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Friday, Jul 21, 2006
Hmmm. Do I make the leap of getting a YouTube account to see the possibly "inappropriate" video of Pamela and the Sweater Puppies fighting the good fight against Islamofascism?
What Happened?
In high school and college I had a few occasions to spend time digging through archives of magazines (typically bound volumes) and newpapers (typically microfiche) to get some background for writing a paper. Being easily distracted, sometimes I'd wander off the path and start looking other stories that occurred contemporaneously. In addition, the ads give a sense of what was going on in consumer culture.
These methods of archiving allow one to get a snapshot of what was gone on at a particular time, but are tedious to search. Digital technology allows much more rapid access to information, but at the same time typically rips it out of context.
I'm wondering what will give people the "rich view" of the aughties that the old microfiches.gave to past decades. Newspaper archives views typically aren't organized based on "what happened on this day", but that view could be provided with the right software. The serial nature of blogs tends to better capture the intertwined naratives, but don't provide the breadth.
... just a random thought triggered by trying to find links to a 2-day old story. The blogs were the definitive index.