[LINK] Guidelines for Digital Repositories, Canberra, 27 July

[Karl Auer]

On Fri, 2006-07-21 at 16:35 +1000, Marghanita da Cruz wrote:
> A thousand years isn't very long, you will find that the major religions
> have older records and maintained comprehension. The interpretation and
> application of the stuff just may not always be to everyone's satisfaction.

Which is what I meant. Comprehension *is* interpretation. In any case,
these are typically not things that had fallen into disuse, but that
were in semi-constant use all that time. Also, the quantity of data thus
preserved is typically extremely small. Interestingly, most such items
have been massively copied, with significant "bit rot". And many have
been repurposed. None of this is true for all the items of course, some
stuff really did travel as unaccompanied baggage across the centuries.

The items of which you speak were preserved across a technological gap
far smaller than the gap that has opened just this century, a gap which
I venture to suggest will itself be dwarfed by the gap that will open
over the next hundred or so years, let alone the next thousand.

We are now talking massive, bulk transferral of data from the present
into the future, quite a different kettle of fish.

Regards, K.


-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)                   +61-2-64957160 (h)
http://www.biplane.com.au/~kauer/                  +61-428-957160 (mob)