From: Howard C. Berkowitz (hcb@gettcomm.com)
Date: Fri Sep 06 2002 - 17:30:19 GMT-3
At 2:13 PM -0500 9/6/02, MADMAN wrote:
>Q. Where does the name come from?
>
>The etymology of the term dates back to Britain in 1899, when it meant a
>government report on policy (such as a position paper). A white paper
>stated
>a problem, covered some background (history), and then proposed a
>solution
>(a new law, etc.). At some point in the 1970s this term was co-opted by
>high
>tech. It become a technical paper put out by a company, dealing with a
>specific technical area and general problem, with background, and a
>solution.
>
> Dave
Precisely. And each major country's Foreign Ministry had its own
color for policy papers. Britain's had white covers.
There are rumors that some country decided they'd be different and
use black paper, but, since they also used black ink, they had
trouble getting out their message. :-)
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