Preserving the Internet using….paper?
Posted by Marieke Guy on November 11th, 2010
Maybe digital preservation is just a black hole and the best way to preserve the Internet is using paper?
The Paper Internet Project takes the stance that you could do worse than “preserve important bits of our civilization for future centuries using a bundle of paper sealed in plastic“.
Saving the web, one page at a time
They are building a series of time capsules containing photos, music, technical journals, and descriptions of everyday life in Right Now, A.D. The time capsules are buried by volunteers at specific locations all over the world. Each node contains the locations of all the others, forming a network.
So far they have built 3 nodes and have curated the data for dozens more. The work is being funded by donations. Each time capsule of 2,000-4,000 pages costs $40-$60 for printing and $20-$30 for the epoxy. They become more cost-effective as they scale up.
Good idea? What do people think?
November 17th, 2010 at 1:07 pm
Arpanet started with four nodes, so they’ve got some catching up to do.
I see the New Yorker’s onto this story too.