PICNIC’11Project: re:DDS, WebArcheology

Living Networks, Urban Labs, September, 14th 2011

Project re:DDS, WebArcheology

Help! Our digital heritage is getting lost!

…In the wild, wild cyberspace… a virtual city rose… …out of networkcables, computers and modems…

De Digitale Stad (The Digital City): 1994-2001 (virtual city)

• 1st (free) public domain virtual city in the world• 1st Dutch virtual community• Grounded by a fluid group:

• net-activists (hackers)• independent media• artists• and… the municipality of Amsterdam

• Inspired by the Free-Nets movement in the US and Canada• Attracted international interest for the design: metaphor of a city to structure

cyberspace• Good for the cyberreputation of the city of Amsterdam:

• CNN (1997): “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.”

• Manuel Castells (The Internet Galaxy, 2001 ): “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.”

• Inhabitants (the users): • 1994: 10.000 • 1997: 60.000 • 1998: 80.000• 2000: 140.000

First, we go back to the Dark Ages of Internet…

NL• 1970 - CWI (uk: Centre for Mathematics and IT) builds supercomputer SARA, Sciencepark in Amsterdam• 1986 - .nl = first ccTLD (country code Top Level Domains) in the world• 1986 - Registration first .nl-domain name: CWI: cwi.nl• 1988 - The Netherlands connected to the internet• 1988 - SURFnet, Co-operative University Computing Facilities• 1989 - NLnet, B2B• 1989/94 - Hack-Tic, 1993 XS4ALL (internet access for all)• 1994 – DDS (internet content for all)• 1997 - Amsterdam Internet Exchange (AMS-IX)

Amsterdam net-culture

What do we want? Goals of the project re:DDS (REconstruction of DDS):

• To preserve the internet-historical monument DDS• To map the history of the DDS, internet and e-culture in Amsterdam• To include the DDS in the collections of the heritage institutions of

Amsterdam• And… 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

But, Pitfalls of Fragile Media:• Linkrot• Lost documents• Missing software (operating systems)• Missing hardware (SCSI cables, cards etc)

In other words, characteristic problems of the media:

• Technology - These media are based on magnetic (hard disks, magnetic tapes, floppy disks) or optical technologies (CDs, DVDs).

• Longevity - These media are extremely short lived: The stated longevity is a few decades at best.

• Durability - These media are volatile: The method of recording is either magnetism on a magnetic surface, or optical laser on a plastic back.

• 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. Different formats, programs, storage…

Wired: “Forget storage, if

you want files to last, try

movage.”

Kevin Kelly: “In, Out, In, Out.

Copy, move, copy, move.”

So, what we do: WebArcheology (Besides the traditional research techniques: literature, archives and interviews)

• Digg for content in the Internet Archives and Groups.google.com• Webharvest• Collect, reboot and restore old servers• Unpack and activate freezes• Scan analog data Optical Character Recognition (OCR) • Describe all excavations & add metadata• Reconstruct the actual virtual city (emulate!)• Webarchive• Open History Lab (crowdsouring)• Grave Diggers Party!

Open History Lab http://re-dds.nl

Grave Diggers Party, Friday the 13th…

1. Working space the Archeological site re:DDS• Servers• Tools (e-pades, e-pick-axe and e-trowels: SCSI, cables/convertors, hotplugs, genderbenders,

switches, scripts, ducktape and screwdrivers)• Workstations (PC’s):

• ‘E-excavators’: go digg in the Wayback Machine and store the excavations in the Historical (e-) Depot

• Share your stories and memories at the Open History Lab re:DDS.nl (http://re-dds.nl)

2. Museum space Tourist Tours• /Lost+found: ‘cabinet of curiosities’: hardware (servers, terminals, modems etc)• Billboard 1: What is DDS, Where are you, What is this site? • Billboard 2: Timeline• 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)

• Billboards 4, 5, 6: screenshots of /Lost+Found

/lost+found: interfaces of the virtual city

January, 15th of 1994 Juni, 10th of 1995

/lost+found: squares

/lost+found: projects

/lost+found: excavations

/lost+found

So, what’s next???

Information Research & Data Recovery: 1. The Grave Diggers Party: Bring Out Your Hardware 2. Rise of the Zombies: Finding Lost Bytes: crowdsourcing

• Technological github; unzip the code, what should be where, how is it related?• Social blog, facebook; get the dates right, fact finding and data research

3. Flight of the Zombies: DDS in 'multiple points of time‘ (emulators)4. Enlightenment: Let the Bytes Free!

Project re:DDS, WebArcheology

Please join us!

TNX to:• Our partners: De Digitale Stad Holding BV, IISG, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Stadsarchief Amsterdam, Waag

Society, old inhabitants, (ex) DDS employees, DDS affined webarcheologists and Karin SpainkAnd:• Introduction to Digital Archeology http://baheyeldin.com/technology/digital-archeology.html • The Digital Dark Age en het voorkomen van de digitale midlife crisis http://www.den.nl/blog/bericht/3005 • Webarchivering op de Koninklijke Bibliotheek

http://www.slideshare.net/renevoorburg/webarchivering-op-de-koninklijke-bibliotheek • Guidelines for the Preservating of Digital Heritage (March 2003) http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001300/130071e.pdf • IIPC: Web Archives: The Future(s), by Eric T. Meyer, Arthur Thomas, Ralph Schroeder (2011, University of Oxford)

http://netpreserve.org/events/Hague/Presentations/OII-IIPC.pdf • Charter on the Preservation of Digital Heritage: UNESCO

http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=17721&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html • Virtueel Platform - Archive 2020 conferentie http://virtueelplatform.nl/activiteiten/archive-2020-conferentie • Born-digital bijzondere collecties. Rapport van de werkgroep Born digital van de UKB commissie Bijzondere Collecties ‐ ‐

http://www.ncdd.nl/documents/UKBBornDigitalBijzCollecties_FINAL.pdf • NRC: Het digitale drama. Nederlandse digitale archieven blijken nauwelijks bruikbaar. September, 10 2011

http://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2011/09/10/nederlandse-digitale-archieven-blijken-nauwelijks-bruikbaar/ • Documenteren en archiveren in een digitaal tijdperk, door Ine Poppe zie virtueel plaform

http://virtueelplatform.nl/kennis/documenteren-en-archiveren-in-een-digitaal-tijdperk/ • Born digital erfgoedmaterialen bij een selectie van Nederlandse erfgoedinstellingen een verkennend onderzoek In opdracht van ‐

Stichting DEN, door Maurits van der Graaf (1 februari 2010) http://www.den.nl/getasset.aspx?id=MDF/BorndigitalErfgoed_versie20100618.pdf&assettype=attachments

• Noodklok voor behoud van born-digital erfgoed door Maurits van der Graaf http://www.den.nl/getasset.aspx?id=MDF/ArtikelGJN_IP_kl.pdf&assettype=attachments