Comments on: The digital half-life http://www.knowledgevaluechain.com/2008/02/06/the-digital-half-life/ Observations by Tim Powell Fri, 16 Apr 2010 23:37:48 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc hourly 1 By: Tyler Gore http://www.knowledgevaluechain.com/2008/02/06/the-digital-half-life/comment-page-1/#comment-8 Tyler Gore Mon, 11 Feb 2008 02:37:19 +0000 http://www.knowledgevaluechain.com/2008/02/06/the-digital-half-life/#comment-8 Hey Tim, I really enjoyed this entry -- as someone who has been using computers since the 70s, and owned a PC since the 80s, I've gone through all those different formats, and tried (but not fully succeeded) in carrying my data into the new formats. I still have many files written in WordPerfect for DOS format (fortunately I can still convert them), and I suspect I still have some in MultiMate format, the wordprocessing program I used in the late 80s. I still have have some boxes of 5.25 and 3.5 disks that I'm terrified to throw away, as well as zip disks and CDs (I no longer use any of these formats for storage). And don't even get me started on the music/video storage hassle -- I've got vinyl, CD, and VHS and cassette tapes collecting dust in the back of my closet, and (except for the CDs, just barely) I have no way to play most of them anymore! So – your entry brought to mind something I'd read a long time ago -- this is not the first time that technology changes have meant loss of data. The same thing happened during the Middle Ages, believe it or not, with the growing popularity of the codex (or as we know it, the book) in place of the scroll. Books (in their familiar codex form) were a Roman technology invented for lawyers, who needed to be able to quickly access information. For this purpose, they were greatly superior to the older format of scrolls, which needed to opened all the way out to find relevant information. In the Middle Ages, they became popular for literature as well – they were easy to store, very portable, and provided speedy access to information (kind of an early form of Random Access Memory). As books became popular with the reading public that no one wanted to use scrolls anymore. They became scrap paper (remember that vellum and parchment were very expensive, so often re-used). Not all ancient works made the transition from scroll to book (because it was incredibly laborious and expensive in an era when all writing had to be copied by hand), and many ancient works were lost this way. There's a bit of info about this on the Wikipedia entry on codices: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex and also on this site about the Roman use of the codex format: http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/scroll/scrollcodex.html Anyway, thanks for a thought-provoking article! PS One positive thing about the digital age is that many people are trying to archive as much as possible on the Internet. It's now possible to find old TV commercials on YouTube, and even video games from the 1970s, as well as many out-of-prints works of literature… but no matter what, there will be casualties lost to the digital age. My old Journey albums, for example, aren't likely to make it to my MP3 collection! Hey Tim,
I really enjoyed this entry — as someone who has been using computers since the 70s, and owned a PC since the 80s, I’ve gone through all those different formats, and tried (but not fully succeeded) in carrying my data into the new formats. I still have many files written in WordPerfect for DOS format (fortunately I can still convert them), and I suspect I still have some in MultiMate format, the wordprocessing program I used in the late 80s. I still have have some boxes of 5.25 and 3.5 disks that I’m terrified to throw away, as well as zip disks and CDs (I no longer use any of these formats for storage).

And don’t even get me started on the music/video storage hassle — I’ve got vinyl, CD, and VHS and cassette tapes collecting dust in the back of my closet, and (except for the CDs, just barely) I have no way to play most of them anymore!

So – your entry brought to mind something I’d read a long time ago — this is not the first time that technology changes have meant loss of data. The same thing happened during the Middle Ages, believe it or not, with the growing popularity of the codex (or as we know it, the book) in place of the scroll.

Books (in their familiar codex form) were a Roman technology invented for lawyers, who needed to be able to quickly access information. For this purpose, they were greatly superior to the older format of scrolls, which needed to opened all the way out to find relevant information. In the Middle Ages, they became popular for literature as well – they were easy to store, very portable, and provided speedy access to information (kind of an early form of Random Access Memory).

As books became popular with the reading public that no one wanted to use scrolls anymore. They became scrap paper (remember that vellum and parchment were very expensive, so often re-used). Not all ancient works made the transition from scroll to book (because it was incredibly laborious and expensive in an era when all writing had to be copied by hand), and many ancient works were lost this way.

There’s a bit of info about this on the Wikipedia entry on codices:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex

and also on this site about the Roman use of the codex format:

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/scroll/scrollcodex.html

Anyway, thanks for a thought-provoking article!

PS One positive thing about the digital age is that many people are trying to archive as much as possible on the Internet. It’s now possible to find old TV commercials on YouTube, and even video games from the 1970s, as well as many out-of-prints works of literature… but no matter what, there will be casualties lost to the digital age.

My old Journey albums, for example, aren’t likely to make it to my MP3 collection!

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