HP Archives Destroyed in Recent California Fires
A very sad story here: http://www.pressdemocrat.com/business/7559762-181/hewlett- packard-archives-at-keysight-destroyed Chuck House responded to me re: this sad news with: *Sad on many fronts* *1. Ironic, since HP was almost alone in Silicon Valley for hiring a curator thirty years ago to preserve its history* *2. Ironic, that the curator (and subsequent ones) would not let historians or others have access to this tremendous history* *3. Ironic, that HP is one of the digital electronics pioneers which offered a way to digitize this collection at any point in the last twenty years* *4. Ironic, that a company so big, with such history, would have no sense of the value of what had been accumulated* *5. Ironic, that the Computer History Museum here in town, never tried to get this archive* *Great lessons here* I knew that Chuck had been involved with helping to scan and archive Cisco's history. When I pinged him about that, he wrote me re: his small treatise on this topic: *Preserving our Digital Revolution Heritage: If not you, who? If not now, when? <http://www.lulu.com/us/en/shop/charles-house/digital-revolution-heritage/paperback/product-22378873.html>* _________________________ Brian A. Berg / bberg@StanfordAlumni.org Berg Software Design 14500 Big Basin Way, Suite F, Saratoga, CA 95070 USA Voice: 408.741.5010 / Cell: 408.568.2505 Consulting: Flash Memory/USB/Storage/Patents visit the Storage Cornucopia: www.bswd.com FMS Technical Chair: www.FlashMemorySummit.com IEEE Milestone <http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Milestones:List_of_IEEE_Milestones> Coordinator for Region 6 <http://www.ieee-region6.org/> IEEE SCV Section <http://www.ewh.ieee.org/r6/scv/> Past Chair / IEEE-CNSV <http://www.CaliforniaConsultants.org> Board Director IEEE Silicon Valley Tech History Committee <http://www.SiliconValleyHistory.com/> Chair
On Mon, Oct 30, 2017 at 2:32 PM, Brian Berg <brianberg@gmail.com> wrote:
A very sad story here: http://www.pressdemocrat.com/business/7559762-181/hewlett-p ackard-archives-at-keysight-destroyed
Chuck House responded to me re: this sad news with:
*Sad on many fronts*
*1. Ironic, since HP was almost alone in Silicon Valley for hiring a curator thirty years ago to preserve its history*
*2. Ironic, that the curator (and subsequent ones) would not let historians or others have access to this tremendous history*
*3. Ironic, that HP is one of the digital electronics pioneers which offered a way to digitize this collection at any point in the last twenty years*
*4. Ironic, that a company so big, with such history, would have no sense of the value of what had been accumulated*
*5. Ironic, that the Computer History Museum here in town, never tried to get this archive*
*Great lessons here*
I knew that Chuck had been involved with helping to scan and archive Cisco's history. When I pinged him about that, he wrote me re: his small treatise on this topic: *Preserving our Digital Revolution Heritage: If not you, who? If not now, when? <http://www.lulu.com/us/en/shop/charles-house/digital-revolution-heritage/paperback/product-22378873.html>*
_________________________ Brian A. Berg / bberg@StanfordAlumni.org Berg Software Design 14500 Big Basin Way, Suite F, Saratoga, CA 95070 USA Voice: 408.741.5010 <(408)%20741-5010> / Cell: 408.568.2505 <(408)%20568-2505> Consulting: Flash Memory/USB/Storage/Patents visit the Storage Cornucopia: www.bswd.com FMS Technical Chair: www.FlashMemorySummit.com IEEE Milestone <http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Milestones:List_of_IEEE_Milestones> Coordinator for Region 6 <http://www.ieee-region6.org/> IEEE SCV Section <http://www.ewh.ieee.org/r6/scv/> Past Chair / IEEE-CNSV <http://www.CaliforniaConsultants.org> Board Director IEEE Silicon Valley Tech History Committee <http://www.SiliconValleyHistory.com/> Chair
_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/ listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
I recall my interactions with the HP Archivist a few years ago, when I was looking for some historical content. I was told it would never be released because it 'represented HP's intellectual property'. This was related to products they haven't sold in 40 years, and I offered an NDA. A sad and strange attitude, if you ask me. -- Ian -- Ian S. King, MSIS, MSCS, Ph.D. Candidate The Information School <http://ischool.uw.edu> Dissertation: "Why the Conversation Mattered: Constructing a Sociotechnical Narrative Through a Design Lens Principal Investigator, "Reflections on Early Computing and Social Change", UW IRB #42619 Archivist, Voices From the Rwanda Tribunal <http://tribunalvoices.org> Value Sensitive Design Research Lab <http://vsdesign.org> University of Washington There is an old Vulcan saying: "Only Nixon could go to China."
