Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

We read a lot about how the internet never forgets. That's not even remotely true. I've posted tons of stuff on the web (including entire courses and websites) that are long gone. This article affirms that. "Today's great library is being destroyed even as it is being built. Until you lose something big on the Internet, something truly valuable, this paradox can be difficult to understand." This article describes one case in which an article nominated for a Pulitizer in 2008 simply vanished from the web. The problem is maintenance. "The day-in, day-out maintenance [of the site] just stopped happening, and so pretty quickly, some stuff didn't work," Vaughan said. Your 'permanent' Facebook record will exist only so long as it is profitable for Facebook to keep it alive. Once Facebook decides to pull the plug - *poof* it's gone. Same with your coursework, your discussion posts, everything you post on third party sites online. Keep that in mind.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

Copyright 2024
Last Updated: Mar 28, 2024 6:54 p.m.

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