Abstract
This article studies a forgotten research project of recent Finnish history of information technology by the name of “Suomalainen tietokoneprojekti”, in English “The Finnish Computer Project” (FICO). The FICO project was a government-sponsored research project initially aimed at producing a Finnish (mini) computer for international markets, especially in socialist countries. Researchers carried out the project in 1975-1976. However, after the researchers had produced their preliminary study report in six months time, the project was not continued. I argue that historians have misrepresented the FICO project in recent research and when properly studied, the project can offer new perspectives to an early development phase of present-like science and technology policy in Finland. Notwithstanding FICO’s topicality, this article focuses on examining what the involved people meant by the “national task” of the project. I further argue that we can best understand FICO as a continuation of earlier ideas on building high technology, in this case electronics and computers, capabilities and expertise as a Finnish national project. Moreover, focusing on these distinct national projections in action might offer one key to understanding similar attempts at “national projects” in other countries as well.
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Paju, P. (2009). Computer Industry as a National Task. In: Impagliazzo, J., Järvi, T., Paju, P. (eds) History of Nordic Computing 2. HiNC 2007. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, vol 303. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-03757-3_18
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