ABSTRACT
Any organization faced with the immediacy of an IT problem wants to solve it now, and they will grab anything available to help them. This is of course a natural reaction, but they would do well to take a step back and recognize that some of their current problems with IT and information systems projects have as much do with how IT has evolved and been applied over the last fifty years as with the modern day. I believe there is benefit from understanding the past, as the study of history allows the past to be analysed, interpreted and, ultimately, explained. History also allows us to generalize, derive theories and learn lessons from which the present and future can be interpreted and improved upon. Therefore, understanding the history of IT, and how it has become such a dominant force within the modern enterprise, is valuable because it allows us to interpret and explain some of the present-day problems with IT, and hence derive a much better understanding of how these problems can be rectified.
