David Gewirtz
Encyclopedia
David Allen Gewirtz is an American journalist
, author, and U.S. policy advisor
who has written more than 900 articles about technology
, competitiveness
, and national security
policy
. According to CNN
, he is "a leading Presidential scholar" and "one of America's foremost cyber-security experts and a top expert on saving and creating jobs" Gewirtz was featured on The History Channel
television special The President's Book of Secrets, which detailed secret information privy only to the President of the United States
. He currently serves as director of the U.S. Strategic Perspective Institute.
Gewirts grew up in Fair Lawn, New Jersey
.
Gewirtz is a CNN contributor, a CBS
contributing editor, and the ZDNet
Government blogger. He is best known for his non-partisan investigative reporting on the Bush White House e-mail controversy
. He is the author of the book Where Have All The E-mails Gone? How Something as Seemingly Benign as White House E-mail Can Have Freaky National Security Consequences (ISBN 978-0945266204), which explores the controversy from a technical perspective and, according to The Intelligence Daily, is "the definitive account about the circumstances that led to the loss of administration emails."
Gewirtz is the cyberwarfare advisor for the International Association for Counterterrorism & Security Professionals, a columnist
for The Journal of Counterterrorism and Homeland Security, and has been a guest commentator for the Nieman Watchdog of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism
at Harvard University
. He is also a member of the FBI InfraGard
program and is a member of the U.S. Naval Institute.
Gewirtz has been awarded the Sigma Xi
Research Award in Engineering and was a candidate for the 2008 Pulitzer Prize
in Letters. He is the author of five books including How To Save Jobs and Where Have All The E-mails Gone?.
Gewirtz is an advisory board member for the Technical Communications and Management Certificate program and a member of the instructional faculty at the University of California, Berkeley
extension. Gewirtz is also a former professor
of computer science
and has lectured at Princeton University
, the University of California, Berkeley
, UCLA, and Stanford. He is also the editor-in-chief of ZATZ Publishing, an independent digital magazine and book publisher.
e-mail is broken and needs to be fixed. He identifies five areas of concern.
He first claims the White House's e-mail archiving
system is inadequate to the point of negligence. He reports, based on Congressional testimony by White House Chief Information Officer
Theresa Payton, that the White House currently stores its e-mail archives in Microsoft Outlook
.PST
files. Based on Payton's testimony and Microsoft's guidelines for Outlook files, Gewirtz claims these files are above their safe storage capacity.
Lotus Notes
to Microsoft Outlook. During Payton's testimony phase, Congressman
Darrell Issa
asked, "Lotus Notes no longer exists, right?" Payton replied, "It is no longer supported. Some groups may still use it, but it is no longer supported." Since Notes is still an actively supported, high-profile IBM product, Gewirtz asks why such a critical migration was done during a build-up to war.
for two reasons. First, he claims that since the Hatch Act apparently bans White House staffers from using government e-mail resources for political communication, White House aides used political party e-mail resources instead, effectively bypassing the record-keeping requirements of the Presidential Records Act
. He claims in the 2,072 days between September 11, 2001 and May 15, 2007, a minimum of 103.6 million messages were likely sent by White House staffers on Republican National Committee
servers.
He also claims that insecure messaging puts national security at risk. He claims that since the White House staffers must bypass government servers, their email is traveling across the Internet without necessary security. He cites numerous national security risk scenarios that could occur due to possible interception of White House email messages.
, one-time aide to Karl Rove
, who stated before Congress that Rove had lost his BlackBerry
device on more than one occasion. Gewirtz claims that because BlackBerry devices can store significant data, losing these devices poses another security risk.
This concern was proven true during the week of April 21, 2008 when Rafael Quintero Curiel, lead press advance person for the Mexican delegation, was caught stealing BlackBerry devices belonging to White House staffers who were attending meetings between U.S. President
George W. Bush
, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper
, and Mexican President Felipe Calderón
, who were at the 2008 North American Leaders' Summit
.
In a subsequent article after the publication of the book, Gewirtz also cites additional Payton statements that show an alarming lack of security for personal computers within the White House and for portable media such as flash drives.
