The legal, economic, and technical literatures are replete with discussions on the desirability or otherwise of software patents. But each strand of this debate has some limitations. The legal literature is for the most part based on case law, and thus is difficult to generalize. The economic...

We use several different sources (a 1970 Roster of Organizations in Data Processing and the 1960 and 1970 Censuses of Population) to study patterns of geographic clustering at the very origins of the software industry. We find a strong trend toward clustering of the industry in a few...

We use the DATAMATION index of the top 50 domestic IT companies (1975-1995) to track persistence and change at the top of the sector. The trends that we uncover are increasing instability, rejuvenation (declining average age of entrants coupled with increasing average age of quitters),...

Intro -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- 1 The Software Industry -- 2 Origins of the Software Contractor, the 1950s -- 3 Programming Services, the 1960s -- 4 Origins of the Software Products Industry,1965-1970 -- 5 The Shaping of the Software Products Industry, the 1970s -- 6 The...