the web history center dr. bill pickett presented at the ndiipp conference washington, d.c. june...
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The Web History Center
Dr. Bill Pickett
Presented at the NDIIPP conferenceWashington, D.C.
June 2009
Our Goal:
Create permanent public access to the sights, sounds, documents and programs that chronicle the origins and ongoing evolution of the World Wide Web
The World Wide Web has transformed the ways we use, store, and communicate information, with a societal impact possibly as large as that of Gutenberg’s printing press half a millennium ago.
The WWW with seemingly limitless possibilities continues to evolve and expand.
Yet much of its history is being discarded, and nobody has systematically tried to save it . . . . . . until now,
The Web History Center aspires to preserve the learning and relevance of early Web development as an educational resource to support future Web use and development.
Know the Past. Invent the Future.
Why Preserve Web History?
Posterity: so that our descendants may understand their own history
Pioneers: because those who have made history deserve appropriate recognition
Progress: so that Web pioneers of tomorrow can learn from those today
Protection: to establish and clarify intellectual property rights and avoid costly patent suits; to help firms leverage their own past accomplishments
What We Do
Preserve: Collect at-risk historical materials from pioneers, distribute them to our archiving members for preservation
Make Public: Make material public through our wiki timelines, and through events and exhibits with our members
Collaborate: work with members to develop ways for the Web to record its own ongoing history, and to establish educational problems
Who We Are
Many of today’s leading experts and institutions in the field:
Pioneers of the Web and the history of technology
Twelve institutional members
Two host institutions: the Computer History Museum (CA) Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (IN)
Representatives U.S., England, France, Switzerland
We are growing…with your help
Our growth depends on new membersMembership Qualifications
• A commitment to preservation & public access
• Active & ongoing participation in the WHC Advisory Board
Members include:
• Web pioneers
• Historians & archivists
• Museums, universities, research institutes
• Corporations
The Host Institutions
Rose-Hulman Institute
of Technology
Computer History Museum
Institutional Members
Stanford University Libraries – History of Science and Technologies
Collections
The Internet Archive
The International World Wide Web Conference Committee
Charles Babbage Institute
Rose- Hulman Institute of Technology
CommerceNet
The Computer History Museum
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
SRI International
Digibarn
Center for History and New Media, George Mason University
University of Maryland – Dot-Com Archive and Business Plan Archive
What Members Are Contributing
We will protect and make public materials collected by members, including: E-Commerce history, WWW conference history – papers, data,
and oral histories (Web History Center) Nearly all HTML pages since 1995 (Internet Archive) Video histories with pioneers – over 100 from 1995-2007 (Marc
Weber) Invention and very early development of the Web (private
collections) Virtual worlds (Digibarn) Douglas Engelbart’s visionary work in hypertext and
networking (Stanford, SRI) History of Mozilla (Center for History and New Media) Dot-com boom and crash (University of Maryland) The Web comes to America (SLAC)
We are currently working on…
Curated Wiki timelines capturing the history of: e-Commerce International World Wide Web Conference Series Virtual worlds
A federated archive to let users seamlessly call up multimedia material from any member’s collection
Events and exhibits with members: November 7 2007, internetworking anniversary with Vint Cerf
and Bob Kahn CommerceNet reunion, fall 2007
How Can You Help?
Let us know about historic materials, especially if “at risk”. Ask your friends to do the same!
Encourage your colleagues, company or institution to join
Get involved: Share subject matter expertise Help us recruit board members and advisors
Identify donors and corporate funding opportunities Help us build infrastructure and sustainability Suggest a sponsor for our Education Center…
a highly visible naming opportunity ($5M - $12M level)
The Web History Centerhttp:webhistory.org
Dr. William B. PickettCo-founder and HistorianWeb History CenterRose-Hulman Ventures100 S Campus Dr. PO #3799Terre Haute, IN 47803USA
Phone: (+1) 651-207-4243Fax: (+1) 812.244.4178