It is vital to keep accurate historical records of digital events as they occur.

via Archiving Britain’s web: The legal nightmare explored.

I am interested in this article primarily because it talks about archiving the web for cultural heritage, which is a topic close to my heart as my PhD research is somewhat related.

I find it fascinating that people want to archive the web. What does ‘archive the web’ actually mean? From this article, and the general consensus, archiving the web means taking snapshots of websites using software programs according to rules that determine their significance, and then storing them on computers in closed networks and then usually organising them. If a library is the archivist, then websites are generally organised by subject.

I want to know how a subject arrangement of images that are sometimes linked to each other have to do with the actual web.  To me, this is taking the traditional concept of archiving and storing documents and making it try to fit something infinitely more complex and dynamic.  To me the web is not just the content, nor is it links to other pages.  So what is the web?

I am not entirely sure, to be honest.  According to Wikipedia, the web (as in the www) is:  ”a system of interlinked hypertext documents contained on the Internet“. After reading this definition I now understand where this notion of snapshots as archives comes from – the use of the word ‘document’.  Trying not to go too deeply into the semantics, I turned back to Wikipedia and asked it what a document was: “a bounded physical or digital representation of a body of information designed with the capacity (and usually intent) to communicate“.  I wonder what bounded means? I dilly dally – the lie that is contained in this definition is found in the use of  the term, “digital representation”.

When I create a word document, or indeed as I type this blog post, I am not creating a digital representation of anything. I am communicating, that is for sure…just the same as my friend who writes in the air is communicating, but is not a representation – a likeness – it is a digital entity. Of what, I am not sure. We usually call them documents, but obviously that gets us into trouble.

So this brings me back to why I found this article so interesting.  Not because of the article itself, but because of the comment. I have quoted it above.  The comment communicates that “digital events” must be captured. Hmmmm. How do you capture an event? What is an event exactly, particularly if it is digital? I am suspicious that the use of the word ‘event’ is being used to cover up the real intention of wanting to say, ’subjects’.

The National Library of Australia captures and stores webpages, very poorly in my opinion, however, it performs these actions according to what might be called, ‘digital events’. An example I used recently in a paper on web archiving of video, is one where the NLA captured web material on the 2007 Australian Federal Election. Its in the PANDORA archive here under the subject of Politics – Election Campaigns.  If you check it out you will see that they have further broken the content down into six separate headings.  I want to direct you to this particular archived website  - content from The Chaser – here.  Looked? um…where is the web in that?

I am sliding over this topic like a slippery slope, not offering any real answers, but only asking questions and leaving my points out there in the open.  I apologise, but as is the quality of the rhizome, this topic has multiple dimensions in which there is much to be said, so I will probably have more to say about it at another time.  However, I would like to point out a website that perhaps ‘archives’ the web in a much more useful way, although not as long lasting. You will find it here.

But that is not archiving I hear you say!? Well,  you might say you know what archiving is, but I bet you are thinking about the definition in terms of an “archive” – the place or the space that holds ’stuff’.  What does archiving mean to you?  I’ll put forward some words to help you…retention, filing, saving, retrieving, removing, old, later, reference, collect…