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With the acquisition of the first computer in 1964, the University of Iceland introduced programming into the engineering curriculum. Subsequently it introduced an applied mathematics curriculum in the Mathematics Department with some emphasis on computer science. In 1976, it offered a separate computer science programme that rather closely matched the recommendations of the ACM Curriculum 78.

Early computing curricula in Norway were based on training courses in programming that were developed as computers were made available for research at universities and research institutes during the 1950’s. These developed into formal curricula starting from the mid-1960s. This developed differently at the different universities, which account for in the sequel. It describes the main points in the development of research profile and curricula for the four Norwegian universities.

Information technology was introduced in the curricula at the Norwegian Regional Colleges in years 1965—1975. New Regional Colleges were established all over the country. In this period, we experienced the rapid development of minicomputers and the Norwegian company, Norse Data AS, played an important role in supplying suitable equipment for the educational market. This development was very well supported by the governmental policy in the fields of education and IT.

Already in 1959, active users started the Nordic co-operation organizing the first joint symposium in the use of computers with 270 participants. The cooperation enlarged rapidly and developed into well-organized forms. This paper concentrates on the cooperation between the Nordic user federations and especially on the joint journal projects, DATA, and BIT.

The paper describes the early user cooperation and states that it was an essential prerequisite of high level of IT in Nordic countries. It describes the cooperation in the domestic, Nordic and international level. It gives many examples but is not comprehensive by any means. It gives a very pessimistic view of the future.

In this panel session, people from the four countries — Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark — who participated in the early development of computers and computer industry discuss how the computer industry started and what happened 30 to 40 years ago. We will try to answer questions as follows. How and why did the computer development and industry start in each country? How did it manage the change from research/development into industry? How and why did some of the early companies not succeed? What were main achievements and successes?

This panel presentation described some computer architecture developments around the late 1960s and early 1970s. In particular, it placed the Datasaab Flexible Central Processing Unit (FCPU) in perspective to computer industry developments in general. The presentation consisted of several articles as noted in the reference section. It identified papers specifically published about the FCPU as well as other papers related to fundamental aspects of the computer industry. In this paper, I present some further background to the presentation and discussion at the panel session.

“Forsøksgymnaset in Oslo” was an experiment in School Democracy that started classes in automatic data processing in the fall of 1968 as a part of school mathematics in the 11 year. We started simple programming in FORTRAN on punched cards, off line. Later we had a teletype terminal with paper tape, changed to the BASIC language, and ran programs online by telephone to a distant computer. We also designed the logic simulator “Benjamin”, with four “And”, “Or”, and “Not” elements, battery and lamps, which could be connected in logical networks to be studied. In 1970, we arranged two two-day seminars for teachers during the Christmas and the summer holidays and presented the whole course. We did this eight times and helped to qualify many teachers. The first Examen Artium in Data was organised in June 1970.

The article outlines the evolution of vocational education from one-week programming courses to the two and a half year degree program. It focuses on how the contents of education have changed with the expansion of the use of information technique and with the development of computers. One of the more important questions addressed in this article is whether the employers in the field have considered the quantity and quality of instruction to be sufficient with respect to the demand of labor force in the country.

The first course in computer science started at “Forsøksgymnaset” (The Experimental High School) in Oslo in 1969. In 1970, it spread to three upper secondary schools (Drammen, Sogndal and Trondheim). The subject was close to mathematics, and the focus was on programming and electronic logic. FORTRAN was the programming language and the programs ran on a large computer, the Univac 1108, located at the technical university (NTH). No relevant subject-related software was available at that time, but the class developed some powerful cases in mathematics and physics. In electronic logic, we used an electronic machine called to do binary operations in the classroom. We can call the first “processor” in upper secondary education in Norway. In this paper, we will show that many of the long lasting trends in the subject can be observed in the initial period itself