in San Francisco. That year's conference also featured

1416-432: The 16th century, and it was not until 1645 that the first mechanical calculator capable of performing the four basic arithmetical operations was developed. Electronic computers , using either relays or valves , began to appear in the early 1940s. The electromechanical Zuse Z3 , completed in 1941, was the world's first programmable computer, and by modern standards one of the first machines that could be considered

1475-410: The Internet alone while e-commerce a decade later resulted in $ 289 billion in sales. And as computers are rapidly becoming more sophisticated by the day, they are becoming more used as people are becoming more reliant on them during the twenty-first century. Early electronic computers such as Colossus made use of punched tape , a long strip of paper on which data was represented by a series of holes,

1534-674: The Moscone Center didn't help that impression; a large chunk of the main floor was unused, adding to the impression of the Faire's shrunken size". The 12th West Coast Computer Faire was held in March 1987. The 16th West Coast Computer Faire was held from May 30 to June 2, 1991, at Moscone Center. First West Coast IBM PC Faire, August 26–28, 1983 in San Francisco, CA, was presented by Computer Faire, Inc., Redwood City, CA. Third Personal Computer Faire September 5–7, 1985 in San Francisco, CA

1593-854: The Promind Foundation, which helped support scientific research, public education, and harm reduction efforts related to psychedelics. Wallace also served on the Board of Directors for the Heffter Research Institute and helped financially support the most important organizations in the field, including the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), the Heffter Research Institute, Erowid (responsible for half of Erowid's funding from 2000–2002), DanceSafe ,

1652-417: The ability to transfer both plain text and formatted, as well as arbitrary files; independence of servers (in the general case, they address each other directly); sufficiently high reliability of message delivery; ease of use by humans and programs. Disadvantages of e-mail: the presence of such a phenomenon as spam (massive advertising and viral mailings); the theoretical impossibility of guaranteed delivery of

1711-527: The appearance of the term in 1990 contained within documents for the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Innovations in technology have already revolutionized the world by the twenty-first century as people were able to access different online services. This has changed the workforce drastically as thirty percent of U.S. workers were already in careers in this profession. 136.9 million people were personally connected to

1770-567: The application of statistical and mathematical methods to decision-making , and the simulation of higher-order thinking through computer programs. The term is commonly used as a synonym for computers and computer networks , but it also encompasses other information distribution technologies such as television and telephones . Several products or services within an economy are associated with information technology, including computer hardware , software , electronics, semiconductors, internet , telecom equipment , and e-commerce . Based on

1829-464: The computer to communicate through telephone lines and cable. The introduction of the email was considered revolutionary as "companies in one part of the world could communicate by e-mail with suppliers and buyers in another part of the world..." Not only personally, computers and technology have also revolutionized the marketing industry, resulting in more buyers of their products. During the year of 2002, Americans exceeded $ 28 billion in goods just over

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1888-419: The constant pressure to do more with less is opening the door for automation to take control of at least some minor operations in large companies. Many companies now have IT departments for managing the computers , networks, and other technical areas of their businesses. Companies have also sought to integrate IT with business outcomes and decision-making through a BizOps or business operations department. In

1947-431: The data they store to be accessed simultaneously by many users while maintaining its integrity. All databases are common in one point that the structure of the data they contain is defined and stored separately from the data itself, in a database schema . In recent years, the extensible markup language (XML) has become a popular format for data representation. Although XML data can be stored in normal file systems , it

2006-504: The earliest writing systems were developed, the term information technology in its modern sense first appeared in a 1958 article published in the Harvard Business Review ; authors Harold J. Leavitt and Thomas L. Whisler commented that "the new technology does not yet have a single established name. We shall call it information technology (IT)." Their definition consists of three categories: techniques for processing,

2065-566: The emergence of information and communications technology (ICT). By the year of 1984, according to the National Westminster Bank Quarterly Review , the term information technology had been redefined as "The development of cable television was made possible by the convergence of telecommunications and computing technology (…generally known in Britain as information technology)." We then begin to see

2124-404: The exponential pace of technological change (a kind of Moore's law ): machines' application-specific capacity to compute information per capita roughly doubled every 14 months between 1986 and 2007; the per capita capacity of the world's general-purpose computers doubled every 18 months during the same two decades; the global telecommunication capacity per capita doubled every 34 months;

