Datapocalypso (RE: Eviction, or the Coming Datapocalypse)
ascii.textfiles.com
Datapocalypso (RE: Eviction, or the Coming Datapocalypse)
1–10 of 14 posts
Re: Datapocalypso (RE: Eviction, or the Coming Datapocalypse)
#2Cross-posting:
Of relevance, Pownce had a similar shutdown recently. Pownce was bought and users were given 2 weeks to export their data before the service was shutdown and the data gone forever.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/12/01/pownce-deadpooled-team-...
Re: Datapocalypso (RE: Eviction, or the Coming Datapocalypse)
#3The good part is at the very end where he actually proposes some kind of solution.
Re: Datapocalypso (RE: Eviction, or the Coming Datapocalypse)
#4I'm still not solid on what I think about private companies having the responsibility to provide your data for you if they're closing down, but his bit at the end about the archive team seems... well, brilliant. Hell, it could even be a paid service. Monitor the web for companies shutting down and download away. Of course, that's assuming that the data's not protected behind some sort of wall (if Facebook was closing, or something like that); in that case, contact the company and try and make a deal. You could get them to simply give you all the data, or (in case of privacy concerns, etc.) offer the closing company a solution where they commit to letting users get at their data for 90 days (or some similar number) and after that, you put up a page where people can pay to access the original site, or at least some sort of download page.
Of course, people could just back up, but some stuff is just hard to do that with, especially on the web.
Re: Datapocalypso (RE: Eviction, or the Coming Datapocalypse)
#5I fully support this idea and infact, I am already wondering how you'd go about implementing it.
I've been bitten by this before and didn't have sufficient backups.
Re: Datapocalypso (RE: Eviction, or the Coming Datapocalypse)
#6I fully support this idea and infact, I am already wondering how you'd go about implementing it. I've been bitten by this before and didn't have sufficient backups.
Well projects like dataportability.org are a step in the right direction (making the export of data easier), but then there's the issue of how much notice (if any at all) is given when a site is closing.
Re: Datapocalypso (RE: Eviction, or the Coming Datapocalypse)
#7On the other hand, perhaps it's good to allow data to be lost occasionally... I've lost old emails, source code, and other documents that I thought were really important (to me at least). Turns out I was wrong, I don't miss any of it.
It's a shame when people lose stuff for reasons other than neglect, but it happens. Start over or work on something new (and treat it like an opportunity, not a chore).
Re: Datapocalypso (RE: Eviction, or the Coming Datapocalypse)
#8On the other hand, perhaps it's good to allow data to be lost occasionally... I've lost old emails, source code, and other documents that I thought were really important (to me at least). Turns out I was wrong, I don't miss any of it. It's a shame when people lose stuff for reasons other than neglect, but it happens. Start over or work on something new (and treat it like an opportunity, not a chore).
There's no reason to lose data. Space is cheap.
Re: Datapocalypso (RE: Eviction, or the Coming Datapocalypse)
#9On the other hand, perhaps it's good to allow data to be lost occasionally... I've lost old emails, source code, and other documents that I thought were really important (to me at least). Turns out I was wrong, I don't miss any of it. It's a shame when people lose stuff for reasons other than neglect, but it happens. Start over or work on something new (and treat it like an opportunity, not a chore).
There's no reason to lose data. Space is cheap.
It depends on how you define "lose". To keep all your data for a long time takes effort. Storage formats change. Disks die. Hosted storage bills need to be paid, billing needs to be updated (credit cards expire), etc.
You really need more than one copy in more than one place if you want to be really confident that your data won't be lost.
Is all your data worth the effort? Is it healthy to try to hang on to everything?
Re: Datapocalypso (RE: Eviction, or the Coming Datapocalypse)
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's no reason to lose data. Space is cheap.
It depends on how you define "lose". To keep all your data for a long time takes effort. Storage formats change. Disks die. Hosted storage bills need to be paid, billing needs to be updated (credit cards expire), etc. You really need more than one copy in more than one place if you want to be really confident that your data won't be lost. Is all your data worth the effort? Is it healthy to try to hang on to everythin…
When I could simply offload to a drive and then throw that dive into storage? Sure it is.