[ih] Writing things down - then and now

[Jake Feinler]

In my lab days we were required to keep lab notebooks of every 
experiment we did.  These were kept and were proof of work done by the 
individual and/or organization (academic or commercial)  in the event 
of a controversy.  The problem nowadays isn't that things aren't 
written down - more is written down than ever before.  Unfortunately, 
it is mostly written as email and most organizations treat email as 
ephemera.  Perhaps this needs to be rethought.

As head of the Arpanet/DDN Network Information Center (NIC) for many 
years, I tried to keep the email for some of the important working 
groups of the time, such as TCP/IP (and was usually told I was off my 
rocker.)  Now I wish I had kept more detail so that we wouldn't need to 
be having this discussion, and there would be a repository where such 
important "lab notebooks" could be accessed.  Besides some of the 
discussions were not only technical but they were very amusing when 
discussions heated up.  (Who could forget such gems as  "Okay it's come 
to this..."Your mother wears combat boots!")

I have donated all my NIC papers to the Computer History Museum in 
Sunnyvale, CA.  In the collection I have found  email pertaining to 
various working groups.  If anything looks interesting or reasonably 
complete, I am sure the Museum would want to share with the public 
(although I have to go on record as saying I do not speak officially on 
their behalf, as I am a volunteer not  an employee.)

Regards,

Jake Feinler