something I posted on our National folk list a few days ago

Digital archaeology and the temporary nature of technology

Radio program - Listen Now & Download Audio available

As our fast paced digital world continues what does that mean for the way we think about preserving things like old webpages and obsolete media formats? Are there possible lessons from our digital past for our digital future? We explore the fragility of our electronic data and also the temporary nature of the technology we use to access it. We also join the excavation of a 1970s computer chip called the 6502!

comment from a listener Obsolete electronic technology

I have a fantasy that Stonehenge is all that remains today of an electronic civilisation. The rest is lost.
Half of all my life's work is lost on obsolete technology – three forms of tape recording, Deskmate word processing, Amiga animation, floppies, Betacam, microfiche, old editions of modern programs. . All that remains is what I put on paper. And today schools are throwing out books and relying on electronic technology!

Today I want to put irreplaceable tape recordings of oral history onto CDs or DVDs, but cannot find the technology to do so.
Putting everything into paper archives is unsatisfactory unless we have a means of finding material. There is too much dross.
We need the equivalent of a Rosetta stone for modern knowledge and culture.

(Planned obsolescence in electronic technology makes the situation worse. What is good is thrown out as well as what is passe.)

sandra - retired librarian & lifetime reader, member of 2 local libraries which allow me up to 20 books each time I visit!!