[HN Gopher] Thinking About Internet History ___________________________________________________________________ Thinking About Internet History Author : dbelson Score : 29 points Date : 2023-12-30 20:19 UTC (2 hours ago) (HTM) web link (content.cooperate.com) (TXT) w3m dump (content.cooperate.com) | stl_fan wrote: | I think Archive.org wayback machine and archive.today are going | to be extremely valuable resources for "historical research" in | the future. I hope they can continue their work via donor | funding. | chaxor wrote: | Are there any developments towards helping these efforts out by | decentralizing / backing up parts of the archive and way back | machine data? I know torrents are hugely important in helping | to decentralize and maintain many important files in academia | and such (e.g. NN weights and CERN data) but I think cephfs is | also trying to allow decentralized data storage with | redundancy. | | It seems like there is some solution which can provide a huge | data source to be decentralized over arbitrary number of nodes, | where each node can hold or back up just some part of the data, | and allow for a dashboard view that shows the level of | redundancy over all of the data for each of its parts. | Mizza wrote: | I've been thinking a lot about this too. I was thinking people | should start collecting written histories of their recollections | of the internet, so future historians can understand the dynamics | which shaped their future-present, like the "Great Digg | Migration" and the "Tumblr Exodus", etc. | DougEiffel wrote: | Even with written recollections and archives, it's going to be | so difficult to follow. Things just change so quickly. The | irony and memes that require you to understand 5 other memes | are just going to be so difficult to capture in any meaningful | way. | | I also think people might not care that much. They'll have an | even more sophisticated and oversaturated version of the | internet and I'm thinking they'll only really care about a few | big highlights from our time. Whatever is contained in the | Wikipedia page for Reddit, Twitter, and Facebook will probably | be enough for most future people. | apantel wrote: | This is true for most people regarding any part of history. | But for any part of history there are those who take a deep | interest and want to piece together the minutia of what | happened. The limit case of that is an actual trained | historian who specializes in that part of history. | bongripper wrote: | I much rather think about real history, there is more to learn | from it for the future. | ChrisArchitect wrote: | "real"? If it's not archived or documented on the Internet | somewhere, did it really happen? | oldnetguy wrote: | Internet history is one part of the history of technology and you | have people already trying to preserve it. Look at all the | vintage computer groups that talk about the history of computers | and computing. Some even talk about the history of BBS systems. | They are the groups already involved and would enjoy the support | of others who are interested | ggm wrote: | I have come to the conclusion this will best be left to | professionals, and a significant amount of oral history has in | fact already been collected and curated, by professionals. | | I wanted it to be me. The more I thought about it, the less | equipped I felt. In some ways, it's the technologists curse, to | believe your meta sense informs "the best way" when in fact, | you're disrespecting another disciplines praxis assuming your | amateur spider sense is the way. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2023-12-30 23:00 UTC)