Information systems have transformed the world in a way that was very difficult to imagine previously. Information really is everything, and information systems have been better at organizing, compiling, and transferring information than anything that humanity had previously.
Information systems the way we know them today are a product of World War Two directly or indirectly. The world’s economy, in so much as there was a world economy at the time, was at a standstill during the Great Depression, and the technological development of the 1930s was nothing compared to the technological development that would follow throughout the duration of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first century.
Throughout the early and mid-1940s, the desperation to win the war at all costs led to tremendous technological developments, which automatically led to more advanced information systems compared to what came before for many nations. Collectively, the individuals that focused on the more technical aspects of warfare formed the field of Operations Research. Operations Research was instrumental in the victories behind World War Two, and it was also directly and indirectly responsible for some of the other victories after the war was completed.
The people who worked in Operations Research certainly got some of the most intense training that anyone could have, given the circumstances. They were almost some of the most technically skilled people available at the time. Of course, when the war mercifully came to a close, these individuals needed somewhere to go when their government work was finished. While some people were directionless when World War Two ended, the people that worked in Operations Research were extremely talented, brilliant people who were contributing genuinely new skills to the workforce.
The former members of Operations Research entered the burgeoning business and industrial sectors of the post-war society. While many of them managed to find new niches for themselves, they also helped create new niches for others. The United States and other nations were transitioning to service economies at that point. Many people were working in sales and advertising in the post-war world. The ability to produce products on a level that had never been experienced previously was also partly a side effect of the war. The Industrial Revolution began long before this point, but the effects of World War Two brought it to a new stage.
