Archive.org Deploys Macromedia Software Titles

Jon-Erik Hexum writes "Now at the internet archive, the new software section contains over 10,000 CD-ROM titles donated by Macromedia. In an interesting discussion, the Software Archive is struggling with deciding on the best method for preserving CD-ROM images for the long term."

Comments

Re:A radical rethink?

[Anonymous Coward]

Here is the Google cache showing the breakdown of titles by category.

* 3D (35)
* Adv/Mkt Collateral (37)
* Audio (8)
* Business Ap (370)
* CBT (897)
* Collection (7)
* Commercial Design (45)
* Corporate (179)
* Demo (27)
* Editorial (15)
* Education (61)
* Educational (1355)
* Educational MM (178)
* Educational Multimedia (47)
* Edutainment (466)
* Entertainment (788)
* File Types (0)
* Fine Art (60)
* Government (1)
* Illustration (58)
* Interactive Business (482)
* Interactive Portfolio (11)
* Interactive Reference (185)
* Kidsware (238)
* Marketing Collateral (61)
* Non-commercial (93)
* Photo Manipulation (15)
* Promotion (24)
* Promotional (829)
* Reference (354)
* Self Promotion (9)
* Shocked Sites (81)
* Tool (2)
* Training (4)
* Type Design (21)
* Uncategorized (1361)
* Web Page/Site (59)

Not Macromedia Software

[Dynedain]

It doesn't appear that Macromedia is donating software, but rather a collection of Flash/Dreamweaver/Shockwave/Whatever projects that were 'Created with Macromedia'

Here's the google cache:

Re:Not Macromedia Software

[br0ck]

It looks like you can get to the forums where they're looking for people to help out in SF.

Also in the cache listing are cache links to many pages with listings of the actual cds. I'm not sure this stuff is really worth all the fuss, but I guess people have said that about most junk that historians and archeologists treasure today.

OT: Did anyone else notice Google's new tour page? Ok, so I'm a little bored today.

Re:Not Macromedia Software

[GTIChick]

Yes, it is/was a part of the licensing agreement with Macromedia. If you distributed CD-ROMs created with Macromedia Director, you had to send them copies of the CD. I don't know what the current license requires, as most of my work is Shockwave.

Is it really that big a deal?

[InfiniteWisdom]

10,000 CD-ROMs <= 10,000*700MB = 7 TB

That isn't too much by today's standards, is it? Esp. considering you only need read-only access

more info on the CD-ROM archive.

[h0l211]

hey all, I'm the volunteer at the Internet Archive who posted the 'call for comments' message on their CD-ROM forums, and I just wanted to clarify a couple of things: - the archive consists of CD-ROMs created by third parties with the 'Made For Macromedia' program, as another poster said. So it's all multimedia software created with Macromedia tools - basically, everything sent to Macromedia for approval between certain dates. Macromedia kindly donated this to the Internet Archive. - right now it's largely a physical archive, not a digital one - the content is still on the source CD-ROMs. - i'm a volunteer in the VERY early stages of looking at the Macromedia CD-ROM archive - in fact, my first day. i surface from the pile of software boxes to discover my call for archiving suggestions has slashdotted the site. hurrah! - there are currently only a couple of disc images downloadable from the site. they were put up last year, and I wouldn't recommend downloading them for now, since there's some compatibility and completeness issues with them. - most of the discs are either multimedia (like virtual guides to Jerusalem, educational guides) or what you might call ephemera (promotional CD-ROMs) The Internet Archive doesn't have any rights to post any of them online right now. - future plans would ideally include making some of these CDs available to the public for either remote access or download, providing the correct rights issues could be dealt with. With the shelf life of CDs somewhat of an unknown factor, creating digital archives of these discs and making sure they're preserved for future generations is important. Thanks, Simon.

more info on the CD-ROM archive (formatted right!)

[h0l211]

hey all,

I'm the volunteer at the Internet Archive who posted the 'call for comments' message on their CD-ROM forums, and I just wanted to clarify a couple of things:

- the archive consists of CD-ROMs created by third parties with the 'Made For Macromedia' program, as another poster said. So it's all multimedia software created with Macromedia tools - basically, everything sent to Macromedia for approval between certain dates. Macromedia kindly donated this to the Internet Archive.

- right now it's largely a physical archive, not a digital one - the content is still on the source CD-ROMs.

- i'm a volunteer in the VERY early stages of looking at the Macromedia CD-ROM archive - in fact, my first day. i surface from the pile of software boxes to discover my call for archiving suggestions has slashdotted the site. hurrah!

- there are currently only a couple of disc images downloadable from the site. they were put up last year, and I wouldn't recommend downloading them for now, since there's some compatibility and completeness issues with them.

- most of the discs are either multimedia (like virtual guides to Jerusalem, educational guides) or what you might call ephemera (promotional CD-ROMs) The Internet Archive doesn't have any rights to post any of them online right now.

- future plans would ideally include making some of these CDs available to the public for either remote access or download, providing the correct rights issues could be dealt with. With the shelf life of CDs somewhat of an unknown factor, creating digital archives of these discs and making sure they're preserved for future generations is important.

Thanks,
Simon.

confusion on the CDROM collection

[brewsterk]

I work with the Internet Archive, and I would like to correct some confusion. Short answer: people can not download the CDROM contents from the Internet Archive. There are 5 that are available because the Internet Archive got permission from the rights holder.

Our statement that Macromedia donated 10,000 CDROMs is incorrect. What Macromedia graciously did was to let us use their catalog of the CDROMs sent to them through the Made With Macromedia program. The also let our staff examine the CDROM's so that we can ensure the catalog is correct and facilitate contacting rightsholders to see if they would be interested in access to their materials.

We are very excited about providing access to any materials that people would like to be preserved. Please contact me, brewster@archive.org or more efficiently info@archive.org if you have any materials you would like to be added to the archive.

-brewster