Author Archives: mehopper

Countdown

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A lot is going on as Digital Den enters the final week of the fundraising campaign!

First, it was a beautiful day at SwapFest on September 15th where a lot of people stopped by to express their interest and support for the idea of a new computer museum in the area… and yes, that really was a Gemini Capsule for sale in the space next to ours!
SwapFest

The Indiegogo campaign also debuted on Page 2 of the Final Countdown in Technology!
Check it out & notice a new Sponsor Special of $500 has been added :-)
http://igg.me/at/Digital-Den

We’ve also had some great media coverage…
Digital Den: Cambridge museum preserves tech history (Erin Baldassari, Cambridge Chronicle, Sep 06, 2013)

A passion to preserve the digital past (Hiawatha Bray, Boston Globe, Aug. 31, 2013)
Cambridge museum aims to preserve digital history (Video, Aug. 30, 2013)

Apple II Bits: A computer history museum returns to Boston (Ken Gagne, Sept. 2, 2013)

Finally, mark your calendars…
Digital-Den’s Next Public Hours will be Sat., Sept. 21st, noon – 2 pm at Met. Storage

Best of all, there will be two great events back to back Sun., Oct. 20th!
Computer Arcade Exhibits Demo, 5 pm – 7 pm ($25)
Launch Party with Special Guests & Announcement, 7 pm – 9 pm ($50)
Full details will only be sent via email to contributors through the Indiegogo campaign site.
Adult beverages will be served. Space is limited and there will be no admission at the door.
These events are going to be great fun, so reserve your place today!
http://igg.me/at/Digital-Den

Events!

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Ok, great news — the date and time for the 1st Exhibit and Launch Party are here!

Both events will be held on the evening of Sunday, October 20th in Cambridge, MA.
The 1st Exhibit will be held from 5-7 pm while the Launch Party will follow from 7-9 pm.

The events will be held in the same space, but they will be quite different.
The 1st Exhibit will be a fun demonstration of the Computer Arcade concept.
Meanwhile, there will be a special announcement made during the Launch Party!
Adult beverages will be available during both events.

Space is LIMITED and there will be NO admission at the door.

The exact location and schedule will be sent in invitations via email to those who have contributed to the Indiegogo campaign (invitations will go out sometime after Sept. 23rd).

An invitation to the 1st Exhibit can be obtained through a $25 contribution.
An invitation to the Launch Party can be obtained through a $50 contribution.
An invitation to both events can be obtained through a $100 contribution.

Reserve your place at the events today and share the news!
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/digital-den-org

LCM Visit!

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Coming to you from Seattle…

The visit to the Living Computer Museum (LCM) yesterday was fantastic!

The LCM team took turns sharing an intense and fascinating behind the scenes perspective on their journey from starting out as Paul Allen’s personal vintage computer collection to becoming the full-fledged “living computer museum” that they are today.
LCM-Taylor
Expert tour guide Taylor Earnhardt demonstrates a functioning PDP 8/e

Here’s a link to a video featuring Taylor Earnhardt explaining more about the LCM (start: 11:30 end: 13:50): http://www.seattlechannel.org/videos/video.asp?ID=3071316&file=1

There is no doubt that Digital Den should aspire to follow in their footsteps as it evolves in the coming years. If you are ever in Seattle, you should definitely take the time to go visit.

Finally, mark your calendars!

Digital Den will have a table at the next MIT SwapFest on Sept. 15th.
If you attend, please stop by and say hi!

There will also be public hours Sat., Sept. 14th and Sat., Sept. 21st from 11 am to 2 pm.

Thanks to everyone for your continued support!!!

Updates

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What a great weekend it has been!!!

Hiawatha Bray’s excellent story in the Boston Globe brought a lot of positive attention to what we’re doing. For those of you who missed it or couldn’t see the first link, here’s a link to see the full story online: http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2013/08/30/passion-preserve-digital-past/LMt5L7Jj6Gfl6GJsLw45IK/story.html

The IndieGogo fund-raising campaign also rose all the way to the 6th page of the Technology section by the end of the day on Sunday. Thank you so much to everyone who contributed, “liked” and “shared” — it REALLY helped! A little bit more activity on the campaign and things should get very interesting…
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/digital-den-org

We also held open hours, and quite a few people stopped by to say hi and find out more. It was great meeting everyone, and we look forward to seeing you all again in the future.

open-house
Young guest played with everything from BASIC on an Apple II+ to a new Mindwave

Watch for an update next week after after the visit to the Living Computer Museum.
http://www.livingcomputermuseum.org/

Finally, mark your calendars, Digital Den will have a table at the next MIT SwapFest on Sept. 16th. If you attend, please stop by and say hi! http://w1mx.mit.edu/flea-at-mit

Thank you to everyone and have a great, safe end to your long Labor Day weekend!

-Digital Den

Progress!

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Good news! We are starting to see the impact of the Boston Globe article on the IndieGogo campaign! Digital Den had moved up to page 7 of the Technology “Popular Now” category as of Sunday morning.

