Could Digitalization Cause a Void in History?

Submitted by birdie on November 21, 2006 - 3:42pm
Topic: 
Information Retrieval

Search Engines WEB sends us something from TechDirt "Even if you can store the data perfectly forever, without the right applications, it's meaningless. Matt Sullivan writes in with yet another article on the topic, this time from Popular Mechanics, that suggests we could be facing a "digital ice age" as plenty of data from this era of history are lost to bad archiving capabilities."

Comments

Submitted by Chuck on November 21, 2006 - 7:32pm.

I've been interested in this since library school. Neat topic.

It's true that the obsolecence of digital formats will render some information lost to future generations.

The question isn't whether or not it is bad. It is bad. The question is whether or not it's any different that the historical record has ever been.

What is preserved has always been decided by accident and effort on the part of a few. But largely accident, especially until recently.

I don't see this as being any different.

Submitted by tf23 on November 21, 2006 - 8:00pm.

This is no different from the Library fire of Alexandria, no?

Nothing is forever, unfortunately, not even history itself.

Submitted by Anonymous Patron (not verified) on November 22, 2006 - 3:26pm.

http://tinyurl.com/ymv8hptinyurl.com>