Dead Tree or Detailed Treatise: What is a White Paper?
http://www.whitepapersource.com/writing/what_is_a_white_paper.html

Stelzner, Michael A.
WhitePaperSource
2006

Abstract:

So what exactly is a white paper? This is one of those questions many people have been wrestling with for some time. If you look up the term in a dictionary, you'll find an outdated response describing a government report.