Title:
Oral History of Wilfrid J. (Wil) Dixon

Date:
1986-03-27

Pages:
19 p.

Interviewer:
Johnson, Luanne; interviewer
Dixon, Wilfrid J. (Wil); interviewee
Glassner, Linda; interviewee
Johnson, Luanne; editor

Abstract:
In this interview, Wil Dixon, the founder of BMDP Software, and Linda Glassner, Sales and Marketing Manager, describe how the BMD statistical software was originally developed at UCLA and became broadly used throughout the world while still being distributed under the auspices of UCLA. In 1982, Dixon founded BMDP Software to begin marketing the software through a commercial enterprise and developed a version which ran on PCs, significantly increasing the market for the product. They discuss the differences between BMDP and competitive software such as SAS and SPSS and the evolution of their marketing strategy from word of mouth to advertising-based as the market changed and expanded.

Keywords:
Dixon, Wil
Dixon, Wilfrid
Glassner, Linda
BMDP Software
BMD statistical software
Biomedical Statistical Software
BMDPC
Statistical Analysis System
SAS
SPSS
Statistical software packages
American Statistical Association
ASA
P-STAT
Off-the-shelf software

Rights:
Computer History Museum

102658169