British Library warns of 'black hole' in history if websites & files not preserved

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1127362/British-Library-warns-black-hole-history-websites-digital-files-preserved.html

by thinkzig • 17 years ago

6 3 17 years ago

dailymail.co.uk

thinkzig• 17 years ago

I found this article interesting because my parents just moved to a new house after 20 years. The move unearthed photos that hadn't been seen in decades and prompted hours of fun memories and discussions about good times past.

Those discussions happened because the pictures were there in huge boxes and in our faces as we sorted through their stuff. It's hard to imagine that same thing happening if the pictures had been locked away on a DVD or hard drive somewhere.

I know archive.org is doing a good job of cataloging the history of web sites, but what about all the un-archived pictures that people take and leave on their hard drives until they crash? This article makes an interesting point.

pwk• 17 years ago

There are some benefits to digital content that might help work against the "black hole" effect:

1. It's much easier to create copies of digital documents. Looking at my own data that I consider important, many photos I've taken of my family exist on probably dozens of machines around the world belonging to relatives and friends. Of course this also happened in the pre-digital age, but I don't think to the same extent.

2. It's easier to create digital content in the first place, so there will be more of it. How many photos were snapped during the construction of, say, Taipei 101 as compared to the construction of the Empire State building? I don't know, but I'd guess orders of magnitude more. So, even if many are lost and many are of low quality, there is still likely to be some preserved historic record.

anonyreliant• 17 years ago

Stuff gets lost all the time. Deal with it.

British Library warns of 'black hole' in history if websites & files not preserved

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