Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 17, No. 229.
Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/
www.princeton.edu/humanist/
Submit to: humanist@princeton.edu
Date: Sun, 07 Sep 2003 09:30:49 +0100
From: Norman Hinton <hinton@springnet1.com>
Subject: Re: 17.228 critical reflections on publishing
Since several people have expressed surprise or disbelief to me either here
or in private e-mails let me say that I have known a number of people whose
on-line materials have disappeared as their institutions changed computer
policies,e tc., usually without telling them.
And my university wiped out 10 years of my own research files (for which,
believing then in computer age PR, I had no hard copy) when it decided to
change computer companies and did not bother to inform any of the faculty
about it.
Also, I know people whose works have been made unreachable by technological
changes -- a very good example is the old CDC machines with their 60-bit
variables and double precision arithmetic, while another is the change in
floppies, etc. I realize the WEb dopes not use floppies but I am not
willing to assume its benevolence or that of those who oversee its local
manifestations.
I hope that all those who trust naively in the Web and the Net never see
their work disappear forever.
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