While some of the first computer map-making software was created and refined at the Lab, it also became a research center for spatial analysis and visualization.
Many of the early concepts for GIS and its applications were conceived at the Lab by a talented collection of geographers, planners, computer scientists, and others from many fields.
The consulting firm applied computer mapping and spatial analysis to help land use planners and land resource managers make informed decisions. Esri went on to develop many of the GIS mapping and spatial analysis methods now in use. As computing became more powerful, Esri improved its software tools.
Working on projects that solved real-world problems led the company to innovate and develop robust GIS tools and approaches that could be broadly used.
The technology was released in and began the evolution of Esri into a software company. GIS gives people the ability to create their own digital map layers to help solve real-world problems. In , the first microcomputer was announced on the cover of Popular Mechanics : the Altair During the s, many new computer companies sprang up, offering less expensive versions of the PC.
This drove prices down and spurred innovation. Microsoft developed its Windows operating system and made the PC even easier to use. Common uses for the PC during this period included word processing, spreadsheets, and databases. These early PCs were not connected to any sort of network; for the most part they stood alone as islands of innovation within the larger organization.
In the mids, businesses began to see the need to connect their computers together as a way to collaborate and share resources. Software companies began developing applications that allowed multiple users to access the same data at the same time. This evolved into software applications for communicating, with the first real popular use of electronic mail appearing at this time.
This networking and data sharing all stayed within the confines of each business, for the most part. While there was sharing of electronic data between companies, this was a very specialized function. Computers were now seen as tools to collaborate internally, within an organization. In fact, these networks of computers were becoming so powerful that they were replacing many of the functions previously performed by the larger mainframe computers at a fraction of the cost.
It was during this era that the first Enterprise Resource Planning ERP systems were developed and run on the client-server architecture. We will discuss ERP systems as part of the chapter on process chapter 9. First invented in , the Internet was confined to use by universities, government agencies, and researchers for many years.
Its rather arcane commands and user applications made it unsuitable for mainstream use in business. One exception to this was the ability to expand electronic mail outside the confines of a single organization. While the first e-mail messages on the Internet were sent in the early s, companies who wanted to expand their LAN-based e-mail started hooking up to the Internet in the s.
Companies began connecting their internal networks to the Internet in order to allow communication between their employees and employees at other companies. It was with these early Internet connections that the computer truly began to evolve from a computational device to a communications device. As web browsers and Internet connections became the norm, companies rushed to grab domain names and create websites.
In , the National Science Foundation, which governed how the Internet was used, lifted restrictions on its commercial use. The year saw the establishment of both eBay and Amazon.
A mad rush of investment in Internet-based businesses led to the dot-com boom through the late s, and then the dot-com bust in While much can be learned from the speculation and crazy economic theories espoused during that bubble, one important outcome for businesses was that thousands of miles of Internet connections were laid around the world during that time. As it became more expected for companies to be connected to the Internet, the digital world also became a more dangerous place.
Computer viruses and worms, once slowly propagated through the sharing of computer disks, could now grow with tremendous speed via the Internet. Software written for a disconnected world found it very difficult to defend against these sorts of threats. A whole new industry of computer and Internet security arose.
We will study information security in chapter 6. As the world recovered from the dot-com bust, the use of technology in business continued to evolve at a frantic pace. Websites became interactive; instead of just visiting a site to find out about a business and purchase its products, customers wanted to be able to customize their experience and interact with the business. This new type of interactive website, where you did not have to know how to create a web page or do any programming in order to put information online, became known as web 2.
Web 2. This new web Some industries, such as bookstores, found themselves relegated to a niche status. This is where the first books and libraries are developed. Some groups of people were actually binding paper together into a book-like form. Also during this period were the first numbering systems. Around A. And yes now that numbers were created, people wanted stuff to do with them so they created calculators.
A calculator was the very first sign of an information processor. The popular model of that time was the abacus. The mechanical age is when we first start to see connections between our current technology and its ancestors. The mechanical age can be defined as the time between and A lot of new technologies are developed in this era as there is a large explosion in interest with this area.
Technologies like the slide rule an analog computer used for multiplying and dividing were invented. Blaise Pascal invented the Pascaline which was a very popular mechanical computer. Charles Babbage developed the difference engine which tabulated polynomial equations using the method of finite differences.
There were lots of different machines created during this era and while we have not yet gottent to a machine that can do more than one type of calculation in one, like our modern-day calculators, we are still learning about how all of our all-in-one machines started. Also, if you look at the size of the machines invented in this time compared to the power behind them it seems to us absolutely ridiculous to understand why anybody would want to use them, but to the people living in that time ALL of thse inventions were HUGE.
When you buy from Amazon. Unfortunately, that someone is not always the consumer. When was the last time that you had a good registration experience at a hospital? That system probably was not designed with you in mind—but rather designed to support backend reporting for the hospital administration and by proxy for the government and insurance companies. So the administrators are happy, but not the customers. They are betting that you will not choose your hospital based on how difficult it was to register.
Amazon practices user centered design Designing websites and applications to meet the needs of the user. While this may seem to be common sense, in practice it does not often happen—especially in internal corporate settings. How user centered are the systems at your college or university? However, the clever folks at Amazon also have tremendous backend reporting. So it is possible to design systems that please customers and administrators simultaneously—but it takes a bit more effort.
What would hospital systems look like if they were designed to Amazon standards? Imagine 1-click appointments, 1-click payments, shielding the client from the insurance companies. How about an integrated patient record of all past procedures? The world will continue to gravitate toward Amazon style systems. In the end it is good business to make everyone happy—employees, customers, and administrators. It is also the right thing to do. Think back to the hospital.
In a competitive market, maybe you would choose the better customer experience. A hospital worker might choose to work for the hospital with the more user friendly patient information system. No one likes to be yelled at by unhappy customers. You have to design a user interface UI anyway—why not make it a good one? Consider the tremendous success of Apple Computer. One of the main advantages that Apple has over its rivals is that it carefully analyzes how people best interact with technology, develops requirements based on that analysis and then designs elegant computers, the iPhone, iPad, iTunes, and so forth based on those requirements.
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