[LEAPSECS] rewriting history of Torino Colloquium

[Rob Seaman]

Hi Tom,


> There's no need to fear "rewriting history" just because a domain changes or a URL gets reorganized by an IT department.


If the history is only recorded online then this is indeed a concern, whether though intent or happenstance.

Were the results of Torino submitted to a paper journal or proceedings?


> Honestly, how long do you think your own ucolick.org or ~sla will be around?


Astronomers know a little bit about long term data preservation issues :-)

Institutions like observatories, especially a premier facility like UCO/Lick, are likely to persist for generations.  Here is a Virtual Observatory white paper on long-term URIs that might eventually hope to rival this lifetime:

	http://www.astro.gla.ac.uk/users/norman/ivoa/long-term-uris.html

The author makes the point:

	"numerous universities have outlived the countries which founded them"

North American astronomy is in the early days of a process (likely to take decades) to scan glass photographic plates reaching back into the 19th century:

	http://www.pari.edu/library/apda

Timekeeping has its own long term vision:

	http://longnow.org

If only the standards process were as visionary :-)


> 2) But based on your note, I cached the Torino proceedings here:

>  http://leapsecond.com/history/torino/


Wonderful!


> Still, please, when some day my web site or the LEAPSECS list

> goes away, don't assume there's a conspiracy. It's more likely

> that the ISP badly fumbled an upgrade, or I forgot to pay the bills,

> or my estate has no clue what all these old files are.


I'm a little perplexed where the word "conspiracy" came from.  Steve doesn't use it.  But if the proceedings of that meeting vanish and decisions are made without their benefit, then history will indeed have been rewritten.

Rob
--

>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Steve Allen" <sla at ucolick.org>

>> To: "Leap Second Discussion List" <leapsecs at leapsecond.com>

>> Sent: Thursday, April 07, 2011 6:49 PM

>> Subject: [LEAPSECS] rewriting history of Torino Colloquium

>> 

>> When the ITU-R held its colloquium in Torino in 2003 the Italian

>> institute was the IEN.  Originally the proceedings were online at

>> http://www.ien.it/luc/cesio/itu/ITU.shtml

>> During subsequent reorganizations that became the INRIM.  Until

>> recently they had continued to host the proceedings of the 2003

>> colloquium at this URL

>> http://www.inrim.it/luc/cesio/itu/ITU.shtml

>> I was recently informed that this link is now dead.

>> Much more to my surprise I find that there is no trace of it

>> in the Internet Archive's wayback machine.

>> Fortunately the wayback machine had crawled the original website,

>> and during at least some of the many crawls the content was available.

>> I suggest that anyone who wants not to forget history should grab

>> a copy of the proceedings.