The Digital Hand : Volume II: How Computers Changed the Work of American Financial, Telecommunications, Media, and Entertainment Industries

The Digital Hand, Volume 2, is a historical survey of how computers and telecommunications have been deployed in over a dozen industries in the financial, telecommunications, media and entertainment sectors over the past half century. It is past of a sweeping three-volume description of how management in some forty industries embraced the computer and changed the American economy. Computers have fundamentally changed the nature of work in America. However it is difficult to grasp the full extent of these changes and their implications for the future of business. To begin the long process of understanding the effects of computing in American business, we need to know the history of how computers were first used, by whom and why. In this, the second volume of The Digital Hand, James W. Cortada combines detailed analysis with narrative history to provide a broad overview of computing's and telecomunications' role in over a dozen industries, ranging from Old Economy sectors like finance and publishing to New Economy sectors like digital photography and video games. He also devotes considerable attention to the rapidly changing media and entertainment industries which are now some of the most technologically advanced in the American economy. Beginning in 1950, when commercial applications of digital technology began to appear, Cortada examines the ways different industries adopted new technologies, as well as the ways their innovative applications influenced other industries and the US economy as a whole. He builds on the surveys presented in the first volume of the series, which examined sixteen manufacturing, process, transportation, wholesale and retail industries. In addition to this account, of computers' impact on industries, Cortada also demonstrates how industries themselves influenced the nature of digital technology. Managers, historians and others interested in the history of modern business will appreciate this historical analysis of digital technology's many roles and future possibilities in an wide array of industries. The Digital Hand provides a detailed picture of what the infrastructure of the Information Age really looks like and how we got there. 019516587X......Page 1 Contents......Page 16 1. Role of Financial Industries in the U.S. Economy......Page 20 2. Uses of Computing in the Banking Industry......Page 54 3. Deployment of Digital and Telecommunications Applications in the Banking Industry......Page 97 4. Business Patterns and Digital Applications in the Insurance Industry......Page 130 5. Business Patterns and Digital Applications in the Brokerage Industry......Page 168 6. Role of Telecommunications Industries in the U.S. Economy......Page 206 7. Business Patterns and Digital Applications in the Telecommunications Industry......Page 244 8. Role of Media and Entertainment Industries in the U.S. Economy......Page 280 9. Uses of Computing in Print Media Industries: Book Publishing, Newspapers, Magazines......Page 310 10. Digital Applications in Electronic Media Industries: Radio and TV......Page 353 11. Digital Applications in Entertainment Industries: Movies and Recorded Music......Page 388 12. Digital Applications in Entertainment Industries: Video Games and Photography......Page 429 13. Conclusions: Lessons Learned, Implications for Management......Page 459 Appendix A: Role and Use of Industries, Sectors, and Economic Models as Concepts for Understanding Business and Economic Activities......Page 496 Appendix B: How a Telephone Works and the Basics of Telecommunications and Networking......Page 502 Notes......Page 508 Bibliographic Essay......Page 601 A......Page 618 B......Page 620 C......Page 623 D......Page 625 E......Page 627 F......Page 628 G......Page 629 I......Page 630 L......Page 633 M......Page 634 N......Page 636 O......Page 637 P......Page 638 S......Page 640 T......Page 642 U......Page 644 W......Page 645 Z......Page 646 Preface 1. Arrival of Digital Technologies and Their Applications2. Digitizing the American Economy3. Presence and Role of Manufacturing Industries in the American Economy4. Business Patterns and Digital Applications in the Transformation of Manufacturing Industries5. Patterns and Practices in Three Traditional Manufacturing Industries: Automotive, Steel and Aerospace6. Patterns and Practices in Three Process Industries: Petroleum, Chemical, and Pharmaceuticals7. Business Practices and Digital Applications in Information Age Manufacturing Industries: Semiconductors, Hard Drives, and Software8. Business Practices and Digital Applications in the Transformation of Transportation Industries: Trains and Trucks9. Presence of Wholesale and Retail Industries in the American Economy... This second volume of 'The Digital Hand' is a historical survey of how computers and telecommunications have been deployed in over a dozen industries in the financial, telecommunications media, and entertainment sectors over the past half century For over two decades, economists and scholars have noted that the American economy was evolving into a services-based one and away from a predominantly manufacturing one, making that transformation the hallmark of the Information Age. Americans injected digital technology into their national economy in massive quantities during the second half of the twentieth century.