I was an Apple Research Fellow, as part of the ARPP/AECP programs from 1991-1995. During that time I supported numerous projects within my University leveraging Apple product, and pursued several projects of my own. As an administrator of several of the higher-volume web services powered by Apple product, I Alpha-tested numerous Apple server products and OS releases, provided key feedback in Internet Protocol stack development, and averted a disastrous rollout of software Apple called “OpenTransport”.
One of those projects experienced unanticipated success: I created a directory in 1993 of Apple Wed Developer tools called the “Mac HTTP Tools Page” which quickly became a key hub in the web developer community. This led to working with Apple Product Management on key internet server issues, and the development of a release product called the “Apple Internet Server Solution“.
The Tools Page was a key community-building and developer support tool which I convinced Apple to internalize after I left the program. It eventually became absorbed within Apple’s developer program.