because it is no ones responsibility?

A different viewpoint is to look at individual resources published through the Internet. These
may also be quite unstable, but their instability reflects the decisions and actions of their
owners in deleting, changing, moving, or renaming them. The loss of materials in this
environment is attributable to how they are managed at a local level, exposed to many of the
same threats that other kinds of digital materials experience.

While it is largely beyond the power of Internet users to control whether information remains
available, it is very much within the power of those owning and managing digital objects and
sites. If they are committed to maintaining access, it is generally within their power to do so.

However, the Internet does present some special risks. For example:
There is a strong novelty factor, so some publishers choose to change things
frequently sometimes the way information looks, sometimes also the content
Many Internet resources are a virtual composite drawn from a number of sources,
which may not be stored together anywhere. Changes in one part may destroy the
whole
The sense of global access may lead some information managers to assume they will
be able to rebuild their information if it is lost, ignoring the fact that their information
exists on a local system and is vulnerable to damage or loss associated with that
system. There is a danger that information managers may fail to take the normal
backup and security measures that they would automatically take in a stand-alone
system
It is possible to publish digital materials on the Internet quite easily and cheaply, so
many publishers have no plans for maintaining their publications or the means to do
so: their works are truly ephemeral.

CASE STUDIES
(These fictionalised case studies have been chosen to illustrate just a few examples of digital
heritage material not necessarily to endorse the way they are managed.)
A government department has recently issued personal computers to all staff so they
can produce their own letters, internal memos, reports, and send messages by email.
The department issues a directive that all final documents and important drafts, as well
as business emails, must be filed for long-term retention. (They are part of the digital
heritage.) However, personal emails and rough drafts do not need to be kept.
An isolated rural community has long been concerned that its traditional cohesion is
being lost along with respect for its way of life. Community elders decide to record
everything they can about the communitys traditions, and use a computer network to
record and share it. This becomes a focus of renewed interest and pride in community
life among almost all members of the community, and a source of shared income as
selected aspects of the database are made available to authorised outsiders. The
community agrees that the growing database must be kept, and should be managed by

32