
			Websites 'must be saved for history' - nickb
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/jan/25/preserving-digital-archive
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georgecmu
<http://archive.org> ?

~~~
ricree
Yes, I was surprised that it got no mention in the article. Still, it isn't a
great idea to rely too much on any one source for all of this information. I
do think that there is a very real problem caused by the lack of hard copies
for most of our data. A lot of what we know about history comes to us in the
form of written records, especially things such as letters or private
journals. Computer communication works great at the time of use, but I do
think that the general public needs to be more aware of the need to create
permanent hard copies of anything that they might want to be saved for the
future.

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twopoint718
Couldn't agree more. I think there are some fascinating areas for research
here. I was able to find this:
<http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/rothenberg/research.html> which is talking
about how we can preserve digital documents for the future by creating a well-
specified emulator of current software.

But short of dumping data to a machine-readable but paper-based (or microfilm)
format, I don't think there are any really long-lasting options out there.

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lgriffith
One problem is that ~90% of all published material is little better than white
noise that should land in the bit bucket. The big problem is which ~10% is
worth saving. The answer will be very different for each of us.

Another problem is that its hard enough to find something of significance in
our current avalanche of bits. Imagine what it will be like after a few
decades of exponential increase of essentially white noise. We will be
saturated with bits we call information but will be unable to extract
knowledge or understanding from it.

You could be better informed by listening to static on the radio. At least you
could tell that a thunder storm is approaching.

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titocosta
Our information age will end up being rather ephemeral
<http://titocosta.tumblr.com/post/73083179/we-are-atlantis>

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unalone
No. What that misses is that while such formats are no longer popular, we
haven't lost knowledge of how to read them.

My computer can't play tapes. But if I want to read a tape, I know exactly how
I would go about having a tape played.

Besides, once information becomes about the specific file type on a hard
drive, no reader is necessary. An mp3 file can be read by any computer with an
mp3 player.

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albertcardona
I always wondered, who pays for the saving of webpages?

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gaius
If it's being proposed in the Grauniad: the taxpayer.

