I am a bit shell shocked– I did not think the election would go the way it did. I want to reassure everyone– we are safe– funding, mission, partners have no reason to change. I find this reassuring, hopefully you do as well.
As we take the next weeks to have this sink in, I believe we will come to find we will have new responsibilities, increased roles to play, in keeping the world an open and free environment.
We are well positioned, with our mission of Universal Access to All Knowledge, to help inform the public in turbulent times, to demonstrate the power in sharing and openness.
I look forward to working with our staff, our partners, and the new partners that this creates, to see what our role should be to build the best damn library we can to serve the Maximum Public Good.
Over the next couple of weeks, please think through what we might do. Looking forward to your ideas.
yours,
Brewster Kahle
Digital Librarian
brewster@archive.org
I think that a free and open Internet is more important than ever and surveillance is going to become a top issue. I loved the Decentralized Web summit event at the Archive. Doubling down on efforts towards a secure, decentralized Internet is one practical thing the Archive can do.
Muneeb – and therefore of course Brewster – I believe you are right. While not a panacea, redecentralizing the Internet and the Web may well help dissolve the filter bubbles and echo chambers of ‘truthiness’ and lies.
More importantly, by encouraging personal agency, by striving for adult-adult / peer-peer relationships over parent-child / server-client, we might begin to reduce some of the corrosive inequalities that have accumulated over the past two to three decades.
My recent article for the World Wide Web Foundation references the Decentralized Web Summit. It lays out a rationale for effecting a decentralized and distributed architecture because of commercial imperatives not despite them. Love to know what you make of it.
http://hi-project.org/2016/11/decentralization-deep-cause-causes-care-deeply/
I love this positive message and the work you are a trying to achieve. It made my day a little less grim feeling… thanks!
It would be great if the Wayback Machine offered some diffing features. For example, making it easy to browse or search the chronological changes on any website on a single page or a whole website. Something like newsdiffs.org. It’s possible to use WM to manually hunt for changes, but it’s difficult and time-consuming.
In particular I would like to be able to search for statements on government sites (such as whitehouse.gov or state.gov) that were retroactively censored or altered. It would be a good way to hold the authorities to account. And I imagine also very useful for news sites, corporations’ privacy policies or terms, etc.
Thank-you for reminding me, here in Canada, that there is so much that is good in the US. Your mission inspires me and gives me hope for the future. I’m a history professor and your work makes my heart beat faster. I’ve just sent a donation but I wish I could volunteer in some concrete way.
It would be great if the Wayback Machine offered some diffing features.
Here’s a starting point for action: “How Donald Trump could dismantle net neutrality and the rest of Obama’s Internet legacy” https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2016/11/10/how-donald-trump-will-dismantle-obamas-internet-legacy/
just a few hours ago donald trump’s Wikipedia was edited and revised while I was looking at it. it had been edited the day before. I’m a little worried that his advisor advised him to erase history on the internet that makes him look bad.
I will like to send my deepest gratitude to the team that enables and support this open and public space. It is a wonderful tool that allow thousands to get access to free information that otherwise can not be obtained easily. In my case, such a wonderful effort allow me to continue my graduate studies by accessing records from all over the world, specially those from ancient and rare books unavailable in my country.
I know that the majority of the people in the US are good, hard workers and with good values. I witness that for several years and although the late news are not the most inspiring,, i trust that the good sense of the words written by the librarian of this space, as well as the words and feeling of millions who doesn’t agree with this last outcome of the elections , will keep the good spirit of this great nation.
with regards,