internet archive

The Internet Archive

Presented by Alex Craig

Brewster Kahle• Graduated from MIT in 1982 with a degree in

Computer Science and Engineering• Studied Artificial Intelligence• Helped found Thinking Machines Inc., manufacturer

of supercomputers

WAIS• Wide Area Information Server• Developed 1988• Early internet search software• Offered searching of the contents and

databases of computer servers on the internet

• Sold to AOL in 1995

Alexa Internet and the Internet Archive

• 1996, following the sale of WAIS to AOL, Kahle and partner Bruce Gilliat (WAIS), found both the non-profit Internet Archive and the for-profit Alexa Internet simultaneously

Alexa Internet

• For-profit Internet Toolbar• Tracks user browsing information to aid future

internet searches• The toolbar makes an archive of each

website as it is “crawled” - then donated to Internet Archive

• Sold to Amazon in 1999

The Internet Archive: The Wayback Machine

• Archives “snapshots” of the Internet to create an “internet library”

• Originally received copies mainly from the Alexa Internet service, now includes other sources of “donations”

• Allows users to see archived versions of websites as they appeared in the past

• Because the average lifetime of a website is 100 days, the snapshot is retaken every two months.

Internet Archive: Other Tools• Open Library: Searchable Database for books• Archive-It: Fee-based subscription service that allows members

to permanently archive their data• Media Collections: Moving Image, Audio, Live Music, and Text

Internet Archive as Library• Made an official library of the state of California in

2007• The Archive is now mirrored at the Bibliotheca

Alexandria in Egypt, this is the only external backup of the archive

Why is the Internet Archive Important?

• “Digitized information, especially on the Internet, has such rapid turnover these days that total loss is the norm. Civilization is developing severe amnesia as a result…The Internet Archive is the beginning of a cure - the beginning of complete, detailed, accessible, searchable memory for society, and not just scholars this time, but everyone.” - Stewart Brand (founder of The Long Now Foundation

Mission Statement

• “Libraries exist to preserve society's cultural artifacts and to provide access to them. If libraries are to continue to foster education and scholarship in this era of digital technology, it's essential for them to extend those functions into the digital world… without cultural artifacts, civilization has no memory and no mechanism to learn from its successes and failures. And paradoxically, with the explosion of the Internet, we live in what Danny Hillis has referred to as our “digital dark age”. The Internet Archive is working to prevent the Internet - a new medium with major historical significance - and other "born-digital" materials from disappearing into the past…we are working to preserve a record for generations to come.”

• (from archive.org)

Controversies

• Suzanne Shell - 2005, demanded $100,000 for archiving her website profane-justice.org - they later settled with the Archive offering this statement: “Internet Archive has no interest in including materials in the Wayback Machine of persons who do not wish to have their Web content archived”

Controversies

• 2005 - Healthcare Advocates, Inc. - Attempted to sue the Internet Archive for violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

• Settled out of court