What Makes Born Digital Items Published?

The other day I posted about born digital items after reading  “Defining ‘Born Digital’’ by Ricky Erway and I found one detail still lingering in my thoughts. Erway mentions the issue of rights and publishing with born digital items questioning when something becomes considered published. This questions is much easier to answer with print materials and even ebooks, however what is the standard for born digital items such as social media posts, blog posts, items on personal or work computers, etc.

There is a good chance that I am not entirely correct, but after thinking on this for a few days I feel that an item can truly be considered “published” when the creator has posted it somewhere with the intent for it to be seen by multiple people. For example with social media and blogs, anything posted is submitted with the knowledge that a large audience will have access. Another example might be a corporate/business document that is created and made available for all employees, this document may not be published in an official manner, however I would consider this born digital item published because it is available to a large audience.

On the other hand there are born digital items like text messages or emails. These items I would not considered published, because they were specifically sent to certain individuals on a closed network, and not posted to a large audience. However, I think that it could be argued that posts on social media accounts that have privacy settings limiting viewers, would not be considered published because the creator’s social media account is a closed network of individuals.

Ultimately, I think this comes down to the intention of the creator of the born digital item. Whether or not the creator intended a large network of users to view the item or if the digital item was intended for a closed group of specific users. I feel that this topic could be argued in many different directions. Any thoughts?

The Persistence of the Web

Reading the Blipfoto blog post by Andy Powell on URL/URIs for web resources, I found it intriguing to think about the lifespan of a web resource and the URL/URI. Web resources are reliant on multiple factors in order to maintain their presence on the web and be available for users. I think that many technologies and practices are implemented and praised for their innovation and solving current issues. However, these new developments often lack a clear plan for the future.

The entity that is the internet is continuously changing, growing, even adapting. As mentioned in the blog post on URL/URIs there are problems that arise that can interfere with the persistence of these Uniform Resource Identifiers. Some of these include the structure of the internet changing, the web programming languages becoming obsolete, website/hosting companies becoming defunct, servers not being maintained. Combating these issues require a universally accepted initiative to maintain the these born digital resource on the web. As mentioned in an earlier blog post, there are initiatives such as the Internet Archive and I am sure there are others. However, I think that falls short of an ideal solution to preserve the web on a larger scale.

Obsolete Computer Collection

I have always been interested in the idea of born digital materials. I think a little bit of that may be because the name “born digital” seems oddly poetic to me, but mostly because I can hardly fathom the amount of born digital materials that are being created every second.

The essay “Defining ‘Born Digital’’ by Ricky Erway discusses the types and key issues involving born digital materials. Many of the issues concerning these materials are not too far off from dilemmas I have found myself thinking over during spring cleaning bouts. I have realized that I am building a small collection of obsolete computers/technology that are stored in a closet. Why? Because, I am unwilling to part with the files that are on the hard drive, but I don’t have a efficient and effective way to collect and preserve them.

My dusty computers in the closet are a definite problem of obsolete media and hardware. I thought about buying an external hard drive and transferring all of the files to make them more accessible and prevent deterioration. However, assuming that I can successfully access the materials on my outdated computer, that might present a problem if the files require obsolete software.

There is no doubt that preserving my personal born digital materials is a small scale issue in comparison to born digital collections of companies or governments. The issue is a bit more pressing for them. The Internet Archive Wayback Machine is one example of a large scale collection of born digital web pages. The social media giant, Facebook, also records your born digital materials on individual profiles, which are made available in a downloadable profile archive. I am sure there are many more large scale projects, such as these mentioned, that are attempting to collect the constant stream of born digital materials. As suggested by Ricky Erway, it is a step forward that awareness is being made and steps, however small, are being taken to preserve these materials.