Comments on: One More Step Toward Infinite Storage http://www.daniel-lemire.com/blog/archives/2007/03/06/wired-ap-technology-and-business-news-from-the-outside-world-on-wiredcom/ Daniel Lemire's blog is about life in academia, research in Computer Science, wondering how we can reconcile fast databases and algorithms with the informal and asemantic nature of the world around us. It is broadcasted from Montreal (Canada). Tue, 14 Oct 2008 16:31:19 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: Andre Vellino http://www.daniel-lemire.com/blog/archives/2007/03/06/wired-ap-technology-and-business-news-from-the-outside-world-on-wiredcom/#comment-49212 Andre Vellino Wed, 07 Mar 2007 03:49:11 +0000 http://www.daniel-lemire.com/blog/archives/2007/03/06/wired-ap-technology-and-business-news-from-the-outside-world-on-wiredcom/#comment-49212 As a footnote, Library and Archives Canada is also worried about this, of course. Their mandate is to archive (some) of these exabytes - the ones that matter or can be considered part of the "National Heritage" (http://www.collectionscanada.ca/cdis/index-e.html). So (one of) their problem(s) is - how do we tell what matters and what doesn't? Given limited management ability / space / archivists etc., do we archive / annotate Daniel's and Andre's blogs or Nelly Furtado's MySpace site? As far as absolute numbers of exabytes go, I don't think that's an especially good measure for anything. YouTube videos take up quite a lot of space but there aren't more than a few million. It's the "objects" and the information about them that matters. Although the question of what a "digital object" actually consists of is also in question. Should it be the picture, or the picture with the text or the picture with the text in the blog...? As a footnote, Library and Archives Canada is also worried about this, of course. Their mandate is to archive (some) of these exabytes - the ones that matter or can be considered part of the “National Heritage” (http://www.collectionscanada.ca/cdis/index-e.html). So (one of) their problem(s) is - how do we tell what matters and what doesn’t? Given limited management ability / space / archivists etc., do we archive / annotate Daniel’s and Andre’s blogs or Nelly Furtado’s MySpace site?

As far as absolute numbers of exabytes go, I don’t think that’s an especially good measure for anything. YouTube videos take up quite a lot of space but there aren’t more than a few million. It’s the “objects” and the information about them that matters.

Although the question of what a “digital object” actually consists of is also in question. Should it be the picture, or the picture with the text or the picture with the text in the blog…?

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