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Information locked away on some local user's desktop also doesn't exist. If information isn't stored on a dedicated application-specific storage system staffed
by vinceguidry 9y ago
Information locked away on some local user's desktop also doesn't exist. If information isn't stored on a dedicated application-specific storage system staffed with people skilled in it's use and repair, then it's the exact same thing.
We can't just take information and dump it on a block storage device. It needs proper archival. This is the same with paper, only if you lose the key to your file cabinet or the drawers stop sliding so easily, you can still get at the information.
If your RAID backplane dies and you don't know how to fix it, you're in for a bad day.
There is a skillset you can learn to work with paper more efficiently. But most people can muddle through without those skills. Not so with digital.
- enraged_camel 9y agoI work in this very field. My company sells enterprise content management (ECM) software that helps organizations go paperless. In my experience, it's not just about archival, search and retrieval. The system also needs to have robust automation capabilities, and be able to do things like automatically rename the files in a consistent way based on storage location, file content (text, voice, etc.), and identify when people store things in the incorrect location and correct those mistakes or at least flag the files for manual correction. The other thing to realize is that information doesn't get generated in a vacuum. It's generated via various business processes. So if you can automate those using software, and the automation routines are tied to the content management system such that things are filed in the correct location based on business process data (e.g. which department initiated the process, who approved what, etc.) then you're basically 80% of the way to paperlessness.
- jamesjyu 9y agoI was recently researching some of things archivists have to do, and the general consensus is that their skills are needed even more in the digital age, not less, because it introduces a whole host of new problems: files that fork, forgeries, losing the ability to read old file formats, etc. There was also a project by MoMA (I can't find the original article), where they had to get a whole team together to create formats that will ensure survival in the future by doing things like including the instructions to view the format in a readable way.
- reaperducer 9y agoReminds me of a quote from the early days of the internet. It went something like "The internet is like a library with every book in the world. But all the books are on the floor."
- macspoofing 9y ago>Information locked away on some local user's desktop also doesn't exist. If information isn't stored on a dedicated application-specific storage system staffed with people skilled in it's use and repair, then it's the exact same thing Office365, GSuite. Small and medium businesses have options.
- TeMPOraL 9y agoSmall and medium businesses can keep their documents like this because the expected lifetime of those businesses is less than time until major breaking change on the cloud office suite platform (or its shutting down).
- brucephillips 9y agoThis is a great point, and one of the reasons I doubt there will be much demand for IPFS.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- macspoofing 9y agoOk. What do you actually disagree with.
- TeMPOraL 9y agoI disagree with the notion that every comment has to be a counterpoint to previous one.
- macspoofing 9y agoAgreed