In 1879, the world was far from the computer. Nevertheless, a scientist from Jena set the foundations of modern informatics the same year: Gottlob Frege, a mathematician, logician and philosopher published his ‘Begriffsschrift’ (‘Concept Writing’). It was a true revolution since Frege was the first to develop a formal language and formal evidence. Doing so, he created the foundations for contemporary modern programming languages.

The first e-commerce software as we know it nowadays was conceived in Jena. The founders of the Intershop company were so successful with this software that up to the present day they are considered pioneers of the branch. In Jena, many companies of the e-commerce industry are organized today in the Towerbyte association. Every autumn, international specialists for online trading meet in Jena for the annual expert conference ‘insight e-commerce’.

Alongside companies with a main emphasis on e-commerce, various other software companies with further competencies and an international focus are based in Jena. Over the past few years, the number of employees in the software branch in Jena has increased continuously. One out of hundred people from Jena are working in the industry.

In Jena, development and application go hand in hand. A highly demanded partner of the software companies is the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena with the Institute for Applied Mathematics, the Mathematical Institute and the Institute for Computer Sciences. There, topics such as databases and information systems, pattern analysis, artificial intelligence, operating systems, bioinformatics, computer architecture, theoretical computer science and many more are discussed. The University of Applied Sciences Jena with its Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology is also a popular co-operation partner for the economy – because tomorrow’s software engineers and programmers are already studying in Jena today.

A lot of global players order their software solutions in Jena. Their business activities include:

• Software concerning the e-commerce industry (industry solutions, online and search engine marketing, e-commerce on demand, IT consulting, mobile software solutions, web development and web 2.0 projects, professional support and trainings)

• Solutions in fields such as modelling, software technologies, real-time systems, databases, operating systems, user interfaces, networks and computer architectures

• Software and services for web applications such as e-government, configurators for product and variant configuration, CAD programmes and modules, knowledge-based consultation systems, electronic data preparation and technical documentation

• Firmware (for example biometric identification systems, traffic safety engineering and software for public authorities, systems for the acquisition, processing, analysis and archiving of images in the field of microscopy)