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

by Cortada, James W.

• ISBN13: 9780195165876
• ISBN10: 019516587X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-11-03
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

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 howmanagement 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 longprocess 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 ofcomputing'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 whichare 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 influencedother 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 alsodemonstrates 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. TheDigital Hand provides a detailed picture of what the infrastructure of the Information Age really looks like and how we got there.

Table of Contents

1. Role of Financial Industries in the U.S. Economy	3	(34)
2. Uses of Computing in the Banking Industry	37	(43)
3. Deployment of Digital and Telecommunications Applications in the Banking Industry	80	(33)
4. Business Patterns and Digital Applications in the Insurance Industry	113	(38)
5. Business Patterns and Digital Applications in the Brokerage Industry	151	(38)
6. Role of Telecommunications Industries in the U.S. Economy	189	(38)
7. Business Patterns and Digital Applications in the Telecommunications Industry	227	(36)
8. Role of Media and Entertainment Industries in the U.S. Economy	263	(30)
9. Uses of Computing in Print Media Industries: Book Publishing, Newspapers, Magazines	293	(43)
10. Digital Applications in Electronic Media Industries: Radio and TV	336	(35)
11. Digital Applications in Entertainment Industries: Movies and Recorded Music	371	(41)
12. Digital Applications in Entertainment Industries: Video Games and Photography	412	(30)
13. Conclusions: Lessons Learned, Implications for Management	442	(37)
Appendix A: Role and Use of Industries, Sectors, and Economic Models as Concepts for Understanding Business and Economic Activities	479	(6)
Appendix B: How a Telephone Works and the Basics of Telecommunications and Networking	485	(6)
Notes	491	(93)
Bibliographic Essay	584	(17)
Index	601