Abstract :
Personal contacts between Danish and Swedish scientists played a major role in transferring computer technology to Denmark. The first Danish computer, DASK, was a result of that cooperation. (DASK is usually considered to be an acronym for Dansk Aritmetisk Sebens Kalkulator, but it originally meant “DAnsk version af BeSK”.) In order to build and run DASK, and for doing research in the computer field, Regnecentralen was founded. Caught between the commercialization of the computer market and the national government´s technocratic vision of a controlled development in the use of computers, Regnecentralen managed to survive, unlike most governmental agencies, playing a role in early computer development. This article tries to explain how and why this happened
Keywords :
DP industry; computer science; government policies; history; mainframes; DASK; Danish computer; Danish computer scientists; Danish government; Denmark; Regnecentralen; Swedish computer scientists; commercialization; computer company; computer market; computer technology transfer; controlled development; early computer development; governmental agency; history; personal contacts; research institute; technocratic vision; Commercialization; Computer vision;
