The internet has a short memory. Companies dissolve, conferences disappear, and digital links rot over time. To ensure the historical record remains intact—and to provide primary source verification for my professional history—I maintain this archive of scanned documents, program guides, and publications from the early days of enterprise networking and open source development.
These documents serve as provenance for Rainer Gerhards work in the 1980s and 90s, validating roles and contributions that predate the modern web.
Conference & Industry Leadership
1995: NetWorld+Interop Program Guide (Frankfurt, Germany)
- Role: Tutorial Instructor & Speaker
- Context: Delivered a full-day tutorial on “Transition to NetWare 4.x” (W-405). This document also verifies my role as CEO of KLV NetS GmbH during this period.
- [View Document (PDF)]
1994: NetWorld+Interop Program Guide (Berlin, Germany)
- Role: Program Committee Member & Session Chair
- Context: Served on the European Programme Committee alongside internet pioneers like Dr. Dennis Jennings. Chaired the session “Using NetWare in the Multiprotocol Backbone” (IT-10).
- Historical Note: This document confirms my dual tenure as Head of Data Center at Dörries GmbH and Associate at KLV NetS GmbH in 1994.
- [View Document (PDF)]
1994: VDMA Software Licensing Brochure
- Role: Working Group Member (PC-Arbeitskreis Lizenzierung)
- Context: Contributed to the Verband Deutscher Maschinen- und Anlagenbau (VDMA) guidelines on software licensing and copyright, shaping early industry standards for the German engineering sector.
- [View Document (PDF)]
Early Open Source & Engineering
1988: C Users’ Group Library (Volume II)
- Project: Portable Graphics Package (CUG 227)
- Context: Released a hardware-independent graphics library into the public domain (the precursor to open source). This catalog entry verifies my contribution to the global C programming community from West Germany in the late 1980s.
- [View Archive Scan (PDF)]
1990: C Users Journal (January Issue)
- Article: “Using Header Files To Enhance Portability”
- Context: Technical article on writing cross-platform C code, published in the leading industry journal of the time.
- [Verify via University of Utah Archive] (https://ftp.math.utah.edu/pub/tex/bib/cccuj.html#Gerhards:1990:UHF)
Certifications (Vintage Tech)
1992-1994: Novell Master CNE & Microsoft MCP
- Context: Early adopter of enterprise networking certifications. The Master CNE (Certified NetWare Engineer) was achieved during the “portable testing” era, where testing equipment had to be physically transported to the candidate.