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Why the Library of Congress is wrong to archive Twitter

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Re: Why the Library of Congress is wrong to archive Twitter

#3
post #2

All of his arguments boil down to "open web good, twitter bad, ergo LoC shouldn't archive twitter".

Disingenuous.

He said "twitter private, Library of Congress public. Public preference to one of several private corps not in public interest, especially when there is a larger, more archive-worthy corpus that doesn't require private APIs or vendor discrimination".

Which part of that do you disagree with?

Re: Why the Library of Congress is wrong to archive Twitter

#4
post #2

All of his arguments boil down to "open web good, twitter bad, ergo LoC shouldn't archive twitter".

With the slight correction that it's "ergo LoC should probably try to archive the web before it tries to archive twitter". But yeah, that's the gist of it. But so what? That doesn't mean it's an invalid argument. In fact, I'm inclined to agree with it.

Re: Why the Library of Congress is wrong to archive Twitter

#5
post #3
post #2

All of his arguments boil down to "open web good, twitter bad, ergo LoC shouldn't archive twitter".

Disingenuous. He said "twitter private, Library of Congress public. Public preference to one of several private corps not in public interest, especially when there is a larger, more archive-worthy corpus that doesn't require private APIs or vendor discrimination". Which part of that do you disagree with?

GP is disparaging, but doesn't state any disagreement, his argument boils down to huff puff mumble mumble, get off my lawn.

Re: Why the Library of Congress is wrong to archive Twitter

#7
post #4
post #2

All of his arguments boil down to "open web good, twitter bad, ergo LoC shouldn't archive twitter".

With the slight correction that it's "ergo LoC should probably try to archive the web before it tries to archive twitter". But yeah, that's the gist of it. But so what? That doesn't mean it's an invalid argument. In fact, I'm inclined to agree with it.

If they had a good process for archiving blogs on the open web, then I wouldn't have a problem with extending that to Twitter.

Re: Why the Library of Congress is wrong to archive Twitter

#8
Core assumption is there is some business advantage in having LoC archive. Not sure I agree.

Much more fun is to use an analogy. LoC will arbitrarily by their own high level decision only and exclusively archive ABC TV shows, NBC, CBS, etc, too bad. Or perhaps if they only archived Ford corporate materials and ignore GM and all others.

Re: Why the Library of Congress is wrong to archive Twitter

#9
post #8

Core assumption is there is some business advantage in having LoC archive. Not sure I agree. Much more fun is to use an analogy. LoC will arbitrarily by their own high level decision only and exclusively archive ABC TV shows, NBC, CBS, etc, too bad. Or perhaps if they only archived Ford corporate materials and ignore GM and all others.

Well there certainly is a business advantage. Or why would Twitter have done it, and done a big rollout of the deal (I believe it was at SXSW). It was a huge publicity bonanza, the message was that Twitter is Historic. Don't believe us, believe the Library of Congress. They didn't do it out of altruism, they did it because it was excellent publicity. (Probably the LOC did it for that reason too.)

And we have a say in this in the US, since we pay for the LOC.

Re: Why the Library of Congress is wrong to archive Twitter

#10
Who says the Library of Congress isn't archiving the open web?

http://www.loc.gov/webarchiving/faq.html

Specifically, it states:

The types of sites archived include, but are not limited to: United States government (federal, state, district, local), foreign government, candidates for political office, political commentary, political parties, media, religious organizations, support groups, tributes and memorials, advocacy groups, educational and research institutions, creative expressions (cartoons, poetry, etc.), and blogs.

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