CHM Blog
The CHM blog showcases ideas and insights from our vibrant community in Silicon Valley and around the world. We take you behind the scenes of our programming, collections, and exhibits. Connecting the past to the present and into the future, we decode technology for everyone.
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CHM Live, Exponential Center
The Valley and the “Swamp”: Big Government in the History of Silicon Valley
Thursday, October 10, 2019
O’Mara describes post-WWII Silicon Valley as an “entrepreneurial Galapagos,” a region developing in some isolation on the West Coast with very distinctive species of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, law firms, marketing firms, and research universities.
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Museum News
Rediscovering the Core: A New Identity for CHM
Thursday, September 26, 2019
As this work starts to get rolled out, the system aligns with where CHM stands today—an authoritative institution deeply grounded in history, but one that aims to surpass its original intent, one that actively seeks to find new connections and grow far beyond its walls.
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Curatorial Insights
Silicon Chips Take Man to the Moon
Wednesday, July 17, 2019
This is the story of these people, deeply involved in “work to put him there,” and how a decision to employ this unproven technology, criticized at the time as reckless, helped to launch the integrated circuit as an essential building block of today's digital world.
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CHM Live, Exponential Center
Play Like a Girl: How Women Investors Succeed in Silicon Valley
Monday, July 1, 2019
Thirty years ago, no one thought we’d still be talking about discrimination, gender bias, and sexual harassment in 2019. Unfortunately, we are. Changing cultural norms takes time. What can women who thrive in the competitive, male-dominated world of Silicon Valley venture capital teach us in the meantime? Plenty.
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Exponential Center
West Meets West: West Virginia Comes to Silicon Valley
Friday, June 21, 2019
Over two days at the Computer History Museum, West Virginia student entrepreneurs and faculty were guided through activities that provided them with insights into what has made Silicon Valley a magnet for innovation for decades and how they could apply insights to their own future careers as entrepreneurs in West Virgi
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CHM Live, Exponential Center
Players Take the Field: Silicon Valley Leaders Share How Coach Bill Campbell Helped Them Succeed
Thursday, June 6, 2019
On April 26, 2019, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki moderated a panel discussion with longtime Google leaders Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, and Alan Eagle to reveal the leadership strategies of “Coach” Bill Campbell, as captured in their new book, Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley's Bill Ca
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Curatorial Insights, Internet History Program
“Woodstock of the Web” at 25
Friday, May 24, 2019
2019 is a year of many web and networking anniversaries, or “netiversaries” to continue using an awful word. This year marks the 50th anniversary of general purpose computer networks. That first connection was over the ARPANET, between Douglas Engelbart’s laboratory at SRI and another node at UCLA. Such networks were b
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Curatorial Insights
It’s a Good Year for Asparagus: Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Celebrates 50 Years As an Independent Computer Chip Supplier
Wednesday, May 1, 2019
On May 1, 2019, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) is set to celebrate its 50th anniversary as an important supplier of advanced semiconductor devices. AMD's survival as the only Silicon Valley computer chip manufacturer other than Intel to reach its golden anniversary as an independent company is an extraordinary achievemen
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From the Collection, Software History Center
Math Miracles for Missileers: The Aerospace Industry, Computer Programming, and the Rise of IBM
Friday, April 26, 2019
Robert W. “Bob” Bemer - who worked at Lockheed's Missile Systems Division in Van Nuys and who would become its IBM 650's power user - carefully cut out the article and placed it into a scrapbook. In 2018, through its Access to Historical Records grant from the National Archives' National Publications and Records Commis
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Exponential Center
Blazing a Trail: Venture Capital Pioneers Reflect on the Industry
Wednesday, April 17, 2019
On March 28, 2019, in an event jointly sponsored by the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and the Computer History Museum (CHM), venture capital trailblazers William Draper III, C. Richard Kramlich, and Franklin “Pitch” Johnson discussed the highlights and challenges of their long careers and legendary firms.