The Federal Government Role in the Development of the American Software Industry: An Assessment

This paper is an interpretive history of federal support for the American software industry from its beginnings through the 1980s. As in other high-technology cases, federal _ especially defense-related _ support for software was crucial early in the technology's development, but the flow of spillovers quickly began to reverse as military needs diverged from those of a burgeoning commercial market. The case of software differs from those of other high-technology industries, however, in the specific nature and evolution of military-civilian spillovers within software as well as in the role of federally funded university research within the industry's development.