The Internet Gurus Authors Cabal: Who We Are

John R. Levine was a member of a computer club in high school -- before high school students, or even high schools, had computers. He met Theodor H. Nelson, author of Computer Lib and inventor of hypertext, who reminded us that computers should not be taken seriously and that everyone can and should understand and use computers. John wrote his first program on an IBM 1130 (a computer roughly as powerful as your typical modern digital wristwatch, only harder to use) in 1967. He became an official system administrator of a networked computer at Yale in 1975. He started working part-time, for a computer company, of course, in 1977, and has been in and out of the computer and network biz ever since. He got his company put on Usenet early enough that it appears in a 1982 Byte magazine article, which included a map of Usenet sites. He used to spend most of his time writing software, but now he mostly writes books (including UNIX For Dummies and The Internet for Dummies) because it's more fun and he can do so at home in the tiny village of Trumansburg, N.Y. He also does some lecturing and consulting, and is the municipal water and sewer commisioner. ("Mess with me, pal, and you'll never flush again.") B.A. and a Ph.D in Computer Science from Yale University, but please don't hold that against him.

David C. Kay

Carol Baroudi met her first computer in college at Colgate University in 1971. Her first encounter with electronic communication was in the form of send ttys, an ancient form of terminal warfare. She taught programming and helped design a computer science curriculum, but majored in Spanish Literature. For the last ten years she's been writing about computer software, including various electronic mail packages. She firmly believes that computers should be easy and fun to use but are no substitute for real life.

Arnold Reinhold

Alison Barrows has been a serious computer user since high school, and soon found herself irresistibly drawn to the software field (with help from the other Gurus Cabal authors). She has designed and written software courses and taught hundreds of computer novices how to make computers work for them. Since finding herself in a career as an author Alison has authored or co-authored six (and counting) books for IDG Books Worldwide including Excel 97 Secrets, Access 97 for Dummies Quick Reference, Dummies 101: 1-2-3 97 for Windows, and Dummies 101: WordPerfect 8.

In addition to writing books, Alison teaches custom computer courses and writes technical documentation and training material. When she's ready to take a break from technical stuff, Alison sings with the New England Chorale, practices yoga, plays ultimate frisbee, and dabbles in rock climbing. Alison previously worked in technical support and training at The World Bank and at Information Resources, Inc and has a Masters in Public Policy from the Kennedy School at Harvard University, and a B.A. in International Relations from Wellesley College. She currently lives in Boylston, Massachusetts with her husband and extremely cute baby.