. Finally, he recommends the Electronic Communications Protection Detail manage all email, archiving, and messaging security for White House staff.
and Republicans
and acknowledges voting for Ronald Reagan
, George H. W. Bush
, and Bill Clinton
. According to Gewirtz, "At various times in my life, I've called myself a Republican and at other times, a Democrat. These days, both parties have sufficiently pissed me off that I'm pretty much an independent."
Gewirtz is also a frequent TV and radio guest. He was featured on the History Channel special The President's Book of Secrets, which detailed information privy only to the President of the United States. He has been interviewed by Fox News, various ABC
and NBC
affiliates, and has been a featured guest on National Public Radio and has been interviewed by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
on the Air America Radio
network. He was also featured on BBC
, Voice of America
, Radio Free Europe
, and Radio Liberty where his commentaries on technology, industry, and emerging nations have been broadcast into 46 countries (all in their own unique translations).
and became part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA) in 1979. He earned his Bachelor of Science
degree from Worcester Polytechnic Institute
in 1982, where he graduated with distinction. He was in the Ph.D.
program at the University of California, Berkeley
and was awarded a jure dignitatis Ph.D. by the University of Kent
.
to become a product manager
for Unix
porting house UniSoft
. In 1983, he moved on to early RISC mini-computer vendor Pyramid Technology
, where he introduced a version of Unix that merged BSD 4.2 and AT&T Unix System V and managed the company's work with artificial intelligence
systems. In 1986, Gewirtz was hired as director of product marketing
for Living Videotext, where he worked for controversial blogging and RSS
pioneer Dave Winer
.
When the company merged with Symantec
, he worked as an executive there for a short time before leaving in 1987 to start his first company, Hyperpress Publishing. He also held the unusual title of "Godfather" at Apple Inc. and served on the board of the Software Entrepreneurs Forum (now SVForum) in Santa Clara County, California
.
In 1993, Gewirtz moved to New Jersey
and founded Component Software Corporation to publish the FileFlex relational database engine, which was "the first, and at one time, the most popular commercial PC database designed for multimedia applications." It allowed developers to embed a relational database engine in Macromedia Director. Gewirtz acquired all rights to the product in September 1993, rewrote the product from the ground up using new searching, floating point, and compiler technology. and licensed the product to Macromedia
(now part of Adobe Systems
) for inclusion in Director.
magazine, where he worked for hypertext inventor Ted Nelson
and David H. Ahl
, author of the first million-selling computer book. In the early 1980s, Creative Computing was purchased by Ziff-Davis, where, on and off over the next 20 years, Gewirtz worked as editor-in-chief for various Ziff publications.
In the early 1980s, he was a contributing editor and then software editor for S-100 Microsystems Magazine, and a technical reviewer for Osborne/McGraw-Hill. In the mid-1990s, he was editor of the CD-ROM publication The Notes Enthusiast, published by jointly by IBM and Ziff-Davis. In 1995, Gewirtz was hired as the editor-in-chief of Workspace for Lotus Notes, published by Ziff-Davis. From 1996 to 1998, he was editor-in-chief of The Insider for Lotus cc:Mail, also published by Ziff-Davis, and in 1997, became the editor-in-chief of The Notes Report, originally published by IDG
and then acquired by Ziff-Davis. In 2010, Gewirtz once again became involved with the Ziff-Davis brand, joining CBS Interactive as a contributing editor and ZDNet as the ZDNet Government blogger.
and Microsoft
e-mail and collaboration software, respectively. In 1999, the New Jersey Technology Council presented Gewirtz an award for the ZATZ publishing strategy.
In 2003, Gewirtz started the IBM Java EE
and WebSphere
-related news weekly WebSpherePower Magazine, renamed PalmPower Magazine to Computing Unplugged Magazine, broadening its scope beyond Palm personal digital assistants into a consumer technology magazine with a mobile focus, and began publishing Connected Photographer Magazine.
. He is also the lead developer of the MySQL
and SQLite
database
extensions for the open-source Frontier Kernel project and has designed embedded database technology used by more than 2,000 companies, universities, and government agencies. He is also the director of the U.S. Strategic Perspective Institute.
by an Elvis "tribute artist"
named Norm and currently live in Florida
.
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, author, and U.S. policy advisor
Public policy
Public policy as government action is generally the principled guide to action taken by the administrative or executive branches of the state with regard to a class of issues in a manner consistent with law and institutional customs. In general, the foundation is the pertinent national and...
who has written more than 900 articles about technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
, competitiveness
Competitiveness
Competitiveness is a comparative concept of the ability and performance of a firm, sub-sector or country to sell and supply goods and/or services in a given market...
