Those of us familiar with Gehani’s work on Concurrent C and other research may be surprised to find his name on a book that is seemingly more suited to the history section of a bookstore or library. However, as the keywords indicate, he stayed and became a manager while Bell Labs transformed itself from a basic research organization to one that performed applied research.

This book does an adequate job of tracing that change. But, most of the evolutionary aspects are repeated too often. The sections that are not repeated, such as stories of researchers’ oddities and the author’s own attempt to take his Maps On Us software to the market, are interesting.

There is much insight here for observers of one of the few corporation-supported laboratories that let employees work in an academic-like environment. One can imagine this book showing up in many places at Microsoft Research.

After reading the book, I was left with a sense of sadness at the passing of a place not driven just by the bottom line.