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This is one of the reasons Camlistore exists (http://camlistore.org http://camlistore.org). Its storage format was designed with digital archaeology in mind. If
by enneff 12y ago
This is one of the reasons Camlistore exists (http://camlistore.org http://camlistore.org). Its storage format was designed with digital archaeology in mind. If you can preserve the bits themselves, the format of the data should be self-evident.
The trick, of course, is making sure the bits are preserved. I hope that one day each of my descendants will keep an enneff.tar.gz somewhere in their files—much like the shoebox in the cupboard—so that future generations can see how cute my rabbits were.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- icebraining 12y agoWhen you say "the format of the data should be self-evident", do you mean that Camlistore converts images and videos to simpler formats? I mean, JPEG is everywhere now, but fifty years from now, who knows? Maybe we should save them in PPM.
- 4ad 12y agoThe Camlistore storage format is self evident, however, most blobs you put in Camlistore are not. Maybe you can reverse engineer the Matroska container you keep your movies in, but can you reverse engineer h.264? Even jpeg would be very hard to reverse engineer. Presumably you can add instructions, or even source code, for decoding pictures, sounds and movies. But then you get into technical problems and there's no guarantee the average grand-grand-children of the future will have the skill or time to use these information.
- enneff 12y agoI doubt our great grandchildren will forget how to decode JPEG or h264. We haven't forgotten how to read Latin.