In this paper we dissect the competitive dynamics of a network industry that has not been systematically studied in the past—the consumer-oriented online networks of the pre-1995 era. After briefly reconstructing the historical evolution of the industry we focus on a number of issues at the...

We use several different sources (a 1970 Roster of Organizations in Data Processing and the 1960 and 1970 Censuses of Population) to study patterns of geographic clustering at the very origins of the software industry. We find a strong trend toward clustering of the industry in a few...