Accessing the old files

Amsterdam started its internet life in 1994 in its own particular way, as the community De Digitale Stad. In 1996 DDS made a full back-up, The Freeze, in view of future historical research. That is now. A team of 8 students Computer Science (UvA/VU, Master of Science Computer Sciences) succeeded in accessing the old files. Like in a digital Pompeji, we can once more wander through the "squares", and "cafés and take the "metro" of De Digitale Stad. Creating an account will produce a vintage "avatar". This is made possible again, in principle: the student created a working demo. There will be an one time demonstration, next Thursday, June 30 2016, at the Amsterdam Museum.

Demo's: DDS 3.0 and DDS 4.0

In fact we have two demo's: DDS 3.0 is the vintage software from 1996 resuscitated with minor adaptations to the present day hardware; DDS 4.0 performs the same function as the old software, but is programmed completely new, in order to meet the present requirements of stability and security. DDS 4.0 is an emulation in service of the project t "DDS herleeft" by the Amsterdam Museum, De Waag Society, UvA, NCDD and Beeld en Geluid, starting later this year, which will fully enable walks through this digital Pompeji.


"DDS 3.0 operational" is a special project at UvA/VU MSc CS, done by: 

  • Ronald Bethlehem
  • Robert Jansma
  • Thomas Koch
  • Millen Mortier
  • Kishan Nirghin
  • Tim Veenman
  • Randy de Vries
  • Marc Went
  • supervised by Gerard Alberts (UvA)
  • and help from Tjarda de Haan (Amsterdam Museum), Michael van Eeden (DDS), Paul Vogel (DDS), Theun van den Doel, Jesse de Vos (Sound and Vision)
  • and moral support from Brewster Kahle:

Wat: Presentations and demos in the Amsterdam Museum, Auditorium
Waar: Kalverstraat 92 Amsterdam (route)
Wanneer: Thursday 30 June 2016
Hoe laat:

  • 14:00-16:00 hrs: Presentations and demos
  • 16:00-17:30 hrs: Drinks

Contact:G.Alberts(at)uva.nl and T.deHaan(at)amsterdammuseum.nl

SUBSCRIBE free, but required; so we know on how many people we can count! :-)