Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Measuring data rot: An analysis of the continued availability of shared data from a Single University

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

People like to say that "what's on the internet is forever" but older hands know that stuff disappears all the time. This is known as 'link rot' and this paper (14 page PDF) studies the rate of link rot in a university website and open data service. "A surprising 13.4% of shared URL links pointed to a website homepage rather than a specific record on a website. After testing, 5.4% the 2166 supplemental data links were found to be no longer available... Links from older publications were more likely to be unavailable, with a data disappearance rate estimated at 2.6% per year."

Today: 4 Total: 934 [Direct link] [Share]


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

Copyright 2024
Last Updated: Dec 10, 2024 10:48 p.m.

Canadian Flag Creative Commons License.

Force:yes