About Us

The Daedalus Group was founded in 1988 by graduate students and faculty in English and English Education at the University of Texas in Austin. They had been working for several years to develop innovative approaches to using networked computers for collaborative learning and writing. Based on positive feedback from others in the profession, they decided to form a company and develop software commercially for college and high school students. The result of their efforts is the award-winning Daedalus Integrated Writing Environment (DIWE), which offers the most comprehensive suite of tools available for teaching writing.

Some of the company's founders were already distinguished scholars in composition and rhetoric, while others have gone on to achieve professional recognition in the field. The founders include Valerie Balester, Jerome Bump, Hugh Burns (our first Chairman of the Board), Wayne Butler, Locke Carter, Bernard Crook, Tamara Fish, Maxine Hairston, David Harvey, Fred Kemp (our first President), Jan Kemp, Mary Beth Levine, Nancy Peterson, John Slatin, and Paul Taylor. Notably absent from this list is James Kinneavy, who was never formally associated with the company but nonetheless inspired many of us to dedicate ourselves to changing the world through the power of language.

The company is currently under the leadership of CEO Paul Taylor, who received his PhD from the University of Texas, went on to teach at Texas A&M University, and eventually returned to the company in order to continue developing educational software.