The Virtual Museum of Computing (VMoC) is an eclectic collection of links and online resources concerning the history of computers and computer science

History of computer science

The history of computer science began long before the modern discipline of computer science that emerged in the twentieth century, and hinted at in the centuries prior...

. It includes links to other related museums, both real and virtual, around the world, as well as having its own virtual galleries of information. A particular feature is the early computing pioneer Alan Turing

Alan Turing

Alan Mathison Turing, OBE, FRS , was an English mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst, and computer scientist. He was highly influential in the development of computer science, providing a formalisation of the concepts of "algorithm" and "computation" with the Turing machine, which played a...

, among others.

This virtual museum

Virtual museum

A virtual museum is a museum that exists only online. A virtual museum is also known as an online museum, electronic museum, hypermuseum, digital museum, cybermuseum or Web museum...

 was founded by Jonathan Bowen

Jonathan Bowen

Jonathan P. Bowen FBCS FRSA is a British computer scientist. He is Chairman of Museophile Limited, an Emeritus Professor at London South Bank University where he has headed the Centre for Applied Formal Methods, and a Visiting Professor at the University of Westminster...

 in 1994, originally at the Oxford University Computing Laboratory

Oxford University Computing Laboratory

The Department of Computer Science, until 2011 named the Computing Laboratory , is a department of Oxford University in England...

 in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. It is supported by Museophile and also forms part of the Virtual Library museums pages

Virtual Library museums pages

The Virtual Library museums pages form a leading directory of online museums around the world. The resource was founded by Jonathan Bowen in 1994, originally at the Oxford University Computing Laboratory in the United Kingdom. It is supported by the International Council of Museums and Museophile...

, subsequently hosted at the University of Reading

University of Reading

The University of Reading is a university in the English town of Reading, Berkshire. The University was established in 1892 as University College, Reading and received its Royal Charter in 1926. It is based on several campuses in, and around, the town of Reading.The University has a long tradition...

 and London South Bank University

London South Bank University

London South Bank University is a university in south London. With over 25,000 students and 1,700 staff, it is based in the London Borough of Southwark, near the South Bank of the River Thames, from which it takes its name...

, mirrored around the world. It is now available as a wiki

Wiki

A wiki is a website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor. Wikis are typically powered by wiki software and are often used collaboratively by multiple users. Examples include...

 on the MuseumsWiki, hosted on Wikia

Wikia

Wikia is a free web hosting service for wikis . It is normally free of charge for readers and editors, deriving most of its income from advertising, and publishes all user-provided text under copyleft licenses. Wikia hosts several hundred thousand wikis using the open-source wiki software MediaWiki...

.

External links

• Virtual Museum of Computing website
• Virtual Museum of Computing on Archive.org:
  • Pioneers of Computing gallery, including Alan Turing and Charles Babbage
  • A Brief History of Algebra and Computing gallery
  • Early Microprocessor Instruction Set Cards gallery
• VMoC ICOM mirror website