Isn't this the whole point of the web to the masses in many respects? I
read a quote nearly 10 years ago that said 'the internet is the soap-box
of the masses' and I believe this is increasingly true. The web allows
people to be self-selecting in what they read, want to read, and want to
project - which is the reason many blogs (and places like You-Tube) are
born. People can self-select what they like, and even what they don't
like, and comment on this - in a similar way to how these email lists
operate.
Taking the library as a comparison, you rarely see a book annotated
where someone agrees with it, or disagrees with it, or even puts a
smiley face to show they enjoyed it! This is where the web is
different, and in my opinion, where the web should be 'collected' to
show how opinion moves, drifts and sometimes even changes!
Maybe the (and this isn't my opinion...merely a statement!!!) way the
web becomes 'greener' isn't through cleaning the entire WWW, but that
some of the 'physical' facilities that exist in parallel actually become
irrelevant and so the saving to the world is through the removal of the
physical and the increasing use of the virtual? If you can shop online,
why keep a supermarket with lights, generators, aircon, buildings and
transport costs open, when one warehouse could support the equivalent of
say 6 supermarkets....and so is it not true that a library could be run
on the net, replacing all the above, plus printing costs and
distribution? And are we not starting to see this shift in the virtual
with museums already...will there become a time when a larger regional
'hub' will house the collections, using smaller touring displays in the
physical, and larger temporary displays in the virtual...
Just a thought (and honestly, not what I would want to happen!)
Peter
Peter Davies
Outreach Officer (City Museums)
tel: 01227 475 203
email: [log in to unmask]
website: www.favourite-things.org.uk
-----Original Message-----
From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Tehmina Goskar
Sent: 15 February 2007 08:43
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: A greener internet?
And of course, 'market forces' are clearly beneficial to this world
(especially in terms of sustaining its resources...)
But to return to the point of what is considered wasteful or not on the
internet, I feel we should concentrate on what we as a broad family of
sectors (called 'heritage') can do, and here there is another knotty
clash of ideas. Do you delete content in order to free up server space
and therefore use less energy (and all those benefits)? Or, do you keep
it as an archival record of the evolution of web dissemination and
content change over the years?
Can you treat archiving web content in the same way as archiving paper
content? What about 'internal' content such as word processed files,
image files and other information held on intranets that no one ever
looks at any more? As most people on this list will know, when an
archivist goes on a site visit to collect or inspect a prospective
deposit, one of the first tasks will be an initial selection.
Similarly, museums offered a private collection which don't have caveats
to keep the collection whole, will select certain objects only. Public
libraries are constantly getting rid of out of date books (and those not
so irrelevant).
So the question returns, who's to decide? Should we be treating content
on the web in the same way as paper-based archives in terms of their
preservation? Does it matter who is responsible for selecting how web
content is archived? What kind of responsibilities should organisations
have for ensuring 'unnecessary' content is removed and what happens to
that stuff?
Oh.
Tehmina
On 14/02/07, Nick Poole <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> And so a thread is born...
>
> Should we delete the flotsam of decades of vision and revision from
> Local Authorities, QUANGOs, dead companies, bankrupt startups and
pilot projects?
> Absolutely we should. Unfortunately, though, it's far, far easier to
> publish than it is to unpublish and at least there's a chance that
> those still-functioning organisations may self-regulate at some point
> and actually delete some of this stuff.
>
> The Internet is full of ghosts and, what is worse, it is very often
> impossible to tell them from the real, active, going concerns. Once
> the novelty of vanity publishing wears off and people realise that the
> blogosphere is spread so thin that the average audience is vanishingly
> small, which is more likely - that people will go back to that
> Wordpress blog and hit 'delete' or simply wander away and leave it
> undeleted until some admin does it for them?
>
> Who decides what's necessary or not on the Internet? In any other
> medium, it's the market. On the Internet, sometimes unfortunately,
> everyone decides for themselves.
>
> Nick
>
> Nick Poole
> Director
> MDA
>
> The Spectrum Building, The Michael Young Centre, Purbeck Road,
> Cambridge, CB2 2PD
>
> Telephone: 01223 415 760
> http://www.mda.org.uk
> http://www.collectionsforall.org.uk
>
> The revised edition of SPECTRUM, the UK museum documentation standard,
> is now available. Download it for free at:
>
> http://www.mda.org.uk/spectrum.htm
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
> Tehmina Goskar
> Sent: 14 February 2007 17:29
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: A greener internet?
>
> >If we are talking about the environmental impact specifically of
> digital publishing by
> >museums, then I would argue that this is offset by several orders of
> magnitude by the mostly
> >tedious and tangential blogosphere. If we're talking about personal
> choices, preventing
> >unnecessary blogging would probably be up there at number one on my
list.
>
> Come, come. Should we not first get rid of the millions of
> antiquated, impenetrable static pages containing, lines and lines of
> thoroughly boring 'information' on obselete standards, policies and
> guidelines, particularly from local government and central government
> quangos?
>
> Anyway, who's judging what's necessary or not on the internet?
>
> Let's not fall foul of continually debating the principles and
> big-issues without doing the little thngs that do make a difference,
> many of which have already been mentioned.
>
> Better go and feed the horse, long journey tomorrow.
>
> Tehmina
>
> On 14/02/07, Kostas Arvanitis <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> > But, please spare our lives: http://digitalheritage.wordpress.com/
> >
> > Best wishes,
> >
> > Kostas.
> >
> > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> > Dr. Konstantinos Arvanitis
> > Lecturer in Museology
> > Centre for Museology
> > School of Arts Histories and Cultures Humanities Bridgeford Street
> > The University of Manchester Oxford Road Manchester M13 9PL
> > Tel.: +44 161 2753018
> > http://www.manchester.ac.uk/museology/
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
> > Of
> Ottevanger, Jeremy
> > Sent: 14 February 2007 15:24
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: Re: A greener internet?
> >
> > And kill bloggers
> >
> >
> >
> > Jeremy Ottevanger
> > Web Developer, Museum Systems Team
> > Museum of London Group
> > 46 Eagle Wharf Road
> > London. N1 7ED
> > Tel: 020 7410 2207
> > Fax: 020 7600 1058
> > Email: [log in to unmask] www.museumoflondon.org.uk
> >
> > Visit Belonging: Voices of London's Refugees - a new
> > thought-provoking
> free exhibition
> >
> > Glamour, grandeur, sleaze, disease - discover a great city in the
> > making
> at the Museum of London -----Original Message-----
> > From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
> > Of Ray Shah
> > Sent: 14 February 2007 15:23
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: Re: [MCG] A greener internet?
> >
> > And cycle home or take the bus.
> >
> > --
> > - Ray
> >
> > Ray Shah - think design, inc.
> > museum education retail web open source [log in to unmask] tel:
> > 212.922.0952 x 212 http://www.thinkdesign.com mobile: 917.476.0952
> >
> >
> > On Feb 14, 2007, at 10:20 AM, Tony Gill wrote:
> >
> > > Turn your computer and monitor off when you go home at night, if
> > > you don't already.
> >
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