VCFB 2016 Exhibitions Presentations and Workshops Stream Floor Plan Association Press Archive

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Vintage Computing Festival Berlin (VCFB) – Call for participation

1st to 3rd October 2016, Pergamon-Palais, Berlin, Germany

The Vintage Computing Festival Berlin (VCFB) is an event about historical computers and computing technology. The vintage computing hobby is being presented with exhibitions, lectures and workshops. Our goal is to contribute to the preservation of historical computers and other data processing devices, and to foster interest in "superfluous" hard- and software. Our focus does not only include historical computers, but also historical operating systems, software, programming languages, network technology and other devices that compute, like calculators and calculating machines.

The VCFB is located in the Pergamon-Palais at Humboldt University in Berlin. Buildup begins on Friday, September 30th, October 1st will be reserved for expert visitors. The event is open for visitors on Sunday and Monday, 2nd and 3rd of October. Entry is free.

This year, you can begin your buildup on Friday, September 30th and meet other participants and experts on October 1st. You can also offer workshops targeted for an advanced audience on Saturday, so that other exhibitors can participate without being away from their exhibition on a public day. Our electronics workshop will be available for repairs starting on Saturday.

Exhibitions, lectures and workshops

We are looking for people who would like to contribute exhibitions, lectures or workshops about the following topics:

• Historical computers: minicomputers, microcomputers, workstations, vacuum tube computers, … everything that is both interesting and older than 10 years
• Special Exhibition: Computer languages: This year's special exhibition focuses on the relationship between computers and language. The history and several implementations of speech synthesis, voice processing and recognition, and programming languages will be presented.
• Historical software: Operating systems, programming environments, games, demos, CAD software, …
• Historical networking technology: acoustic couplers, Token Ring, cheapernet, DECnet, AppleTalk, … we want to set up a working network and connect as many exhibits as possible. We'd like to have services offered on the network, for example mail boxes and video conferences using SGI Indycams.
• Historical computation equipment: calculating machines, slide rules, disk calculators, pocket calculators, …
• Help with repairs of historical computers/pocket calculators/…: We want to offer a repair corner where visitors can bring their own hardware and get help with repairs. Workshops for repairs are also possible, for example a workshop about repairing C64 computers.
• Benchmarks of exhibits: We'd like to host a Benchmarking Competition like at the VCFe.
• Would you like to do an exhibition/lecture/workshop about something that doesn't quite fit these categories? Shoot us an email to info@vcfb.de and we'll talk about it.

The registration will close on September 1st, 2016.

• Register an exhibition
• Register a lecture
• Register a workshop

Organisational information

• The exhibition area is at ground level, cars can be parked in front of the venue for loading and unloading only. Exhibition tables are 70cm*70cm in size, at least 250 of these will be available. If you need a special power connection, please tell us beforehand.
• Buildup will start on Wednesday evening. Tables, chairs and power need to be set up before buildup of exhibitions can begin. If you'd like to help with buildup, please send a mail to info@vcfb.de.
• Slots for lectures are 90 minutes long, but your lecture may be shorter than that. All lectures will be recorded and published under a Creative Commons license.
• If you'd like to contribute an exhibition/lecture/workshop, but can't cover your travel expenses, please contact us at info@vcfb.de and we'll look for a solution.