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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Behind the Scenes, Internet History Program
The Other Internet, Part II: Cambridge to Kenya
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
With his clipped red hair, freckled ruddy skin, and open yet no-nonsense manner, Nick Hughes could play a British army officer in the movies. But this quietly effective former geologist is the architect of the world’s leading mobile payment system, one that has changed daily life in Kenya and offers a possible glimpse
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Behind the Scenes
Collecting Oral Histories: It Takes a Village (or a Museum)
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Oral histories have the capability of breathing life into inanimate objects. They can bridge gaps by providing introductions to otherwise unknown people, remote places, or obscure things. Most importantly, oral histories have the ability to merge and connect the past with the present, creating a lasting legacy for futu
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From the Collection
25 Years of Dataquest
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
If you were a senior executive in the Semiconductor Industry in the 1970s, 80s, and into the 1990s, you attended the annual Dataquest Industry Conference. Dataquest conferences, newsletters, industry reports and market data were the most widely attended, most thoroughly read, and the most frequently quoted of all the i
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Curatorial Insights
Suffering for Science
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Curatorial Insight
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Curatorial Insights
Why Software is Eating, and Changing, the World
Friday, December 7, 2012
The writer and futurist Arthur C. Clarke said, “The Information Age offers much to mankind... But it is vital to remember that information — in the sense of raw data — is not knowledge, that knowledge is not wisdom, and that wisdom is not foresight. But information is the first essential step to all of these.”
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From the Collection
If it moves, it should be Ruggednova
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Warfare has been a rich source of technological innovation as long as humans have roamed the Earth. It isn’t much of a surprise then that from early electronic analog and digital computers, to integrated circuits, and programming languages, electronics and computing have been developed in concert with military needs.
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Curatorial Insights
Gulliver’s Engine
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Sometimes, we can look back at fictional items from the days before the computer and see threads to machines that would exist decades, or even centuries later. When the museum opened Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing, a visitor pointed out that we didn’t mention what they considered to be the earliest descr
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Curatorial Insights
Guinness World Records Day
Thursday, November 15, 2012
November 15th marks Guinness World Records Day, a day when Guinness challenges the world at large to break as many records as possible within a 24-hour period. In honor of Guinness’s Day, here are 10 amazing Guinness World Records related to computer history.
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Behind the Scenes, Internet History Program
The Other Internet Part 1: Masai Mara
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
“Yes, we buy cattle with M-Pesa on our mobile phones. It is far more secure than carrying cash.”George is sitting on a folding stool and wearing his tribe’s full traditional dress, a mix of loosely wrapped bright red and purple and pink plaids – as well as fluorescent beaded jewelry – that can make the Day-Glo acid col
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Curatorial Insights
Have you got a prediction for us, UNIVAC?
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
The year 2012 marks another step in a familiar quadrennial cycle. A cycle culminating in an event that demands global attention and that has people in awe of the amount of effort and money spent to ensure that the competitors reach their peak with meticulous timing. I am not talking about the 2012 Summer Olympic Games