The BBC
Domesday Project was a partnership between Acorn Computers Ltd, Philips, Logica and the BBC. It marked the 900th anniversary of the original Domesday Book, an 11th century census of England.
It was compiled between 1984 and 1986 and published in 1986. It featured a 'survey' of the United Kingdom, in which people (mostly school children) wrote about the geography, history or social issues in their local area or simply about their daily lives. This was linked with maps, colour photos, statistical data, video and 'virtual walks'. It is estimated that over 1 million people participated in the project.
As well as data from public input, the project also included professionally-prepared video footage, virtual reality tours of major landmarks and other prepared datasets such as the 1981 census.
It is often cited as an example of 'digital obsolescence' as the physical medium used for data storage (LV-ROM) was very quickly superceded meaning there are now very few LV-ROM players available and in working order and the discs themsleves are also now starting to suffer.
The Centre for Computing History has three working Domesday Systems all of which are complete with discs and other media. Additional laserdisc players, discs, manuals and documentation has been supplied by Netherhall School in Cambridge.
We also have a complete Domesday Emulation project running online.
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| Domesday Preservation Project Diary |
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| Other Interactive Laserdiscs |
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| BBC Domesday Reloaded |
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The Centre for Computing History has the largest collection of Domesday related hardware, software, documentation and information in the world. Below are some highlights of that collection ...
About the Domesday Project
