CHAPTER 1

Introduction and Overview

The year 1951 marks the beginning of the first wave of economic and social digital disruption and transformation. The first commercially ­available digital computer was the Ferranti Mark I, an English digital computer released in February 1951. A much more famous and commercially successful digital computer, the Universal Automatic Computer (UNIVAC) was released in March 1951.

The vacuum tube computers of 1951 have become solid state, miniaturized devices. Digital computers and specialized software replaced many thousands of bookkeepers and their ledger books. The Sears, ­Roebuck, and Montgomery Ward merchandise catalogs are defunct, replaced by online shopping at sites like Amazon.com. Rotary dial phones ...

Get Data-Based Decision Making and Digital Transformation now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.