New subject: [pups] Re: Us vs. Museums

4 Mar 2001

I don't know everyone's perspective on this issue, and it would be good to hear

some alternate viewpoints.  Basically, I am against people giving classic 
computers in working condition to museums.  Instead, I believe that they should 
donate or sell their machines to enthusiasts who will play with them and learn 
things.

A while back, I ran across a person that had some hardware I wanted.  He was 
torn between selling it to me and giving it to a museum.  I didn't have a lot 
of money available to give him, and donation to a museum (a nonprofit) would 
get him an impressive tax deduction.  I did some research about what it takes 
to start a nonprofit organization, but it looked too expensive (lawyers) and 
time-consuming to be a viable option for me.  I sent the following argument to 
him:

...
  While I would love to establish a collection of these
machines,
 I'm definitely not a 'collector' as the term has come to mean
 today; I'm not in it to get something rare, to make money, or
 to have some pretty decorations in my house.  While it would
 certainly be nice to have a pretty system, my priority is to
 get something that I can learn with.  I want to *run* these
 machines.  I want to *explore* these machines.  I want to *hack*
 on these machines, to see what unexpected things they can be
 coerced into doing.  I want to get as close as I can to the
 *experience* of computing in these machines' era.  If these
 machines go to a museum, they're just pretty art, and they will
 educate _no_one_.  They will sit behind glass walls, no one
 ever will touch them again, and no one will ever turn them on or
 keep them in working order.  They are effectively lost.  That's
 little better then scrapping them, and you _KNOW_ how you feel
 about that! 
What do you think about this?

(BTW, if anyone wants to use the quoted paragraph, they are free to)

--
Jeffrey S. Sharp
jss(a)ou.edu

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[pups] Us vs. Museums