New ask Hacker News story: Ask HN: History of Industrial Research Labs Outside Xerox PARC and Bell Labs

Ask HN: History of Industrial Research Labs Outside Xerox PARC and Bell Labs
2 by linguae | 0 comments on Hacker News.
Hello. I am very interested in learning about the history of industrial research labs from a computer science standpoint. In addition, I am very curious about what life was like at labs outside of Xerox PARC and Bell Labs. Much has been written about these legendary labs, but I’m less familiar with HP Labs, DEC’s Systems Research Lab (founded by Bob Taylor when he left Xerox PARC in 1983 due to clashes with management), IBM’s labs, and not to mention the labs from corporate Japan, particularly those from Sony and Fujitsu. Xerox PARC and Bell Labs were known to have a culture of freedom during their heydays. I’m wondering if other labs had this level of freedom in the past, or if they’ve always been more bottom-line oriented than Xerox PARC and Bell Labs were.

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