I was one of those impressed that Obama had a whole new whitehouse.gov site live at noon on inauguration day. On the other hand…
At the exact moment Barack Obama was inaugurated, all traces of President Bush vanished from the White House Web site, replaced by images of and speeches by his successor. Attached to the Web site had been a booklet entitled 100 Things Americans May Not Know About the Bush Administration—they may never know them now. When the Web site changed, the link was broken and the booklet became unavailable.
That from Lynne Brindley, the chief executive of the British Library, who is worried that we’re not saving enough of the digital evidence of our times:
Ms. Brindley writes, “If Web sites continue to disappear in the same way as those on President Bush and the Sydney Olympics—perhaps exacerbated by the current economic climate that is killing companies— the memory of the nation disappears too. Historians and citizens of the future will find a black hole in the knowledge base of the 21st century.”
Her warning appeared as the British government prepares to release a much-anticipated report on how to create a “Digital Britain.”
SEE ALSO: Don’t just store it, move it!