, and national security
National security
National security is the requirement to maintain the survival of the state through the use of economic, diplomacy, power projection and political power. The concept developed mostly in the United States of America after World War II...
policy
Policy
A policy is typically described as a principle or rule to guide decisions and achieve rational outcome. The term is not normally used to denote what is actually done, this is normally referred to as either procedure or protocol...
. According to CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
, he is "a leading Presidential scholar" and "one of America's foremost cyber-security experts and a top expert on saving and creating jobs" Gewirtz was featured on The History Channel
The History Channel
History, formerly known as The History Channel, is an American-based international satellite and cable TV channel that broadcasts a variety of reality shows and documentary programs including those of fictional and non-fictional historical content, together with speculation about the future.-...
television special The President's Book of Secrets, which detailed secret information privy only to the President of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
. He currently serves as director of the U.S. Strategic Perspective Institute.
Gewirts grew up in Fair Lawn, New Jersey
Fair Lawn, New Jersey
Fair Lawn is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States and a suburban municipality in the New York City Metropolitan Area. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 32,457. Fair Lawn was incorporated as a borough by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on March...
.
Gewirtz is a CNN contributor, a CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
contributing editor, and the ZDNet
ZDNet
ZDNet is a business technology news website published by CBS Interactive, along with TechRepublic and SmartPlanet. The brand was founded on April 1, 1991 as a general interest technology portal from Ziff Davis and evolved into an enterprise IT-focused online publication owned by CNET...
Government blogger. He is best known for his non-partisan investigative reporting on the Bush White House e-mail controversy
Bush White House e-mail controversy
The Bush White House email controversy surfaced in 2007, during the controversy involving the dismissal of eight U.S. attorneys. Congressional requests for administration documents while investigating the dismissals of the U.S...
. He is the author of the book Where Have All The E-mails Gone? How Something as Seemingly Benign as White House E-mail Can Have Freaky National Security Consequences (ISBN 978-0945266204), which explores the controversy from a technical perspective and, according to The Intelligence Daily, is "the definitive account about the circumstances that led to the loss of administration emails."
Gewirtz is the cyberwarfare advisor for the International Association for Counterterrorism & Security Professionals, a columnist
Columnist
A columnist is a journalist who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs....
for The Journal of Counterterrorism and Homeland Security, and has been a guest commentator for the Nieman Watchdog of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism
Nieman Foundation for Journalism
The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University is the primary journalism institution at Harvard. It was founded in 1938 as the result of a $1 million bequest by Agnes Wahl Nieman, the widow of Lucius W. Nieman, founder of The Milwaukee Journal...
at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
. He is also a member of the FBI InfraGard
InfraGard
InfraGard is a private non-profit organization serving as a public-private partnership between U.S. businesses and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The organization describes itself as an information sharing and analysis effort serving the interests and combining the knowledge base of a wide...
program and is a member of the U.S. Naval Institute.
Gewirtz has been awarded the Sigma Xi
Sigma Xi
Sigma Xi: The Scientific Research Society is a non-profit honor society which was founded in 1886 at Cornell University by a junior faculty member and a handful of graduate students. Members elect others on the basis of their research achievements or potential...
Research Award in Engineering and was a candidate for the 2008 Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
in Letters. He is the author of five books including How To Save Jobs and Where Have All The E-mails Gone?.
Gewirtz is an advisory board member for the Technical Communications and Management Certificate program and a member of the instructional faculty at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
extension. Gewirtz is also a former professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
of computer science
Computer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
and has lectured at Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
, the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
, UCLA, and Stanford. He is also the editor-in-chief of ZATZ Publishing, an independent digital magazine and book publisher.
White House e-mail controversy
As his main premise, Gewirtz claims that White HouseWhite House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
e-mail is broken and needs to be fixed. He identifies five areas of concern.
Inadequate archiving methodology
E-mail archiving
Email archiving is a stand-alone IT application that integrates with an enterprise email server, such as Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Domino. In addition to simply accumulating email messages, these applications index and provide quick, searchable access to archived messages independent of the users...
system is inadequate to the point of negligence. He reports, based on Congressional testimony by White House Chief Information Officer
Chief information officer
Chief information officer , or information technology director, is a job title commonly given to the most senior executive in an enterprise responsible for the information technology and computer systems that support enterprise goals...
