After graduating from high school in 1967, he completed his military service, e.g. in the communications center of the 1st Corps of the German Armed Forces in Münster where he learned how to use encryption technology.

The Westphalia Foundation, founded by Heinz Nixdorf, appointed Norbert Ryska to the project team for a computer museum in 1992.

[5] With the exhibition designer Ludwig Thürmer and the architect Gerhard Diel, Ryska completed the transformation of the NCAG headquarters into the Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum.

When it opened on October 24, 1996, he was one of the two managing directors alongside Theodor Rode and was responsible for the permanent exhibition, the media department and technical staff.

[10] In the same year, Ryska was able to convince the Nixdorf Foundation Board for his concept of an extensive expansion and update of the permanent exhibition to acquire and implement the areas of "Interfaces-Kommunikation mit der Maschine" ("interface communication with the machine"), "Künstliche Intelligenz und Robotik" ("artificial intelligence and robotics"), "Mobile Kommunikation" ("mobile communication"), "Digitale Welt" ("digital world"), "Showroom – Technik von morgen" ("showroom – technology of tomorrow").

[1] He took on the task of combining the design and implementation of this still vague founding idea for a museum, consisting of existing technical artefacts (special information and communication technology collections) with an open forum.

Here, in a “spatial dramaturgy”, a “experiential museum” was created with “contemporary surroundings” perspectively integrated via “time stations” and a “cultural-historical panorama wall”.

Even before the opening of the MuseumsForum by then Federal Chancellor Helmut Kohl on October 24, 1996,[16] the previous sponsoring company of the Westphalia Foundation renamed the computer museum to "HNF Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum GmbH" (1995), also as a consistent confirmation of Ryska's pursued interdisciplinary integration concept of technology presence and forum designed for dialogue.

Ryska was appointed managing director of the HNF (1996–2013), where he was able to decisively advance the previous development concept and expand the subject areas.