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Google to Digitize National Archives Footage

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the everything-else-to-be-destroyed dept.

Anil Kandangath writes "Google today announced their pilot program to digitize the entire video content of the National Archives and make it globally accessible for free on Google Video. The history of the world should be universally accessible and this is definitely a great step towards making sure that our history is not lost, and that everyone has equal and easy access towards such information. Google has provided some sample videos from the National Archives, such as the 1969 moon landing."

37 of 273 comments (clear)

  1. One by smvp6459 · · Score: 4, Funny

    One small step for google kind?

    1. Re:One by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      No no no, you've got it all wrong.

      "One small step for a Google, one giant leap for google kind."

      Get your facts straight before coming to /. like everyone else

  2. YAY! by ferrellcat · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The history of the world will be archived in the form of crappy, low resolution flash movies!!!

    1. Re:YAY! by tapo · · Score: 5, Funny
      Here's another way to think about it,

      The 1969 moon landing will be archived along with other gems of human history, such as "Poop Today" and "My ex-girlfriend shows her pussy". Frankly, kudos to Google! I can't wait.

      --
      "Joy is contagious," he said, peering into the microscope.
    2. Re:YAY! by hcdejong · · Score: 5, Informative

      Actually, the first video I tried ('The eagle has landed 1969') is downloadable as an .avi file. 67 Mb, 480x360 divx. I'd call that pretty good.

    3. Re:YAY! by kevin_conaway · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Wow.

      Just..wow. What would make you not complain?

      They're giving you something quite nice for free and you still spit on it!

      AND it got modded insightful!

    4. Re:YAY! by hcdejong · · Score: 2, Informative

      Look at the right side of the window, the 'This video' tab. The download button is right there, between the video title and the thumbnails.

    5. Re:YAY! by Reducer2001 · · Score: 4, Insightful
      We have access to a staggering amount of information - the collected knowledge of the world is at our fingertips. Yay us.

      Yes, yay us. But all this information in the world is useless unless we put it to good use.

      I have a friend who is extremely proud of the mega tool collection he has in his garage. He could do so much with it, like fix cars for extra cash, or maybe build an electronic gizmo with instructions found on the Internet. But he doesn't, so to him those tools are worthless.

      Our collective information is great, now we just need to do something with it!

      --
      When you get to hell -- tell 'em Itchy sent ya!
    6. Re:YAY! by assassinator42 · · Score: 2, Informative

      I use Greasemonkey and the download link script.

    7. Re:YAY! by shaitand · · Score: 2, Interesting

      "Our collective information is great, now we just need to do something with it!"

      Things like flying to the moon? Sending robots to another planet and then controling them via invisible forces that we have mastered and harnassed to do our bidding. Perhaps you were thinking more like capturing the forces behind the flashes of light in the sky, storing their power, and then harnessing that to send devices floating around our planet so that they can map and pinpoint every position on it within a few centimeters? How about recording the very visions and sound around us and broadcasting it live across the globe?

      Those aims are a bit too grand really. Lets stick with simpler things. Perhaps we should master ourselves first. Perhaps learning how neuron chains link in the brain could teach us how to use chains of mneumonics and imagery to train near perfect memories. Perhaps studying eye movements could teach us how to read and retain materials at incredible rates. Perhaps studying the electrochemical processes of the brain could allow us to implant an interface device in a monkey's brain and we could study how the brain learns to interface with the device and control a robotic arm. Maybe we could learn further about lack of need for a soul to define intelligence when we place a pile of rat neurons on a sensor plate that is in turn connected to a flight simulator; then watch the neurons successfully figure out how to keep the plane airborne... and perhaps greater significance could be placed on the fact that they were able to determine that keeping the plane airborne is an objective in the first place.

      It seems to me, that we have done quite a bit with that information. How do you think it got there in the first place?

  3. Moon Landing? by twocoasttb · · Score: 2, Funny

    So Google is archiving made-up stuff too?

  4. Like archive.org... by GillBates0 · · Score: 3, Interesting
    ...only a different target collection (archive.org has a "moving images" collection too).

    Archive.org could use their support too...their site performance is usually sluggish, though they already have some biggies sponsoring them, including HP, NSF and the LOC.

    --
    An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
    1. Re:Like archive.org... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Archive.org could use their support too

      Archive.org did try selling its archive operations to google once, but google refused, pointing out that it already has the entirety of archive.org in the googlecache.

  5. this is how it starts... by krnpimpsta · · Score: 2, Funny

    Does this seem suspiciously like the giant-brain episode of Futurama to anyone else?

    It all started as an innocent attempt to record and catalog everything in the universe.. but the brains decided they had to destroy the universe right after it finished recording the last bit of data, so things would stop happening and new data would not have to be recorded.

    --

    New webcomic updated on Sundays: HERE

  6. History of the World? by jonbeckett73 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How the hell is the US national archives the "history of the world"?

