The CCS is a co-operative venture between the British Computer Society, the Science Museum of London, the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester and The National Museum of Computing.

The CCS was constituted in September 1989 as a Specialist Group of the BCS. It is thus covered by the Royal Charter and the charitable status of the BCS.

The aims of the CCS

The objects of the Computer Conservation Society (“Society”) are:

• To promote the conservation, restoration and reconstruction of historic computing systems and to identify existing computing systems which may need to be archived in the future;
• To develop awareness of the importance of historic computing systems;
• To develop expertise in the conservation, restoration and reconstruction of historic computing systems;
• To represent the interests of the Society with other bodies;
• To promote the study of historic computing systems, their use and the history of the computer industry;
• To publish information of relevance to these objectives for the information of Society members and the wider public.

There are a number of active Projects on specific computer restorations and early computer technologies and software. We encourage younger people to take part in order to achieve skills transfer. Our guidelines for our projects are published here.

Membership

Membership is open to anyone interested in computer conservation and the history of computing. For more details on becoming a member of the CCS see our page about joining the CCS.

The CCS is funded and supported by a grant from the BCS and members’ voluntary donations. Find out about making a donation here. Some charges may be made for publications and attendance at seminars and conferences.

Our Committee

The committee brings together our officers, representatives of museums, leaders of computer restoration projects, and co-opted members. 

Society Policy Documents

• Our CCS constitution document sets out our detailed objectives, and has more about how the society operates and supports conservation project groups. This document was last updated and approved in October 2016.

• Our Donations Policy sets out the purposes to which donations made to the Society may be applied.

• Our Data Privacy Policy specifies how the data which we hold concerning Society members may be used and the limits which are applied to such use.

Society History

Founded in 1989 as a joint endevour of the (then) British Computer Society ans the Science Museum The Computer Conservations Society is largely self-governing. The Committee is elected by the membership at an annual general meeting. The papers provided for these AGM meetings and the minutes thereof can largely be found at our index page of AGM documents.