Memory as Big Business
Algorithms or the New Lingua Franca
clients can continue as if nothing new has happened. It is for
example still a routine for state agencies to submit a selection of
their emails as print-outs on paper to the archives.
How do we trace the record of an action or the memory of a
nation? Archives and national libraries used to be the best in the
class at this. However, now, just look around you. Almost every
business in Silicon Valley is in the memory, record and storage
business. It is as if computer scientists and programmers have an
inclination to think in terms of archives and memory.
Computers were in their very conception thought of as
expansions of intelligence and memory. Alan Turing's machine
needed an "infinite memory tape", John von Neumann's first
drafts of the modern computer were organized as multiple
memory systems (working memory, short term memory, long
term memory etc.), Vannevar Bush called it a Memex, Douglas
Engelbert wrote a PhD on computational storage devices.
Likewise, the Internet was conceived of as a dynamic memory
and capturing machine. Ted Nelson wanted a web of every text
ever created, and Tim Berners-Lee called it the World Wide Web
No wonder every major company in Silicon Valley continues this
line of thought. Or rather, the ICT industry has become library
and archival science by other means. They translate the key
insights from the field and turn them into principles of speed,
precision and infinite storage, turning their users into an archivist
of sorts. Facebook stores what they call "your memories",
Google and cookies register all your searches and clicks,
and Sony's "LifeLog App" can set-up your entire computer as
an automated personal archive, logging all your activities from
emails to postings on social media as well as your heartbeat.
From their ad: "Sony's Lifelog application is evolving. As your
complete activity tracker, follow your fitness and entertainment,
track heart rate and pulse, set goals, and look back on the
moments that matter".
The equation is: we serve you and you serve us. Every successful
company online capitalizes on Big Data made by You, the user.
To treat this information they need not only technical know-how,
but all the tricks and trades of archivists through the ages. Silicon
Valley has challenged the LAM-sector. However, in this world of
information flows and hyperstorage, we still need institutions
that can make distinctions and decisions, the way only archivists
and librarians can.
Archivists and librarians have every reason to be on the
offensive. We have a situation where new media smoothly and
successfully has sutured us into a new universe were archivists
and librarians can, if they like, happily continue working in the
same ways as before, following their good old habits and rely on
their knowledge. However, while old habits reign, the entire
infrastructure of our habits has changed. We need to look into
how this infrastructure has changed the rules of the game and
how our habits need to follow suit.
The new infrastructure of our culture is based on a new type
of writing: computation, networks, codes, programs and
algorithms. Algorithms denote coded instructions used to solve
a problem or an action computationally. Computational
algorithms have become the new lingua franca, but they are still
not considered valuable enough to be harvested by any archive.
They remain hidden as part of the infrastructure ruling our lives
- both inside and outside the archives. How long shall this go on
before someone presses SAVE. Many would say, let us do what
