Some Food For Thought

[Midway Tommy D]

Here's a little food for thought regarding all of our digitally archived historical information .

[Steve]

Buuurp!

All that data, they worry — our century’s digital history — is at risk of never being recoverable.

What do the nerds consider as "data?" Every imbecilic tweet? Cat videos? Do they actually think that the important stuff is recorded only digitally? People still produce newspapers and books. So far, we seem to have been able to transition from one medium to another, e.g., from Edison cylinders to 78rpm records to LPs to CDs to YouTube. (And let's not forget that most accurate means of recording history throughout the ages--oral tradition.)

[Don Champion]

Digital decay IS very real, just like global warming. Oral tradition is flawed since it involves the human memory. Not the most reliable backup.

[kyreels]

Agree that digital decay is a real and probable issue from a scientific and historical viewpoint. The definitive article on the problem of digital longevity was published in the January 1995 edition of Scientific American in the article "Ensuring the Longevity of Digital Information" by Jeff Rothenberg.

In the article, Rothenberg states, digital information last forever, or 5 years, whichever comes first. Back in 1995, I was in document imaging for Kodak and we sold microfilm and digital optical drives to business and government. The advantage of microfilm is that you can hold it up to a candle in 1000 years, and you can still read it (assuming that the film has not melted). With paper, carbon literally is the longest lasting element, and laser printed documents on acid free paper should last forever. For optical or magnetic disks, the most the medium could last is 100 years, but most of it will not last much past 10 years, assuming we even have the devices to read them.

The only remedy for digital decay is to continue to refresh any important information forward. A club library on CD or DVD must continually be refreshed to the latest digital formats. The problem is, who decides when it is important to do that, and is it likely to happen in times of crisis? Will it be preserved when no one values it for 50 or 100 years or so, but then its value is "discovered", but too late?

[Paul M]

We need to keep capturing the history of reels in the Reel News. Back issues for sale, only while quantities last!

[Mike N]

Digital decay IS very real, just like global warming. Oral tradition is flawed since it involves the human memory. Not the most reliable backup.

Don- I get your point, but after having cross-examined a few thousand “eye” witnesses over the past 35 years in everything from first degree murder trials to fender benders, I’m not sure I totally agree. Oral history tradition can be very accurate and sketchy “eye witness” testimony saved as digital data can be totally useless.

I can tell you from memory gained via “oral tradition” and with 100% accuracy the exact location of the house my father (born 1919, a century ago) was raised in, the names of his siblings and parents, his military service in WW II etc. I have passed this oral history on to my children.

On the contrary, a data processor’s work-product is based upon information from sources that may or may not have been peer-reviewed or credible or vetted or subjected to examination. This “data” does not become more credible or valuable simply because it was saved digitally.

I have watched dozens of “eye witnesses” change their sworn testimony under cross-examination (I speak here metaphorically) and have reviewed hundreds of medical, business and public written records that contained erroneous information. That testimony and those documents would still be false and less than worthless even if they were saved digitally. In fact, it may be ill-advised to pass it along to future generations digitally where it’s accepted as gospel truth.

Here is where you are right, though—my late mother left us thousands of family photographs meticulously preserved in albums. I have thousands of family photographs on my iPhone. I’m guessing the old photo albums will be around long after my cell phone is discarded unless I get some app to print them soon.

All in all, I’m not so sure that so-called digital decay isn’t really a blessing that helps us get rid of the useless “15 minutes of fame” background noises of modern life such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter where documenting one’s trip to the grocery store is somehow made to take on historical significance.

Mike N

[Ron Mc]

I read the article. I don't think you can argue that while paper archives are important, digital distribution has been a bigger boon to reel (and everything) collecting.

I think the author sums the whole thing nicely.

Kari Kraus understands the urgency but says she cannot make up her mind whether the phrase, digital dark ages, is overblown or not. “We have architectural ruins; we have paintings in tatters. The past always survives in fragments already,” she says. “I guess I tend to see preservation as not a binary — either it's preserved or it's not. There are gradations of preservation. We can often preserve parts of a larger whole.”