NOTE TO EDITORS AND NEWS DIRECTORS: Media representatives are invited
to attend a news conference on Friday, Dec. 7, 2001, at NASA Ames
Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. At that time, NASA will
announce plans to establish the Computer History Museum’s interim
building at the NASA Research Park. The news conference will begin at
11 a.m. PST, in the Moffett Training and Conference Center, Bldg. 3.
Preceding the news conference, media are invited to take a special
tour of the museum’s computer artifacts starting at 10 a.m. PST, in
Bldg. 126, located across the street on Severyns Avenue. A luncheon
will follow.

The Computer History Museum, which contains one of the world’s
largest collections of computing artifacts, will unveil plans on
Friday, Dec. 7, 2001, to build a 41,000-square-foot facility near
historic Hangar One in the proposed NASA Research Park.

NASA Ames Research Center Director Dr. Henry McDonald and Computer
History Museum Executive Director & CEO John C. Toole will head a
panel discussion about the museum’s role in the NASA Research Park
and the plans for its new facility. Other distinguished panelists
will include Leonard J. Shustek, chairman of the board of trustees of
the Computer History Museum; Donna Dubinsky, museum trustee and CEO
of Handspring, Inc., Mountain View, Calif.; and Bill Campbell,
chairman of the board, Intuit, Inc., Mountain View, Calif.

“Our goal is to develop a world-class, shared-use R&D campus by
partnering with industry, academia and cultural institutions in the
NASA Research Park,” McDonald said. “I am delighted to further this
partnership with the Computer History Museum, a unique and important
international resource for research and understanding of the origins
and evolution of information technology.”

Scheduled to open next summer, the temporary facility will be called
‘The Beta Building,’ in reference to a computer industry term for a
product in its early phases and an indication that there is more to
come – a prelude to the museum’s permanent facility scheduled to open
in 2005. Formerly known as The Computer Museum History Center, the
renamed Computer History Museum also has a new logo, depicting the
history of computing.

When the 41,000-square-foot Beta Building is completed, it will
contain 22,500 square feet for artifact storage; 9,000 square feet
for exhibits and events; and 9,500 square feet of office space. The
Beta Building will double the museum’s current storage space and
allow it to increase its collection.

According to Shustek, the Beta Building will allow the museum to
increase its public presence in Silicon Valley. “For the past few
years, museum staff, collection, exhibits and programs have been
located in five, distributed buildings at Moffett Field. The Beta
Building will allow us to consolidate into one main space while the
permanent building process is completed. We believe that opening the
temporary space before the permanent museum opens in 2005 will enable
more of the public to experience the artifacts and stories of a
technological revolution that has changed the world.”

“The museum is moving toward a new level of public exposure for the
community, the nation and the world,” said Toole. “The Beta Building
will give us an opportunity to expand our operations for several
years and manage a dynamic process to collect the stories and
artifacts of the information age,” he added.

At the news conference, museum officials also will announce the
appointment of Head Curator Michael R. Williams, an internationally
renowned computer historian. A recipient of numerous honors and
awards, Williams has published many books, articles and technical
reviews during his 30-year career as an educator and curator at
several different universities and at the National Museum of American
History (Smithsonian Institution). He also served as editor-in-chief
of The Annals of the History of Computing.

Daniel, Mann, Johnson, Mendenhall, Holmes and Narver (DMJMH+N), an
architecture, engineering, and construction services firm with
offices in San Francisco and around the world will design the
museum’s Beta Building. Esherick, Homsey, Dodge & Davis, an
architecture, interior design and graphic design firm with offices in
San Francisco, Chicago and Monterey, Calif., will design the museum’s
permanent facility. Premier museum exhibit design firm Van Sickle &
Rolleri, of Medford, N. J., will help design the new museum’s
exhibits.

The Computer History Museum, previously part of the former Boston
Computer Museum, is based at NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett
Field, Calif.-the heart of Silicon Valley-and is an international
resource for in-depth information about the history of computing.
Its five separate collections contain over 50,000 individual objects,
including hardware, films, photographs and historical software, as
well as extensive document archives. The museum is one of the
leading partners in the proposed NASA Research Park and will soon
break ground for its permanent facility in front of historic Hangar
One at Moffett Field.

NASA Ames Research Center recently announced the Environmental Impact
Statement (EIS) process under the National Environmental Policy Act
(NEPA) regulations to develop the land at Moffett Field under NASA
ownership. The proposed developments include the area called the
NASA Research Park in which the academic, industry and nonprofit
partners hope to conduct their collaborative research and education
programs. Upon the successful completion of the environmental review
processes, a Land Use Agreement may be signed and construction of the
museum’s permanent building may begin.

In addition to a permanent home for the Computer History Museum, NASA
Research Park also will house facilities for the Carl Sagan Center
for the Study of Life in the Cosmos, Carnegie Mellon University’s
School of Computer Science, the University of California at Santa
Cruz, San Jose State University’s Metropolitan Technology Center and
the California Air and Space Center.

For further details, see the museum’s website at:
http://www.computerhistory.org