I just posted the paper I gave at an archaeology conference in Vienna,
Austria, earlier this week.
It's titled, "The Valley of Lost Data: Excavating Hard Drives and Floppy
Disks" and was written with Christine Finn, author of _Artifacts: An
Archaeologist's Year in Silicon Valley_ (
http://www.artifactsthebook.com).
You can find it here:
http://www.vintage.org/cgi-bin/content.pl?id=004
Abstract:
This paper explores some ideas concerning computers as repositories in the
sense of archaeological sites containing data - objects, bodies and so on.
The authors, who are both involved in computer history (one an
archaeologist and writer on the subject, the other a leading collector and
curator of vintage computers in the US) will consider the ways in which
material in a computer may be accessed in the manner of evidence extracted
from sites in a more orthodox archaeological situation.
The paper will look at the type of data stored, the hardware and software
implicated, and the ways in which it can be retrieved. They will discuss
issues concerning the ethical retrieval of such data and the time-frame
involved in the transformation of material to a state of inaccessibility.
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
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International Man of Intrigue and Danger
http://www.vintage.org
Received on Sat Nov 10 2001 - 22:57:40 GMT