DigIBarn.com Santa Cruz Mtn, CA personal online museum of computers
Title
The DigiBarn Computer Museum
Description
The DigiBarn Computer Museum seeks to capture personal stories and track technological evolution through a large collection of vintage computer systems, manuals, videos, interviews, and other fossil relics of the "Cambrian explosion" of personal computing that ignited in 1975. When we get visitors who "burst into tears" upon seeing certain systems which may have defined their lives and careers, our cameras roll to capture the inevitable stories. Thus the interconnected redwood rooms of the museum constitute a kind of "memory palace" for the nerd-inclined and help us piece together the amazing story of the invention of personal computing and Cyberspace. It is my fantasy to one day "get professional help" (ie: a foundation grant or other philanthropic support) and really have the resources to fully document the people and their inventions, and thereby capture the true essence of this time in history. If you are interested and able to provide such support, please don't hesitate to contact me.
The DigiBarn is a ninety plus years old barn constructed of old growth redwood that is part of the original "Ancient Oaks Ranch", a 19th century farmstead nestled deep in the Santa Cruz Mountains of Northern California. Serving six generations of families on the farm as a livestock barn for horses, chickens, hogs, peacocks and at one point housing an apple cider press, the DigiBarn was extensively remodeled by the Kriz family from approximately 1968 to 1998. The Kriz's extended the structure, back-built a concrete foundation and developed the upstairs hay loft into three rooms. In May of 1998, your host, Bruce Damer, offered to buy the ranch and this transaction consummated in August of 1998. Initially not knowing what to do with 5,000 square feet of pretty fine space, Bruce and his partner Ms. Galen Brandt used the barn for storage and some company functions for their firm DigitalSpace Corporation. Bruce christened the Ancient Oaks Ranch the "Digital Garden" in keeping with its more high tech garden mission. Thus the barn became the DigiBarn. In March of 2001, two pigs moved into the downstairs stalls and one piglet was born that June (surviving out of an initial litter of five). They are great gatekeepers for the museum and complement it with their incessant binary language of grunts (see the pig family above).
On March 2, 2001, my friend Jake Bowman and I took time out from the CONTACT conference at NASA Ames Research Center to visit the Computer History Museum across the street. This was a very exciting visit for me and stimulated the olde neurons into action that these old systems and their history was truly intriguing.
Contact
- Digitalspace Corporation
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- Santa Cruz CA
- United States 95062
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- NA
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