Secure Your Digital Legacy

It’s a common discussion among us digital folks:  Will future generations be able to access our data as easily as we can flip through Grandma’s recipe box and Great-Granddad’s photo albums?

Whenever this “geeks sharing a drink” discussion comes up, I’ve always contended that the answer is “absolutely not”.  For as much content as we’re generating today – between digital photos, videos, blogs, microblogs, IMs and the like – I just don’t see how this information is being future-proofed as easily as the printed words and images of the previous generations have been.

How many of you already have no way of reading a floppy disk in your home?

My personal example is a blog that I kept for most of the first four years of my daughter’s life.  Over the years I managed to write over 825 entries into that blog.  There are pictures, videos, and the heartfelt thoughts of a man faking his way through early parenthood and coming to discover that his wonderful daughter has been afflicted with autism.

And even though I doubt there is much in that blog that would interest the average reader, there is precious information in those entries that I hope will be treasured by my daughter and the generations of our family that follow her.

For the moment the blog is still parked on the Internet in a place that I keep password protected for obvious privacy reasons.  I click on the link every month or so and type in a secret word just to make sure the site still exists and hasn’t disappeared into the digital void.

But will that site exist in ten more years when my daughter is old enough to really appreciate it?  Maybe.  Will it exist in 50 years when her children want to learn more about Grandpa?  No way.

So that’s why I’ve taken the time to print all 800+ entries onto paper and have prepared a PDF file of the entire site as well.  It isn’t because I’m trying to preserve some great national treasure.  Most of the entries are just the ramblings of a tired father looking for answers.  But there will be people in the future, an admittedly small group of people, that will care to read that content and I need to do what I can to make it available to them.  ”The Internet” isn’t likely to do the same all by itself.

Make sure you’re thinking about that the next time you put your digital pictures up on Flickr or put your heart and soul into a blog entry or a comment on someone’s site.  Digital content is easy to create but it takes a bit more than a dusty shoebox in the back of a closet to preserve it for future generations to enjoy.

Just something to think about as we move into the new year.  Happy 2009.

Article image provided by: ark

Front page image provided by: BinaryApe