Theresa Payton, that the White House currently stores its e-mail archives in Microsoft Outlook
Microsoft Outlook
Microsoft Outlook is a personal information manager from Microsoft, available both as a separate application as well as a part of the Microsoft Office suite...
.PST
.pst
In computing, a Personal Storage Table is an open proprietary file format used to store copies of messages, calendar events, and other items within Microsoft software such as Microsoft Exchange Client, Windows Messaging, and Microsoft Outlook...
files. Based on Payton's testimony and Microsoft's guidelines for Outlook files, Gewirtz claims these files are above their safe storage capacity.
Email migration during time of war
His second claim is that the White House has given no technically sound reason for switching e-mail systems from IBMIBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
Lotus Notes
Lotus Notes
Lotus Notes is the client of a collaborative platform originally created by Lotus Development Corp. in 1989. In 1995 Lotus was acquired by IBM and became known as the Lotus Development division of IBM and is now part of the IBM Software Group...
to Microsoft Outlook. During Payton's testimony phase, Congressman
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
Darrell Issa
Darrell Issa
Darrell Edward Issa is the U.S. Representative for , and previously the 48th, serving since 2001. He is a member of the Republican Party. He was formerly a CEO of Directed Electronics, the Vista, California-based manufacturer of automobile security and convenience products...
asked, "Lotus Notes no longer exists, right?" Payton replied, "It is no longer supported. Some groups may still use it, but it is no longer supported." Since Notes is still an actively supported, high-profile IBM product, Gewirtz asks why such a critical migration was done during a build-up to war.
Influence of the 1939 Hatch Act
Gewirtz also takes issue with the Hatch Act of 1939Hatch Act of 1939
The Hatch Act of 1939 is a United States federal law whose main provision is to prohibit federal employees in the executive branch of the federal government, except the President and the Vice President, from engaging in partisan political activity...
for two reasons. First, he claims that since the Hatch Act apparently bans White House staffers from using government e-mail resources for political communication, White House aides used political party e-mail resources instead, effectively bypassing the record-keeping requirements of the Presidential Records Act
Presidential Records Act
The Presidential Records Act of 1978, , is an Act of Congress of the United States governing the official records of Presidents and Vice Presidents created or received after January 20, 1981, and mandating the preservation of all presidential records...
. He claims in the 2,072 days between September 11, 2001 and May 15, 2007, a minimum of 103.6 million messages were likely sent by White House staffers on Republican National Committee
Republican National Committee
The Republican National Committee is an American political committee that provides national leadership for the Republican Party of the United States. It is responsible for developing and promoting the Republican political platform, as well as coordinating fundraising and election strategy. It is...
servers.
He also claims that insecure messaging puts national security at risk. He claims that since the White House staffers must bypass government servers, their email is traveling across the Internet without necessary security. He cites numerous national security risk scenarios that could occur due to possible interception of White House email messages.
Poor management of portable technology
Finally, Gewirtz cites Congressional testimony by Susan RalstonSusan Ralston
Susan Bonzon Ralston , is the President of SBR Enterprises, LLC, a government affairs, public relations and business consulting firm in the United States...
, one-time aide to Karl Rove
Karl Rove
Karl Christian Rove was Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff to former President George W. Bush until Rove's resignation on August 31, 2007. He has headed the Office of Political Affairs, the Office of Public Liaison, and the White House Office of Strategic Initiatives...
, who stated before Congress that Rove had lost his BlackBerry
BlackBerry
BlackBerry is a line of mobile email and smartphone devices developed and designed by Canadian company Research In Motion since 1999.BlackBerry devices are smartphones, designed to function as personal digital assistants, portable media players, internet browsers, gaming devices, and much more...
device on more than one occasion. Gewirtz claims that because BlackBerry devices can store significant data, losing these devices poses another security risk.
This concern was proven true during the week of April 21, 2008 when Rafael Quintero Curiel, lead press advance person for the Mexican delegation, was caught stealing BlackBerry devices belonging to White House staffers who were attending meetings between U.S. President
President
A president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...
George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper
Stephen Harper
Stephen Joseph Harper is the 22nd and current Prime Minister of Canada and leader of the Conservative Party. Harper became prime minister when his party formed a minority government after the 2006 federal election...
, and Mexican President Felipe Calderón
Felipe Calderón
Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa is the current President of Mexico. He assumed office on December 1, 2006, and was elected for a single six-year term through 2012...
, who were at the 2008 North American Leaders' Summit
North American Leaders' Summit
The North American Leaders' Summit is the official name of the trilateral annual summit between the prime minister of Canada, and the presidents of Mexico and the United States...
.
In a subsequent article after the publication of the book, Gewirtz also cites additional Payton statements that show an alarming lack of security for personal computers within the White House and for portable media such as flash drives.
Recommendations
Gewirtz also makes a series of recommendations. He recommends the Hatch Act be modified to require White House workers to use secured government systems for all communication. He recommends the establishment of a professional, administration-spanning "Electronic Communications Protection Detail" reporting to the United States Secret ServiceUnited States Secret Service
The United States Secret Service is a United States federal law enforcement agency that is part of the United States Department of Homeland Security. The sworn members are divided among the Special Agents and the Uniformed Division. Until March 1, 2003, the Service was part of the United States...
. Finally, he recommends the Electronic Communications Protection Detail manage all email, archiving, and messaging security for White House staff.
Politics
Gewirtz claims to have voted for both DemocratsDemocratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
and Republicans
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
and acknowledges voting for Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
, George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
, and Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
. According to Gewirtz, "At various times in my life, I've called myself a Republican and at other times, a Democrat. These days, both parties have sufficiently pissed me off that I'm pretty much an independent."
Media appearances
Gewirtz writes analysis and commentary for the CNN prime-time program Anderson Cooper 360 and is listed among the program website's official contributors. He is also a CBS contributing editor and writes the ZDNet Government blog for CBS Interactive.Gewirtz is also a frequent TV and radio guest. He was featured on the History Channel special The President's Book of Secrets, which detailed information privy only to the President of the United States. He has been interviewed by Fox News, various ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
and NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
affiliates, and has been a featured guest on National Public Radio and has been interviewed by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Robert Francis Kennedy, Jr. is an American radio host, activist, and attorney specializing in environmental law. He is the third of eleven children born to Ethel Skakel Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy and is the nephew of John F. Kennedy and Edward M. Kennedy...
on the Air America Radio
Air America Radio
Air America was an American radio network specializing in progressive talk programming...
network. He was also featured on BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, Voice of America
Voice of America
Voice of America is the official external broadcast institution of the United States federal government. It is one of five civilian U.S. international broadcasters working under the umbrella of the Broadcasting Board of Governors . VOA provides a wide range of programming for broadcast on radio...
, Radio Free Europe
Radio Free Europe
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is a broadcaster funded by the U.S. Congress that provides news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East "where the free flow of information is either banned by government authorities or not fully developed"...
, and Radio Liberty where his commentaries on technology, industry, and emerging nations have been broadcast into 46 countries (all in their own unique translations).
Education
In the late 1970s, Gewirtz was a Radiological Defense Officer and attended the Defense Civil Preparedness Agency (DCPA) Staff College. The DCPA was originally part of the United States Department of DefenseUnited States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
and became part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency
Federal Emergency Management Agency
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security, initially created by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 1978 and implemented by two Executive Orders...
(FEMA) in 1979. He earned his Bachelor of Science
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...
degree from Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Worcester Polytechnic Institute is a private university located in Worcester, Massachusetts, in the United States.Founded in 1865 in Worcester, WPI was one of the United States' first engineering and technology universities...
in 1982, where he graduated with distinction. He was in the Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
program at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
and was awarded a jure dignitatis Ph.D. by the University of Kent
University of Kent
The University of Kent, previously the University of Kent at Canterbury, is a public research university based in Kent, United Kingdom...
.
Early career
In 1982, Gewirtz headed out to Berkeley, CaliforniaBerkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
to become a product manager
Product Manager
A product manager investigates, selects, and develops products for an organization, performing the activities of product management.A product manager considers numerous factors such as intended demographic, the products offered by the competition, and how well the product fits with the company's...
for Unix
Unix
Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
porting house UniSoft
UniSoft
UniSoft Corporation is a former Unix vendor that now works on software for digital television development and broadcast.- History :UniSoft was founded in 1981, initially working as a Unix porting house, completing over 225 Unix ports to numerous CPU architectures. Its port of Version 7 Unix was the...
. In 1983, he moved on to early RISC mini-computer vendor Pyramid Technology
Pyramid Technology
Pyramid Technology Corporation was a computer company that produced a number of RISC-based minicomputers at the upper end of the performance range. They also became the second company to ship a multiprocessor Unix system , in 1985, which formed the basis of their product line into the early 1990s...
, where he introduced a version of Unix that merged BSD 4.2 and AT&T Unix System V and managed the company's work with artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
systems. In 1986, Gewirtz was hired as director of product marketing
Product marketing
Product marketing deals with the first of the "7P"'s of marketing, which are Product, Pricing, Place, and Promotion, Packaging, Positioning & People....
for Living Videotext, where he worked for controversial blogging and RSS
RSS
-Mathematics:* Root-sum-square, the square root of the sum of the squares of the elements of a data set* Residual sum of squares in statistics-Technology:* RSS , "Really Simple Syndication" or "Rich Site Summary", a family of web feed formats...
pioneer Dave Winer
Dave Winer
Dave Winer is an American software developer, entrepreneur and writer in New York City. Winer is noted for his contributions to outliners, scripting, content management, and web services, as well as blogging and podcasting...
.
When the company merged with Symantec
Symantec
Symantec Corporation is the largest maker of security software for computers. The company is headquartered in Mountain View, California, and is a Fortune 500 company and a member of the S&P 500 stock market index.-History:...
, he worked as an executive there for a short time before leaving in 1987 to start his first company, Hyperpress Publishing. He also held the unusual title of "Godfather" at Apple Inc. and served on the board of the Software Entrepreneurs Forum (now SVForum) in Santa Clara County, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
.
In 1993, Gewirtz moved to New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
and founded Component Software Corporation to publish the FileFlex relational database engine, which was "the first, and at one time, the most popular commercial PC database designed for multimedia applications." It allowed developers to embed a relational database engine in Macromedia Director. Gewirtz acquired all rights to the product in September 1993, rewrote the product from the ground up using new searching, floating point, and compiler technology. and licensed the product to Macromedia
Macromedia
Macromedia was an American graphics and web development software company headquartered in San Francisco, California that produced such products as Flash and Dreamweaver. Its rival, Adobe Systems, acquired Macromedia on December 3, 2005 and controls the line of Macromedia...
(now part of Adobe Systems
Adobe Systems
Adobe Systems Incorporated is an American computer software company founded in 1982 and headquartered in San Jose, California, United States...
) for inclusion in Director.
Technology editor
Gewirtz began his editorial career in 1979 as a contributing editor for Creative ComputingCreative Computing
Creative Computing was one of the earliest magazines covering the microcomputer revolution. Published from 1974 until December 1985, Creative Computing covered the whole spectrum of hobbyist/home/personal computing in a more accessible format than the rather technically-oriented BYTE. The magazine...
magazine, where he worked for hypertext inventor Ted Nelson
Ted Nelson
Theodor Holm Nelson is an American sociologist, philosopher, and pioneer of information technology. He coined the terms "hypertext" and "hypermedia" in 1963 and published it in 1965...
and David H. Ahl
David H. Ahl
David H. Ahl is the founder of Creative Computing magazine. He is also the author of many how-to books, including BASIC Computer Games, the first million-selling computer book....
, author of the first million-selling computer book. In the early 1980s, Creative Computing was purchased by Ziff-Davis, where, on and off over the next 20 years, Gewirtz worked as editor-in-chief for various Ziff publications.
In the early 1980s, he was a contributing editor and then software editor for S-100 Microsystems Magazine, and a technical reviewer for Osborne/McGraw-Hill. In the mid-1990s, he was editor of the CD-ROM publication The Notes Enthusiast, published by jointly by IBM and Ziff-Davis. In 1995, Gewirtz was hired as the editor-in-chief of Workspace for Lotus Notes, published by Ziff-Davis. From 1996 to 1998, he was editor-in-chief of The Insider for Lotus cc:Mail, also published by Ziff-Davis, and in 1997, became the editor-in-chief of The Notes Report, originally published by IDG
IDG
International Data Group is a technology media, research, event management, and venture capital organization.IDG evolved from International Data Corporation which was formed in 1964 in Newtonville, Massachusetts, by Patrick Joseph McGovern and a friend, Fred Kirch...
and then acquired by Ziff-Davis. In 2010, Gewirtz once again became involved with the Ziff-Davis brand, joining CBS Interactive as a contributing editor and ZDNet as the ZDNet Government blogger.