It should only take a few more donations and other types of activity (shares, likes) to move up to the top few pages where campaigns get the kinds of attention that lead to success in IndieGogo.

Spread the word and thank you for your continued support!

Boston Globe!

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Hey!

Check out the Boston Globe for Saturday, August 31 (also some on Boston.com)
We are the featured story in the Business Section of the print version today!

Here are links to what you can see online:
Top Page of the Business Section, Featured Story w/ Picture
http://www.boston.com/business/?p1=GN_Business

Actual Business/Technology Section/Story
http://www.boston.com/business/technology/2013/08/30/passion-preserve-the-digital-past/XeBkfMflB4SDh8ThcTgEVK/story.html

There’s a video today, Too!
http://www.boston.com/business/technology/video/

Thank you so much to all of you who have helped!
-Mary & The Rest of the Digital Den Team!

Community

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Digital Den is by no means a lone effort — there is a wonderful, growing community of supporters who are pitching in to provide all kinds of help.

On Wednesday, August 21st Bob Lawler visited all the way from Wisconsin and brought along some computers and software that will be key for creating the Children’s Machine exhibit in the fall.

dr-bob
Dr. Bob proudly shows the functioning TI-99/4A he has loaned Digital Den

There’s a functioning Apple IIe along with many TI-99 Sprite boards that make it possible to run Sprite Logo, two functioning TI-99/4A systems with a TI Logo cartridge and a Toshiba Home Computer HX 21 that runs a version of Japanese Logo.

On Saturday, August 24th we went to visit a wonderful (anonymous) friend who is willing to loan us the computers and software that will greatly expand the current archive and ultimately make a more traditional computer museum a real possibility. Here is a video that shows just a small fraction of the computers in his vast collection.

We returned from the trip with an SE (in a backpack :-)) and two iMacs (G3 & G4).

Then on Sunday, August 25th we headed down to visit the great folks at the Rhode Island Computer Museum. Dan, Mike and Alex took turns giving us a tour and explaining the amazing collection. For example, here is a fun snapshot of the old Boston Computer Society’s banner.

BCS-Banner

In this video, Mike Thompson explains the restoration of a PDP-9 to Mary Hopper.

If you are interested in learning more, there is extensive information about this project on the RICM’s web site and YouTube channel.

http://www.ricomputermuseum.org/
http://www.youtube.com/user/RIComputerMuseum

The folks at RICM also generously loaned us an Apple IIc, a Headstart 386 PC and a SideWinder Game Pad as well as huge bin of software.

All in all, it was a fun week visiting with both old and new friends.

Stay tuned, because there’s a lot of things coming up on the near horizon.

Don’t forget there are going to be public hours over Labor Day weekend:
Thurs., August 29th -Sun., September 1st, 11 am – 3 pm

Please stop by and say hi!

Also, Mary Hopper will be going to visit Living Computer Museum in Seattle on Thursday, September 5th, so watch for a post about that shortly after her return.

Finally, don’t forget to support the Indiegogo campaign and spread the word to all of the computer history fans in the Boston/Cambridge area!  http://igg.me/at/Digital-Den

It’s Alive!

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The Indiegogo crowd-funding campaign is live!   http://igg.me/at/Digital-Den

Please help root for Digital-Den to succeed at putting the Boston/Cambridge
area back on the computer museum map! Here’s what you can do…

1. We could use as many $5 thumbs up as we can get.
2. Of course, full donations are certainly welcome too.
3. Likes on the campaign page are really great because
    they raise the rating of the campaign on Indiegogo.
4. Spreading the word is the most valuable thing of all —
    Indiegogo has some built in sharing tools to help :-)

Also, the next public hours are going to be held Labor Day Weekend:
11 am – 3 pm Thursday, August 29th through Sunday, September 1st
Please stop by, say hello, play with some of the collections,
and share ideas on how to help Digital Den succeed!

One Month

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It has been an exciting and productive first month at Digital Den. A lot has happened and more is on the way. Here are just some of the highlights:

This web site is taking shape.
The initial archive is setup. More…
The first Public Preview was held on August 25th-27th.
The Leap and Mindwave arrived and are ready for hands-on play visitors to the archive.
The Indiegogo crowd-funding campaign is getting ready to launch August 12th.
Development on the first three exhibits is underway. More…
Sites are under consideration for the Extreme Experience exhibit. More…

Finally, and most importantly, there have been many connections to new friends and old, and the advisers’ support has been particularly valuable and encouraging during this early start-up phase.

August is going to be even more exciting. There will be more open hours scheduled on afternoons from Thursday August 29th through September 1st, and other hours and events will be announced in the coming weeks. Of course, as always, if you are interested in visiting the archive and don’t want to wait for the posted public hours, feel free to contact Mary Hopper at mehopper@mehopper.net to schedule coffee and a visit.

Cheers!
Mary