Upcoming PBS special on bit rot

I caught the PBS special tonight; For info on a videotape of the program, call 800-472-1500, or write; American Film Foundation PO Box 2000 Santa Monica, CA 90406 The program was very interesting. Its main focus was on the social implications of the storage of data in digital format, and its inherent vulnerability compared to traditional mediums (stone, paper, etc.). Most of the emphasis was on how future history will be affected by our digital world; very little time was spent explaining the technical issues involved. The program ended in a very open ended manner; no solution to the problems seems clear. A couple of interesting points made: 1) When we create information using a digital medium, we seldom preserve the working copies of our documents, and so the historical record of the development of significant works is lost. Makes me think of music, and how much we have learned of classical composers by studying the rough drafts of their works. 2) People who work in the computer industry generally percieve themselves as pioneers who are creating a new future, and therefore throw off the old. As a result, very little emphasis is placed on storing or cataloging the vast quantities of digital data generated. This trend is complicated by the fact that storage mediums are constantly changing. Grant Zozman gzozman(a)escape.ca