News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Update on the Twitter Archive at the Library of Congress by allenz on Friday January 05, 2018 @12:06PM (#16079823)
If you have the firehose, it is easy to derive the selective archive by filtering on the list of noteworthy accounts. Ignoring monetary costs, archiving the firehose is strictly better than selective archival. It enables future researchers to examine trends on a societal scale.
Re:Update on the Twitter Archive at the Library of Congress by QAPereo on Friday January 05, 2018 @02:54PM (#16081133)
It does, at the cost of preserving the firehose, through endless format and media shifts, and at the cost and under the assumption that future historians will want an archive they need a strong AI to manage. There is also the cost, as in paying people and buying equipment, drawn from an already overextended budget.
Re:Update on the Twitter Archive at the Library of Congress by tarboreus on Friday January 05, 2018 @03:09PM (#16081233)
Frankly, the firehose will be considered priceless in 100 years. The accounts and tweets that we care about now will also probably be the least valuable. Historians and archaeologists will generally take one grocery list over a thousand sweet nothings from politicians and celebrities.
Re:Update on the Twitter Archive at the Library of Congress by QAPereo on Friday January 05, 2018 @03:22PM (#16081337)
Preserving minutiae for future archaeologists is a bold and exciting idea which should be funded and pursued. It is not however, the mission of the LoC.

Edit: not to mention that I think you have a far too rosy view of the world we’ll be leaving for people 100 years from now.

Re:Update on the Twitter Archive at the Library of Congress by iamatworknow on Friday January 05, 2018 @04:20PM (#16081743)
Agreed. Hell, I've recovered old hard drive backups from ~10 years ago and have been fascinated by by what I've found. Old e-mails and chat logs and stuff can be very entertaining to dig through.
Re:Update on the Twitter Archive at the Library of Congress by WorldMaker on Friday January 05, 2018 @02:44PM (#16081061)
Or find things that seemed insignificant at the time but became significant later with hindsight.
Re:Update on the Twitter Archive at the Library of Congress by optimuspaul on Friday January 05, 2018 @03:07PM (#16081225)
not to mention the fact that twitter is basically millions of monkeys banging away at keyboards, eventually they will produce some great works.
Re:Update on the Twitter Archive at the Library of Congress by QAPereo on Friday January 05, 2018 @06:34PM (#16082721)
For values of “eventually” which include timescales on the order of proton decay...
Re:Update on the Twitter Archive at the Library of Congress by nasredin on Friday January 05, 2018 @04:48PM (#16081999)
...like a particular painter and WW1 veteran in Germany that the than current art world dismissed...