> [mailto:CONLANG@listserv.brown.edu] On Behalf Of Jim Henry
> > Putting on an archivist hat (mainly paper, ephemera and
artefacts) it is
> > so easy for records and documents to be lost. They end up
underneath
> > the bed, or the equivalent thereof; and the next generation
places no
> > value on them. Electronic records are even scarier. We
have no
> > guarantees for the survival of electronic records, their
preservation
> > or access to them on the time scale that archivists would
like to work.
I think digital versions have the potiential to live much longer
because they propogate easily. If I make a thousand copies of a
book, it's likely that in fifty years only a few will still be
around and they will probably be tattered and torn with brittle
pages that turn immediately to dust. Digital versions could be
duplicated instantly from person to person to person, ad
infinitum without any loss of quality. The only problems that
arise with digital forms are the periodic changes in types of
media. For example, I still have a container full of 5.25"
floppy disks in the original Apple II format. I keep them in
the hopes of someday retrieving the data. Nothing really
important, just a few cheesy programs that I wrote, and some of
my earliest conscripts but I'd like to get them back sometime.
Not too unlike the old reels of 8mm films that I'd like to have
transferred to DVD, then they could be easily copied and
distributed to the whole family.