Digital Archaeology Show Reveals 'Lost' Web Sites

Stoobalou writes "The world's first ever 'archaeological dig' of the internet is set to begin this week in London's über-trendy Shoreditch. The exhibition, entitled Digital Archaeology, kicks off today to mark the 20th anniversary of the first stirrings of the world wide web. According to its organisers, valuable evidence from the interweb's early days is at risk of being lost forever. Digital Archaeology is an attempt to kick-start a wider attempt to archive the web in Britain's first 'digital archive'."

Jason Scott

[Zerth]

of textfiles.com is more of a "digital archeologist" than this wanker, because he might have all that stuff you posted to BBSs back in the 70s/80s.

Plus, he's got an awesome speech on the history of electronic porn, going back to tickertape machines and ham radio(think about that).

http://laughingsquid.com/jason-scott-on-the-atomic-level-of-porn-at-arse-elektronika-2009/ [laughingsquid.com]

Re:Prediction

[tlhIngan]

Well, if the semantic web starts off, you won't need websites anymore - because you'd just ask your favourite software agent "I want to buy a Brand X cheap t-shirt", press a button and it'll scour the machine-readable servers on the internet and purchase it for you automatically.

I don't see this happening in 5 years though - people are too lazy.

YOu have to admit, though, that the change is happening. But not on the PC, but smartphone. People are getting apps that are frontends to websites - eBay, Facebook, Craigslist, NY Times etc. And there's plenty of shopping apps too - from those that read barcodes and find you the online deals to others that dig out reviews and such. And while they won't buy it for you automatically, they'll link you to a buy-it-now button.

It's happening because people are lazy - you're in a store, why not use your phone to find out if it's a deal, get reviews and other things, right there, right now. Rather than note it down, go home, and spend time on the computer looking it up.

In fact, I think some people consider it to be a huge threat to the open internet when everyone's all cowered away tapping on their smartphones using apps rather than surfing using well-known protocols and standards. And those apps may or may not be using standard protocols. Segmenting the web away, slowly.

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[account_deleted]

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Re:Perfect tool found for this project!

[Anonymous Coward]

When they started the dig, the scientists were amazed to see the old now defunct web has buried in it the perfect tool to do the digging! Gophers!

Oh how I miss Gopher, Archie, and Veronica and gang. The modern-day World Wide Web is basically commerce-oriented with actual information content on a steady decline. Sad.

Forget Web 2.0. Let's move to Web 3.0 and a return to the original purpose of the Internet and World Wide Web, namely information-sharing and collaboration for the enrichment (betterment) of society through knowldge and its applications to solving problems.

Re:Perfect tool found for this project!

[datapharmer]

Yay - text! I was quite thrilled with the technology at the time. Gopher and BBS systems actually made a 1200 baud modem seem useful. For you youngsters that don't know what we're talking about see here [wikimedia.org]. Now get off my lawn.

Re:Perfect tool found for this project!

[commodore64_love]

>>>Oh how I miss Gopher, Archie, and Veronica and gang. The modern-day World Wide Web is basically commerce-oriented with actual information content on a steady decline. Sad.

(50 years ago). Oh how I miss Radio. The modern-day television is basically commerce-oriented, while radio has devolved into a bunch of pop music.
(80 years ago). Oh how I miss Books. The modern-day radio is basically commerce-oriented, while books provided ad-free entertainment.
(100 years ago). Oh how I miss Live pianos/bands. The modern-day grammophone is basically commerce-oriented with actual talent on a steady decline - replaced with pop stars.
.

>>>Let's move to Web 3.0 and a return to the original purpose of the Internet and World Wide Web, namely information-sharing and collaboration for the enrichment (betterment) of society through knowldge and its applications to solving problems.

It still exists if you're willing to look. Like here: http://www.theblaze.com/ [theblaze.com] or here: http://www.drudgereport.com/ [drudgereport.com] or here: http://moveon.org/ [moveon.org] or here (one of the first websites): www.amazon.com. The original intent of the web did not go away..... it just was built-upon with new audio/video sites.

The "Interweb" is a real thing now?

[Anonymous Coward]

When did Interweb become a non-sarcastic word?

I was surprised when I clicked the link and saw that the original article actually used "Interweb" as a serious word, but then I did a quick search and found that there are lots of actual companies that call themselves "Interweb something": Interweb Designs, Interweb Solutions, etc.

What's next? Luser Ltd.? AOHELLpdesk.com? n00btech Inc.?

Let us all mourn the death of satire.