Digital Preservation is Costly (duh)

[arigram]

Interesting article.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/23/b...ae3346782&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

 

[Kino]

Yeah, I am waiting for the Academy of Motion Picture Art and Sciences to release their in-house white paper dealing with this very subject.

Apparently, it threw them and the Major Studio heads into such an uproar, they won't release it to the general public just yet...

Kodak, are you listening?

 

[JBrunner]

ROFLMAO! Thanks Arri. Interesting indeed.

 

[Dan Henderson]

you know, after reading this article it is difficult to not let a smirk and "I told you so" sneak out.

 

[firecracker]

It's a sad news but made me smile!

But at the same time I should worry about storing my little mini DV movie, too. That will be a lot of money to transfer to actual film!

 

[Videbaek]

This problem rears its head in the media every now and then -- it's a real headache. What will I do with all my files stored to DVD? Some I have to keep, some I don't, but the hassle of actually going through and deciding and recopying onto a new medium is impossible to contemplate.

 

[wfe]

Yup, it's a big problem but the person who figures out a solution will be a wealthy person and someone will figure it out.

Cheers,
Bill

 

[AgX]

Is that paper public?
I could not find a trace of it at the Academy site.

Oops, I just read what Kino wrote about it.

 

[Jim Chinn]

Not only film. I have read reports that upwards of 70% of audio recordings done digitally will be unrecoverable due to degradation of media within 30 years of their creation. It's interesting that great efforts are being made to find old single label recordings of gospel and jazz artists recorded on wax, vinyl and tape from as far back as the late 20s. Some of these recordings have been sitting in attics and storage rooms forgotten for 70 years yet still are usable. Ironically, extremely worn and scratched vinyl can be recorded digitally and about 97% of the original information recovered. But you have to have the original analoge media.

I think when people in the future look back on this time they will find a much less rich historical record due to are increasing reliance on digital media for collection and storage of information.

 

[JBrunner]

I think the historical record of this time will be extensive, because of sheer volume. Unfortunately the vast majority of it will be fragments of voice mail, SPAM, and OOF images of cats.

 

[tim_walls]

I think the historical record of this time will be extensive, because of sheer volume. Unfortunately the vast majority of it will be fragments of voice mail, SPAM, and OOF images of cats.

I can see the future Art History syllabus now:
Renaissance
Baroque
Classicism
Romanticism
Impressionism
Expressionism
Cubism
Kitten-and-sunsetism

 

[Andy K]

It isn't just cats. I belong to a few other forums, they all have gallery sections, and all are bursting at the seams with pictures of dogs. Dogs running, dogs jumping, dogs sleeping.

I think this photographic era will be known as the sickeningly mundane era.

 

[mabman]

All of *my* cat pics are on film so future generations will know all about our Fluffy Overlords

 

[Uncle Bill]

Future historians are going to hate our guts in a big way. I still have my dad's jazz lp collection and I savour the sounds....

 

[Alden]

Digital Technology: Digital Solutions for Problems That Don't Exist

 

[Snapshot]

I remember having a conversation with a friend of mine a few years ago. She wanted to save money on film, as she tended to shoot at least one roll a film a day while on holidays. I gave her the best advice on what digital camera to purchase, but I also included the caveat that she is now entering the data management business.

"Is that something you want to do for the rest of your life? As soon as you stop, something will degrade, corrupt or otherwise render your priceless memories useless or unreadable."

Well, she didn't like the incremental expense of paying for film and development. Undeterred, she purchased a digital camera and has thousands of digital pictures of vital family events, trips and so on. Years later, she has spent hundreds and thousands of dollars to manage all of those pictures. Software, several back-up hard drives, extra storage cards, DVD-RW discs and a separate computer as well as countless hours being frustrated (I know, I'm her personal tech support line).

She now complains about of the cost of managing those files.

 

[JBrunner]

I remember having a conversation with a friend of mine a few years ago. She wanted to save money on film, as she tended to shoot at least one roll a film a day while on holidays. I gave her the best advice on what digital camera to purchase, but I also included the caveat that she is now entering the data management business.

"Is that something you want to do for the rest of your life? As soon as you stop, something will degrade, corrupt or otherwise render your priceless memories useless or unreadable."

Well, she didn't like the incremental expense of paying for film and development. Undeterred, she purchased a digital camera and has thousands of digital pictures of vital family events, trips and so on. Years later, she has spent hundreds and thousands of dollars to manage all of those pictures. Software, several back-up hard drives, extra storage cards, DVD-RW discs and a separate computer as well as countless hours being frustrated (I know, I'm her personal tech support line).

She now complains about of the cost of managing those files.

LOL! Send her a nice old reliable camera, a dozen rolls of film, and a gift card for processing at that big box. You'll both be happier.

 

[Vaughn]

I can see the future Art History syllabus now:
Renaissance
Baroque
Classicism
Romanticism
Impressionism
Expressionism
Cubism
Kitten-and-sunsetism

When I had Thomas Joshua Cooper as a photo instructor at university almost thirty years ago, he had two rules 1) Always show up for critiques and 2) No photos of cats or babies.

Vaughn

 

[eddym]

I think the historical record of this time will be extensive, because of sheer volume. Unfortunately the vast majority of it will be fragments of voice mail, SPAM, and OOF images of cats.

That's why I take such great care to focus carefully when I take all my cat pictures! ;

 

[copake_ham]

Future historians are going to hate our guts in a big way. I still have my dad's jazz lp collection and I savour the sounds....

Why do you assume that future historians will somehow be wiser than us?

If mankind is in a downward spiral of "dumbing down" then they will be even stupider. Based on the premise that digital preservation is both costly and ultimately futile, chances are that even if "future historians" do exist - they won't have any original source materials either from our times or times subsequent to research.

 

[Snapshot]

LOL! Send her a nice old reliable camera, a dozen rolls of film, and a gift card for processing at that big box. You'll both be happier.

Tell me about it.

 

[Kino]

My argument is (in cinema at least), you only go down the digital path IF you need some tools that are not available in photochem AND you are willing to go back out to a film preservation master.

Film to film generational losses are not all they have been trumped up to be and are certainly preferable to the myriad of problems that await the unaware down the digital path...

OK, that aught to be good for a ten or twenty pages of argument, somehow ending up the virtues of one cat food over another...

 

[JBrunner]

Kibbles and Bits dammit.

 

[Kino]

Kibbles and Bits dammit.

Friskies! Where do these radicals come from?

 

[JBrunner]

Friskies! Where do these radicals come from?

Why do you hate freedom?