Author: Thomas Delclos
Source: El País, 05/03/2006
Url document: http://www.elpais.es/ ...
In 2003, Unesco warned of the danger runs the digital heritage preserved with technologies that are no longer used or know
Antonio and Julia recorded the antics of her baby two decades ago, with a Betamax. Years ago this type of video is not in the market and ended his dying. They went to a specialized facility for them copy those homey scenes on a DVD. In Videoinstan in Barcelona, \u200b\u200bthey do, as in many other places. Transfer two hours of tape to a digital format that the rescue effect of technological burial costs 18 euros. Aurora Depares responsible the place, recalled that in 2001 only had three shelves with DVD. Today, nearly 80% of the offer is on DVD. "The format changes are a hassle for consumers, but improve the quality of the image and allow the industry to open another market for the shares."
This is a domestic example technological obsolescence. A phenomenon maliciously programmed by industry, some say. One consequence of the march of time, others argue.
A portion of the memory of mankind, preserved in different digital media aged, can be locked in the machine, unapproachable, invisible. The first computers used for storing a cassette of 30 minutes (1975-78) that fell into disuse. floppy diskette is history, except for archaeologists of computing. The
Cornell University has a website where it counts outdated technology, but whose memory can save precious treasures. flame chamber of horrors .
In 1986, the BBC compiled a dozen albums in 25,000 maps, 50,000 photos, 60 minutes film, 250,000 names. A testimony of British life. But used a rare reader system, which ceased to exist a few examples. Sixteen years later, experts had to sign with complicated emulation techniques, to revive the file.
Unesco, "Understanding that this digital heritage is in danger" and that its preservation is a concern, "urgent world", proclaimed in 2003 Charter for the Preservation of Digital Heritage . Alert about this unique form of amnesia. This month, the National Library held a international conference on digital heritage preservation. Alejandro Carrión Gutiez, Digital Heritage Group, believes that Spain is the problem with 10 years late. "First," he says, "is that while book publishers have the obligation of legal deposit, this duty does not exist for digital creation, and therefore there is no reliable census. Carrion proposes to start thinking about solutions standardized, universal open and not dependent on proprietary software. "Anticipating a solution for a hundred years is very difficult, we must start thinking about digital objects encapsulate and provide stable access to them." Libraries with digital parts should document not only the author or the genre, but also about what program they run and what file type they are. On the Internet, many owners of the pages without keeping the previous change. Rarely, for example, the parties keep their election sites after the vote. A further difficulty for digital newspaper archives. Organizations such as Archive.org try, storing millions of pages into disuse.
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