Dear Paul,
Anne Marie Kelly copied me on your response to her question about our
Computer Society History Committee restarting the project started in 2007
by then committee chair Willis King to interview participants in the
history of the IEEE 802 standards. Willis has been unable to pursue the
project because of health problems of his wife. Once I became chair of
the committee in 2011 I first got up to speed on the project, and I now am
ready and willing to push the project along.
As Willis originally envisioned the project, our committee would interview
802 participants first ("before it's too late") and then figure out what
to do with the interviews later. My proposal now, to get the project
moving and then finished, is to pick a date (e.g., in 2012, the 40th
anniversary of Metcalfe first thinking about local areas networks) to
finish a document (perhaps 100 pages) about the history of the 802
standards and to interview participants as needed in pursuit of the
specific goal of creating the document. No doubt the vision of the
content of the document would evolve as various participants point us to
other participants, but the due date would remain firm. Once the document
is finished, I would follow-up with the editors of Computer, the Annals of
the History of Computing, Computing Now, and other Society journals and
magazines as appropriate to attempt to get shorter pieces on the history
of 802 published. (I have been doing this with some success regarding a
document I recently completed for the 50th anniversary of MIT's Compatible
Time-Sharing System).
You probably know nothing about me. My committee bio is at
<http://www.computer.org/portal/web/cshc/bio-Walden>http://www.computer.org/portal/web/cshc/bio-Walden
(That probably doesn't adequately represent the extent of my background in
computer R&D.)
The books I have published are at
<http://www.walden-family.com/public/mybooks/>http://www.walden-family.com/public/mybooks/
I have also written *many* papers, reports, etc. My point is that I do
have background and capability that will be useful to make this 802
history project happen.
Best wishes, Dave
--
home address: 12 Linden Rd., E. Sandwich, MA 02537
home ph=508-888-7655; cell ph = 508-280-0446
email address: dave@walden-family.com; website(s):
http://www.walden-family.com/