Internet Data Is Rotting
theconversation.com
Internet Data Is Rotting
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Re: Internet Data Is Rotting
#2> Then there is also a problem of software preservation: How can people today or in the future interpret those WordPerfect or WordStar files from the 1980s, when the original software companies have stopped supporting them or gone out of business?
This issue in particular we have great solutions for (open formats / text), but they are of course less profitable than only-my-app-can-read-this formats.
Re: Internet Data Is Rotting
#3Things got far more worse in China right now.
Baidu Tieba, which could be considered as Reddit for China, just made all posts before 2017-01-01 inaccessible. And a number of other online forums are doing the same thing due to political reasons.
Re: Internet Data Is Rotting
#4> As of last fall, its Wayback Machine held over 450 billion pages in 25 petabytes of data. This would represent .0003% of the total internet.
> Universities, governments and scientific societies are struggling to preserve scientific data in a hodgepodge of archives, such as the U.K.‘s Digital Preservation Coalition, MetaArchive, or the now-disbanded collaborative Digital Preservation Network.
Like any conservation work, the benefits are incredibly easy to ignore - until something goes awry / stops getting funding and suddenly it's too late. Consequently it's easy to have a myopic view of the issue.
These organizations are doing very important work, and I hope that internet users and governments don't take them for granted.
Re: Internet Data Is Rotting
#5I read somewhere that the lifespan of the average hyperlink is only about two years.
I count myself lucky I was introduced to the HTTRACK archiver program many years ago and thus have complete offline copies of many of my favorite websites of the early 00's.
Re: Internet Data Is Rotting
#6Things got far more worse in China right now. Baidu Tieba, which could be considered as Reddit for China, just made all posts before 2017-01-01 inaccessible. And a number of other online forums are doing the same thing due to political reasons.
would you elaborate on the political reasons?
Re: Internet Data Is Rotting
#7I read somewhere that the lifespan of the average hyperlink is only about two years. I count myself lucky I was introduced to the HTTRACK archiver program many years ago and thus have complete offline copies of many of my favorite websites of the early 00's.
you should upload them somewhere for posterity
Re: Internet Data Is Rotting
#8Things got far more worse in China right now. Baidu Tieba, which could be considered as Reddit for China, just made all posts before 2017-01-01 inaccessible. And a number of other online forums are doing the same thing due to political reasons.
would you elaborate on the political reasons?
If zshbleaker doesn’t respond, I’d guess that over time what’s acceptable and not acceptable changes (e.g. opinions about particular people who may have fallen out of favor, or Taiwan policy toggling between bellicose and conciliatory, etc) so rather than getting in trouble for providing acess to “inappropriate” content you simply ditch it.
Re: Internet Data Is Rotting
#9If it is rotting, then it will be a great time for scavengers and carrion feeders--maybe even the 'era of'.
Re: Internet Data Is Rotting
#10Things got far more worse in China right now. Baidu Tieba, which could be considered as Reddit for China, just made all posts before 2017-01-01 inaccessible. And a number of other online forums are doing the same thing due to political reasons.
would you elaborate on the political reasons?
If you want to rewrite history it doesnt help to have lots of old copies lying around. Any data not under government control is a threat.