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Sunday, November 16, 2008
Carrying old data forward
From the University of Illinois:
'Digital Dark Age' may doom some data
What stands a better chance of surviving 50 years from now, a framed photograph or a 10-megabyte digital photo file on your computer's hard drive?
The framed photograph will inevitably fade and yellow over time, but the digital photo file may be unreadable to future computers - an unintended consequence of our rapidly digitizing world that may ultimately lead to a "digital dark age," says Jerome P. McDonough, assistant professor in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
In the law office, the key to keeping your old word processing documents and other data usable and relevant for the future is to move it to your new system as soon as possible. The key is moving the data while the old system is still somewhat current. Obviously, it can be done. If you let the data sit on your old computer or floppies or VHS backup tapes or whatever for any length of time, you will eventually find yourself unable to retrieve the data and frustrated. [Via.]
• Posted by: Marie Carnes at 12:25 PM
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