nullNov 9, 2022

While I'm typing out my novice thoughts on #digitalhistory #digitalhumanities have we stopped to consider the problem of our permanent tenant-style inhabitance of the internet? I can buy any number of things IRL and own them forever, but none of them are web space. Web space must be maintained monthly/yearly or exploited by a site paying those fees.

My smart tech partner @JeromeySims points out that I could own a slice of the web if I owned the physical tech and connection itself. What a massive hurdle to ensure my permanent ownership (or space, really -- I don't need to be a settler in the internet space).

This is like if I spent years building a house and, if I didn't pay my mortgage one month, someone came and burned it and its contents to the ground leaving only pictures of it on archive.org. #histodons @histodons

Show thread@krisnelsonNov 9, 2022

@micah @JeromeySims @histodons Described like you have, these issues of "ownership" of "space" on the Internet sound more like leasehold at best (unlike the freehold most USians are used to with property) or peasant-style tenant farming at worst.

That said, I've seen these issues analyzed more commonly in the legal world in terms of licensing/contract, often subsumed into so-called "intellectual property" (though tbh I consider these more like pseudo-property or property-like arrangements).

Show threadnullNov 9, 2022
@krisnelson @JeromeySims @histodons But the issue remains that if I wanted to own it as intellectual property, I would need to own the code. For many #histodons that is the same as owning a set of 000's and 111's. We aren't trained to utilize the code, so without web hosting the whole digital project becomes moot.
Show thread@krisnelson
@micah @JeromeySims @histodons Ah, yes, outside of legal ownership per se, now you're talking the language of #archivists and describing many of the challenges they have in preserving old movies, old audio, old records in obsolete formats that devolve into mootness because as physical object alone they are useless.
Nov 9, 2022 at 5:15pmWeb
Show threadnullNov 9, 2022
@krisnelson @JeromeySims @histodons exactly. It is one thing to learn to write in narrative form. It is another to also learn to write in a constantly transforming digital code. On top of the scholarship itself, it is overwhelming.