Rick Weiss, On the Web, Research Work Proves Ephemeral, Washington Post, November 24, 2003. On another aspect of the preservation problem: that over time, many URLs die even when the target content is still on the web at another location. Based on the research of Robert Dellavalle, the article points to the Internet Archive and DOI-based persistent URLs as potential solutions. Excerpt: "A hodgepodge of other retrieval systems is cropping up, as well -- all part of the increasingly desperate effort to keep the ballooning Web's thoughts accessible. If it all sounds complicated, it is. But consider the stakes: The Web contains unfathomably more information than did the Alexandria library. If our culture ends up unable to retrieve and use that information, then all that knowledge will, in effect, have gone up in smoke." (Thanks to Jack Suber.)
Posted by
Peter Suber at 11/24/2003 08:40:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
