Initiatives
The Pearcey Foundation is actively involved in many initiatives to help promote and accelerate the Australian ICT industry.
The Pearcey Foundation is involved in many projects important to the ICT industry.
Heritage Project - an expansive program to document and capture Australia's ICT heritage including a book, online resources and even a virtual museum.
Pearcey Institute - to perform research and studies relating to the impact of ICT in industry and society. These in-depth examinations are an important input into policy discussions.
Public Policy - Bringing together of fragmented ICT groups through forums and debates to help analyse, formulate and review policies relating to ICT and the digital economy.
CSIRAC - dedicated to the preservation and promotion of CSIRAC, as one of the world's first stored program digital computers and the first computer to play music.
Computing History - small projects that help preserve and promote Australia's computing history and contributions to global technology advancements.
The Pearcey Foundation is actively involved in contributing to thought leadership in ICT issues e.g. economic studies, digital economy benefits.
This section contains a collection of papers and notes about Australian ICT history.
In historical terms, CSIR Mk1/CSIRAC was one of the first stored program, electronic, computers.
Prior to 1948 various electromechanical machines (non-electronic computers) were built in USA and Germany. Early electronic, but not
stored program machines, were ENIAC (USA) and numerous Colossuses (Colossi?) at Bletchley Park (UK).
In 1986, a year after the Internet domain name system was deployed, Australia's.au country code Top-Level Domain (ccTLD) came into being at the approval of the University of Southern California's Information Sciences Institute (performing IANA's function at the time).
On June 14, 1956 the computer CSIRAC was officially recommissioned at the new Computation Laboratory at the University of Melbourne.
This paper gives an overview of early Australian computing milestones up to about 1970 and demonstrates a mesh of influences. Wartime radar, initially from Britain, provided basic experience for many computing engineers. This is an excellent perspective on how Australia influenced the development of the digital computer as we know it today.
Nobody much remembers it now, but 40 years ago Australia built one of the world’s largest computer networks. In 1981 Australia’s Department of Social Security (DSS) began planning an ambitious network to connect all of its 210 Australian offices in real time.
Pearcey Conversations online seminar 30 September 2020 covered a retrospective from three key figures behind Radiata, the Australian startup that commercialized the Wifi chip conceived at the CSIRO Radiophysics in Sydney in the early 1990s.
In August 1951, a conference was held at Sydney University’s Department of Electrical Engineering. It was the first computer conference ever held in Australia and only the ninth computer conference anywhere in the world.
Follow-up to Pearcey Foundation's Discussion Paper (28 April) on the Australian Government's COVIDSafe tracing app.
The Australian Government has now released its coronavirus tracing app, called COVIDSafe. To be effective, the app needs to be downloaded and used by a significant proportion of the Australian population.
MEDIA RELEASE - How the Australian Government and Australian citizens can ensure the success of the new coronavirus tracing app.
Currently, the Foundation is exploring a permanent location for many of the memorabilia of past ICT technology generations, We are
collaborating with various museums and industry groups who share this desire to establish a 'virtual museum' to capture our wonderful
contribution to technology in so many fields.
Celebrating the 70th Anniversary of CSIRAC: Australia's first stored program digital computer and the world's fourth. Presentations by eminent speakers honour Dr Trevor Pearcey's legacy and catch a glimpse of what the future holds for Australian innovation, entrepreneurship, and technology in society.
On Saturday 22 June 2019, the ABC Science Show had a special feature Recreating the first digital computer music. Presented by Carl Smith in the second half of the podcast (31 minute mark).
The Pearcey Institute submitted feedback to the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science public consultation on Artificial Intelligence: Australia's Ethics Framework discussion paper released in April 2019.
The Pearcey Foundation held a special Heritage Event on Friday 7th September 2018 at Federation University in Ballarat. The event ran from 3pm - 5:30pm and was entitled Celebrating the Past; Informing the Present; Inspiring the Future.
At the 2018 Pearcey Day, the Heritage session brought together representatives of major organisations, and individuals, concerned with preservation of our ICT heritage. The topic was: Current ICT Heritage Collections - Where they are, what they are and plans for the future?
The Pearcey Institute was registered in April 2018 as a 'Company limited by Guarantee' and designated the Pearcey Institute Limited (PIL). Pearcey Institute Board members are as follows: Mr Denis Tebutt (Chairman), Prof. Leon Sterling, Mr Colin Farrelly, & Mr Wayne Fitzsimmons.
The Pearcey Institute is an initiative to bring together industry, government, academia and investors to do socio-economic research focused on creating a globally competitive Australian technology sector.
We don't think twice about playing music via a computer - we have them in our pockets, and in our homes and offices, with music on tap. But playing music on a computer was once an almost unthinkable leap of the imagination and the most devilishly difficult programming challenge.
Computing underpins every aspect of our lives, from smart phones to the robots that assemble our cars.
It gathers data on traffic, schedules deliveries and tracks parcels. It is embedded in cameras, remote controls, air-conditioners, and even
toasters. It matches us to partners, suggests our purchases, and tracks our fitness. And so much more.
Press Release: The formation of the Pearcey Institution, under the auspices of the Pearcey Foundation*, was announced on Tuesday evening, 14 June by the Chairman of the Pearcey Foundation, Mr Wayne Fitzsimmons. The announcement was made in conjunction with Melbourne University's "60th Anniversary of Computing in Victoria" celebration held at the Melbourne Museum, Victoria, where the original CSIRAC computer is located.
