In this week's reading Bararbasi mentioned one of the coolest sites on the web: http://www.archive.org
I encourage everyone to take a minute to check it out because it will definitely make you view the web differently. I first visited the archives in middle school when I saw a link to the site on bored.com, and then proceeded to forget about it until last year when I was writing a large research paper on the Obama administration and Web 2.0 tools. By using the archives, I was able to access both the Clinton and Bush Whitehouse.gov pages for comparative purposes. The whole experience of using the archives to access this data reminded me what an important historical record the Internet is. As Bararbasi writes, "the Web's architecture is the product of two equally important layers: code and collective human actions taking advantage of the code." The construction of the web is a tangible recording of what users are feeling at that instance in time. This is a very unique world of information. Visiting the site, and checking out some old webpages will make you wonder how people will view what we are doing on the web (i.e. social networks) years later.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Awesome site! Thanks for the tip!
ReplyDeleteThat really is such an interesting site. I had never heard of it before this week's reading, but I'm glad I know about it now. I think Kahle had a really great idea. The web is such an intricate part of our current generation, and it really would be a shame to have no record of everything 50+ years from now. However, I question how realistic what Kahle is doing is. Bararbasi acknowledges the fact that the Internet is huge and still growing, and I don't think anyone has any hope of being able to archive it all. But Bararbasi also makes the point that the Archives only represent a very small portion of the Web - the most popular portion - while millions of other webpages are slipping away. So are the Archives even worth it if they can only grasp such a limited portion of the Web? They can't possibly portray an accurate history of our generation with such a small scope. However, on the other hand, to archive every single webpage would be impossible, so getting the most popular ones is the most logical way to go. It will end up as a nice overview of today's Web. Overall, I do think Kahle is doing something great, it's just a shame there isn't a better way to do it.
ReplyDeleteEmily, I think your comment, "The whole experience of using the archives to access this data reminded me what an important historical record the Internet is" is really interesting because I remember when I was in elementary school when we had to do small "research" papers, we would look at historical information in encyclopedias. Now, encyclopedias just seem way outdated, even though they're great books of information, and whenever I have to do research I go straight to the internet. It's funny how time changes so drastically and how the Internet has done this for us. It will truly be interesting to see what will happen in the future.
ReplyDelete