[LINK] Internet Archival

[Ivan Trundle]

On 28/09/2009, at 10:37 PM, Kim Holburn wrote:

> Sturgeon's Law?  But which 90%?

I'd settle for any 90%.

>
> The trouble is that both the first decades of TV and the first decades
> of the internet have been interesting and creative times.  If we lose
> 90% of that material or more, little will be left for our descendants
> who will not have a choice like we have, of saving it or not.  It will
> just be gone.  Perhaps it doesn't matter.

You raise a good point, but I wonder if it is really, really important  
to trap and store this boundless creativity. Some argue that human  
development has grown exponentially (I always cringe when I see this  
word used) in recent times, but the level of change, and meaningful  
change, has pretty much remained constant.

Our perception of what is important and what is best kept is distorted  
by our current fascinations.

In terms of human development, we've lost a great deal by being led  
down paths which at first blush appear creative and useful, but will  
one day be seen as facile and unimportant. And I believe that this  
affects all fields of endeavour. Just because we know MORE about  
something (genome project, nuclear physics, astronomy, whatever) does  
not make the human race necessarily wiser or more intelligent.

One could argue that we have not truly advanced society in the past  
1000 years (or at the very lest, post-industrial revolution) and that  
we are merely pragmatically trying to survive by extending the  
envelope of our survival.

However, Link is most likely not the place to debate this!

iT
>
> On 2009/Sep/28, at 12:55 PM, Ivan Trundle wrote:
>
>>
>> On 28/09/2009, at 8:35 PM, Kim Holburn wrote:
>>
>>> I worry that we've already lost much of the written online material
>>> produced in the last few decades.  I think we've already lost much  
>>> of
>>> early TV
>>
>> Whilst I understand the sentiment, it's not something that leaves me
>> sleepless at night. We could lose 90% of the internet and still
>> survive quite adequately, I believe.
>
>
>
> -- 
> Kim Holburn
> IT Network & Security Consultant
> Ph: +39 06 855 4294  M: +39 3494957443
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