For the last few years, historian and archivist Jason Scott has been involved with a loose, rogue band of data preservation activists called The Archive Team. As major sites with brand recognition and the work of millions announce short-notice shutdowns of their entire services, including Geocities, Friendster, and Yahoo Video, Archive Team arrives on the scene to duplicate as much as they possibly can for history before all the data is wiped forever.Change of pace for a second. For a digital archives class I recently watched this talk which touches on a lot of areas about which you (the reader of this electronic communication) might be interested. Or should be. URL shorteners, generated by a third-party that may disappear at any moment? Not great for historians/archivists/you.
Or what if blogger.com disappeared tomorrow, like Geocities did (at one time the 3rd most trafficked domain). Lot of good stuff. Jason Scott is not a finesse guy but that is part of the charm. He believes whole heartedly in the value of history, text, output, and is working to rescue that shit. Extreme geekery ahead, good stuff. 44 mins.
