Data

Australasian Heritage Software Database

Flinders University
Denise Bernadette de Vries (Aggregated by) Melanie Swalwell (Aggregated by)
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ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Adc&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2FANDS&rft_id=info:doi10.25451/flinders.16545558.v1&rft.title=Australasian Heritage Software Database&rft.identifier=https://doi.org/10.25451/flinders.16545558.v1&rft.publisher=Flinders University&rft.description=The Australasian Heritage Software project is a publicly-compiled and accessible database documenting Australian and New Zealand software history. The field of software history is enormous and largely undocumented. Few repositories of software or documentation exist. This project aims to collect documentation from the public - and, where feasible, source code - in order to create a picture of the software written locally, and to present this online.Why are you doing this?Currently, there is no central repository of information about software written or published locally. Software does not easily fit into the collecting schema or taxonomies of many institutions. As such, it is generally individuals and various online communities who hold the knowledge about local software history. We want to provide a repository for this knowledge to be centrally collected, and will make this openly accessible so that it can be used for public good purposes.Software history is a notoriously underdeveloped field, with many histories tending to chart only particular genres, or remembering just the commercial success stories and flops. Most of what makes it into history books are stories from the UK, US and parts of Asia. Australia and New Zealand have their own computer and software histories, of course, but it is difficult to write local software histories without comprehensive records. We are keen to see these stories recorded and told more often, and the products of local innovation documented and hopefully preserved. Making informed judgements about what is historically significant and what ought to be kept requires knowing what software existed in a particular period.Given the lack of existing centralised records of locally developed software, we are throwing the net wide and asking people to enter information on local software from any historical period, from the birth of digital computing to the present day.Time period: The Digital Computer EraLocations:- Australia- New Zealand&rft.creator=Denise Bernadette de Vries&rft.creator=Melanie Swalwell&rft.date=2023&rft_rights=REUSE-NONCOMMERCIALLY-AND-RE-SHARE-(CC-BY-NC-SA)&rft_subject=software&rft_subject=history&rft_subject=Australia&rft_subject=New Zealand&rft_subject=source code&rft_subject=documentation&rft_subject=Film, Television and Digital Media&rft_subject=Communication and Media Studies&rft_subject=Computer Software&rft_subject=Film, Television and Digital Media not elsewhere classified&rft_subject=Communication and Media Studies not elsewhere classified&rft_subject=Heritage and Cultural Conservation&rft_subject=History and Philosophy of Engineering and Technology&rft_subject=History and Philosophy of Specific Fields not elsewhere classified&rft_subject=Multimedia Programming&rft_subject=Programming Languages&rft_subject=Screen and digital media not elsewhere classified&rft_subject=Heritage and cultural conservation&rft_subject=Entertainment and gaming&rft_subject=Programming languages&rft_subject=Software engineering not elsewhere classified&rft_subject=Communication and media studies not elsewhere classified&rft_subject=History and philosophy of engineering and technology&rft_subject=History and philosophy of specific fields not elsewhere classified&rft.type=dataset&rft.language=English Access the data
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The Australasian Heritage Software project is a publicly-compiled and accessible database documenting Australian and New Zealand software history. The field of software history is enormous and largely undocumented. Few repositories of software or documentation exist. This project aims to collect documentation from the public - and, where feasible, source code - in order to create a picture of the software written locally, and to present this online.

Why are you doing this?

Currently, there is no central repository of information about software written or published locally. Software does not easily fit into the collecting schema or taxonomies of many institutions. As such, it is generally individuals and various online communities who hold the knowledge about local software history. We want to provide a repository for this knowledge to be centrally collected, and will make this openly accessible so that it can be used for public good purposes.

Software history is a notoriously underdeveloped field, with many histories tending to chart only particular genres, or remembering just the commercial success stories and flops. Most of what makes it into history books are stories from the UK, US and parts of Asia. Australia and New Zealand have their own computer and software histories, of course, but it is difficult to write local software histories without comprehensive records. We are keen to see these stories recorded and told more often, and the products of local innovation documented and hopefully preserved. Making informed judgements about what is historically significant and what ought to be kept requires knowing what software existed in a particular period.

Given the lack of existing centralised records of locally developed software, we are throwing the net wide and asking people to enter information on local software from any historical period, from the birth of digital computing to the present day.

Time period: The Digital Computer Era
Locations:
- Australia
- New Zealand

Issued: 2013-09-27

Created: 2021-10-21

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Subjects
Australia | Communication and Media Studies | Communication and Media Studies not elsewhere classified | Communication and media studies not elsewhere classified | Computer Software | Entertainment and gaming | Film, Television and Digital Media | Film, Television and Digital Media not elsewhere classified | Heritage and Cultural Conservation | Heritage and cultural conservation | History and Philosophy of Engineering and Technology | History and Philosophy of Specific Fields not elsewhere classified | History and philosophy of engineering and technology | History and philosophy of specific fields not elsewhere classified | Multimedia Programming | New Zealand | Programming Languages | Programming languages | Screen and digital media not elsewhere classified | Software engineering not elsewhere classified | documentation | history | software | source code |

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