From Hardware to Software to Knowware: IT's Third Liberation?

  • Authors:
  • Ruqian Lu

  • Affiliations:
  • Academy of Mathematics and Systems Sciences, Institute of Computing Technology, and Fudan University

  • Venue:
  • IEEE Intelligent Systems
  • Year:
  • 2005

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Abstract

Knowware seems a natural development in IT after hardware and software. Consider the fact that we once viewed the computer industry as part of the electronics industry. Then the formation of an independent computer hardware industry liberated IT from electronics. Similarly, before the 1980s, developers created software packages to support specific machines; thus, computer software development's independence from particular machines and hardware became IT's second liberation. Will we soon consider the emergence of knowware and its independence from software as IT's third liberation?