http://innovationeye.wordpress.com/2009/12/13/delete-not-fade-away-and-radiate/

You might like Nicholson Baker’s book ‘Double Fold’ on how libraries destroyed physical newspapers in place of crappy microfilm:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Double-Fold-Libraries-Assault-Paper/dp/0375726217/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1256309738&sr=8–9

I’ve quite possibly painted myself into a corner here. However, I do stand by the notion that the printed word has a different status to electronic text. I recall throwing away reams of paper doing my A-levels, since that was the only way to re-draft anything. Electronic text, on the other hand, is inherently malleable. The way that everything is now recorded in the latter form has considerable implications for memory, history, etc.

Not really sure what they are yet, granted!

Pen and paper — or even published book – may feel permanent but I’d bet a tiny fraction proves to be.

Maybe permanence comes form the strength of the idea and quality of the telling — whether digital or analog…

I think the interesting point is that we cannot predict permanence. Off-the-cuff comments that we wish would be expunged may haunt us forever while exquisitely crafted emails may be nowhere to be found.

On memory, forgetting and the net — James Harkin
http://www.jamesharkin.co.uk/2009/on-memory-forgetting-and-the-net-feature-in-tomorrows-sunday-times-london/

What’s really spooky is how you’ve gone on to convey here exactly what I think on other things related to this that we didn’t actually discuss! So this is what happens when you hove into view one night at an event on RSS (http://blip.tv/file/74092)… synchronicity and brilliance :-)

I need to ruminate a bit but yeah, I hear you. At least four large sites I’ve edited and written reams for (and helped build/design) — some of which I also actually cared about — have gone forever, thanks to the wonders of the interwebs. And yes, the Internet Archive is wiping old stuff it archives on the WayBackMachine because they can’t afford to store it all I guess. But no-one seems to be thinking about what this means in the long-term, never mind how it impacts us personally and professionally. They (we?) are all caught up in the moment.

Can’t quite muster the digital quill to respond in kind just now. But to hell with currency, I’ll get round to it. In the meantime here’s a few other interesting pieces on impermanence and it’s possible unknown flipside, but none of them come even close to your concentrated focus… (hoping you comment spam filter doesn’t chew ‘em):

When others delete your past — Dan Gillmor
http://mediactive.com/2009/05/09/when-others-delete-your-past/

The internet cupboard — Russell Davies
http://russelldavies.typepad.com/planning/2008/09/the-internet-cu.html

We’re in danger of losing our memories — Lynne Brindley
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/jan/25/internet-heritage

Ephemeral forever — Alan Patrick
http://broadstuff.com/archives/1616-Ephemeral-For-Ever.html