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Museum Devoted to Internet Planned in Berlin

The team behind the idea is looking for an appropriate site and sponsors

February 11th, 2015
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A privately held Internet Museum is likely to open in Germany's capital. "So far there is no place in Germany where the impressive history of the Internet is documented since the beginnings and visions of its founders until today", said a founding member of the "Internet Museum Berlin" team Paul Rascheja to the German Press Agency. "The Internet and the associated ongoing digitization of society have become an integral part of our everyday life, and for many people it is an economic basis. The Internet should be seen in a series with the invention of the printing press, the automobile and other technological breakthroughs," continued Rascheja.

Thematically, the project focuses on the philosophical pioneers who laid the theoretical foundations for the network of networks in the 17th century; the computer revolution of the 70s and 80s; as well as the World Wide Web and the first web services in the 90s and onwards. When the Internet was brought to life in 1962 as a project of the Advanced Research Project Agency (ARPA) by the US Department of Defense, no one knew the extent to which it would change our lives. In 1969 only four American universities were connected, now millions of people use the Internet everyday. It took only 22 years until the Internet through the www and its founder Tim Berners-Lee came to our lives.

The exhibition will also include the work of hackers, the mobile Internet, areas of data security and relationships between technology and civil liberties. In addition to technical developments from the USA, European contributions in the field of communication such as the German screen text (BTX) or the French equivalent Minitel should come into play.

The team behind the museum draft is currently seeking a suitable location in the center of Berlin with up to 1,000 square meters and has also launched a crowdfunding campaign on the portal Startnext. In addition, big German IT companies should be acquired as sponsors. They should provide the bulk of the €600,000 needed for the museum opening. The founders hope that the museum will attract up to 30,000 visitors yearly.

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