Re: white paper - let's try again.

[Ilona Koren-Deutsch <ilonakd -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

--- Andrea Brundt <andrea_w_brundt -at- hotmail -dot- com> wrote:
> 
> In response to my question about the term "white
> paper", a couple of people
> pointed me to www.m-w.com. My question was actually
> about the origin of the
> term -- specifically, its use in the tech sector.
> Anyone have more insight
> than a one-sentence dictionary definition?

As annoyed as I get when people post "I'm too lazy to
do my own research, but I have time to complain when
people don't do it for me in the way I want" I'll
answer your question.

Approximately 30 seconds of work on Google got me the
following answer from The Word Detective
(http://www.word-detective.com):

Dear Word Detective: I work in the field of data
processing and computers. Often I will come across new
standards or proposed standards that have arisen from
a company's latest "white paper." The term is also
common in politics and government in referring to a
formal declaration of policy or viewpoint. A friend at
work tonight asked me if I knew the origin of the
term. As a wild guess, I told him it might refer back
to a time when paper was a relatively expensive
commodity and rough drafts and notes were written down
on odd scraps and cheaper, darker paper. When a final,
formal version was to be drawn up, it was on the more
costly bleached "white" paper. Am I even close? -- S.
Obermuller, Nevada County, California.

Close? Well, let's just say, "No cigar for you,
buckaroo." But that's actually not a bad guess, since
paper was at one time very expensive. The actual
origin of "white paper," however, is a bit less
logical than that.

Today, as you note, we use the term "white paper" to
mean a formal statement of governmental or political
policy that includes an extended explanation of that
policy, usually accompanied by data and statistics
compiled to make the case for whatever the policy is.
The U.S. State Department, for instance, is fond of
issuing "white papers" on various political
"flashpoints" around the globe, usually shortly after
the U.S embassy there has been torched.

As tedious as I'm sure governmental "white papers" may
be, the term originally arose in the context of
something apparently even more snooze-worthy. "Blue
Papers" in the 19th century (so-called because of
their blue covers) were humongous policy or
legislative statements delivered by the British
government for consideration by Parliament. But if a
report or statement was too brief to be rightly
considered a "Blue Paper," it was issued with white
covers, and, with uncommon logic, called a "White
Paper." Probably because these pithy "White Papers"
were more directly useful than the bloated "Blue
Papers," Americans adopted the term and have been
using "white paper" since World War II to mean
"background report," whether in the governmental or
business realm. 


-Ilona