Web site for Dave Walden

Table of contents

Brief bio, etc.

Management writing

Technical writing

Involvement with the IEEE and IEEE Computer Society

Writings, interviews, etc., on Internet history and computing

Other activities of mine
    Movie "reviews"

For family, friends, xBBNers, ...

Contacting me

My other websites

Brief bio of me, BBN, and Internet

After 27 years, I “retired” from Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc. (BBN) in 1995. I had joined BBN in 1967 after three years at MIT Lincoln Laboratory and, except for a year in 1970-71, spent the rest of my business career with BBN, first as a computer programmer, then as a technical manager, and then as a general manager. At BBN, I had the good fortune to be involved in the beginnings of the Internet.

Over the next four years, after my retirement from BBN, I spent a little time with the Center for Quality of Management (CQM) and a little time with the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT. The CQM web site included a photo of what I looked like as of a few years ago and other information relating to my participation in the CQM.

These days I mostly look out the window at the salt marsh near my home.

view out our kitchen window
Looking out the window from our kitchen
Click for view from outside dining room window
Click for view of front of house (away from marsh)

In 1998 I was pleased to be named to the hall of fame of my undergraduate college, San Francisco State, for having been involved in the early days of the Internet. My friend and classmate Stan Mazor — who was co-inventor of the micro-computer — went into my college hall of fame at the same time. This is among Stan’s lesser honors and my only honor. (I love being on the same list as Annette Benning and Danny Glover, among others — see full SFSU Hall of Fame list; I'm also listed with other notable alumni (under category 2 -- Science and Technology); and I was mentioned in SFSU Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 2, Spring 2001.)

More information about the early era of the Internet when I was involved can be found in the following books:

In August 1999, the IEEE announced that BBN Technologies had been awarded a IEEE Corporate Innovation Recognition: “For pioneering contributions to computer networking technology through the development of the first packet switches, the ARPANET Interface Message Processor (IMP) and Terminal Interface Message Processor (TIP).” This work was done by a team of engineers and scientists which I had the great fortune to be part of. (Click here for copies of the widely published photos of the BBN team I was part of, and click here for a more close up view of the IMP and team leader Frank Heart.)

In 2001, the Boston History and Innovation Collaborative honored BBN (and our ARPANET team) and did it again in 2007: click here for more info

My book Four Practical Revolutions in Management has been included on the Nippon Foundations's list of 100 Books for Understanding Contemporary Japan.

[It appears that I have an Erdös number of 4, if one ignores the fact that some of the connecting papers had more than two authors and the fact that two of the papers are more about computer communications than math. The sequence is Erdos-Mullin-Cerf-Kahn-Walden.]

[Note: Much of the information in the conventional and business press about my career since my time as a programmer on the BBN ARPANET team is inaccurate; anyone including something on me in a piece you are writing might query me directly rather than trusting what has been written in the past.]

Management writing

Over the years, I have written extensively on management topics. Much of my effort in this area was through my affiliation with the Center for Quality of Management and, more recently, my affiliation with the Confederation of Indian Industry:

– The book A New American TQM

– The book Four Practical Revolutions in Management

– The book Breakthrough Management

– The book Visionary Leaders in Manufacturing

– The Journal of the Center for Quality of Management

–Unpublished, to-be-published, and miscellaneously published papers

Technical writing

I have also written many technical papers, primarily related to my involvement in computer networking. As time permits or I find them already on the WWW, I'll post them to this web site or link to them. More recently I have been doing a lot of writing on the TeX typesetting system.

Technical writing on my "travels in TeX land"

Over the past several years I have published a number of pieces on my on-going experiences while learning and using the TeX typesetting system.
    I have given this its own web page: That page also has links to other TeX-related activities of mine, including an interview series (including an interview of me conducted by Karl Berry).

CV

  • A fairly complete list of my published technical (and management) writings is included in my CV
  • Published books

Involvement with and writing and editing for the IEEE and IEEE Computer Society

Since I retired from BBN, my involvement with the IEEE and IEEE Computer Society has become significant. This activity has its own webpage.

Musings on the history of the Internet and my computing experiences more generally (and related biographical data)

Some other activities of mine

Over my life I have moved serially through a number of hobbies, each one intense for a time, for example, contract bridge, amateur theater, postal chess, juggling, sail boating, and celtic traditional music. I’ve never gotten super good at any of these, but I’ve had a good time. Click here for photos relating to the last three of the above list.

Following are links relating to (a) about my only current heavy-duty recreation, movie going, and (b) what seems to be my current avocation, writing and self-publishing:

For my family, friends, xBBNers

I have posted on this web site some documents that I prefer not to display to the public at large, because they include names of other people, etc. If you try to access these documents, you will be asked for a userid and password; the username is the letter a and the password is the letter b. Please do not include public links to these documents.

To communicate with me, send an email to: