Kevin’s Comments (group member since Nov 03, 2011)

Kevin’s comments from the Making the World Work Better: Q&A with authors and editor group.

The funny thing is -- it's not just about one company. The book is, in fact, about the broad evolution of computing over the past 100 years, and includes things like Intel's microprocessors and Bell Labs' invention of the transistor. But when you look at the broad history, IBM has contributed so much over every decade...it starts to look like it's all about IBM.

I knew early-IBM as well as anyone. I deeply researched its history up until 1956 for my biography of Thomas Watson Sr. I also knew IBM well as a reporter from about 1985 to the present. But I had a hole in my knowledge in the middle. What surprised me is how much invention happened in that hole. In the 1960s and 1970s, IBM came up with the relational database, DRAM, RISC, computer languages, the bar code system...and on and on. In fact, invention-wise, that period might have been IBM at its most profound.