22 Jun
2001
22 Jun
'01
4:43 a.m.
On Fri, 22 Jun 2001, Brian Chase wrote:
Brian, this has been discussed at great length before (perhaps you weren't
around then). Hard copies of documents have survived thousands of years.
Digital magnetic media has only been around for at most 25-30 years. We
don't know what's going to happen to that data 50, 100, 500 years from
now.
If we're going to be preservationists or archivists, it would be wise to
be as conservative as possible, and assume the worst.
Digital copies, everywhere, sure. But I still prefer to hang on to the
hardcopies.
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
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International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
I completely
recommend AGAINST destroying the original. Not only is it in
some cases a historical artifact on its own, if the digital copy were ever
to be lost then you're SOL.
I'm against the idea of destroying the original as well, but I think
your point about losing the digital copy is pretty silly. It's
digital... just make lots of copies and spread them around. I'd say
it's a lot more dangerous to only have the original.