    It's exactly what it says it is - the "US National Archives" - i.e. the US version of video recorded history, given whatever slant the news networks of the day were putting on things.

    I'm not anti-American (I have American family), but I WISH the US would remember that they are ONE country in a VERY big world.

    --
    Jonathan Beckett http://www.pluggedout.com
    1. Re:History of the World? by rts008 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Don't take it so hard...you had a valid point, but just let your frustrations color your post- a natural reaction. :)
      One thing to remember is that this "coloring" of history has happened since the beginnings of recorded history, no matter which culture/nation espouses it.

      To counteract this, we should embrace ALL information available about whichever subject is "on topic"- the more info availabl, the better our chances to find the "truth".
      It reminds me of what my maternal grandfather used to try and pound through my thick skull:
      There are three sides to every story....
      1. my version
      2. your version
      3. what actually happened

      That reminder has stuck with me, and has "saved the day" for me many times.

      Keep an open mind, but also, don't be easily swayed until you get a chance to do some of your own research- it can be enlightening! :)

      BTW, I respect your sense of honor and courage for your admitting you may have been hasty or wrong, that is a diminishing trait nowdays it seems! :)

      No sarcasm is meant nor implied here- honestly, my hat's off to you! :)

      For what it's worth, I'm an American, but I also know better than to believe WE have the only version of "correct history"- I know it is tainted by our perspective, but also know opposing views are from opposing perspectives, so somewhere in the middle usually gets me more useful info on any subject.

      Just my thoughts, and... Cheers!

      --
      Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
  7. no fair! by gargletheape · · Score: 2, Funny

    But they're violating history's copyright!

    1. Re:no fair! by Joe+the+Lesser · · Score: 2, Funny

      Don't worry, I plan on setting up a system so you can download legal and free open-source history.

      And yes, I invented electricity.

      --
      "I only speak the truth"
      Karma: null(Mostly affected by an unassigned variable)
  8. I wouldn't go so far by RedHatLinux · · Score: 5, Informative

    as to call it the history of the world, but in all fairness to NARA, it has a great deal of captured documentation from the Second World War and some other sources. So, it's more than a mere history of America.

  9. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  10. National Archives by msbsod · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why can't the National Archives provide this service? I would like to see public property in the hand of the public.

    How about productions by PBS and NPR? Where are their digital archives?

    1. Re:National Archives by harryk · · Score: 3, Insightful

      For the same reason that not all jails are run by the government, infrastructure. Google may be able to do it cheaper (possibly free to the government?) as opposed to having the National Archives (sic) do it themselves. It costs time, money, and a ton of resources I'd imagine to transfer this type of material. Now, wether or not Google tries to profit from this archive is another story. Based on the content, I don't think it would be possible to profit from it, except perhaps by licensing the database of the archived material to some vendor that wanted to build a search tool .. or something ... but I'm rambling.

      Jails (quite a number of them) can, and usually are, be privately run. Just like in the IT world were services are outsourced. I'm sure Google is charging someone for this, it just better not be the public, atleast not directly.

      just my 2cents.

      --
      think before you write, it'll save me moderator points.
    2. Re:National Archives by tddoog · · Score: 2, Informative

      No thank you. It costs $0.20 to make a copy or $180/hour for copy of video footage at the Library of Congress. I welcome the Google service and I hope they make millions on it.

  11. And when the documents become "reclassified?" by blastard · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Will this lead to the administration reclassifying more documents, or at a greater rate in order to prevent their global dissemination? BBC Story on Reclassification. There is some legitimate concern that having all those documents so readily available can pose a problem. I am less concerned about someone coming to city hall and looking at tax records than I am with universal availability of the same information online, and in a readily searchable form. I generally land squarely on the more access side, but this issue could lend credence to administration concerns.

  12. It's a start by Dukeofshadows · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Heck, I'll take low res but free and easily accessible format than nothing and have to comb through the archives by hand. Maybe part of the reason we're experiencing a period of such rapid technological advancement is because we're cutting back on research time via computerization and greater accessibility to data, so I think anything that helps towards that end (starting with the national archives) is a good idea.

    --
    As long as there is a Second Amendment, there will always be a First Amendment.
    1. Re:It's a start by 9-bits.tk · · Score: 2, Informative

      I think you can also download reasonable-res AVI versions of the video files and two different MP4 versions for the iPod & PSP.

  13. Hey buddy, I'M an American... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    and _I_ wish the US would remember that they are ONE country in a VERY big world.

    You should live here, it is unbelievable. One guy falls from a building in Chicago and it gets three minutes of the evening news. A mudslide in another country kills thousands and it only gets a few seconds.

    Some other country may as well equal some other planet to most of my neighbors.

