In 2005 I started a part-time project to document the history of phone phreaking (huh? what?), focusing on the 1960s through the 1980s. It's since turned into a substantially-more-than-full-time effort. I've interviewed hundreds of people -- phone phreaks, telephone company employees, law enforcement personnel, spooks, you name 'em. I've waded through thousands of pages of newspaper and magazine articles, books, court cases, FBI files, telephone company memos, and government documents.
All to answer questions like: How did phone phreaking start? Who were the first phone phreaks? What motivated people to undertake this interesting but illegal hobby? What did the telephone company think about them? How did the government view them?
The result? A book. Exploding The Phone: The Untold Story of the Teenagers and Outlaws Who Hacked Ma Bell will be published by Grove/Atlantic in February 2013. Please visit the book's web site for all the latest happenings, as well as to join our email list to find out about the book tour.