I hear engineers talk about them (and curse them) all the time, but I have no idea exactly what they are.
2006-10-27 06:00:56 · 8 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Engineering
I write enginering whitepapers quite a bit. In my case it describes a concept that I am proposing. Usually it is the first step in trying to get funding for an idea. It is called a whitepaper to differ it from a proposal. A proposal usually is much more formal and can have nery rigid format. The proposal process begins with a call for proposals where someone is soliciting for ideas. For a whitepaper no format is specified and the input may not even be solicited. That is, it may come out of the blue because someone had an idea they thought you would like. I believe it gets the name "whitepaper" because, instead of starting with forms and formats to build your porposal, you start with nothing more than a white sheet of paper in front of you (nowadays white screen would be more appropriate) and write from there.
2006-10-27 06:16:18 · answer #1 · answered by Pretzels 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
A white paper is an authoritative report; a government report outlining policy; or a document the purpose of which is to educate industry customers or collect leads for a company. White papers are used to help people make decisions.
In modern British or Irish terminology, a White Paper is a statement of government policy. It is called white paper because originally these were thin documents quickly bound in white paper without a formal cover, as opposed to the blue bindings of most government reports.
Government white papers
In the Commonwealth of Nations, "white paper" is an informal name for a parliamentary paper; in the United Kingdom these are issued as "Command papers". White papers are issued by the government and lay out policy, or proposed action, on a topic of current concern.
Commercial white papers
More recently, the term white paper has also come to refer to documents that argue non-governmental positions as well. For example, many white papers today espouse the benefits of particular technologies and products.
2006-10-27 07:03:53 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
A white paper is an authoritative report; a government report outlining policy; or a document the purpose of which is to educate industry customers or collect leads for a company. I got that straight off the web - it made no good sense to me but I hope it heps you.
2006-10-27 06:13:51 · answer #3 · answered by Goodmomma1 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
A White Paper is a descriptive article or discussion of an issuse or it can be a statement of position on a particular issue. They can be for internal use or even published in a technical journal.
2006-10-27 06:05:52 · answer #4 · answered by xorosho 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
A white paper is usually a technical article that's more technical than marketing. Engineers usually dislike them because it has to have a certain amount of marketing flavor, e.g., "see how great our product is based on this data and that data."
Wikipedia has an entry for this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_paper
2006-10-27 06:06:58 · answer #5 · answered by arbiter007 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
1. A government report.
2. An authoritative report on a major issue, as by a team of journalists
2006-10-27 06:04:15 · answer #6 · answered by sonyack 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I have heard that term typically used to describe a document which explains the basic principles and theories of something.
2006-10-27 06:07:02 · answer #7 · answered by Leonardo D 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
.................. paper about the truth ............. the real thing .............
2006-10-27 06:06:49 · answer #8 · answered by spaceman 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