MyLifeBits - an Experiment in Lifetime Storage

A special seminar hosted by the Faculty of Information Technology, Monash Museum of Computing History, COSI and Monash University e-Research Centre with guest speaker, Gordon Bell, was held on 17 April at Monash Caulfield.

Gordon Bell spoke about his latest work in developing the MyLifeBits project which is an experiment in using multimedia to record every aspect of his daily life. This includes everything he has accumulated, written, photographed and presented. The digital world has presented us all with a vast amount of ephemera. The MyLifeBits project seeks to record these in a personal transaction processing database.

Gordon has a long career in the computing industry starting with 23 years (1960-1983) at Digital Equipment Corporation as Vice President of Research and Development, where he was responsible for Digital's products. He was the architect of various mini- and time-sharing computers (e.g. the PDP-6) and led the development of DEC's VAX and the VAX Computing Environment. Currently Gordon is a principal researcher in Microsoft Research Silicon Valley, working in the San Francisco Laboratory.

Gordon also gave a workshop on “building computer museums” for supporters of the Monash Museum of Computing History (MMoCH). Gordon started the Computer History Museum when he was working at Digital Equipment Corporation and realized that the history of computing needed to be preserved. The Computer History Museum is now housed in Silicon Valley, California. Gordon spoke about his involvement with establishing the Museum and guiding it through its various stages of development.

For more information about the Monash Museum of Computing History (MMoCH), see http://www.infotech.monash.edu.au/about/projects/museum/

New Display at the Monash Museum

After the events held on 17 April a new Museum exhibit was launched which acknowledged David Abramson's work at Monash, along with Prof John Rosenberg, ex FIT Dean. See http://www.infotech.monash.edu.au/about/news/archive/2008/news-computing-museum.html