A global group of museum curators, academics and others working to preserve computing’s past recently converged on London’s Science Museum to discuss ways to make the history of computing relevant to a wider audience.the gathering , in partnership with the Science Museum, the Computer Conservation Society and the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) working group on computer history.
Shifting emphasis away from pure technology to focus on stories of inventors and people who used the machines—explaining what happened and why it mattered in a wider, more engaging context.
Collecting personal histories of computing in the form of oral and video accounts, to glean a deeper understanding of people’s motives and interests, and the challenges they faced.
Pros and cons of maintaining and demonstrating working models of early computers in a museum setting—what is practical and when is it worth the effort?
Helping educators to inspire students by including reference to computing’s pioneers in their classes, the same as happens in other (older) fields of science.
The full programme for the conference, plus links to papers and presentations, can be viewed here .partnered with museums and other organisations , and have sought to contribute directly through our series of short films and blogposts . Our sponsorship of this conference is a natural extension of our partnership with London’s Science Museum and we were delighted to take part.Posted by Lynette Webb, Senior Manager, External Relations
I was fortunate to have attended this conference and have written an article on it for my own blog (http://storyofthecomputer.com/2013/06/21/history-in-the-making/). Many thanks to Lynette and her Google colleagues for supporting this enjoyable and worthwhile event. I hope it will be the first of many!
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