Houseblog Archeology
Here is a question for all the computer demi-gods out there: What is the lifespan of a blog?
I know as long as I am alive & posting and the internet & Blogger are not destroyed in a nuclear apocalypse that www.thedevilqueen.blogspot.com will continue. What happens when I do die presuming that the internet and Blogger live on? In 50 or 100 years, will some future owner of the Devil Queen decide to research the house and find this blog buried in cyberspace? Are houseblogs historical resources or documents for the future?
Just a thought, is it complete BS? What do you think?
I know as long as I am alive & posting and the internet & Blogger are not destroyed in a nuclear apocalypse that www.thedevilqueen.blogspot.com will continue. What happens when I do die presuming that the internet and Blogger live on? In 50 or 100 years, will some future owner of the Devil Queen decide to research the house and find this blog buried in cyberspace? Are houseblogs historical resources or documents for the future?
Just a thought, is it complete BS? What do you think?
posted by John | 8:16 PM
4 Comments:
We're coming up on 7 years with our site...and still going. I have also wondered where it will all end. But since I don't see a real end to the restoration work needed around here, I guess the site will go on and on. Perhaps slowing down a bit in intensity as the projects become less full time.
I think you're definitely building a record for the future. And it's not at all outlandish to think that archeaologists may be looking to your blog for info!
I visited our county's historical museum several years ago. They maintain folders on all of the old houses in the area. In the folder for our house was a ream of pages printed out from our web site. :)
Keep up the good work! On the house and on the site!
Bill
... and even if all traces of blogger disappear, thanks to www.archive.org the website can be dragged up out of the depths of the web forever.
Interesting dialogue. As an archaeologist, I agree that Blogs will continue to serve as a valuable record to future historians, researchers, and even archaeologists.
When doing my research, I am constantly consulting 18th and 19th century farm records that include information not much different than contents found in many Blogs. Farm journals, diaries, and account books were used the same way 200 years ago that Blogs are used today)--as a way to keep records.
This discussion also brings up another interesting point that archivists are grappling with as well. The digital age has brought about a complete transformation in communication. Writing a letter, keeping a journal, heck, even reading the newspaper, are activities that one can now do online--leaving no paper trail (for future historians to study). Many archivists are debating over how records of email correspondence should be kept. Example, Presidential libraries are repositories for the official papers of that particular President. Pres. Libraries have nearly every memo, letter, speech, etc from an administration. However, now, in this day and age, email is the primary means of communication,so should someone make a point to print out every email that a gets sent during an administration to include in the "official papers?" This is similar to the debate that occurred about entering transcripts of Presidential Tapes (ie Nixon) into the official record.
This digital transformation also has its drawbacks. Paper memos don't get destroyed by worms, viruses, and computer meltdowns.
Ok, well thats my two cents. Very interesting topic. I truly think that researchers 200 or 300 years from now will be consulting your house blogs in much the same way that I use farm journals and other such records to do my research.
-Grant (the Archaeologist)
Wow. Cool.
Thanks for informative, thoroughly thought out comments.
- John
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