  14. presentation format versus archive format by ecklesweb · · Score: 2, Informative

    I've been working on a digital archives project here at work, and apparently there's an open source archive product called Fedora. One of the interesting features of it is that the archived format of the digital object can be different from the presented format of the digital object. So in the case of movies, you can archive a high-res MPEG4 or whatever format you want, but display it to web-based users as a crappy low-res Flash movie. When user requirements change (e.g., users' bandwidth dramatically increases), then you can change the format in which you deliver the archived objects without having to go through the archival procedure again. I can't imagine that Google isn't doing something similar.

  15. The net's killer app -- now come on, BBC! by toby · · Score: 2, Interesting
    I applaud this initiative very loudly and long. So few people seem to understand that this is part of the web's mission. Let's hope Google succeeds where the BBC's grand plan to share their UK public-owned radio and TV archive seems to have stalled (100 clips in 2 years?) - although they are giving the world some top-notch video processing software in the process.

    Here's my favourite line from that page:

    For the BBC, open source software development is an extension of our Public Service remit.

    You can't get less evil than that.

    From the BBC's announcement in August 2003:

    The service, the BBC Creative Archive, would be free and available to everyone, as long as they were not intending to use the material for commercial purposes, Mr Dyke added.

    "The BBC probably has the best television library in the world," said Mr Dyke, who was speaking at the Edinburgh TV Festival.

    "Up until now this huge resource has remained locked up, inaccessible to the public because there hasn't been an effective mechanism for distribution.

    "But the digital revolution and broadband are changing all that.

    "For the first time there is an easy and affordable way of making this treasure trove of BBC content available to all."

    He predicted that everyone would benefit from the online archive, from people accessing the internet at home, children and adults using public libraries, to students at school and university.

    --
    you had me at #!
  16. Re:Censorship? by prozac79 · · Score: 4, Funny
    I may be wrong, but isn't there pr0n in the National Archives?

    You've been browsing through the Clinton years haven't you?

    --
    "Oh dear, she's stuck in an infinite loop and he's an idiot" -Prof. Farnsworth (Futurama)
  17. Re:China too? by Vicsun · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Oh Jesus Christ, stop whining. Is the good Google's doing by digitizing vital information somehow invalidated because they choose to do business with China?

  18. Great! by ecuador_gr · · Score: 2, Funny

    It' really great news that "The History Of The World" will be universally accessible. If enough people watch it and apreciate it, maybe Mel Brooks will consider shooting Part II!

  19. Low Res Yes, But Crappy? by Kozar_The_Malignant · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I hate to break this to you, but for most of the history of "movies" it's all been pretty low-res. I watched those shots form the moon live in 1969, and it didn't look any better than what I just called called up on my extremely hi-res monitor. The main difference being that in 1969 my college student budget extended to a black and white tube set from the Salvation Army Trift Store. We're talking about an analog video squirt from the moon at a time when I was doing college physics and chemistry with a slide rule and calculus with a pencil.

    These images are extremely important, and having them freely available is priceless. Rading about history is not the same as seeing the people involved. Seeing Churchill give a speech is far better than reading it. Seeing Nixon's Checkers speech is priceless.

    --
    Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
  20. Re:Shareholders Or Visionaries? by birge · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The left used to view taxes as a drain on the working man? Rich guys used to use their money to buy libraries instead of stupid hot air balloons? Maybe there is something to the term "good old days" after all. If you tell me they didn't have Microsoft Windows back then, I'm going to cry.

  21. Fedora by CarpetShark · · Score: 2, Funny
    and apparently there's an open source archive product called Fedora
    Oh, come on. We all know Debian is better, but it's just not fair to call Fedora an archive project ;)
  22. Valid question... by CarpetShark · · Score: 3, Interesting

    He happens to be wrong regarding the actual resolutions involved, but his question was entirely valid. Please don't knock people for asking questions. If no one asks questions, you only get what the first guy thought of. If everyone questions and debates (in a mature manner) however, you get the best people can come up with.

    Actually, I'd like to ask a related question. Are Google also providing the national archives with their OWN copy, in an open format, which they are free to use as they see fit? I know that's part of what the Libraries involved in Google Scholar/Books have been offered, and that's the only reason I think they should participate. It's all well and good that Google makes this stuff available online for free, but the stuff belongs to us all, and its digitisation shouldn't be restricted to google.com, or any other .com

  23. So what is your country doing? by RossumsChild · · Score: 2, Informative

    You're right, but as the poster says "The history of the world should be universally accessible."

    Now my country has birthed a bigarse huge/scary megacorporation with a passion for proliferating content, much of it free, and is now happily dumping all of the video history we have onto the table, for the world's benefit.

    Tell me, what did YOUR country do to help reach the common goal?

    I'm not saying we're saints just because we shared our video collection. But I am saying that before you go whining about how people shouldn't be celebrating America, maybe you should have a contribution of your own to hold up alongside ours?

    If you don't, maybe a little less whining and a little more [working towards getting your own country's video archives released for the rest of the worlds benefit] might be in order?