Organized collections of
information have been bought and sold for, probably, thousands of
years.
Historically, this has been in
the form of lists, such as:
Tax rolls
Religious affiliations of
families.
Companies that manufacture
certain products.
Telephone
books
Mailing
lists.
In libraries, before
computerization, we had certain lists that enabled us to find
articles or books we wanted.
Library card
catalog
Reader's Guide to
Periodical Literature
New York Times
Index
Specialized indexes, such
as Social Sciences Index.
The computer
changes everything
The proliferation of computers in
the 1960s, combined with the development of software for
organizing information in files or databases, provided a way of
storing and accessing of information in new and useful
ways.
Originally, it was the government
followed by academic and business environments that provided the
early databases.
Many companies soon saw
commercial value in the information stored in those databases,
and, in the 1970s, an industry was born.
-
optimized for Netscape & 800x600
display