Information Technology in Osorra

The Information Technology sector in Osorra employs around 1.3 million people and generated around 7% of the country's GDP in 2019 with annual reveunes for the entire sector standing at ~97 billion. Concentrated around Kakhab Hi-Tech Zone, the sector provides critical national security technologies for the NSC along with various commercial products for consumers in Quecha speaking areas, Eastern Armetia or Perela. The largest company and the crown jewel for the entire industry is Sosya, which owns many other large companies in the industry. mail.os Group is the second largest company in the industry, which owns a popular web portal, search engine, and mapping service. A new entrant, Skorost is a popular ridesharing platform. The industry has enjoyed various state protections and contracts to allow Osorrai companies to dominate the local market.

In Osorrai mythology the idea of computing featured in many stories. In the late 1800s as the country started rapidly modernizing many inventors began to create primitive computing systems and began to imagine how a computer would work. After Osorra became communust, the government began backing research into computing. Early Osorra would build a in 1932. In the 1940s the government began to develop digital computers with vacuum tubes and in 1951 the first digtal computer in Avalonia would come into operation. The country during this period also developed a massive electronics industries as new radios and televisions flew off factory assembly lines. The aerospace industry called for the development of faster and smaller machines, allowing Osorra to transistorize a decade later. In 1970 the Communist countries of Anterra agreed on a series of universal standards for their computers. Osorrai computers rapidly exploded in production in the 70s and the country would create a primative network to connect them. Computers were widely used in the Osorra Tilleno War, and after the war the wartime computing industry was retooled for consumer applications. The Narod-1 was released in 1983 and the Osorrai gaming industry rapidly exapnded. The government had many research bureaus and factories in Kakhab the contractors behind these projects, allowing Kakhab to become the technology center of Osorra. After the fall of Communism in 1988 the industry faced ruthless competition from Western computing systems and saw demand dry up. A young scientist, Yazov Novikora secured contracts from the military and used it to buyout much of the Osorrai computing industry. He would reorganize the industry into Sosya while spinning off the less profitable semiconductor factories into Sosya Research. The young Sosya would secure contracts with the government as a critical partner in the Okhrana. Sosya would play an important role in protecting the Osorrai computing industry in the 90s by infusing cash into them and allowing them to operate and research. In 1995 some Sosya executives left and founded mail.os Group to provide internet services. Sosya would buy about 25% of the group's stock.

With the new millenium Osorra became much more stable and Sosya was able to secure foreign contracts. The IT industry massively grew during this period with Osorra firms expanding into other regions. Kakhab became one of the only areas in the whole country which didn't see an economic contraction. The Kakhab Mania emerged, where the area saw massive growth rates unheard of in the rest of the country. Sosya began to revive the Osorrai semiconductor industry with the setting up of GO-OST for mobile chips and the creation of a native Osorrai operating system. The industry has since gone into new areas and continues to see massive growth rates even while the rest of the Osorrai economy stagnates.

The Osorrai IT industry has been known for its libertarian and anti-political bent, believed to be in reaction to the government interference they faced during the Communist period. It is a major power broker in the country, now managing many of the surveillance technologies that keep the government in power. It has been criticized for hypocrisy, and a disregard for users privacy. The primary company in Osorra's information technology industry, makes most of its revenues from surveillance products or national security/military contracts. There are been conspiracy theories that the Novikora's were key players in mind control programs during the Communist period. Many observers have noted the abstruse political views of many of the leaders of the industry, mired in occultism, social darwinism, futurism, or even more esoteric variants of Communism.