West Virginia Ideal for Federal Digital Repository
West Virginia would make an ideal location for massive server farms that would serve as a repository of data and electronic records from federal agencies. With is reliable electricity grid, widespread fiber optic network infrastructure and remote location, the Mountain State should make a pitch to locate high-tech data centers in its rural communities.
Provided below is an excerpt from a story in the July 2005 edition of the MIT Technology Review that showcases not only the challenge facing the federal government, but also the potential major possibilities for major data repository/archive centers.
The Fading Memory of the State
July 2005, MIT Technology Review
Click to read entire article
The official repository of retired U.S. government records is a boxy white building tucked into the woods of suburban College Park, MD. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is a subdued place, with researchers quietly thumbing through boxes of old census, diplomatic, or military records, and occasionally requesting a copy of one of the computer tapes that fill racks on the climate-controlled upper floors.
Researchers generally don't come here to look for contemporary records, though. Those are increasingly digital, and still repose largely at the agencies that created them, or in temporary holding centers. It will take years, or decades, for them to reach NARA, which is charged with saving the retired records of the federal government (NARA preserves all White House records and around 2 percent of all other federal records; it also manages the libraries of 12 recent presidents).
Unfortunately, NARA doesn't have decades to come up with ways to preserve this data. Electronic records rot much faster than paper ones, and NARA must either figure out how to save them permanently, or allow the nation to lose its grip on history.
Provided below is an excerpt from a story in the July 2005 edition of the MIT Technology Review that showcases not only the challenge facing the federal government, but also the potential major possibilities for major data repository/archive centers.
The Fading Memory of the State
July 2005, MIT Technology Review
Click to read entire article
The official repository of retired U.S. government records is a boxy white building tucked into the woods of suburban College Park, MD. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is a subdued place, with researchers quietly thumbing through boxes of old census, diplomatic, or military records, and occasionally requesting a copy of one of the computer tapes that fill racks on the climate-controlled upper floors.
Researchers generally don't come here to look for contemporary records, though. Those are increasingly digital, and still repose largely at the agencies that created them, or in temporary holding centers. It will take years, or decades, for them to reach NARA, which is charged with saving the retired records of the federal government (NARA preserves all White House records and around 2 percent of all other federal records; it also manages the libraries of 12 recent presidents).
Unfortunately, NARA doesn't have decades to come up with ways to preserve this data. Electronic records rot much faster than paper ones, and NARA must either figure out how to save them permanently, or allow the nation to lose its grip on history.
posted by Larry Malone at 2:04 PM
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