February 24, 2005
Origins of Cyberspace Auction Results

UPDATED

As a buyer, I came away very happy from the Origins of Cyberspace auction yesterday. CNET coverage here.

My favorite item is the original typescript of the first ever business plan for a computer company, written by Eckert and Mauchly for the proposed commercialization of the ENIAC.

As a first of a kind, the auction overall produced mixed results. Many lots, especially first editions of books which are otherwise available, didn't sell and the total realized was less than expected. There was a lot of interest in 19th century works by Babbage, but the key Von Neumann reports that essentially defined the field in the mid-1940's didn't meet their reserve.

I suspect the collector's market for computer artifacts is still embryonic.

Mary Hodder has a great photoblog entry on the auction. It uses an interresting web app called Foto Noter which allows textual annotation of areas of a photo. Combine this with Jon Udell's fascinating experiments with screencasting and Google Maps to create interactive walking tours and what results is a new genre of bottom-up collaborative multimedia.

The auction catalog can be found here.

Posted by mitch@osafoundation.org at February 24, 2005 05:07 AM
Comments

Very cool...congratulations on the purchases. Sorry I missed it. Were there any items in particular that you were surprised didn't sell? Also, is the catalog available on-line anywhere?

Thanks,
michael

Posted by: Ohmster [TypeKey Profile Page] at February 25, 2005 11:40 PM

Very cool...congratulations on the purchases...sorry I missed it. Were you surprised by any of the items that didn't sell? Also, is there an on-line catalog available to your knowledge?

thanks,

michael

Posted by: Ohmster [TypeKey Profile Page] at February 25, 2005 11:42 PM

My son was very interested in the cyberspace auction, and I previewed the limited representation in Boston that Christies had sent. I was told that very few people had looked at the items that were in Boston. As an avid auction goer of sterling and other object d'art, I am very surprised that you shared what was of interest to you before the auction or even advertising the fact that there was a cyberspace auction at all. Our thoughts in the antique business is the less the world knows about an event the better it is for the buyers who do attend, less competition for our desired items.

My son was the successful bidder on some of the items, and he was very excited with his purchases.
He had thought all the items had sold that crossed the podium until he realized many of the items the auctioneer said were sold were not. This, of course , creates somewhat of a false market place to the uninformed or firsttime auction goer.

Enjoy your purchases and I am hoping for more of these auctions to really get the momentum going. Usually, the first auction has the best bargains.

Posted by: ellen [TypeKey Profile Page] at March 3, 2005 06:06 AM