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Photos of Larryblakeley
http://www.royblakeley.name/larry_blakeley/larryblakeley_photos_jpeg.htm

(Contact Info: larry at larryblakeley dot com)

Important Note: You will need to click this icon to download the free needed to view most of the images on this Web site - just a couple of clicks and you're "good to go."

I manage this Web site and the following Web sites: Leslie (Blakeley) Adkins - my oldest daughter

Lori Ann Blakeley (June 20, 1985 - May 4, 2005) - my middle daughter

Evan Blakeley- my youngest child

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.

Not Just Another Museum

While I would say we are similar to the mother of all computing museums, the Computer History Museum, in that our goals are to preserve computer history a key difference would be in our somewhat non-museum approach, for example:

  1. We are a 'hands on' place where (at the risk to breaking them) folks come here, boot up the systems, load their software and relive some of their past.
  2. We are about capturing the artifacts in order to capture the stories. For example, when guests come our cameras roll so that we can document the people and their lives behind the machines and software. The machines serve as a memory palace facilitating the recalling of the times and lives of people, especially how they interconnected with other people. This focus on the interweaving of lives and who met who when and why is inspired by James Burkes' connections approach to history.
  3. The last thing is that we are a bit more whimsical than most museums. For example, we are plastering the walls and ceilings with 3,000 t-shirts because the t shirt is the symbol of nerd-dom and why not surround the museum visitor with it?

Bringing the Little Known Histories to Life

"Official" histories like you might see on "Triumph of the Nerds" leave out 99% of the real life and times, missing the rank and file folks who were hands-on building the industry rather than more well known industry leaders. So we now set about on the grand project of piecing together the little human histories of the birth of personal computing and of cyberspace from the bottom up. It is handy to have all of Silicon Valley just over the hill here, and we do get plenty of visitors. While these folks are still around and so handy we can capture some amazing stories.

So, feel free to read some of our stories, visit our online collections, explore our links, become a friend or visit us sometime or let us know about a dear old computer or other stuff for which you would like to find a home and make a donation. We are often asked if we are a non-profit corporation and for now the DigiBarn is remaining a private collection, although we are looking at establishing a non-profit foundation.

 

 

The Xerox Star 8010 "Dandelion" is one of the most significant introductions of any computer system. The DigiBarn museum has a special interest in the lineage of Xerox workstations but especially the Star - Viewpoint - Globalview series as these represented the most complete implementation of the "Desktop Metaphor" of any systems until the advent of mature Desktop graphical interfaces later on the Mac and PC/Unix/Linux in the 1990s. These systems were a full 15 years ahead of their time with sophisticated WYSIWYG document composition, built in Ethernet, email, scanning networked laser printing, development environments including Smalltalk, and much more. The Xerox workstations, while a commercial failure, occupy an important position in the lineage of visual computing systems.