I sat in on a conversation about data persistence in relation to archiving issues today. As i’m often anti-archiving (because of the problems with persistence of data for individual data management), this conversation was quite intriguing to me. In particular, to hear from librarian/archivists who believe in recording history for good purposes. It was interesting to think about recording history but not making it accessible to the public (research-only, genuinely, kinda like the records that aren’t openable until everyone is dead). Ease of access (as well as the collapse of spatial & temporal contexts) are huge reasons why archiving online data is so much different than archiving elsewhere. Yet, i could totally understand why the folks i spoke with were so adament that archives occur, and with really good valid reasons. Anyhow, good new approach to an old topic in my head..