A Culture of Innovation Insider Accounts of Computing and Life at BBN

[viii]
4 Early Years of Basic Computer and Software Engineering 51
Compiled by David Walden
4.1 The PDP-1s and PDP-1 time-sharing 51
4.2 Higher-level language work 59
PART II: Culture, Business, and Management 69
5 The Way We Were: Aspects of the Culture of BBN 71
David Walden
5.1 The third university 71
5.2 Recruiting, developing, and keeping employees 73
5.3 University ties 79
5.4 Entrepreneurial urges 79
5.5 Extracurricular activities 81
5.6 Student protests 83
5.7 Alumni association 85
6 The History of Technology Transfer at BBN 89
Stephen Levy
6.1 Introduction 89
6.2 1948–1959: Early intellectual property transfer efforts 90
6.3 1960–1969: Licensing, investments, and “industrialization” 90
6.4 1970–1979: Computer and communications subsidiaries 99
6.5 1980–1989: Rapid growth and the end of the cold war 107
6.6 1990–1997: Emergence of the Internet and acquisition by GTE 113
6.7 Conclusions 119
7 Leading a Top Notch R&D Group 121
Frank Heart
7.1 MIT and Lincoln Laboratory 121
7.2 BBN in late 1966 122
7.3 BBN R&D environment 123
7.4 ARPANET and its impact on BBN 130
7.5 Commercial imperative 133
7.6 Diversions 134
7.7 Closing comments 136
PART III: Applying Computer Technology 139
8 Psychology at BBN from the mid 1960s 141
Raymond Nickerson and Sanford Fidell
8.1 Introduction 141
8.2 Psychology in context at BBN 142
8.3 Overview of psychological studies at BBN 146
8.4 Intra-BBN connections 151
8.5 Facilities 152
8.6 Project descriptions 154
8.7 Concluding comment 177