2017 C O RE A Publication of The Forces of Change in the Transformation Age the Computer Making Make Software: Change the World! History Museum Designing a New Space for Learning Cover: Make Software: Change the World! exhibition This page: Brain MRIs. THIS ISSUE MUSEUM UPDATES 2 4 8 12 28 66 Contributors The Forces of Launching Introducing the Center Software Everywhere Recent Artifact 3 Change in the Exponential: A Center for Software History Donations Transformation Age For Entrepreneurship CEO’s Letter 18 68 and Innovation New Shustek Center Ray and Meredith Promotes Acquisitions, Rothrock Archives, and Access 69 Museum Donors C O RE 2017 50 4 22 26 52 The Forces of Change in the Designing a New Space Make Software: Research & Insights @CHM Transformation Age for Learning Change the World! Research conducted by the As computing continues to Opening in fall 2017, CHM’s new Preview CHM’s newest major ex- Museum illuminates the trans- impact our world at an unprec- 3,000-square-foot Education hibition, Make Software: Change formation of computing in the edented rate, CHM fi nds itself in Center will house the Museum’s the World!, with an introduction world through careful analysis a unique position as both a story- extensive slate of educational by David C. Brock and a candid and interpretation. Gain unique teller of this epic saga and as an offerings, from K–12 workshops look at the exhibition’s fi ve-year insights into this transformation institution in the midst of its own to programs for business leaders development by Kirsten Tashev. with articles by CHM’s John growth. Learn more as John C. and young entrepreneurs. Go Discover select artifacts and im- Markoff, Marc Weber, and Hollar defi nes the Transforma- behind the scenes with Lauren agery from the exhibition’s seven Hansen Hsu. tion Age in parallel to the current Silver as she talks design, plan- galleries and see examples of OPPOSITE: PHOTO BY KEN GLASER VIA MEDIA BAKERY OPPOSITE: PHOTO expansion underway at CHM. ning, and implementation of the interactive activities in our CHM’s new learning space. Stata Family Software Lab. COMPUTER HISTORY MUSEUM 1 CONTRIBUTORS Editor-in-Chief John C. Hollar Managing Editor Jennifer De La Cruz Executive Editors Carina Sweet DAVID C. David C. Brock is an historian of technology and Kirsten Tashev director of the Center for Software History at the BROCK Computer History Museum. Specializing in oral his- Contributors tory, his books include Thackray, Brock, and Jones, Andrew Berger DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR SOFTWARE HISTORY Moore’s Law: The Life of Gordon Moore, Silicon David C. Brock Valley’s Quiet Revolutionary (Basic Books, 2015) Elena Colón-Marrero Stephanie Corrigan and Lécuyer and Brock, Makers of the Microchip: Chris Garcia A Documentary History of Fairchild Semiconductor mit 2010 Marguerite Gong ( Press, ). Hancock John C. Hollar Hansen Hsu Hansen Hsu is curator of the Center for Software HANSEN Karen Kroslowitz History at the Computer History Museum. Hsu David Laws 1999–2005 os x HSU worked at Apple from on Mac as John Markoff qa p d CURATOR, CENTER FOR a engineer. He received a h in science and Pamela Gesme Miller SOFTWARE HISTORY technology studies from Cornell in 2015, studying Jon Plutte the culture and values of the Mac and iPhone Emily Routman developer community. Lauren Silver Dag Spicer Kirsten Tashev JOHN Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist John Markoff Marc Weber joined the Computer History Museum as an Design MARKOFF historian in 2017, after nearly three decades as Studio1500 a technology writer for the New York Times. His AUTHOR & HISTORIAN books include What the Dormouse Said: How Photography the Sixties Counterculture Shaped the Personal Douglas Fairbairn Computer Industry (2005) and Machines of Loving Photography Grace: The Quest for Common Ground between Studio Dizon Humans and Robots (2015). KIRSTEN Kirsten Tashev, vice president of Collections & Exhibitions, led the development of Make Software: © 2017 Computer History TASHEV Change the World! from its inception in 2011. She Museum. The Museum is a nonprofi t 501(c)(3) VICE PRESIDENT OF directs the Museum’s exhibitions as well as the organization. All artwork is EXHIBITIONS & COLLECTIONS curatorial, collections management, and media copyright of the Computer teams. She has played a key role in the Museum’s History Museum unless strategic development since joining in 2000. otherwise credited. For reprints and permissions, contact core@computer history.org. Subscriptions MARC Marc Weber is founder and curatorial director of the are a member benefi t. This Computer History Museum’s Internet History Pro- issue of Core is available at WEBER gram. He pioneered web history as a topic starting computerhistory.org/core. Address changes and other in 1995 with crucial help from Tim Berners-Lee and CURATORIAL DIRECTOR, written correspondence INTERNET HISTORY PROGRAM other early developers, and co-founded two of the may be sent to: Computer fi rst organizations in the fi eld. Weber writes, speaks, History Museum, Public and consults widely on the history of the online world. Relations, or emailed to [email protected]. 