The internet is self-cleaning. Materials that no one cares to maintain rots away.
It’s more like a city than a library. Houses need to be maintained and used or they eventually become unusable and will be torn down and replaced or simply abandoned.
I think some early thoughts about the web was that it was going to be a library of knowledge. Those ideas were misguided I think. It’s a chaotic city and it probably always will be. The article makes some good points about how to increase longevity and while it can certainly help, it probably won’t make a huge difference in most cases.
Underrated insight. I believe it parallels the natural lifecycle of materials inside libraries: content gets retired at all times, while still largely maintaining appearance of "everything at your fingertips".
I assure you, books and libraries need maintenance too. The old books has to be reprinted if you want to keep using them as actual books (e.g. read) instead of museum exhibits.
It’s more like a city than a library. Houses need to be maintained and used or they eventually become unusable and will be torn down and replaced or simply abandoned.
I think some early thoughts about the web was that it was going to be a library of knowledge. Those ideas were misguided I think. It’s a chaotic city and it probably always will be. The article makes some good points about how to increase longevity and while it can certainly help, it probably won’t make a huge difference in most cases.