On 10-03-10 23:59 , Neil Gould wrote:
"Alan wrote:
On 10-03-10 16:31 , wrote:
If anything, MOST of the digital images shot today will
disappear in 10
years or less. I highly doubt very many people do any sort of
archival
That's why I said 1 in 1,000,000 surviving images. Considering
the
number of photos shot today, it will still be a deluge of images.
One problem with this line of reasoning is that you are describing two
pools of photo takers.
Yes to the "two pools" notion, and the "conservators" being a much
smaller group. (I don't see that as a "problem" however).
By your own statement, the digital images that
survive will be managed by those that take extraordinary care of their
data.
I'd characterize it more as "best reasonable effort." Which is orders
of magnitude better than ordinary neglect. And then an even smaller
group making extraordinary efforts.
This is not likely to be the same group that will generate the
large number of images you are basing your "1 in 1,000,000 surviving
images" upon. Considering the archival replication processes necessary
Really to illustrate the vast number of photos taken that drive a
likelihood of a portion surviving.
in order to keep a digital image for 500 years, I'd say that your
notion is grossly overestimated, if for no other reason than the cost
of the effort to preserve them.
To be clear: I'm really addressing "survivors" on a statistical basis.
And of course survival favours the prepared.
The cheapest method that requires no long term plan is to use archival
CD/DVD (BluRay?) and to store them benignly. There is a very high
probability that a small number of the disks will be well kept. Out of
those, a fraction will retain their data in whole or in part.
It's just big, big, big numbers and the survival of some of the data.
But some small part of a really big number is still a lot.
I should mention the image agencies such as Corbis which amass images
(film and digital) and go to great lengths to preserve those images.
Most of the images they own are very ordinary and some are important.
All are cataloged and preserved. Given the value of image businesses,
these images are destined to survive for a very long time even as the
business changes hands and purpose, technology changes and so on.
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