Computing Computing is any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computer, computing machinery. It includes the study and experimentation of algorithmic processes, and the development of both computer hardware, hardware and softw ...

started in

south America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

in 1957, when the first digital computer arrived in

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

. 1979, the Centro Latinoamericano de Estudios en Informática was established in

Caracas, Venezuela Caracas ( , ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas (CCS), is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the northern p ...

. During the 1980s, most Latin American universities incorporated computer programs. By the 1990s the research output in computing began to be significant.

20th century

In 1957, the first

digital computer A computer is a machine that can be programmed to automatically carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (''computation''). Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as ''programs'', wh ...

arrived in

after the

CCU CCU may refer to: Hospitals * Coronary care unit, a hospital wing meant for monitoring patients with heart problems * Critical care unit, in a hospital (UK terminology), similar to intensive care unit (ICU) in other countries; or, a unit that prov ...

purchased a

Univac UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer) was a line of electronic digital stored-program computers starting with the products of the Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation. Later the name was applied to a division of the Remington Rand company and ...

to be delivered to Valparaiso. The machine was one of the first documented cases in the history of computer science in South America. Among the first computers in Latin America was also the system installed in the Venezuelan offices of the

Creole Petroleum Corporation The Creole Petroleum Corporation was an American oil company. It was formed in 1920 to produce fields on Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela. The company was acquired by Standard Oil of New Jersey in 1928. Until 1951 Creole Petroleum was the world's number ...

, the initiative becoming a launching pad for computer development in the

nation state A nation state, or nation-state, is a political entity in which the State (polity), state (a centralized political organization ruling over a population within a territory) and the nation (a community based on a common identity) are (broadly ...

. In 1972

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

implemented a policy innovation strategy to encourage the

economic development In economics, economic development (or economic and social development) is the process by which the economic well-being and quality of life of a nation, region, local community, or an individual are improved according to targeted goals and object ...

of the Brazilian computer industry. This policy project served as a

blueprint A blueprint is a reproduction of a technical drawing or engineering drawing using a contact print process on light-sensitive sheets introduced by Sir John Herschel in 1842. The process allowed rapid and accurate production of an unlimited number ...

for policy initiatives across the Latin American continent. The Brazilian government established the CAPRE (''Comissao de Coordenacao das Atividades de processamento Eletronico'') as division of the planning ministry to review the use of all electronic resources by the government. In 1974 CAPRE was constituted as a regulator so that all imports of computers and electronic components were restrained or approved. In the first ten years this strategy showed remarkable success. In 1982 about 67 percent of installed computers in Brazil had been manufactured locally. Brazil's domestic computer industry was able to take significant shares of the local market from

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

, the

Burroughs Corporation The Burroughs Corporation was a major American manufacturer of business equipment. The company was founded in 1886 as the American Arithmometer Company by William Seward Burroughs I, William Seward Burroughs. The company's history paralleled many ...

, and

Hewlett-Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company. It was founded by Bill Hewlett and David Packard in 1939 in a one-car garage in Palo Alto, California ...

. In 1986 the government of Argentina signed an integration

treaty A treaty is a formal, legally binding written agreement between sovereign states and/or international organizations that is governed by international law. A treaty may also be known as an international agreement, protocol, covenant, convention ...

with the government of Brazil, were ''informatics'' was a paramount branch of cooperation. CyberSyn-render-102

Also in the early 1970s, the short-lived administration of

Salvador Allende Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens (26 June 1908 – 11 September 1973) was a Chilean socialist politician who served as the 28th president of Chile from 1970 until Death of Salvador Allende, his death in 1973 Chilean coup d'état, 1973. As a ...

implemented

Project Cybersyn Project Cybersyn was a Chilean project from 1971 to 1973 during the presidency of Salvador Allende aimed at constructing a distributed decision support system to aid in the management of the national economy. The project consisted of 4 modul ...

. Cybersyn consisted of a Cybernet, which was a network of 500

telex Telex is a telecommunication Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communica ...

machines and planned to connect every factory in the nationalized

socialist economy Socialist economics comprises the economic theories, practices and norms of hypothetical and existing socialist economic systems. A socialist economic system is characterized by social ownership and operation of the means of production that m ...

. At the heart of Cybersyn were two

computer A computer is a machine that can be Computer programming, programmed to automatically Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (''computation''). Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic set ...

s, a

IBM System/360 Model 50 The IBM System/360 Model 50 is a member of the IBM System/360 family of computers. The Model 50 was announced in April 1964 with the other initial models of the family, and first shipped in August 1965 to the Bank of America. Models There are fo ...

and a Burroughs B3500, on which the program Cyberstride was running. Today Project Cybersyn is remembered for its unique implementation of socialism and the futuristic

industrial design Industrial design is a process of design applied to physical Product (business), products that are to be manufactured by mass production. It is the creative act of determining and defining a product's form and features, which takes place in adva ...

21st century

The

Free Software Foundation Latin America Free Software Foundation Latin America (FSFLA) is the Latin American sister organisation of the Free Software Foundation. It is the fourth sister organisation of FSF, after Free Software Foundation Europe and Free Software Foundation India. It ...

exists to promote the use of

free software Free software, libre software, libreware sometimes known as freedom-respecting software is computer software distributed open-source license, under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, distribut ...

in Latin America. In 2009, FSF founder

Richard Stallman Richard Matthew Stallman ( ; born March 16, 1953), also known by his initials, rms, is an American free software movement activist and programmer. He campaigns for software to be distributed in such a manner that its users have the freedom to ...

visited

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

during the concurrent

Wikimania 2009 Wikimania is the Wikimedia movement's annual conference, organized by volunteers and hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation. Topics of presentations and discussions include Wikimedia projects such as Wikipedia, other wikis, open-source software, f ...

conference in order to promote

. Stallman regularly gives speeches in Spanish and has visited Latin America multiples times since 2009. In 2005, the

an government alongside the private IT sector started a program called "Mi Primer PC", with the idea of bringing low-cost PC to the general population. The program was heavily criticized at the time, mainly due to the fact that the computers offered were severely limited due to the usage of Windows XP Starter Edition. This program is not related to the similarly called "Yo Elijo Mi PC" program, put in place during the presidency of

Michelle Bachelet Verónica Michelle Bachelet Jeria (; born 29 September 1951) is a Chilean politician who served as President of Chile from 2006 to 2010 and again from 2014 to 2018, becoming the first woman to hold the presidency. She was re-elected in December ...

which aims to bring computers to primary school students in lower socio-economical classes. Since February 2014

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

and

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

are cooperating to develop their respective Linux operating systems. The

Huayra GNU/Linux Huayra GNU/Linux is a Linux distribution developed by the Argentine government. Originally developed by the ANSES for the ''Conectar Igualdad Program'', currently it's maintained by the State Company Educ.ar. It's based on the Debian architectu ...

operating system was launched by Argentina in 2014 to be used on

laptop A laptop computer or notebook computer, also known as a laptop or notebook, is a small, portable personal computer (PC). Laptops typically have a Clamshell design, clamshell form factor (design), form factor with a flat-panel computer scree ...

s that are distributed to schools. The Canaima operating system runs on 51% of government

workstation A workstation is a special computer designed for technical or computational science, scientific applications. Intended primarily to be used by a single user, they are commonly connected to a local area network and run multi-user operating syste ...

s in Venezuela. In 2015, Google announced that they would invest US$1 million in computer science in Latin America.

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...

has major telescopes in

References

{{Americas topic, History of computing in *

20th century

21st century

See also

References