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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."

8 of 273 comments (clear)

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

    One small step for google kind?

  2. 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
  3. 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.

  4. 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?

  5. 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.
  6. 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.

  7. 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)
  8. 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!