Lynne Brindley, director of the British Library points out that digital content is not being preserved the same way analog content is, and because of that, we risk losing our “memory”.
From the letter:
“At the exact moment Barack Obama was inaugurated, all traces of President Bush vanished from the White House website, replaced by images of and speeches by his successor. Attached to the website had been a booklet entitled 100 Things Americans May Not Know About the Bush Administration - they may never know them now. When the website changed, the link was broken and the booklet became unavailable.”
Also, if you remember the most recent Olympic Games, there were over 150 websites (that’s only counting mainstream) that covered the game. All of which disappeared overnight after the games.
Brindley eludes to future generations finding a blackhole in the knowledge base of the 21st century because of this lack of record keeping.
This is an extremely important project that is worth your attention, so donate to them if you can, and make an effort to track the progress of the project.
