Take a tour of the new Computer History Museum “Revolutions” exhibit

This weekend the Computer History Museum opened its doors on a new exhibit, titled Revolutions.

We don’t take enough time to look back on history in this industry. Why should we? To understand how things inside our machines work, but also to understand the importance of huge shifts in technology work to create new companies.

The new exhibit wonderfully shows that, and here’s a couple of tours, along with some wonderful interviews with people who are true technology pioneers.

First, an introduction to the museum with pioneers, Part I and Part II. In these videos you see From LEFT,
Len Shustek is chairman of the board of trustees of the Computer History Museum, John Hollar, CEO of Computer History Museum, Max Mathews, computer music pioneer, Donald Knuth, software pioneer, Steve Wozniak, co-founded Apple, Al Alcorn, invented Pong, Steve Russell, inventor of first computer game, Frances Allen, pioneered several computer languages. In Part I, they introduce the pioneers, and the museum, then we got a tour, then in part II they take questions from the press. Good stuff.

A 30-minute walking tour, which gives you highlights and where you meet some of the pioneers. If you don’t want to watch the whole thing, you can click through to meet Frances Allen, first female Turing award winner and you can meet Al Acorn, inventor of Pong. Finally, Mark Weber, curator at the museum, shows us one of the first computers that connected the Internet.

While at the museum, it was a real thrill to meet Don Knuth, software pioneer who has taught so many programmers to program through his books. I got a chance to interview him in the software piece of the Revolutions exhibit and that’s in two parts: Part I, Part II.

Finally, Steve Wozniak gave us an earlier tour before the museum was finished to give us a look at some of the exhibits and what they meant to his life. After the tour I had a chat with him. Sorry for the poor audio, but in that piece we talk about early days at Apple.

Other press reports, with other interviews and tours are here:

CNET: A revolution at the Computer History Museum.
IEEE Spectrum: A Revolution at the Computer History Museum.
StarkInsider: Inside the $19M Computer History Museum renovation and “Revolution” exhibit.