Comments on: When Others Delete Your Past http://mediactive.com/2009/05/09/when-others-delete-your-past/ Creating a User's Guide to Democratized Media Sun, 08 Apr 2012 15:57:59 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Craig http://mediactive.com/2009/05/09/when-others-delete-your-past/#comment-144 Craig Fri, 03 Jul 2009 07:59:52 +0000 http://mediactive.com/?p=257#comment-144 I just took your advice and once again downloaded my blog onto my computer. In a sense these organisations are repeating the mistakes of their media forebears. TV stations regularly wiped and re-used magnetic tapes in the past and film companies were notoriously lax about how they stored movies. Think of what kind of revenue that could generate now? Strange that with storage capacity growing at such a rapid rate the Times couldn't just keep the IHT stuff in storage. I just took your advice and once again downloaded my blog onto my computer. In a sense these organisations are repeating the mistakes of their media forebears. TV stations regularly wiped and re-used magnetic tapes in the past and film companies were notoriously lax about how they stored movies. Think of what kind of revenue that could generate now?
Strange that with storage capacity growing at such a rapid rate the Times couldn’t just keep the IHT stuff in storage.

]]> By: Richard Bell http://mediactive.com/2009/05/09/when-others-delete-your-past/#comment-107 Richard Bell Thu, 18 Jun 2009 14:24:46 +0000 http://mediactive.com/?p=257#comment-107 Institutions regularly wipe out electronic-only chunks of history. I managed the creation and operation of the DNC's first website, which went live in 1995, and disappeared after the 1996 election, so I know the dismay that Crampton felt when he discovered that his links were all dead. Seeing your own work disappear is unpleasant; but what about the historical record? Who is responsible for preserving history in any form, electronic or otherwise? Historians have always struggled to answer questions about issues for which the original sources no longer exist, whether carved on stone, printed on paper, or typed into a computer. Who decides what electronic records to attempt to preserve--leaving aside the well-known problems with archiving electronic records in the first place, with programming languages going extinct, formats disappearing, etc. Dealing with these archival problems at a global level would cost a lot of money. Who should pay? Should there be a global database that sucks down the Internet every day? Entropy is one of the most powerful forces in the universe. Preserving the records of the past is swimming upstream, and the electronic revolution has vastly increased the speed of the current. Can some variant of Moore's Law decrease the cost of storage fast enough to keep up? Lots of deep questions here--right now, it looks like everyone for him/herself, sauve qu'il peut. Institutions regularly wipe out electronic-only chunks of history. I managed the creation and operation of the DNC’s first website, which went live in 1995, and disappeared after the 1996 election, so I know the dismay that Crampton felt when he discovered that his links were all dead.

Seeing your own work disappear is unpleasant; but what about the historical record?

Who is responsible for preserving history in any form, electronic or otherwise? Historians have always struggled to answer questions about issues for which the original sources no longer exist, whether carved on stone, printed on paper, or typed into a computer.

Who decides what electronic records to attempt to preserve–leaving aside the well-known problems with archiving electronic records in the first place, with programming languages going extinct, formats disappearing, etc.

Dealing with these archival problems at a global level would cost a lot of money. Who should pay? Should there be a global database that sucks down the Internet every day?

Entropy is one of the most powerful forces in the universe. Preserving the records of the past is swimming upstream, and the electronic revolution has vastly increased the speed of the current. Can some variant of Moore’s Law decrease the cost of storage fast enough to keep up?

Lots of deep questions here–right now, it looks like everyone for him/herself, sauve qu’il peut.

]]> By: Thomas Crampton http://mediactive.com/2009/05/09/when-others-delete-your-past/#comment-10 Thomas Crampton Sun, 10 May 2009 03:03:06 +0000 http://mediactive.com/?p=257#comment-10 Dan, Thanks for weighing in on this. One commenter on my posting suggests offering a service to journalists in backing up and tracking the quality of links to their work. I'm not sure many journalists would want to pay for this, but it would be an interesting route to pursue. Tom PS: A further issue was raised today in the Wikipedia community. What should they do about the dead links to the IHT website? http://www.thomascrampton.com/newspapers/wikipedia-grappling-with-deletion-of-ihtcom/ Dan,

Thanks for weighing in on this.

One commenter on my posting suggests offering a service to journalists in backing up and tracking the quality of links to their work. I’m not sure many journalists would want to pay for this, but it would be an interesting route to pursue.

Tom

PS: A further issue was raised today in the Wikipedia community. What should they do about the dead links to the IHT website?

http://www.thomascrampton.com/newspapers/wikipedia-grappling-with-deletion-of-ihtcom/

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