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08/14/2004 08:24:43 PM · #1 |
Even US Department Does not know for sure how to keep our digital media safe for next 100 years. any clues ? , we should all brain storm and come out with some process to keep it safe.
i was wondering since its all digital, can someone write computer code to save all the files in 0,1 format and provide an application suing which we should be able to view any file irrespective of mac or windows. |
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08/14/2004 08:34:33 PM · #2 |
I'd say let's photograph the damn 01's... that's how I do...
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08/14/2004 08:40:02 PM · #3 |
that was a good one but on a serious note , arent we going on a path which no one know where it will lead too.
i mean , imagin saving money in a bank and that bank disappears tomorrow. |
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08/14/2004 08:45:18 PM · #4 |
Banks have some sort of ferderal ensurance in the United States as far as I know so don't worry about it.
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08/14/2004 10:17:02 PM · #5 |
Banking was an apt analogy. When you put your money in a bank, it does not just sit there, there are many people taking care of it; circulating it back into the economy and out again.
Digital data has very similar requirements for long-term archiving; the bits must be continually refreshed. There has never been an archival medium that didn't require refreshing from time to time. Photographs fade, wrinkle and yellow; and even stone tablets loose their readability after a while.
Archiving isn't about storing something and forgetting it until you need it again, it is about keeping the data until it is needed. To do that requires periodic attention. What attention is needed depends on the scale and importance of the data.
David
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08/14/2004 11:29:58 PM · #6 |
Originally posted by frumoaznicul:
I'd say let's photograph the damn 01's... that's how I do... |
Me too... =]
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08/14/2004 11:55:45 PM · #7 |
Maybe this will be a step in the right direction for archiving? A bank of these refreshed and rotated will be compact enough to be viable and solid state will make it reliable. Just an idea.
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08/15/2004 01:06:22 AM · #8 |
So, how about digital images you submit to the copyright office? You can't exactly refresh those. I'm sure that if some antique photographic plate was found in the copyright office, or any other archive, it could be "developed" or restored. How about CDs and DVDs, will we be able to do the same to them in 100 years? I want my images to last so my children's children's children can see them. Perhaps they'll find something that tells them there are photographs that belong to them taken by their great great grand mother and they'll want to have them. Will they be able to? Only time will tell, but I surely hope so.
June
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08/15/2004 02:22:02 AM · #9 |
I recommend cuniform on clay as being perfectly suited to binary notation, and having proven readability after 8000 years of being buried in desert sand. We probably know more about the Babylonian tax system than our own ... : (
Message edited by author 2004-08-15 02:22:45. |
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08/15/2004 02:34:00 AM · #10 |
In about 50 or so years, I really won't care....
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08/15/2004 12:25:09 PM · #11 |
It is an important question.
Before DVD, CD, and magnetic tape, there were wire recorders. Sound was recorded by magnetizing points on a wire. The wire was drawn through a player and the pulses converted to sound again by the machine. Sadly, there are no wire recording machines still in existance (except possibly in museums) and the recordings have been lost even though the wires still exist. We've lost the players and forgotten the format.
Digital pictures are similar. They are recorded in a particular format, on a particular media, and require a particular machine to play them. All three are joined at the hip. If the media, the format, or the player is lost, we've lost the photo. The only way to really preserve them is to continuously refreah the format, the media, and the player in a lossless way.
Or, transfer them to another more durable media that will transcend time. Best we have today is dye on paper, I think.
I have been arguing for a company that would continuously refresh digital content and a few exist (e.g. Corbis) but it will be too expensive unless something is truly important enough. The trick is to know in advance what's going to be important. We may not care in 50 years but people we care about may care deeply.
Enough philosophy for a Sunday morning. But it is an important question! |
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08/15/2004 06:35:53 PM · #12 |
I've been worried about this for a while, because so much of our current history is now on digital media, no one may take as much effort getting the hard copy, or the actual document anymore. I mean, if a meteor took out most of the world tomorrow, and left just a few of us with no electricity or power, no manufacturers to create computers, scanners, printers and whatnot, we have no sense of history anymore. We may even have all the DVDs and CDs, but it would be all irrelevant.
Anyway, that should be my excuse to make more prints from my digital camera. =) |
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08/15/2004 06:48:26 PM · #13 |
Originally posted by BradP:
In about 50 or so years, I really won't care.... |
in 50 years i'll be lucky enough if i even remember that i took photos. i'll be preoccupied on remembering where i left my teeth. |
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08/15/2004 07:00:18 PM · #14 |
Originally posted by longlivenyhc:
Originally posted by BradP:
In about 50 or so years, I really won't care.... |
in 50 years i'll be lucky enough if i even remember that i took photos. i'll be preoccupied on remembering where i left my teeth. |
You may not care in 50 years, but people you care about, may care.
If you look at Egyptian temples (7,000 years old), or Roman buildings (2,000 years old), or historic documents (250 years old) you might wonder if we have a duty to the future. Certainly our lives would be poorer if history hadn't felt a duty to the future we inhabit.
Many cities feel a duty to preserve the past and fulfill the duty by spending vast sums to restore building, monuments and such.
No sermons here, just an interesting topic to think about and a practical problem if we want to preserve our photos. |
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08/15/2004 07:06:47 PM · #15 |
Originally posted by chiqui74:
So, how about digital images you submit to the copyright office? You can't exactly refresh those. I'm sure that if some antique photographic plate was found in the copyright office, or any other archive, it could be "developed" or restored. How about CDs and DVDs, will we be able to do the same to them in 100 years? I want my images to last so my children's children's children can see them. Perhaps they'll find something that tells them there are photographs that belong to them taken by their great great grand mother and they'll want to have them. Will they be able to? Only time will tell, but I surely hope so.
June |
Copyright expires, or it would do if Disney weren't trying to bastardise the system. |
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08/15/2004 08:00:55 PM · #16 |
Originally posted by Digital Quixote:
Originally posted by longlivenyhc:
Originally posted by BradP:
In about 50 or so years, I really won't care.... |
in 50 years i'll be lucky enough if i even remember that i took photos. i'll be preoccupied on remembering where i left my teeth. |
You may not care in 50 years, but people you care about, may care.
If you look at Egyptian temples (7,000 years old), or Roman buildings (2,000 years old), or historic documents (250 years old) you might wonder if we have a duty to the future. Certainly our lives would be poorer if history hadn't felt a duty to the future we inhabit.
Many cities feel a duty to preserve the past and fulfill the duty by spending vast sums to restore building, monuments and such. |
We leave The Gong Show ... what more accurate synopsis of our culture could one hope for? |
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