Edinburgh Computer History Project
Welcome to the Edinburgh Computer History Project.
Conference/Reunion Event Information Pack
Last edited: Friday 8th June
[A printable copy of this document can be found here], and a version suitable for use as [an information pack for registered attendees is hosted at Google Docs.]
The event will be on the 27th through the 29th of June in Edinburgh.
The Edinburgh Computer History Project is primarily about saving the pioneering computer work done at Edinburgh in the 60's and 70's; and giving that work the global publicity it may not have received at the time. We've collected a lot of important early code - operating systems, language implementations, various applications - and they're all online in our archive.
If you came to this page through the link in Edit, and have only recently
found out about the combined reunion/conference event, here's what it's all about:
On Wednesday 27th June, we'll be hanging out at our "Base Camp" on the
6th floor of Appleton tower where we will give you the chance to see if any of your
old files from when you were at Edinburgh are still around, in various
archives that we have access to. There will also be some old systems
for you to play with, and if you could possibly bring with you any old
source code or documentation listings, we'll scan as much of it as we
can to add to the group's archives. Our Base Camp room will be available throughout the entire event
as a place to hang out between sessions.
For folks who were not at Edinburgh, here's a map of the George Square area showing Appleton Tower:
We'll supply some voice recorders if you want to record your chats about the old days and put them on tape for later podcasting; we'll have a big screen and a projector, and we'll try to have a video chat with any expats who were not able to come in person. We also want to use the time to encourage the people who were actually there to definitively update the Wikipedia pages of items concerning Edinburgh (such as the pages on EMAS, Imp etc).
There will be a constant supply of snacks and we expect people to drop in and out all day long. If there's anyone specific you want to meet up with and go out for lunch or a pint with, Wednesday is the day to do it as your day is unscheduled. Look on it as an extended registration period. Some people might travel to Edinburgh on the 26th, but if you travel on the 27th and don't check in with us until the late afternoon or early evening, that's OK too. We may stay later but we'll definitely be in Appleton until 7pm. Pick up your name badge while you're here as we'll be using that as your ticket to get into the Thursday evening dinner.
At 6pm on Wednesday there will be a lecture by Daniel Dennett on the subject of Science and Free Will - this isn't one of our events but it is fortuitously timed and I think nearby. Because this isn't part of our conference, you do need to register via this online form, however registration is free.
On Thursday, we'll be attending the Jamboree events organised by Informatics, including the prestigious Milner Lecture, and a special presentation by our group member Donald Michie on the history of the various departments which came to be merged under the name of Informatics.
Thursday evening is our group dinner; we've received sponsorship for the dinner and it'll be much nicer than you might expect from the small £12.50 registration fee we're asking for the whole event.
On Friday morning we will be giving talks on the subject of "Lessons From The Past", in one of the Appleton Tower lecture theatres. With the speakers' permission, we'll video the talks and put them online after the conference as video podcasts (Oops, sorry Apple's Lawyers, I meant video netcasts) - probably hosted on one of the big servers like YouTube or Google Video. Confirmed speakers so far include:
- Chris Whitfield & Peter Robertson
- Tommy Thomas
- Austin Tate
- Jeff Tansley
- Nick Shelness
- Gordon Brebner
The rest of the AGM will take the form of various round-table discussions on subjects affecting what we do in the group over the coming year, such as planning a new web site, perhaps a restoration project and some operating system emulations. Everyone is welcome even if you've not been active in our group as there will be subjects of interest to everyone. We hope to record some of the discussions for use as podcasts, if the participants agree.
We also will be given a tour of the new Informatics building next door to Appleton Tower. I'm told it's quite impressive. By the time we arrive, the old machine halls in JCMB (beautifully designed by group member John Ellenby) will be completely cleared
Friday evening is our farewell dance organised by Hamish Dewar, so that ought to be pretty lively. It will start off (relatively early) at 7pm with a Ceilidh. The band is the renouned "Freeland Barbour and The Occasionals".
It's important that if you're coming, you register for the event using this online form - we need to know numbers for the meals and names for badges etc, so please register right now! After you've registered (which is free) there will be an opportunity to pay the registration fee by credit card on a separate form. You can come back and do the payment form later if you need to. If you're bringing a guest, you may need to go to that form a second time because last time I looked at it, it didn't have an option for paying for multiple people.
We have a provisional Programme of Events which I'm updating with our final list of speakers right now and will be adding a few more new activities. I'll embed it in this page as soon as it is finalised.
One last thing I'ld like to ask you to do after you've registered; we have
an online community hosted at Yahoo where we work on recovering the
prioneering software written in Edinburgh in the 60's and 70's (and
to a lesser extent, the 80's). The earlier work is more important to
save now because the media that most of it is on is likely to degrade,
whereas later software is probably copied all over the place as people
had home computers and email accounts by then.
Several people have decided in just the last few days to fly over from the US
so it isn't too late to book a flight, and of course it's a lot easier if
you're already in Britain. I believe it is still possible to book a room
using the Edinburgh First organisation (a commercial University spin-off)
and they seem to have the best prices in town compared to the hotels I
checked out. I'll be staying at the Warrender Park Crescent facility and I would
be delighted to meet up with other attendees there.
Here's a map of central Edinburgh that may help, especially if you're staying
at one of the Edinburgh First locations or are visiting someone who is:
Here's a downloadable route map of the Edinburgh (LRT) buses
and of particular interest is the stop labelled "H" (Potterrow) which is closest to
Appletown Tower. I see that the buses numbered 2, 41, and 42 stop there. Also
anyone flying in may not need a rental car as there's a good and cheap shuttle
from the airport every 10 minutes - so be wary of other bus companies
and taxis when you're at the airport, you could end up paying way too much.
Graham Toal
PS the official university pages for the event are here:
http://www.edinburghcampaign.com/News/View.aspx?PageID=227&id=237
http://www.edinburghcampaign.com/News/View.aspx?PageID=246&id=223
http://www.edinburghcampaign.com/Network/Clubs/Info.aspx?PageID=180&id=110
We've been warned that it's unlikely we'll be able to get all day parking in the Appleton Tower area, and the
recommendation is to come in to the central area by public transport. (Although I suspect that
this will not apply to anyone with a disabled parking permit)