The
U.K. ex-Digital club, DEXODUS, orchestrated a fantastic series of
museum exhibits and in-person celebrations during 2024-2025, called the
U.K. Reading Digital Revolution, to celebrate the 60th anniversary
of the opening of the U.K. Reading Digital office in 1964, which
launched their "Silicon Valley of England". DEC Connection
volunteers Nancy Kilty and Al Goldsworthy travelled to England to
attend the festivities. Nancy sent this description and photos of
their impressive work.
READING'S DIGITAL REVOLUTION
After two years of planning with a team from DEXODUS [ex-Digital employees], UK's Reading Museum and the National Museum of Computing, an exciting exhibit was created showcasing the birth and revolution of Digital's technology in Reading, England and the start up of UK’s own Silicone Valley. The 10-month exhibit is in the Reading Museum until December 2025 and was made possible by grants and donations to the Reading Museum.
Two Board members [Nancy Kilty & Al Goldsworthy] from the DECconnection organization toured this exhibit and celebrated with 300 former Digital employees the 60th anniversary of the opening of Digital's Reading office in 1964.
The Digital Revolution exhibit wonderfully integrates the impact of DEC’s innovative technology within the existing Reading environment and the flourishing of new businesses from 1964 to the early 2000 years.. At some point in time, there were over 600 Digital engineers customizing solutions for industries in the UK and abroad. Digital's foothold began the build-up of a technology center that over the years built a thriving economy in Reading, and led to creation of a center of technology and computer education.
The exhibit captures the Digital Culture [i.e. Accessible workplace; Do the right thing] and Management style called ‘The DEC Way’ that valued experimentation, encouraged initiative and accountability.
A few pictures of the exhibit are displayed below. Also, other links of information below are from the Reading Museum and from an earlier DECconnection Tech Talk presentation.
https://www.readingmuseum.org.uk/digital60
https://www.decconnection.org/Videos/TechTalks/Reading-BrendanCarr.pdf
The exhibit is worth preserving and plans are underway to do so.
 |  |  |  |  |  | | First of a long string of timeline stories. | Last timeline panel, which includes the demise of Digital. |  |  | | Operational PDP-11 system | DECconnection volunteers Al Goldsworthy, host Sandy Mackenzie, and Nancy Kilty. |
 | Sandy Mackenzie, Ken Senior (1st U.K.employee), and John Leng (founder of Digital U.K.) at the April opening of the exhibition.
Ken
Senior later managed K.O.'s Operations Committee. John Leng had a
large conference room in Marlboro MA named for him and now lives in
Phoenix AZ. |
During 2024, The U.K. National Museum of Computing in Blechley showed several exhibits relating to this anniversary. Below, one of the Digital PDP server demos, and Jacqui Garrad, Director of TNMoC (great supporter of this effort) with DEXODUS member and exhibit advocate Sandy MacKenzie.
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