2183-475: The fair. As Jim Warren later recalled: “We had these lines running all around the fucking building and nobody was irritated. Nobody was pushy. We didn’t know what we were doing and the exhibitors didn’t know what they were doing and the attendees didn’t know what was going on, but everybody was excited and congenial and undemanding and it was a tremendous turn-on. People just stood and talked—‘Oh, you’ve got an Altair ? Far out!’ ‘You solved this problem?’ And nobody

2242-455: The field of data mining  — "the process of discovering interesting patterns and knowledge from large amounts of data"  — emerged in the late 1980s. The technology and services it provides for sending and receiving electronic messages (called "letters" or "electronic letters") over a distributed (including global) computer network. In terms of the composition of elements and the principle of operation, electronic mail practically repeats

2301-585: The first authorized Apple dealer in Japan.Other visitors included Tomio Gotō who developed the TK-80 and PC-8001 , and Kazuhiko Nishi who produced the MSX . There were about 180 exhibitors, among them Intel , MITS , and Digital Research . When the first fair opened, almost twice as many people arrived as Warren anticipated, and thousands of people were waiting to get into the auditorium. More than 12,000 people visited

2360-455: The first planar silicon dioxide transistors by Frosch and Derick in 1957, the MOSFET demonstration by a Bell Labs team. the planar process by Jean Hoerni in 1959, and the microprocessor invented by Ted Hoff , Federico Faggin , Masatoshi Shima , and Stanley Mazor at Intel in 1971. These important inventions led to the development of the personal computer (PC) in the 1970s, and

2419-443: The first transistorized computer developed at the University of Manchester and operational by November 1953, consumed only 150 watts in its final version. Several other breakthroughs in semiconductor technology include the integrated circuit (IC) invented by Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments and Robert Noyce at Fairchild Semiconductor in 1959, silicon dioxide surface passivation by Carl Frosch and Lincoln Derick in 1955,

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2478-628: The first-ever micro computer chess tournament, won by Sargon . The 3rd West Coast Computer Faire was held on November 3–5, 1978, at the Los Angeles Convention Center . The 4th West Coast Computer Faire returned to San Francisco in May 1979 at Brooks Hall and Civic Auditorium. Dan Bricklin demonstrated VisiCalc , the first spreadsheet program for personal computers. At the 5th West Coast Computer Faire, held in March 1980, Microsoft announced their first hardware product,

2537-488: The information stored in it and delay-line memory was volatile in the fact that it had to be continuously refreshed, and thus was lost once power was removed. The earliest form of non-volatile computer storage was the magnetic drum , invented in 1932 and used in the Ferranti Mark 1 , the world's first commercially available general-purpose electronic computer. IBM introduced the first hard disk drive in 1956, as

2596-538: The introduction of computer science-related courses in K-12 education . Ideas of computer science were first mentioned before the 1950s under the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University , where they had discussed and began thinking of computer circuits and numerical calculations. As time went on, the field of information technology and computer science became more complex and

2655-718: The last in 1991. After Warren sold the show, it had a few more good years, and then declined rapidly. The first fair took place on April 16–17, 1977, in San Francisco Civic Auditorium , and saw the debut of the Commodore PET , presented by Chuck Peddle , and the Apple II , presented by then-22-year-old Steve Jobs and 26-year-old Steve Wozniak . At the exhibition, Jobs introduced the Apple II to Japanese textile maker Toshio Mizushima, who became

2714-514: The late 1970s, Wallace and Gates were known for their practical jokes, and one incident involved breaking into a construction site and driving bulldozers, at one point almost running over Gates's Porsche . In 1983, Wallace left Microsoft to form Quicksoft and distribute PC-Write using the shareware concept, which he helped originate. In 1996, Wallace and his wife Megan Dana-Wallace, started Mind Books-a bookstore that offered publications about psychoactive plants and compounds. In 1998, they started

2773-503: The storage and processing technologies employed, it is possible to distinguish four distinct phases of IT development: pre-mechanical (3000 BC — 1450 AD), mechanical (1450 — 1840), electromechanical (1840 — 1940), and electronic (1940 to present). Information technology is a branch of computer science , defined as the study of procedures, structures, and the processing of various types of data. As this field continues to evolve globally, its priority and importance have grown, leading to

2832-417: The system of regular (paper) mail, borrowing both terms (mail, letter, envelope, attachment, box, delivery, and others) and characteristic features — ease of use, message transmission delays, sufficient reliability and at the same time no guarantee of delivery. The advantages of e-mail are: easily perceived and remembered by a person addresses of the form user_name@domain_name (for example, somebody@example.com);

