FUNDAMENTALS OF INFORMATION PROCESSING AND COMPUTERS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT,
Abstract
The paper introduces to the public manager the fundamentals of information processing and computers. To understand computers, it is necessary to distinguish between 'hardware' and 'software.' Hardware is the physical piece of equipment. Software is everything else--programs and procedures--needed by people to make computers useful. A computer should not be thought of as something which exists independently of software. This paper deals first with the information system--a collection of men, machines, and software, with each assigned that task which each does best--and then discusses hardware and data communications. Software, more important than hardware, and equally costly, is treated with primarily emphasis on programmer and user languages. Time-sharing, software-sharing, and information-sharing are covered, as well as the concepts of a unified information system and a coordinated information system. The paper concludes with a suggestion that state and local government might, through joint development, decrease the cost of software for each of them. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 17, 1965
- Accession Number
- AD0615731
Entities
People
- Joel M. Kibbee
Organizations
- System Development Corporation