Scary post by Dave on the relative impermanence of writing (and thus thinking) that lives primarily on the web. He notes:
Fact is, most of the writing we’re doing now, no matter what tools we use, will disappear, probably a lot sooner than you think.
I’m a very technical person, and I’ve been aware of this issue starting from the first day I wrote an essay that was published on the web. I’ve been doing things to protect my writing. Yet, if I were to for whatever reason, stop tending my web presence, the whole thing would disappear within 30 to 60 days. One or two billing cycles before the hosting services cut off service. And then no more than a year before the domains expire and become porn sites or whatever.
Yow. Like so many others, I have just lived w/ the assumption that search engines and mass storage capability will make it easy to find, well, everything. Turns out that is not the case. But in trying to think positive, there is a lot of stuff on twitter that could and should be rapidly consigned to the dustbin of history. I’m just saying.
