Discussion Questions
1) Early Office Machines
a) What were the most important shifts in office technology from the 1880s
and 1890s?
b) Why were businesses of the period willing to adopt so many new kinds of
machine?
2) Punched Card Technology
a) Were punch card machines the most important office technology of the
early 1900s?
b) How did their use change from the 1890s to the 1940s? What technological
shifts accompanied this?
3) Making the First Commercial Computers
a) What problems did the UNIVAC team face in turning the computer into a
business machine?
b) Were their any important differences between the approaches adopted by
IBM and Univac?
4) The First Computers in Use
a) What claims were made for these first commercial computers?
b) How and why did companies decide to order them?
c) Did these computers live up to their hype? What problems were faced, and
how were they dealt with?
d) Did the computer replace the other kinds of office technology discussed
above?
5) Computers and People
a) Who benefited from the decision to order a computer?
b) What new jobs accompanied the installation of a computer? How did these
jobs relate to those that had existed before the computer? c) How did the events of this early period shape the longer term
development of corporate computing?
Key Points to Revise
