CHAPTER
15
UTAH COUNTY IN THE FAST LANE,
I,
1980-1998
.n the late 1970s the personal computer (PC) revolution began in the United States, initiating what has been called the "information highway." Utah County became a part of this information revolution—from the standpoint of both users and developers of computer programs, or software. In 1994 Utah County was known as "Software Valley" 1 The software, programs, routines, and symbolic languages that control the functioning of computer hardware and direct its operation have been produced by both large and small companies in Utah County since the early 1980s. To help make this happen and secure jobs in the industry, local residents were willing to work long hours. The average work week in Utah was forty-eight hours, which was longer than the average work week in lapan. WordPerfect, an early leader in the word processing field, had its beginnings in Utah County. The company's founder, Alan Ashton, came to Provo in 1972 to teach and do computer science research at Brigham Young University. He and one of his students, Bruce Bastian, contracted to create a word processing p r o g r a m for O r e m City's computer system. Ashton and Bastian then formed Satellite Software 350
