4 ms·

Can you really say "forever" on $20,000 of YC funding? Is there a foundation set up to host the site in the likely event that investors balk? Are you spending

by aneth 16y ago

Can you really say "forever" on $20,000 of YC funding? Is there a foundation set up to host the site in the likely event that investors balk? Are you spending your YC funds on offsite backups and some sort of forever RAID? I'd much rather trust the long term hosting of my memories to a company that is around for the long haul like Wordpress or Google, or one of many other companies with products that aren't marketed for this purpose, but provide similar (actually a lot more) functionality.

mleonhard 16y ago
I'm creating RestBackup.com right now and my next project will probably be RestArchive.com. I'm interested in the problem of data archival for regular people. I've been thinking about the problem of business continuity. One possible solution to the problem is to endow a trust to maintain the archive in the event that the business fails. I'd love to hear what the HN community thinks about this.
- Be_Silly 16y ago
  You know what, permanent archive isn't for "regular people". For it to be archive, you have to start guessing at what future generations want, will be interested in, their mode of access, and you're at a level of basic precision here beyond what regular joes will pay for right now. I inherently dislike the use of the word archive in pet projects. We're just staring to go through a phase now where storage is chancing at maturing on things like bit level integrity, but ther hold back is the huge money that three leter acronym companies can charge for capacity, two orders more than the underlying spinning rust bare cost. If you ar interested in finding out some failed big budget projects, in the EU you could contact the DGXIII initiative, whove funded or match funded quite a lot of this kind of thing. Realize that's not a short route to enlightenment, heck i spent years in touch with that group. I'm just saying there are, you know, things like national libraries who care quite a bit about all of this, and a few phone calls could get you a bunch of info as to where ohers have met dead ends. I'll say i'm not without my own reservatos about trans-national IGO EU tech projects, but there's been a strong attempt to address whole areas of real concern in archive for 20 years now in that group, and you might pick up quite a bit which could spur you onwards. Not a summer holiday project, though, i don't think. I'm really truly amazed at Y-comb startups being in this field. I've personally thrown a dozen Y-comb sized budgets at the area trying to get personal satisfaction. But don't listen to the self - inflicted poor! :-)

by aneth 16y ago

mleonhard 16y ago

I'm creating RestBackup.com right now and my next project will probably be RestArchive.com. I'm interested in the problem of data archival for regular people. I've been thinking about the problem of business continuity. One possible solution to the problem is to endow a trust to maintain the archive in the event that the business fails. I'd love to hear what the HN community thinks about this.

Be_Silly 16y ago
You know what, permanent archive isn't for "regular people". For it to be archive, you have to start guessing at what future generations want, will be interested in, their mode of access, and you're at a level of basic precision here beyond what regular joes will pay for right now. I inherently dislike the use of the word archive in pet projects. We're just staring to go through a phase now where storage is chancing at maturing on things like bit level integrity, but ther hold back is the huge money that three leter acronym companies can charge for capacity, two orders more than the underlying spinning rust bare cost. If you ar interested in finding out some failed big budget projects, in the EU you could contact the DGXIII initiative, whove funded or match funded quite a lot of this kind of thing. Realize that's not a short route to enlightenment, heck i spent years in touch with that group. I'm just saying there are, you know, things like national libraries who care quite a bit about all of this, and a few phone calls could get you a bunch of info as to where ohers have met dead ends. I'll say i'm not without my own reservatos about trans-national IGO EU tech projects, but there's been a strong attempt to address whole areas of real concern in archive for 20 years now in that group, and you might pick up quite a bit which could spur you onwards. Not a summer holiday project, though, i don't think. I'm really truly amazed at Y-comb startups being in this field. I've personally thrown a dozen Y-comb sized budgets at the area trying to get personal satisfaction. But don't listen to the self - inflicted poor! :-)