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Do you know about Wikipedia's version control and discussion features? Wikipedia is about 10 GB compressed, meaning that anybody can download a copy and save i
by dm2 12y ago
Do you know about Wikipedia's version control and discussion features?
Wikipedia is about 10 GB compressed, meaning that anybody can download a copy and save it forever, for free.
If you include the discussions pages, images, and revisions of Wikipedia it amounts to several terabytes worth of data. (A couple of hundred dollars for a hard-drive that size).
There are many backup mediums that are meant for long-term storage. EMP protection is relatively easy.
How many "acid-free paper books" would it take to store that information?
- walterbell 12y agoWikipedia is a great example of data in an open format that is intended to be migrated forward as technology changes. It does not protect against rewriting history, one could argue that Wikipedia exists to rewrite history based on the latest consensus and reduction of controversy. While anyone could review the change history, in practice most readers use the latest version. There is at least one research paper showing a steady decline in Wikipedia contributors due to tough editorial policies created to thwart spammers. Books are decentralized from both a physical and editorial point of view. Look back at any major event in history and there will be multiple records and perspectives of the event. Decentralized locations record the subset of events that are locally most important. At any rate, it's not an either/or situation. Digital will coexist with print and paintings and sculpture and architecture. Each has a different information density, diversity and preservation profile.