1961
A library built by users
PDP-1 users organize around a practical idea: exchange programs, experience, and technical knowledge.
Verified external historyThe story · 1961—2026
A technical community, remembered with evidence.
DECUS connected the people who built, operated, programmed, and understood Digital systems. This reconstruction keeps institutional history, DECUServe history, decus.org, and Eric Bach’s personal account distinct—and shows where they meet.
Founder recollection
Eric Bach’s administration era begins in 1990. This is preserved here as first-person oral history until surviving records or independent witnesses establish its precise scope.
Modern curatorial illustrationNot an original photograph
A library built by users.
An interpretive reconstruction of PDP-1 users organizing around the practical act of exchanging programs, documentation, and experience in 1961. It represents the verified historical idea—not a specific photographed meeting.
Chronology
From shared programs to a sealed archive
1960s–80s
A worldwide technical community
Software libraries, special-interest groups, proceedings, conferences, and DECUSCOPE connect practitioners across systems and borders.
Verified external history1987
Where DECUS met daily
DECUServe opens as a dial-up online meeting place using the DEC Notes character-cell conferencing system.
Verified external history1990
Eric Bach's administration era
The archive records Eric Bach's account of administering the online community from 1990. Supporting records are being sought and will be labeled separately.
Founder recollection1994–95
decus.org in the public record
Contemporary references point to decus.org for FTP, symposium material, email services, and a U.S. DECUS home page.
Contemporary source2026
The reconstruction begins
A modern, non-commercial, read-only archive is designed to preserve our beloved computing community from the good old days without pretending the forum is still active.
New preservation project
Modern curatorial illustrationNot an original photograph
Knowledge became a community.
An interpretive view of the in-person exchange surrounding DECUS symposia around 1990. No attendee, venue, or individual moment is presented as a documented likeness.
Historical foundation
Read the surviving record
The first public edition begins with sources held by independent institutions. Their records establish context; they are not blanket permission to republish their collections.