Thanks to the US government shutdown, the Library of Congress website went down today. So did NASA, the NSF, the USDA, the FTC, and the National Park Service. On the other hand, privately-run websites such as the Internet Archive (and, thankfully, its glorious Wayback Machine!) remain online and unaffected by these sorts of government changes.
As we plan for making our Internet more robust in the future, we should make sure to avoid single (or small-group) points of failure, as even services run by major corporations or governments can go offline in a hurry. (People who live their lives on Google tools: I’m looking at you 🙂
Wikipedia itself should be sure to support a thriving mirror network, and should probably move towards a fully distributed cache-and-forward model where possible.
Thanks for the post!
Comment by Nemo 10.02.13 @ 2:22 amSee also http://blog.archive.org/2013/10/02/governmentblackout/
[…] LOC is down. Archive.org remains up. What can this teach us? […]
Pingback by Using Archive.org to Research Your Novel » Mark Lord's Historical and Fantasy Fiction 10.02.13 @ 7:52 amGood to be reminded of our collective vulnerability, Sam, as we slouch toward Bethlehem in the digital age. And how those of us who are at early stages of scaffolding online / blended engagement educational programs need to proceed. Thanks for the post!
Comment by Marcy Murninghan 10.11.13 @ 11:04 amNemo, thanks for the fine link. There are many more agencies than I thought which took their databases offline, despite the small marginal cost…
Marcy, thank you for your ideas. You’re right that everyone providing a public service needs to answer these questions for themselves.
Comment by metasj 10.11.13 @ 3:06 pm