The North Bay fires have truly left a sad legacy with the loss of this HP archive. The fires came within 15 miles of the LO*OP Center History of Computing in Learning and Education Archive as well. While LO*OP's collection may be much smaller than that of HP it does contain some irreplaceable artifacts and documents. I'm using this misfortune as an occasion to ask for help in preventing another. Please contact me if you could spare a day or more to come to the Russian River and help stabilize and inventory a bit of our unprocessed material. Once that is done we will be in a position to decide which documents are worth scanning and which artifacts to photograph. These two steps, to be done on site, are necessary in advance of curating the collection and preparing online exhibits for the public. Much of the later curation can be done remotely but first I need teams of two or three people at a time to help with the physical work. Please note that we are not duplicating the impressive initiatives undertaken by the Computer History Museum and others. They are preserving the history of the computing industry with in depth coverage of computer scientists, inventors and industry giants. We are looking deeply and specifically at the impact of computing on teaching and learning, both formally in schools and universities and informally in clubs, libraries, recreation centers and the like. Our heroes are the Educational Technology Pioneers who envisioned and brought about new software, hardware and social environments that have revolutionized education. Contact me at lizaloop@loopcenter.org or by phone, 650 619 1099 (8 am to 10 pm Pacific time only). Thank you in advance, Liza Loop Executive Director, LO*OP Center, Inc. On Mon, Oct 30, 2017 at 2:32 PM, Brian Berg <brianberg@gmail.com> wrote:
A very sad story here: http://www.pressdemocrat.com/business/7559762-181/hewlett-p ackard-archives-at-keysight-destroyed
Chuck House responded to me re: this sad news with:
*Sad on many fronts*
*1. Ironic, since HP was almost alone in Silicon Valley for hiring a curator thirty years ago to preserve its history*
*2. Ironic, that the curator (and subsequent ones) would not let historians or others have access to this tremendous history*
*3. Ironic, that HP is one of the digital electronics pioneers which offered a way to digitize this collection at any point in the last twenty years*
*4. Ironic, that a company so big, with such history, would have no sense of the value of what had been accumulated*
*5. Ironic, that the Computer History Museum here in town, never tried to get this archive*
*Great lessons here*
I knew that Chuck had been involved with helping to scan and archive Cisco's history. When I pinged him about that, he wrote me re: his small treatise on this topic: *Preserving our Digital Revolution Heritage: If not you, who? If not now, when? <http://www.lulu.com/us/en/shop/charles-house/digital-revolution-heritage/paperback/product-22378873.html>*
_________________________ Brian A. Berg / bberg@StanfordAlumni.org Berg Software Design 14500 Big Basin Way, Suite F, Saratoga, CA 95070 USA Voice: 408.741.5010 <(408)%20741-5010> / Cell: 408.568.2505 <(408)%20568-2505> Consulting: Flash Memory/USB/Storage/Patents visit the Storage Cornucopia: www.bswd.com FMS Technical Chair: www.FlashMemorySummit.com IEEE Milestone <http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Milestones:List_of_IEEE_Milestones> Coordinator for Region 6 <http://www.ieee-region6.org/> IEEE SCV Section <http://www.ewh.ieee.org/r6/scv/> Past Chair / IEEE-CNSV <http://www.CaliforniaConsultants.org> Board Director IEEE Silicon Valley Tech History Committee <http://www.SiliconValleyHistory.com/> Chair
_______________________________________________ This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/ listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org
-- Liza Loop History of Computing in Learning and Education (HCLE) Project. www.hcle.org liza@hcle.org
participants (3)
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Brian Berg -
Ian S. King -
Liza Loop