Mundo Informático: una mirada sobre los años de promoción de la industria micro-electrónica del alfonsinismo

Abstract

In this paper, an exploratory analysis is carried out on a documentary corpus recently available for consultation, which implies a novel approach to the history of national computing. This is Mundo Informático, a magazine for updates in computing, office automation, word processing and digital telecommunications, which began its publication in 1979 and continued, throughout its 214 issues, until 1993. Its survey and systematization allows to analyze the climate and discussions within the computer community of the country. Hence, for the period analyzed, it is an interesting counterpoint and complement to official documents and testimonies of the time. For this first work, 101 numbers have been surveyed (those ranging from 78 to 180) and that comprise the elections of the democratic return and the government of Dr. Alfonsín (October 1983 - July 1989). In this way, and from this clipping linked to a larger investigation in progress, it has been possible to define four major issues that the magazine dealt with especially during those years: [a] the dense partisan political discussion about the definitions of a national policy of computing in the democratic return (particularly in the early years), [b] a large ecosystem of national technology companies, chambers and professional associations in the sector that recognized themselves as part of the national computing community and participated in said debate, [c] the extensive treatment that the magazine gave to one of the most important aspects of the National Informatics Program, such as the industrial promotion regime, and finally, [d] the international dimension, mainly Latin American, of the national informatics policy of the period. In this paper we will especially deepen the first of the topics, that is, the proposals of the political parties to the democratic return on the national informatics policy.