Characters of the Information and Communication Industry

I have taught a graduate course on the history of the information and communications industry for 20 years. The course shows students how the world has moved from primitive communication to the integrated multi-media situation we are in today. Concentration is on the fields of journalism, telecommunications, broadcasting, and computing. Emphasis is placed on the leaders of the areas and the political and cultural surroundings that encouraged or discouraged growth of the industry. It is true that technology is a driving force of this industry, but it has been the individual people (characters) impelled by discovery, acceptance and marketability of that technology who have taken the next step to improve communication. The Journalism field started with Gutenberg and early added Ben Franklin, later it got a little yellow with Hearst and Pulitzer. I think Henry Luce started the business of media integration, but Rupert Murdoch certainly keeps it going. The first practical use of electricity was found by Samuel Morse and his telegraph. Bell invented the telephone, or was it Meucci? Theodore Vail invented the Bell System. Broadcasting started with Marconi's invention, or was it Tesla's? David Sarnoff and William Paley made the medium practical and characters like Edwin R. Morrow, Walter Cronkite and even Oprah Winfrey gave it credibility. Certainly Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace had something to do with the start of computers, but later scientists Vannevar bush and Jon von Neumann added the electronics. Then UNIVAC convinced Thomas Watson Junior that IBM better start making them. Jobs and Wozniac started the personal computer business, but Bill Gates created the software to make them run. Tim Berners-Lee hooked those computers to a network and then Amazon, eBay, and Google found a way to make money using the result. This book is the story of these people and companies.

Professor Bellaver has forty years experience in telecommunications and Information Technology. He has been at Ball State University for seventeen years where he is the Associate Director of The Center for Information and Communications Sciences. He teaches courses in the History of the Information and Communications Industry, Human Factors in Design, Knowledge Management and Strategic Planning. To supplement his teaching his research, he and John Lusa have edited a book called Knowledge Management Strategy and Technology, he is a past Vice President of the Usability Professionals' Association, and he has done extensive research on the use of electronic books. ( www.bsu.edu/web/rbellave/index.htm. ) Immediately prior to Ball State he was at AT&T Headquarters where he was the Acting Director for System Engineering. He was responsible for the integration of the activities of the General Departments, Long Lines, and Information Systems programming staffs. He was responsible for planning the analysis of all systems leading to the establishment of the computer systems architecture, the logical relationship of all applications and data. He helped establish the Data Stewardship program at AT&T and helped supervise the integration of the activities of 13,000 programmers. While with the Michigan Bell Company his responsibilities were in Billing, advanced communications studies, and planning for the IT function at the Corporate level. He was a rate case witness and spent some time in Business Research. Professor Bellaver spent six years at the Bell Telephone Laboratories as Department Head for Directory Assistance Computer, Bell System Coordinator for the BISCOM project, and Member of the Technical Staff responsible for various technical and human factors usability studies. Mr. Bellaver is a graduate of Purdue University with a BS in Industrial Economics, attended Rutgers and Wayne State Universities taking graduate economics courses, and has an MBA from Mic