Robert W. Taylor: Internet Visionary

Once upon a time, I was going to make a website. It didn't get much further than a folder of research & a front page design. "Robert W. Taylor: Internet Visionary" it was to be called, & I envisaged it as a kind of portal to online resources relating to this extraordinary individual's contributions to the history of personal computing & the Internet. Life got in the way & the site was never made. Five years on from those good intentions, I keep tripping over reminders of the correspondence I had with Bob Taylor about his management style. It struck me, back then, that it was his style even more than his technical/visionary acumen that made his projects such a hotbed of innovation. I have still never seen him credited as an (still less the) originator of this approach, so I've decided to "publish" the correspondence (which Bob had already generously given me permission to share).

For an overview of Bob's career, an article that appeared in his local paper when he was awarded the National Medal of Technology in 2000 is hard to beat.

Bob Taylor correspondence (addresses are non-current).