Mar
29
(2005)
As we’re creating more content on and for the internet (and computers in general), we’re placing more of our culture into what is really an ephemeral medium. There is no 1000-year archive plan for the internet. The closest thing we have to that is The Internet Archive - but even that is subject to politics, business, and personal goodwill (of Brewster Kahle).
Backups of content are created, sure, but on formats like CD-ROM or DVD - which may have a lifespan ranging from 5-100 years depending on the specific media and storage conditions. They are also stored in (dozens? hundreds? thousands?) of unique storage formats (.Mac backup, proprietary backup tools, custom hacked tools, etc…) which may be difficult/interesting to interpret after the originators have shed their mortal coils.
Personally, I’ve got a stack of a couple hundred CD-ROM and DVD-R disks on a shelf in my office. Eventually, the media will start to degrade (or a fire will melt them into cool forms unreadable by any optical drive).
This is no way to preserve a culture. It struck me pretty hard earlier today when I was iChatting with Josh - we were joking that if something isn’t online (and more recently, if it doesn’t have an RSS feed), it doesn’t exist. But - the stuff that is online will not exist in 100 years, let alone 1000…
That may be a good thing for 99.9% of the cat blogs out there. But I’m hoping there is something worth preserving, that may be of interest to those who will follow.
Is the solution to trust in archive.org and hope it does not follow the same fate as the Library of Alexandria which inspired it? Sure - the petaboxes are mirrored eventually to 3 locations. But it’s not inconceivable that all copies could be wiped. An EMP would do that quite easily. Then what? We’re back to the 1950’s, before stuff started getting fed into punch cards.
Maybe I’m making a big deal out of nothing. I just have trouble relaxing about this, when I can’t read the documents I wrote on my Vic20, nor the C-64, nor the Amiga, nor the Apple II, etc… Sure, I can emulate the software, but the media is lost…
Update: Looks like I’m not alone in thinking about this recently. ArsTechnica just posted a related article on the longevity of optical media.
Update: Hah! And now even Slashdot is getting onto the story…
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6 Responses to “On Permanence (of content)”
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How about cuneiform tablets? Ancient Egyptian content holds up pretty well…
That would work. Or hieroglyphics carved into 1-ton blocks of stone.
Perhaps we need to work on a laser powered rock etcher, that connects to a computer and shows up in Print Center as just another printer…
Print your latest manuscript on Learning Objects, and have it preserved for the ages. Until it gets carved up to form the foundation of some post-apocalyptic city hall or something…
D’Arcy Norman, Librarian/Archivist at heart! I knew there was another reason you give me a good vibe
I know what you’re saying about this online stuff, but have you considered traditional print for some of your best ideas? Was just the other day I was wondering if you’d published anything in the traditional model, and after a sketchy lit search, aside from some conference proceedings it would seem to be no. Sure, traditional print may not prove to be permanent either, but aside from the tablets, it’s got a fairly decent track record…
Yeah. I suppose the problem with Print is that the bar is intentionally set so much higher. Any schmoe can publish to the internet, but you have to go through all kinds of bureaucracy to get into a Journal…
Hm. Maybe that’s a solution? Take the top n% of the internet, and publish it in a journal?
D’Arcy, have you had a chance to listen to the IT Conversations with Brewster Kahle of the Internet Archive? Just finished listening myself, and he speaks to a lot of what you’re concerned about here.
http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail400.html (Universal Access to All Knowledge)
Yeah. I’d listened to it (and subscribed to OurMedia.org the day it went live). It still doesn’t address permanence though - you’re just trusting another group to keep it live. An earthquake or fire or EMP or whatever would still wipe that out. It’s waaay too big to have offsite backups, but does offer periodically updated mirroring at 2 other locations. No guarantee that your files will be in all 3 locations, though.