[Air-l] ICT's Timeline: thanks and answers

[Jeremy Depauw]

Goodmorning everybody,

First of all, I did'nt expect so much answsers and interesting suggestions,
so thanks a lot !

I will try to answers some remarks:

@ Julian Hopkins: I did'nt know the Sinclair ZX80, and it wasn't mention in
my main source : http://www.computerhistory.org/timeline/.  The only
question which remains is : has it been used as tool by journalists and/or
information management profesionals ? If yes, so I'll inculde it in my
timeline. About databases, I don't consider them as an exclusively IT thing
but my initial hypothesis is that they permitted to develop IT tools; Am I
wrong ? Thanks also for the reference of Poster.

@ Elizabeth Van Couvering: It is absolutely true that original cultural
roots have influence on that Timeline building process.  In my case, I have
a belgian/european background and I am influenced by the field of computer
history, which is more "anglo-saxon". In this case, I will have to deal with
that two background, which is not an easy thing.  I don't think I could
consider some other cultural approach. Thanks for pointing this because such
question has to be kept in mind, and it wasn't the case since you pointed it
out.

@ Jonathan Sterne: It is true the choice of that period may seem too limited
but actually it refers to the global question of my research. I sustain the
thesis (in very short) that profesional Information mediators
(i.eJournalists and Information managers in companies) played the role
of
obliged relay of infrmation until recent years. The emregence of
technologies (devices and tools) has permitted to those profesionals'
audiences to avoid that relay by consuming, managing and producing
information on their own.  In order to better understand that phenomenon, I
tried, with this timeline, to enlarge the historical scope. But it didn't
seem necessary to go beyond 1945 because I wanted to keep some connection
between past and current time.  But your remark is relevant beacause it
points out that the evolution Technologies couldn't be seen in a so limited
perspective.

@Elijah: Yes it helps, thanks for the reference.

@Kevin Guidry: I have to admit that I didn't thought about spreadsheets,
great ! Actualli, ERP and CRM are the tools I was thinking about when asking
about databases, because I had the idea that they were the basis of that
tools.  I will now try to develop that aspect of my timeline.

I have now new paths to follow, thank to you all ! I am very gratefull of
that !

Jeremy
-- 
Jeremy Depauw

The Power of Knoweldge Sharing and Skills Synegism
Journal de recherche: http://dev.ulb.ac.be/~jdepauw/dotclear/index.php