The Computer History Museum, the world’s largest institution dedicated to preserving and presenting the artifacts and stories of the information age, announced today that it will participate in a joint project with the Web History Center and the Center’s other partners to preserve and make public the history of the World Wide Web.
Formed in March 2006, and now with offices at the Computer History Museum and Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Indiana, the Center’s mission is to identify and secure records from Web pioneers, companies, and other sources to preserve the Web's collective memory. The Center’s 10 institutional members include Stanford University Libraries, the Internet Archive, and the Charles Babbage Institute.
“The Web’s disappearing legacy holds valuable untapped innovations, as well as the records of one of the great social and cultural transformations of our time,” said Center co-founder Marc Weber; “With help from our partners we intend to share the stories and lessons of how this amazing development unfolded.”
“Web history is being made every day, and we’re losing important historical records faster than most anything we’ve seen. We still have an opportunity to preserve this history if key people and organizations work collaboratively in a focused way,” said John Toole, the Museum’s executive director and CEO.
Funded in part through a $100,000 donation from e-commerce pioneer CommerceNet, the Center’s initial project with the Museum will concentrate on the history of e-commerce.
THE COMPUTER HISTORY MUSEUM in Mountain View, California, a not-for-profit organization with a 25-year history as part of the former Boston Computer Museum, preserves and presents for posterity the artifacts and stories of the information age. Dedicated to exploring the social impact of computing, CHM’s diverse collection of computing-related objects is the largest and most significant in the world. For information about open hours, tours, exhibits, and events, visit www.computerhistory.org or call 650-810-1010. Admission is free.
THE WEB HISTORY CENTER is a non-profit corporation with offices at the Computer History Museum and at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Indiana. Co-founded by Marc Weber and William Pickett, its charter is to collect at-risk historical material, to serve as a facilitating organization for Web history as a field, and to encourage public and educational access to the Web’s history. Visit www.webhistory.org.
Marc Weber
marc@webhistory.org
(415) 282-6868
PR Team
pr@computerhistory.org
(650) 810-1059
