Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
This is an active and growing site, and readers of this topic will find large
volumes of similar information. Overall, this is a good resource for historians and
those interested in software engineering topics. Membership includes both indi-
viduals and also corporate sponsors. The IT History Society will even fund occa-
sional historical projects, which is unusual, but welcome, for a museum.
Melbourne Computer Museum;
www.museumvictoria.com.au
The Melbourne Museum has more than computers, but the computer section is
home to the famous CSIARC computer. This was the first computer built in Aus-
tralia and one of the first in the world. The name is derived from Commonwealth
Scientific and Industrial Research Organization Automatic Computer.
The National Museum of Computing;
www.tnmoc.org
This British computer museum is located adjacent to the famous Bletchley
Park, where the World War II codebreakers were housed, as discussed earlier in
the 1940s chapter of this topic. The National Museum of Computing has a rich
collection of historical devices and also interactive materials and a library. A Co-
lossus computer is one of the displays.
Rhode Island Computer Museum;
www.ricomputermuseum.org
This is an unusual museum with a volunteer staff. It started in 1996 with collec-
tions of British automobiles and then switched to computers. It is a true nonprofit
organization organized under 501c(3) Internal Revenue Service code. It was form-
ally incorporated in 1999. Among the collection can be found Cray computers,
DEC PDP computers, and a variety of smaller computers. The collection is inter-
national, with British as well as U.S. computers. Some computer game consoles
are also included. It is socially interesting that private computer enthusiasts would
come together to create such an interesting and useful museum.
Software Industry Special Interest Group;
www.softwarehistory.org
This is a subset of materials in the Computer History Museum, described earlier
in the bibliography. This is a special interest group (SIG) devoted to the history of
software and software pioneers. The content of its website includes recorded oral
histories of famous software gurus; descriptions of a number of software compan-
ies; and collections of essays and monographs on software topics of interest.
Perhaps the most intriguing are the oral recordings. Among those who provided
recordings are Dan Bricklin, John Cullinane, Robert Frankston, Grace Hopper, and
perhaps 50 more researchers, industry leaders, and inventors. There are also mono-
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