Eventually it will happen on its own.
I can't seem to remember how or when I stumbled onto this particular maxim. I do remember that what I found referred to it as "Rothenberg's law", though I haven't succeeded in again finding it defined in that way. Whether or not it's formally reached the status of other internet-related laws (like Godwin's Law) it states:
Digital data lasts forever, or five years, whichever comes first.
The source is an article by Jeff Rothenberg from the Rand Corporation - Ensuring the Longevity of Digital Information - originally from 1995 and then revised in 1999. The maxim is obviously presented with a humorous wink, but the problem was very real, and it's clear that already back then people were well aware of the problem. Rothenberg's focus was on the media used for storing digital information and the fact that these were under constant change and development such that new media tools weren't able to "read" digital information prepared for earlier tools. Though this isn't the sense that Rothenberg was referring to, there's no lack of examples of the ephemerality of digital data in The Boidem. For The Boidem it's almost solely an issue of linkrot - websites that we've linked to in the past that are no longer there, or pages for which the URL has changed due to the reorganization of the mother-site's architecture. Throughout the preparation of this column I've found many links that no longer lead anywhere. If I've been able to update them with a minimum of effort I've done so, but I have to admit that this hasn't been a top priority.
Go to: It was thirty years ago today