Internet Archive as a default host-of-record for startups
1–10 of 188 posts
Re: Internet Archive as a default host-of-record for startups
#2Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this problem the ideal use case for projects like IPFS? Anyone interested to preserve the content can join as a node to balance the load, right? And if so, why don't we see widespread adoption?
Re: Internet Archive as a default host-of-record for startups
#3Personally, I think eternally archiving everything and infinitely available public data has been not-so-great. If this was an "archive with consent" sort of system, then sure. My response may be better summarized as, "Does IA support robots.txt, and if not why?"
Re: Internet Archive as a default host-of-record for startups
#4Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this problem the ideal use case for projects like IPFS? Anyone interested to preserve the content can join as a node to balance the load, right? And if so, why don't we see widespread adoption?
There are many a projects who go open source when they fail. The extra step here is IA would become the A record for the project (at least temporarily?)
Re: Internet Archive as a default host-of-record for startups
#5Personally, I think eternally archiving everything and infinitely available public data has been not-so-great. If this was an "archive with consent" sort of system, then sure. My response may be better summarized as, "Does IA support robots.txt, and if not why?"
There is some public discussion about why IA does not strictly adhere to robots.txt:
https://blog.archive.org/2017/04/17/robots-txt-meant-for-sea...
Re: Internet Archive as a default host-of-record for startups
#6Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this problem the ideal use case for projects like IPFS? Anyone interested to preserve the content can join as a node to balance the load, right? And if so, why don't we see widespread adoption?
I was involved with planning https://nlnet.nl/project/SoftwareHeritage-P2P/ for just this reason --- hopefully we will finally be able to start work on it sometime too far off.
Indeed the real challenge of archival is not loosing the stuff, by making sure that people can still find the stuff. "Orphaned" information that no one knows exists, or is bothering to interact with, isn't that valuable compared to resources that are actively being used and still "live" in the culture.
Of course, the archive can never serve the same amount of bandwidth, but the goal is a) interested parties can mirror the stuff they care about in a higher bandwidth / item way after some huge disruption c) random viewers never notice something going down, nor who is serving the info, but just a temporary drop in connection quality.
Ultimately, location-based addressing is a stupid way to run society, needlessly fragile by baking in very property claims (IPs, DNS, etc.) that are incidental to the task at hand. Content-based addressing, with location based hints to avoid trying to solve really hard problems all at once, is the only way to make culture more robust.
Re: Internet Archive as a default host-of-record for startups
#7Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this problem the ideal use case for projects like IPFS? Anyone interested to preserve the content can join as a node to balance the load, right? And if so, why don't we see widespread adoption?
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Re: Internet Archive as a default host-of-record for startups
#8There's nothing about his suggestion that requires use of a Blockchain. IA could certify authenticity easily without it.
Re: Internet Archive as a default host-of-record for startups
#9The feature I most want from the Internet Archive is the ability to donate them an old domain name and enough cash to renew it for the next hundred years such that they can keep an archived version of a site available (without breaking any incoming links) for a very long time.
They would also need to be able to handle legal administration costs of things like DMCA take-down notices, but I assume they already have to deal with that for the rest of the archive so hopefully that's not an extra complexity for them.
Re: Internet Archive as a default host-of-record for startups
#10Personally, I think eternally archiving everything and infinitely available public data has been not-so-great. If this was an "archive with consent" sort of system, then sure. My response may be better summarized as, "Does IA support robots.txt, and if not why?"
Throughout human history, records have been forgotten, rewritten, changed, mutated, degraded, eroded away to nothingness. "The internet is forever" has always struck me as inhumane. Make a mistake or expose a weakness on the internet and it will always accompany you.
It turns out that the internet is not always forever. I find that comforting.