Ep. 7 - Panel 1B - Part 3 - Preservation, reconstruction and web data - Michael Kurzmeier (MU)

NPPSH Conference

As more and more of daily communication happens through a digital medium, so are “unseen voices” often spoken and sometimes heard within the digital sphere. Especially marginalized and counter-public groups have often used the new media to overcome real-world limitations. This phenomenon can be traced back to the early days of the Web, as projects such as the Transgender Usenet Archive show. Archives like this allow the reconstruction of a community and enable users to experience this part of history. At the same time, an archive of any community’s past helps against misrepresentations. With the growth of data output and the dominance of a few social media platforms, projects like the Transgender Usenet Archive will be harder to accomplish on data created in the present. For the presentation’s first part, I am going to give a brief introduction on what memory means in a digital context and what distinguishes data collections from digital sites of memory that affect our understanding of the past. Moving on from there, I am going to introduce the Transgender Usenet Archive as an example for successful reconstruction of largely unheard voices. This part will be focused on preservation, reconstruction and usage of the data. Finally I will give some examples from current situations which I understand to be lost voices or voices at risk of being lost. Through this, I will explain challenges arising with contemporary Web archiving and hope to be able to give some general principles for preserving currently unseen voices. Michael Kurzmeier is a PhD candidate in Maynooth University and supervised by Prof Susan Schreibman. His thesis investigates questions of preservation and presentation of digital cultural heritage. The age of digital communication as also the age of massive data collection driven by very different intentions. As those archives serve as memory agents for current and future ways to remember and portrait the past, it is necessary to understand the challenges and opportunities that an increasing digitization of memory brings. Michael received his BA European Literature from Marburg and MA American Studies from Tübingen University. You can contact Michael on Twitter @mkrzmr and at Mastodon https://makerdon.org/@mkrzmr