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Digital Archaeology Show Reveals 'Lost' Web Sites

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the find-the-buried-treasure dept.

Stoobalou writes "The world's first ever 'archaeological dig' of the internet is set to begin this week in London's über-trendy Shoreditch. The exhibition, entitled Digital Archaeology, kicks off today to mark the 20th anniversary of the first stirrings of the world wide web. According to its organisers, valuable evidence from the interweb's early days is at risk of being lost forever. Digital Archaeology is an attempt to kick-start a wider attempt to archive the web in Britain's first 'digital archive'."

11 of 113 comments (clear)

  1. Perfect tool found for this project! by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 5, Funny

    When they started the dig, the scientists were amazed to see the old now defunct web has buried in it the perfect tool to do the digging! Gophers!

    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
    1. Re:Perfect tool found for this project! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      When they started the dig, the scientists were amazed to see the old now defunct web has buried in it the perfect tool to do the digging! Gophers!

      Oh how I miss Gopher, Archie, and Veronica and gang. The modern-day World Wide Web is basically commerce-oriented with actual information content on a steady decline. Sad.

      Forget Web 2.0. Let's move to Web 3.0 and a return to the original purpose of the Internet and World Wide Web, namely information-sharing and collaboration for the enrichment (betterment) of society through knowldge and its applications to solving problems.

    2. Re:Perfect tool found for this project! by datapharmer · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Yay - text! I was quite thrilled with the technology at the time. Gopher and BBS systems actually made a 1200 baud modem seem useful. For you youngsters that don't know what we're talking about see here. Now get off my lawn.

      --
      Get a web developer
    3. Re:Perfect tool found for this project! by mcgrew · · Score: 4, Insightful

      (50 years ago). Oh how I miss Radio. The modern-day television is basically commerce-oriented, while radio has devolved into a bunch of pop music.
      (80 years ago). Oh how I miss Books. The modern-day radio is basically commerce-oriented, while books provided ad-free entertainment.
      (100 years ago). Oh how I miss Live pianos/bands. The modern-day grammophone is basically commerce-oriented with actual talent on a steady decline - replaced with pop stars.

      The problem with your analogy is that we still have radios, books, and live bands, but the internet we had ten and more years ago is long gone. It's all commercials now. Back in the nineties people were bitching about the few pages that had single banner ads.

      --
      Free Martian Whores!
    4. Re:Perfect tool found for this project! by commodore64_love · · Score: 3, Insightful

      >>>It's all commercials now.

      As is typical with these kinds of statements ("all" "nothing left") it is false. It would be more accurate to say the web "almost" all gone, but there are still lots of websites that resemble the early web (no or few ads). There's even a few gopher sites around, and of course the pure-text Usenet which dates back to the 80s.

      --
      "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
  2. Jason Scott by Zerth · · Score: 5, Interesting

    of textfiles.com is more of a "digital archeologist" than this wanker, because he might have all that stuff you posted to BBSs back in the 70s/80s.

    Plus, he's got an awesome speech on the history of electronic porn, going back to tickertape machines and ham radio(think about that).

    http://laughingsquid.com/jason-scott-on-the-atomic-level-of-porn-at-arse-elektronika-2009/

  3. Re:Post of the year! by biryokumaru · · Score: 4, Informative

    Right, because no one's ever considered doing this before. Especially not in the UK!

    --
    When you're afraid to download music illegally in your own home, then the terrorists have won!
  4. Archaeology by The+Living+Fractal · · Score: 3, Funny

    valuable evidence from the interweb's early days

    What, you mean high contrast animated gif backgrounds on barely-visible text?

    It's like an Archaeologist is having a conversation with a layman:
    Archaeologist: You see this dirt?
    Layman: Yep, that's nice dirt, what's so special about it?
    Archaeologist: This dirt is FOUR BILLION years old!
    Layman: Wow, that's pretty old! So how does that make it different than this dirt I'm standing on?
    Archaeologist: Well, for one, if you were to grow marijuana with it, you'd be smoking some ancient shit, man.
    Layman: *just stares*
    Archaeologist: Seriously, it's OLD!
    Layman: I'm sure.


    Hmm. I think I need my morning coffee.

    --
    I do not respond to cowards. Especially anonymous ones.
  5. Re:Prediction by whitehaint · · Score: 4, Funny

    The web will be one big flash site using those neato web 2.0 buttons, and popups all over the place so you know where to get your hover car and penis pills. The future is bright indeed!

  6. Digiboard predated the Internet Archive's Wayback by Rick+Richardson · · Score: 4, Informative

    Digiboard, Inc. website (http://www.dgii.com) predated the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine.  When I started the website, only ~200 sites existed.

  7. Re:I'm sceptical by TaoPhoenix · · Score: 3, Funny

    Yes.

    http://anselme.homestead.com/AFPHAITI.html

    --
    My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine