I was watching a program on TV last day, that brought up the issue of preserving digital information.
We have done an ugly job at that, why ? Because for example information stored on a floppy disk dating back to 70s cannot possibly be retrieved today, even if it could, it would be way beyond the capabilities of an average computer user, financially and technically speaking. So what if this information was important to us ? No matter what, it would be lost forever.
Here's where Open Source comes in. By publishing how a certain piece of software or hardware works or how it is built, one guarantees that he will be able to read information written by this Software/Hardware later on, after many many years, even when the required software/hardware exists no more. Why ? Because he would know how to rebuild that machine to restore this information.
If you think about it on a global scale, we, humans, have always used written words to preserve our culture and history for further generations. Nowadays, we rely massively on IT to store our information, and we mostly use proprietary products. This is a threat to the survival and preservation of our culture, imagine a man 200 years from now looking at a 200 year-old Microsoft Word document. What the hell could he ever use it for ?! Absolutely nothing. Information is slowly being lost in time.
I'm not saying all the planet should switch to open source because of this, I'm just hinting that we need to store information that is *critical* to the recovering of our history later on, with a long-term vision . This way we know we are not doomed to become a "lost" civilization in the cyber-age.
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2 comments:
Good point. Open Source FTW :D
You have a very good point. I also see problems with the data storage by itself. Say the hardrwae part of the problem. That is costly and will become even more costly. Too much data being too difficult to manage.
Just even think off how all your digital pictures will survive a century. Will your grandkids find as much pictures of you as you found about your grandparents?
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