Evolution of computing in spanish-speaking countries : A panel presentation

Two decades ago, people used computers as an information resource for many fields. These fields include library information, climatic information, medicine, transportation schedules, banking, and other areas. The use of international networks at that time enabled people to communicate globally in a rapid and accurate fashion not only to experts, but to the public also. In regions such as South and Central America, however, the uses of information resources were not as widespread as they were in developed countries. Indeed, estimates showed that Latin America contained two percent of the world’s informatics equipment. At that time, computers appeared in commercial and governmental agencies as well as universities that used global networks such as the internet, BITNET, FidoNet, and other similar networks. In the mid-1980s, of course, the world wide web was only a dream and the individual use of computers was almost non-existent. The emergence of web-based technology in the 1990s caused a worldwide transformation in the use of computers and their applications, particularly in Latin America. Their natural associations with Spain and Portugal and their strong desire to be at the forefront of informatics changes, Latin American countries developed a new resurgence – a small renaissance – thrusting many of these countries into a modern technical society with accelerated growth and educational promise. This panel attempts to emphasize the progress of computing in representative Spanishspeaking countries and to celebrate the computing achievements made there. The distinguished panelists will bring forward ways in which computing had emerged and the way the computing evolution affected computing education in the regions. The summaries of their dialogue follow.2nd IFIP Conference on the History of Computing and EducationRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI