I was there (TNMOC) almost exactly a year ago. While I could see that they were certainly tidying the place up, I didn't see this coming. Is there something in the water? I've been seeing this trend at the Living Computer Museum, where I was employed until we parted ways last month. There seems to be a lack of faith in the drawing power of history, replaced by a belief that without cotton candy and carousel rides you won't attract visitors. As a pretty straightforward museum of computer history, LCM exceeded all attendance expectations in its first year. I obviously can't reveal details but Vulcan (the parent company) is developing plans to redesign LCM that seem much like Bletchley Trust's plans for the Park. My hope for both TNMOC and LCM is that their collections at least remain intact and perhaps this 'Disneyfication' trend shall pass. On Sun, Feb 2, 2014 at 12:41 PM, Marie Hicks <mhicks1@iit.edu> wrote:

Thanks, Brian--it's interesting to know this background. I was caught in the crossfire of this dispute as a visitor to the site a few years ago. Before I got there, I was told that I could visit TNMOC without paying a separate entrance fee. But when I arrived, there was no way to get to TNMOC unless you knew exactly where you were going without a map (in other words, you'd need to have been there before), and you were willing to sneak over to block H and not even pause to look at the rest of the Park architecture on your way in or out. Not a good situation for visitors.

That said, I loved the Colossus rebuild (and the Bombe rebuild), and generally thought the tour guides were great and very knowledgeable. I took a video of the Colossus impressively chugging along as part of my narrative of my visit: http://mariehicks.net/blog/?p=4 I hope that TNMOC and the BP Trust will come back to the negotiating table after this recent spate of bad publicity.

Best,

Marie ______________________ Marie Hicks, Ph.D. Asst. Professor, History of Technology Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago, IL USA mhicks1@iit.edu | mariehicks.net <http://www.mariehicks.net> | @histoftech<http://twitter.com/histoftech>

On Sun, Feb 2, 2014 at 7:22 AM, Brian Randell < brian.randell@newcastle.ac.uk> wrote:

...

Hi:

I've had several requests for detailed page links related to the very unfortunate dispute at Bletchley Park, a subject which has given rise to a large amount of traffic on the Web and in social media since the BBC News broadcasts of 24 Jan. Here, for those wishing to gain a better understanding of this dispute, is my attempt to identify and provide links to the most significant web pages that have been produced as a result of the BBC News broadcasts, as of 1 Feb 2014. (In many cases the pages I've identified have already had an extensive set comments added to them.)

I have no plans to take on a role of unofficial chronicler of this dispute, which I fear is going to run and run unless the senior staff at the Bletchley Park Trust can be persuaded to reverse some of their recent policy decisions promptly, but would nevertheless appreciate being informed of any other/further really significant web pages related to the dispute.

Meanwhile I note a very significant spike in the rate of contributions to The National Museum of Computing, so have included a link to their donations page.

Cheers

Brian Randell

------

THE BBC NEWS ITEMS OF 24 JAN 2014

BBC TV News - a 2.4 min video clip http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25916048

BBC Radio 4 - a 5 min audio clip http://www.vmars.org.uk/sitedata/files/BBC_Bletchley.mp3

OFFICIAL STATEMENTS FROM THE BLETCHLEY PARK TRUST

Progress in Perspective

http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/news/v.rhtm/Progress_in_Perspective-755840.h...

Crossed Wires at Bletchley Park

http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/news/v.rhtm/Crossed_Wires_at_Bletchley_Park-...

OFFICIAL STATEMENTS FROM THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF COMPUTING

Deciphering dissent at Bletchley Park

http://www.tnmoc.org/news/news-releases/deciphering-discontent-statement-tnm...

The bigger picture: fragmenting a heritage site

http://www.tnmoc.org/news/news-releases/bigger-picture-fragmenting-heritage-...

THE BEST (IN MY OPINION) INDEPENDENT ACCOUNTS OF THE DISPUTE

Disharmony at Bletchley Park http://freelance.halfacree.co.uk/2014/01/disharmony-at-bletchley-park/

UK National Computer Museum Off-Limits At Bletchley Park

http://i-programmer.info/news/82-heritage/6888-uk-national-computer-museum-o...

ACCOUNTS BY (ANONYMOUS) VOLUNTEERS

The history behind the Bletchley Park dispute:

https://plus.google.com/app/basic/stream/z13wgplxnmfgdzibw04cdvehbvqqsrsztk4...

Bletchley Park plan to "cull old and infirm"

http://maturetimes.co.uk/leisure-and-lifestyle/readers-write/8079-bletchley-...

THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF COMPUTING

Donations Page http://www.tnmoc.org/support/make-donation

-- School of Computing Science, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK EMAIL = Brian.Randell@ncl.ac.uk PHONE = +44 191 222 7923 FAX = +44 191 222 8232 URL = http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/people/brian.randell

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