It was a sad day in Australian technology history when the University of Queensland’s Museum of IT had to shut its doors, losing decades of Australian computing history. The silver lining is that the museum’s closure has raised awareness of the country’s need to record our computing history. And you can help!
Below is an invitation from Former Director of the University of Queensland Computer Centre, Graham Rees, calling for assistance in the development of an online database of Australian computing history. If you own any historical computing equipment or simply want to assist with the development of what is one of the most essential geek databases in Australia, get in contact with Graham below.
AUSTRALIA’S COMPUTER HERITAGE
Invitation to help with preserving Australia’s Computer Heritage
The development of information and communications technology over the last 50 years or so has had a profound impact on our society. We believe that it is very important to record and preserve as much as possible of the artefacts and history of this new revolution. We are seeking indications from like-minded people who appreciate the importance of, and would like to participate in, preserving our computer heritage.
Previous attempts to establish and maintain a physical presence for such a technology based collection have not been very successful. There is a high cost of restoration, preservation and space for storage and display of such artefacts. However, the time is rapidly approaching when the earliest technologies and the people who developed and used them are disappearing. Much has already gone.
We are proposing to establish an on-line web data base to record as much information as we can about existing Australian collections. There are currently several well-known collections containing in excess of 10,000 items. No doubt there are more. While this virtual museum will be of great value in its own right, it will also provide a resource for the eventual establishment of a national museum dedicated to physical as well as virtual preservation of technology.
We would appreciate an email from you to ([G.Rees@ieee.org) with an indication if you:
– have a collection (of any size) that you are may enter into the web data base
– would like to assist the initial Management Committee
– or simply to be kept informed of progress.
We would welcome any suggestions to progress this initiative.