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[802SEC] 802 history project



All,

Below are the details on the CS 802 History Project I discussed at the opening EC meeting.

Regards,

--Paul

----- Original Message ----- From: "Dave Walden" <dave.walden.family@gmail.com>
To: <paul.nikolich@att.net>
Cc: "Anne Marie Kelly" <amkelly@computer.org>
Sent: Wednesday, July 13, 2011 9:56 AM
Subject: 802 project


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/

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