ZATZ Publishing
In 1998, Gewirtz founded ZATZ Publishing. His first publication was PalmPower Magazine, produced under license from Palm, Inc. In August 1998, he started DominoPower Magazine and in 2002 founded OutlookPower Magazine, which focus on IBM LotusLotus Notes
Lotus Notes is the client of a collaborative platform originally created by Lotus Development Corp. in 1989. In 1995 Lotus was acquired by IBM and became known as the Lotus Development division of IBM and is now part of the IBM Software Group...
and Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
e-mail and collaboration software, respectively. In 1999, the New Jersey Technology Council presented Gewirtz an award for the ZATZ publishing strategy.
In 2003, Gewirtz started the IBM Java EE
Java Platform, Enterprise Edition
Java Platform, Enterprise Edition or Java EE is widely used platform for server programming in the Java programming language. The Java platform differs from the Java Standard Edition Platform in that it adds libraries which provide functionality to deploy fault-tolerant, distributed, multi-tier...
and WebSphere
WebSphere
IBM WebSphere refers to a brand of computer software products in the genre of enterprise software known as "application and integration middleware". These software products are used by end-users to create applications and integrate applications with other applications...
-related news weekly WebSpherePower Magazine, renamed PalmPower Magazine to Computing Unplugged Magazine, broadening its scope beyond Palm personal digital assistants into a consumer technology magazine with a mobile focus, and began publishing Connected Photographer Magazine.
Other professional activities
Gewirtz is the developer of ZENPRESS, an Internet magazine content management systemContent management system
A content management system is a system providing a collection of procedures used to manage work flow in a collaborative environment. These procedures can be manual or computer-based...
. He is also the lead developer of the MySQL
MySQL
MySQL officially, but also commonly "My Sequel") is a relational database management system that runs as a server providing multi-user access to a number of databases. It is named after developer Michael Widenius' daughter, My...
and SQLite
SQLite
SQLite is an ACID-compliant embedded relational database management system contained in a relatively small C programming library. The source code for SQLite is in the public domain and implements most of the SQL standard...
database
Database
A database is an organized collection of data for one or more purposes, usually in digital form. The data are typically organized to model relevant aspects of reality , in a way that supports processes requiring this information...
extensions for the open-source Frontier Kernel project and has designed embedded database technology used by more than 2,000 companies, universities, and government agencies. He is also the director of the U.S. Strategic Perspective Institute.
Personal life
Gewirtz is married to Denise Amrich. They were married in Las VegasLas Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
by an Elvis "tribute artist"
Elvis impersonator
An Elvis impersonator is someone who impersonates or copies famed American musician Elvis Presley. Professional Elvis impersonators can work all over the world as entertainers, and such tribute acts are in great demand due to the unique iconic status of Elvis...
named Norm and currently live in Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
.
Works
- HyperTalk and the External Commands (1987)
- Lotus Notes 3 Revealed! (1993)
- The Flexible Enterprise: How to Reinvent Your Company, Unlock Your Strengths, and Prosper in a Changing World (1996)
- Where Have All The E-mails Gone? How Something as Seemingly Benign as White House E-mail Can Have Freaky National Security Consequences (2007)
- How To Save Jobs: Reinventing Business, Reinvigorating Work, and Reawakening the American Dream (2010)
External links
- David Gewirtz CNN blog CNN blog for Anderson Cooper 360 program.
- David Gewirtz ZDNet blog CBS Interactive ZDNet Government blog.
- David Gewirtz personal site Personal site for David Gewirtz.
- Home page for How To Save Jobs book Site contains full investigative library.
- Home page for Where Have All The Emails Gone? book Site contains ongoing updates on the White House e-mail controversy case and forensic investigation resources.
- Gewirtz articles Bibliography of articles by Gewirtz for ZATZ Publishing magazines.
- Gewirtz early articles Bibliography of early Gewirtz articles.
- ZATZ Publishing Home page for ZATZ Publishing.
- David Gewirtz at the Internet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
.