Subject: Re: Computer History Association of California (long)

From: [email-masked] (Kip Crosby)
Date: Thu, 02 Sep 1993 16:55:38 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, Douglas W. Jones ([email-masked]) writes:
>I've just discovered an interesting organization, the Computer History
>Association of California, and it's clear that their goals are very much
>in keeping with the goals of many of the readers who follow these
>newsgroups.
>
>As near as I can figure, they're the first general membership association
>devoted to historic preservation of computers.  Thus, they may be able
>to provide the kind of hacker-centered orientation that is lacking in
>places like the Computer Museum and the Smithsonian.
>
  [....sample ENGINE text clipped....]
>
>These people are doing the right thing, with essentially the same goals
>that led to the formation of alt.sys.pdp8, but with a broader charter
>and a more formal organization.  They clearly have a regional focus, but
>at the same time, the job they're talking about needs to be done
>nationally and internationally.
>
>I feel that we preservationists should support them actively, either by
>joining their organization (particularly, those of us in the bay area),
>or by referring California hardware and documentation rescue work to them.
>They've picked up a significant membership outside of California, but my
>long-term hope is that we can get similar local organizations running on
>the east coast and in the midwest.  We've got the critical mass in both
>places, but here in the midwest, we may not have the critical density.
>
Doug,

Thank you for this glowing tribute! and, beyond that, for all the
critical support offered to us through alt.sys.pdp8.

I wouldn't change a word of what you've written (why would I need
to?) but just a couple of comments: 

1)  If indeed we are "the first general membership association
devoted to historic preservation of computers," we're not surprised.
We started it because _we also_ couldn't find an existing one.  But
it's our hope, too, that someday soon there'll be "similar local
organizations" in other parts of the country.  That would
ultimately provide the strong, broad grassroots base that would
facilitate the organization of a true Computer History Association
of America.

Now, before we started the CHAC in April, we toyed with the notion
of _founding_ the CHA of America.  After the CHAC's first four
months, we're glad we didn't try.  First of all, we have to get
_some_ sleep.  Secondly, even with our avowedly strict focus on
California, we've had (welcome!) correspondence not only from (e.
g.) Iowa, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Florida.... but (e. g.)
Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, the UK, and Saudi Arabia.  The
Internet is astounding, which is a separate topic, but none the
less true.  And third, the hardware....!  (Details in the October
ENGINE.)

2)  I'm not sure we're "hacker-centered" but we're
hacker-propelled.  To be "hacker-centered" would, I think, risk
being exclusive in a negative sense and tend to push aside certain
real pillars of computer history in California; for instance, the
Bank of America's pioneering of electronic check processing with
ERMA, which wasn't especially hackish but it sure is part of what
we're about!  On the other hand, it's true that a lot of
California's (and especially Silicon Valley's) computer history is
inseparable from a certain....effervescent ad-hockery, ebullience,
zaniness.  And we'd like to keep that as a flavor. 

3)  "the job they're talking about needs to be done nationally and
internationally."  Absolutely true!  At the same time it's important
to know that it _is_ being _begun_, nationally and internationally.
In the last four months we've heard from many fine people and
organizations -- I couldn't even list them all here but we'll try in
the October ENGINE -- and one of the most important things we've
accomplished is to get some of _them_ talking _to each other_.  The
work before us is big enough that, as we confront it, we can be
bolstered by the knowledge that we're not alone in this.  It makes
for a tremendous sense of friendship and community.

4)   Finally, I take your point about "critical mass and critical
density."  If you want to know about critical mass, just count the
interesting micros we have stacked up in boxes!  But I think any
doubts about critical density of interest are alleviated, if not
wiped out, by the speed and rate of diffusion of
net.communication.  (That, incidentally, is why we're currently
composing an RFD of a newsgroup.)  Computer history _is and is
not_ a local pastime -- or, so to speak, "Talk locally, post
globally."  We have before us the means to overcome isolation
completely.

5)   Yes, we will try to take on rescue work.  Our current
capacity for it is very limited, but we at least want to know about
it.

6)  We need:

_Money_ because we're getting bigger faster than we ever thought
we would.  Right now, and for the foreseeable future, CHAC is all-
volunteer.  But by the time we're working on some of what we
outlined in the July ENGINE (like the museum,) we will be facing
significant administrative expense and at least part-time salaries.

_Space_ (storage) because people are offering us hardware that we
don't want to see junked.

_Members_, first, because without members we're nothin'.  CHAC is
_about_ computers, but also _about_ the people who create them,
and _by and for_ the people who work with them and respect them. 
Second, because only with a substantial membership can we confront
corporations and ask them for real support.  Fundraising, too, is
about people.

A couple of days ago I got net.mail from someone that began "Is
this legit?  If so I think it's wonderful!"  Well, it's
wonderful.  We know that already.  We know that it's real.  We
know, above all, that it's needed.  It can also be "legit" if --
and _only_ if -- enough people are willing to join us in what we're
trying to do.

Thanks again, Doug, and thanks to all who read this, I didn't mean
it to be quite so long!

__________________________________________
Kip Crosby         [email-masked]   
Computer History Association of California 
     "History is what you make it...."