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Collection Treasures Project: re:DDS, Digital Archeology IIPC: "Out of the Box: Building and Using Web Archive Collections“ May, 9 th 2011

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Project re:DDS, Digital Archeology <ul><li>In the wild, wild cyberspace… appeared -from networkcables, computers and modems- a virtual city… </li></ul><ul><li>De Digitale Stad (The Digital City): 1994-2001 (public domain) </li></ul><ul><li>1 st (free) public domain virtual city in the world </li></ul><ul><li>1 st Dutch virtual community </li></ul><ul><li>Grounded by a fluid group: net-activists (hackers), independent media, artists and… the municipality of Amsterdam, co-initiator Marleen Stikker (De Balie) was the 'virtual mayor‘ </li></ul><ul><li>Inspired by the Community Networks movement in the US and Canada (Free-Nets) </li></ul><ul><li>Attracted international interest for the design: metaphor of a city to structure cyberspace, users were ‘inhabitants’ </li></ul><ul><li>Good for the cyberreputation of the city of Amsterdam. CNN (1997): </li></ul><ul><ul><li>“ For hundreds of years the city of Amsterdam has been a center of commercial trade, art and education. Now it’s helping point the way in the information revolution too.” </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Manuel Castells ( The Internet Galaxy , 2001 ): </li></ul><ul><ul><li>“ The most famous citizen computer network. (…) A new form of public sphere combining local institutions, grassroots organisations, and computer networks in the development of cultural expression and civic participation.” </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Inhabitants: 1994: 10.000 - 1997: 60.000 - 1998: 80.000 – 2000: 140.000 </li></ul>

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Project re:DDS, Digital Archeology <ul><li>Grave Diggers Party, Friday the 13th… </li></ul><ul><li>Working space (the ‘Archeological site re:DDS’) </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Servers </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Tools (e-pades, e-pick-axe and e-trowels: SCSI, cables/convertors, hotplugs, genderbenders, switches, scripts, ducktape and s crewdrivers ) </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Workstations (PC’s): </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>‘ E-excavators’: go digg in the Wayback Machine and store the excavations in the Historical (e-) Depot </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><ul><ul><li>Share your stories and memories at the Open History Lab re:DDS.nl ( http://re-dds.nl ) </li></ul></ul></ul><ul><li>Museum space (Tourist Tours) </li></ul><ul><ul><li>/Lost+found: ‘cabinet of curiosities’: hardware (servers, terminals, modems etc) </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Billboard 1: What is DDS, Where are you, What is this site? </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Billboard 2: Timeline </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Billboard 3: Tools: excavators (=pc’s), buckets (storage), ziploc bags (usb sticks), shovels (mouses, UNIX commando's), measuring tape (scripts) and pitfalls (system errors, error 404 this page cannot be found , broken images, linkrot etc) </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Billboards 4, 5, 6: screenshots of /Lost+Found </li></ul></ul>

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Project re:DDS, Digital Archeology <ul><li>First, we go back to the Dark Ages of Internet… </li></ul>

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Project re:DDS, Digital Archeology <ul><li>NL </li></ul><ul><li>1970 - CWI (uk: Centre for Mathematics and IT) builds supercomputer SARA, Sciencepark in Amsterdam </li></ul><ul><li>1986 - .nl = first ccTLD (country code Top Level Domains) in the world </li></ul><ul><li>1986 - Registration first .nl-domain name: CWI: cwi.nl </li></ul><ul><li>1988 - The Netherlands connected to the internet </li></ul><ul><li>1988 - SURFnet, Co-operative University Computing Facilities </li></ul><ul><li>1989 - NLnet, B2B </li></ul><ul><li>1997 - Amsterdam Internet Exchange (AMS-IX) </li></ul><ul><li>Amsterdam net-culture </li></ul>

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Project re:DDS, Digital Archeology <ul><li>/lost+found: interfaces of the virtual city </li></ul>

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Project re:DDS, Digital Archeology <ul><li>/lost+found: squares </li></ul>

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Project re:DDS, Digital Archeology <ul><li>/lost+found: projects </li></ul>

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Project re:DDS, Digital Archeology <ul><li>/lost+found: excavations </li></ul>

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Project re:DDS, Digital Archeology <ul><li>But, Pitfalls of Fragile Media: </li></ul><ul><li>Linkrot </li></ul><ul><li>Lost documents </li></ul><ul><li>Missing software (operating systems) </li></ul><ul><li>Missing hardware (SCSI cables, cards etc) </li></ul>

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Project re:DDS, Digital Archeology <ul><li>In other words, characteristic problems of the media: </li></ul><ul><li>Technology - These media are based on magnetic (hard disks, magnetic tapes, floppy disks) or optical technologies (CDs, DVDs). </li></ul><ul><li>Longevity - These media are extremely short lived: The stated longevity is a few decades at best. </li></ul><ul><li>Durability - These media are volatile: The method of recording is either magnetism on a magnetic surface, or optical laser on a plastic back. </li></ul><ul><li>Compatibility - These media become obsolete quickly. Even if they do not physically fail, the technology to read them will be obsolete in a decade or two. [ Source: http://baheyeldin.com/technology/digital-archeology.html ] </li></ul>

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Project re:DDS, Digital Archeology <ul><li>So, the goals of the project re:DDS: </li></ul><ul><li>To preserve the internet-historical monument DDS </li></ul><ul><li>A pilot for net-archeology: how to reconstruct, preserve and retrieve the virtual city DDS (DDS is born-digital) and make it accessible to the public, on a scientific and social level </li></ul><ul><li>To map the history of the DDS and e-culture in Amsterdam </li></ul><ul><li>To include the DDS in the collections of the heritage institutions of Amsterdam. </li></ul>

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Project re:DDS, Digital Archeology <ul><li>Webarcheology: </li></ul><ul><li>(Besides the traditional research techniques: literature, archives and interviews) </li></ul><ul><li>Digg for content in the Internet Archives and Groups.google.com </li></ul><ul><li>Collect, reboot and restore old servers </li></ul><ul><li>Unpack and activate freezes </li></ul><ul><li>Reconstruct the actual virtual city </li></ul>

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Project re:DDS, Digital Archeology <ul><li>Open History Lab: http://re-dds.nl </li></ul>

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Project re:DDS, Digital Archeology <ul><li>/lost+ found </li></ul>

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Project re:DDS, Digital Archeology <ul><li>So, you’re invited to the kickoff of the ‘Information Research & Data Recovery Bootcamp’: the Grave Diggers Party, Friday the 13th of May! </li></ul>TNX to our partners (till now): De Digitale Stad Holding BV, IISG, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Stadsarchief Amsterdam, Waag Society, old inhabitants, (ex) DDS employees, DDS affined webarcheologists and Karin Spaink More information: http://re-dds.nl