VCF MW 2010 - The SIG
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VCF MW 2010 - The SIG |
by Bill Degnan - 09/06/2010 22:09 |
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My exhibit for the Vintage Computer Festival will be titled:
The SIG The computer hobbyist special interest group, or "SIG", became prevelent in the later 1970's as the original homebrew computer clubs fragmented into smaller groups. These groups comprised of like-minded persons dedicated to a particular computer system or manufacturer, but there was often less of a focus on hardware or the computer engineering process that had dominated earlier groups. These SIGS sometimes broke off completely from their parent group to form their own independent clubs. Whether independent or part of a larger organization SIG's held monthly meetings, published articles, newsletters, and ran manufacturer-centric bulletin board systems. Product-centric groups served as an important communication tool, a software library, a knowledge base, and the source of innovation. Often these groups continued well after a product was canceled or became obsolete, and in this way they were some of the earliest "vintage computer" hobbyists. The number of SIG's declined in the mid 90's as the World Wide Web diminished the need for such groups. My exhibit will demonstrate systems and materials from Timex Sinclair 1000 (ZX81) clubs and other sources. More to Come! Reply |
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Before we switched over to a blog format, past page archives here:
Vintage Computer Festival East 3.0 June 2006
Commodore B Series Prototypes July 2006
VOLSCAN - The first desktop computer with a GUI? Oct 2006
ROBOTS! - Will Robots Take Over? Nov 2006
Magnavox Mystery - a Computer, or? Jan 2007
The 1973 Williams Paddle Ball Arcade Computer Game Feb 2007
The Sperry UNIVAC 1219 Military Computer May 2007
VCF East 2007 - PET 30th Anniversary June/July 2007
The Electronic Brain August 2007
Community Memory and The People's Computer Company October 2007
Charles Babbage's Calculating Machine December 2007
Vintage Computing - A 1983 Perspective February 2008
Laptops and Portables May 2008
From Giant Brains to Hobby Computers - 1957 to 1977 August 2008
Historic Computer Magazines November 2008
World's Smallest Electronic Brain - Simon (1950) December 2008 - Feb 2009
Free Program Listings Spring 2009
Computer Music Summer 2009
Popular Electronics Jan/Feb 1975 - Altair 8800 Fall 2009
Early Microcomputer Mass Storage Summer 2010
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