Email is Where Knowledge Goes to Die–Or is it?

Reminded by my advisor, Pat Galloway...

Another interesting post from Library of Congress's The Signal blog about e-mail messages.  
http://blogs.loc.gov/digitalpreservation/2012/02/email-is-where-knowledge-goes-to-die-or-is-it/

"And yet. Email is a fantastic resource for documenting and remembering.": Based on what many of my participants said -- regardless complex mixed feelings toward e-mails addressed during interviews -- , I think so too.

"email “as one of the most interesting types of historical record being created in our times,”": Indeed.

Keeping analogue memories in a digital age

Dean Dillon forwarded this link to me....a while ago. Watched this again today while writing my dissertation.

"Keeping analogue memories in a digital age"

BBC Friday, 2 December 2011
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/9652119.stm

Nice video report from BBC about digitizing and preserving family home movies and films.

if I die: facebook app

Jeanine Finn, a good colleague of mine sent this link to me: http://ifidie.net/

It is about time that we will see more of these things, a lot more:
"if i die is the first and only facebook application that enables you to create a video or a text message that will only be published after you die"

What is case study?

"Sometimes we simply have to keep our eyes open and look carefully at individual cases – not in the hope of proving anything, but rather in the hope of learning something!" (Eysenck, 1976)

This sentence made my day today. This is what qualitative research is about.

Book: I, DIGITAL: Personal Collections in the Digital Era

A new book about personal digital archives came out with a nice cover image.

I, DIGITAL: Personal Collections in the Digital Era 
Edited by Christopher (Cal) Lee
Published by Society of American Archivists (2011)

I am still reading it. So far, Catherine C. Marshall (Challenges and Opportunities for Personal Digital Archiving) offers interesting perspectives and discussion points again.
"To desire to centralize, to fully federate, to unity and standardize is understandable, but it also seems out-of-step with human nature." (Marshall, p.111): I share this notion.

When Data Disappears

When Data Disappears
By KARI KRAUS
Published: August 6, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/07/opinion/sunday/when-data-disappears.html

A good friend, Joanne, forwarded this article to me this morning.
Interesting article, but a bit cliche.

Digital preservation is not about preserving media themselves, but about preserving bits and bites, which requires real fresh eyes and idea of of digital preservation.

"With data, intervention needs to happen earlier, ideally at an object’s creation. And tough decisions need to be made, early on, regarding what needs to be saved. We must replace digital preservation with digital curation.": This is the interventionists' perspective, far goes back to David Bearman in 1990's.

"Instead, we must look for ways to continuously maintain and improve it. In other words, we must stop preserving digital material and start curating it.": I think that we need to re-define "preservation" in a digital environment, rather than "stop". So we can make sure the philosophy, symbolic meanings, and history of cultural heritage preservation continue and also evolve.

"No wonder preservationists often wax ominous about the “digital dark ages.”": Still we do?

Ashenfelder, M. (2011).

When I Go Away: Getting Your Digital Affairs in Order. The Signal: Digital Preservation.

Recent article (published several days ago!) suggesting four steps to prepare personal digital materials online after our lives.

"Nowadays when we prepare a will, we have the added responsibility of leaving instructions to our loved ones about what to do with our online things after we die."

Your Digital Beyond: How to plan for your digital afterlife

NBC Action News.com
Posted: 05/12/2011
By: Christina Medina

http://www.nbcactionnews.com/dpp/news/science_tech/your-digital-beyond-how-to-plan-for-your-digital-after-life-may2011swp

Emails key to 'digital memory for the future

From Neil Beagrie's Blog posting, "Digital Preservation and Personal Digital Archives on BBC Radio 4": http://blog.beagrie.com/2011/04/21/digital-preservation-and-personal-digital-archives-on-bbc-radio-4/

BBC Raido 4 : Emails key to 'digital memory for the future
Thursday, 21 April 2011 09:18 UK
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9464000/9464240.stm

Richard Ovenden's interview contains almost every single word that is necessary to mention regrading the current personal digital archives research.

Digital legacy: Respecting the digital dead

Digital legacy: Respecting the digital dead
Updated 10:47 06 May 2011 by Sumit Paul-Choudhury

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20445M

Interesiting article that I heard from Personal Archive list serv. It briefly covers key problems that many of us (including archivists) could experience or confront when we think of long lives of our digital materials beyond our own life times. The article, however, makes me think again about the notion of "citizen archivists" by Richard Cox, especially related to developing digital archiving tool. Perosnal digital archiving is and will be the concern for every digital users and closely tied to our everyday personal information management methods.

"As soon as you turn a computer on, you start changing dates": This is so true and has been an issue for digital preservation.