PRESS RELEASE
About us
We are the members of 3 different organizations and our mission is to promote computer science culture.
- the Freaknet Medialab, the first italian organization to offer free access to email and internet, since 1994.
- Dyne.org, free software foundry and network of hackers since year 2000.
- Poetry Hacklab, a free software lab in Palazzolo Acreide, small town 40km from Syracuse, famous for his natural heritage and for a famous greek theatre.
We work together with artists, researchers, scientists and even simple enthusiasts. Our activities are recognized all around the world and we are proud of being supported by UNESCO and the Free Software Foundation.
Our project
We have decided to bring to life one of the projects we have been working on for over 10 years during which we have been researching and archiving material: a Museum of Working Computers, a place where people can, both physically and remotely via Internet, use historical computers, know their history, learn basics of electronic and computer science and share a piece of our history. A place where to conserve, repair, digitalize and share on the network our heritage made of hardware but also documentation, software, electrical schemes, books and media of various kind.
What we have done so far
We have gathered, during all these years, a massive amount of almost 2000 historical computers (some of them dated even back to the '60). Most of them have been repaired thanks to our effort and are now perfectly working, while other are still waiting to get brought to life. This work made of research and experimentation needs a physical space which we have never had; local institutions have never put their willingness to support us into facts…. it's been years now since we started looking for a place where to open our museum to the public: the challenge is to offer a cultural alternative in a Southern Europe area where, unfortunately, the only solution to grow professionally and in life has always been to emigrate out of the country.
What we want to do
The vision of a museum of this kind has been motivating has for years, making us pioneers in this emerging area of computer museums. Museums of this kinds are popping up all around the world, acquiring attention and help of both private institutions and single supporters; having visited some of them we found out that, the uniqueness of the pieces we have posses of, together with the software we produced in the past and our own history could bring our Museum of Working Computers in Italy an excellence in his field. In fact, in the recent past we've been able to attract the attention of national and international medias and to attract to Palazzolo Acreide experts from all around Europe, people to whom we are happy to offer access to some of the computers in small and inadequate spaces. We have decided to maximize our efforts and rent an adequate space to finally realize our project.
We need your help!
We are looking for contributions that will help us dealing with our expenses in the first phase of our project. The amount we are looking for consists of 10,000 EUR for the first year, amount which will be spent in renewing our rented locals. We are asking, to anyone interested and willing to support, to sponsor us and discuss with us something that wouldn't only be a simple donation but also an investment opportunity which could have a important impact in the long term. Once in possess of a physical place and after a few years of activity we know we'll be able to count on a increasing visibility and on a team of experts that have formed their skills abroad (both in the academia and in commercial environments).
To contribute please donate via paypal going to this URL: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=FYQHTJEFRKJU6
We will pay your trust back with the gratitude of our enthusiast people and the opportunity to write together the story of hour working museum of computers. We are certain that sector of "working computing museums" where we are allocating ourselves will gain importance in the coming years and we are committed to respect the memory of whom, in this initial phase, will be able to believe in us and in our operate.