2891-405: The world's storage capacity per capita required roughly 40 months to double (every 3 years); and per capita broadcast information has doubled every 12.3 years. Massive amounts of data are stored worldwide every day, but unless it can be analyzed and presented effectively it essentially resides in what have been called data tombs: "data archives that are seldom visited". To address that issue,

2950-403: The worldwide capacity to store information on electronic devices grew from less than 3  exabytes in 1986 to 295 exabytes in 2007, doubling roughly every 3 years. Database Management Systems (DMS) emerged in the 1960s to address the problem of storing and retrieving large amounts of data accurately and quickly. An early such system was IBM 's Information Management System (IMS), which

3009-503: Was able to handle the processing of more data. Scholarly articles began to be published from different organizations. Looking at early computing, Alan Turing , J. Presper Eckert , and John Mauchly were considered some of the major pioneers of computer technology in the mid-1900s. Giving them such credit for their developments, most of their efforts were focused on designing the first digital computer. Along with that, topics such as artificial intelligence began to be brought up as Turing

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3068-570: Was an economist who later became Assistant Secretary of the Treasury during the administration of John F. Kennedy . Beginning in 1967, Wallace attended Brown University , where he worked on the pioneering hypertext File Retrieval and Editing System with Andries van Dam and Ted Nelson . After attending the University of California, Santa Cruz for two years (where he briefly majored in theatre ), he received his undergraduate degree (1974) and master's degree (1978) in computer science from

3127-496: Was beginning to question such technology of the time period. Devices have been used to aid computation for thousands of years, probably initially in the form of a tally stick . The Antikythera mechanism , dating from about the beginning of the first century BC, is generally considered the earliest known mechanical analog computer , and the earliest known geared mechanism. Comparable geared devices did not emerge in Europe until

3186-490: Was formed to provide a more specialized show. However, Apple Inc. stopped exhibiting at the West Coast Computer Faire, refusing to exhibit at any show other than COMDEX that also had PC-based exhibits. In 1983, Warren sold the rights to the Faire for US$ 3 million to Prentice Hall , who later sold it to Sheldon Adelson , the owner of Interface Group and COMDEX. In total, sixteen shows were held, with

3245-516: Was held March 18–20, 1983. Subsequent West Coast Computer Faires were held in Moscone Center in San Francisco. After the 10th Faire, Bruce Webster wrote that "Warren sold out just in time. The Faire is shrinking. It may not be dying, but it is no longer the important trade show it was two short years ago. Without the giant booths from IBM, Apple, and AT&T, the Faire would have looked like any other small, local, end-user show. The move to

3304-538: Was irritated.” ... The first Computer Faire was to the hardware hackers an event comparable to Woodstock in the movement of the sixties. Like the concert at Max Yasgur’s farm, this was both a cultural vindication and a signal that the movement had gotten so big that it no longer belonged to its progenitors. The 2nd West Coast Computer Faire was held March 3–5, 1978, at what was then the San Jose Convention Center (now Parkside Hall ). This event had

3363-703: Was presented by Computer Faire Inc., Newton, MA. The 11th Northeast Computer Faire , which ran October 27-29, 1988, was presented by The Interface Group and Boston Computer Society in Boston. Southern California Computer Faire was presented by Computer Faire Inc., Newton, Mass., a subsidiary of Prentice-Hall. Computer industry Information technology ( IT ) is a set of related fields that encompass computer systems, software , programming languages , and data and information processing, and storage. IT forms part of information and communications technology (ICT). An information technology system ( IT system )

3422-405: Was presented by Computer Faire, Inc., Newton, MA. Fourth Personal Computer Faire, in San Francisco, was presented September 25–27, 1986, by The Interface Group, Needham, Mass. The Northeast Computer Faire in Boston, was presented by Computer Faire Inc., Newton, Mass., a subsidiary of Prentice-Hall. The Eighth Northeast Computer Faire, September 26–29, 1985, Bayside Exposition Center. Boston. MA.

3481-468: Was the Manchester Baby , which ran its first program on 21 June 1948. The development of transistors in the late 1940s at Bell Laboratories allowed a new generation of computers to be designed with greatly reduced power consumption. The first commercially available stored-program computer, the Ferranti Mark I , contained 4050 valves and had a power consumption of 25 kilowatts. By comparison,

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