ABSTRACT
A group of prototype inventions or a radical change in regulatory environment can transform a heretofore orderly seeming progression of normal technology into a technology revolution. A technology revolution introduces a new slate of incremental improvement possibilities. Hobbyists were a recognizable component in the earliest demand for what became the PC starting in the 1970s. In some cases, hobbyists were not simply passive first users of the product, but contributed materially to early stage-two innovation. Many twentieth-century contributions of government were in the form of stage-one development from laboratory to useful device or organization. The infrastructure necessary of the full exploitation of a radical new technology typically does not exist when the technology first emerges as commercially viable in some application. The Information Technology (IT) revolution and the investment boom that it engendered were interrupted by several recessions triggered by financial market events, of which the worst occurred in 2000–2001.