2 CORE 2017 INSIDE THE CEO’S TRANSFORMATIONLETTER When Francis Ford Coppola agreed to accept as an element of computing’s story. Both centers Paramount Pictures’ offer to write and direct The focus not only on what happened and what Godfather in the early 1970s, he painstakingly matters, but also on the people at the center of cut the pages out of Mario Puzo’s epic novel and that change. pasted them into a large, blank notebook. He an- In January 2017, we opened a new $7 million notated each page to produce the screenplay and exhibition, Make Software: Change the World!, the shooting script, and, from that text, Coppola which brings many of these stories to life by distilled the story down to a one-word theme: examining software’s impact through the lens of succession. He later said that he believed every seven iconic applications in use around the world. great project benefi ted from such focus and an Make Software opened to great public acclaim easily understood theme. and will anchor the west wing of our Shoreline In this issue of Core, you may discern a similar building for years to come. focus, and a similar theme: transformation. We Adjacent to Make Software, a new multimil- have focused on transformation on two levels. lion-dollar Education Center is taking shape. The fi rst is the transformation computing is When completed, it will give our rapidly growing bringing to the world. Hardly any aspect of the education programs a permanent state-of-the-art world’s economy, technological progress, social home. It will also be equipped from end to end fabric, or political change is immune from com- with the technology necessary to take our pro- puting’s reach. In turn, computing has unleashed grams out to the world and to bring the world to one of the greatest periods of creativity in human our community of learners. history. The story is epic, ongoing, and accelerat- All of this is made possible by a legion of do- ing. It’s a challenging time for the Computer nors, our wonderful Board of Trustees, our staff, History Museum (chm), and yet also a time of and our volunteer corps. They are the beating exhilaration and heightening public interest. heart of our transformation. It’s a privilege for The second level of transformation, I’m happy me to present their work to you in this issue of to say, is a major change in the Museum as an Core. I hope you enjoy it. institution. We are well into a $30 million cam- paign that is transforming chm on every level. Yours sincerely, We have opened a new Center for Software History to tell the continuing story of code’s im- pact on the world—and to preserve and extend our world-class archive of operating systems, applications, and other creations by some of computing’s greatest minds. Alongside that center, we’ve opened Exponential, a new center focusing JOHN C. HOLLAR on the history and impact of entrepreneurship PRESIDENT & CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER COMPUTER HISTORY MUSEUM 3 CCHMHM THE FOFORR OF CHCHA IN THE TRANSFORM 4 CORE 2017 BY JOHN C. HOLLAR PRESIDENT & CEO The challenge and opportunity for CHM in the future HUMAN PROGRESS HU is this: the Information Age is ending, and the Trans- formation Age is beginning. If we assign a one-word theme to the next strategic phase for the Museum, “transformation” is that word. TIME We live in a transformational era: the era when computing raced from nonexistent to ubiquitous. The transformation is technological, economic, and societal. It is universal, for the computing tools that enable transformation are now within reach of ev- eryone on Earth. The resulting forces of change are permanent, and they are accelerating. Science shows that these forces will continue to accelerate far into the future as Moore’s Law drives the capacity of computing at an inexorable, exponential rate. And because of computing’s ubiquity, we are all part of the transformation now. Measured against the span of recorded human his- tory, the transformation has happened in the blink of an eye. Because of its pace, its historical roots are not widely understood. Its key lessons are essential to know, but also still emerging and not commonly RRCCEES shared. Its relentless acceleration can make its un- derlying principles hard to grasp and interpret. The implications for the future—economic, technical, societal, positive, negative—are a mere outline on the horizon. In this context, the work required of the Museum is not simple. For two decades, however, we have believed it to be work worth doing.