Mold Hits the Internet
October 29, 2013
Links rot quickly on the Internet. How many times have you visited a Web page and clicked on something interesting, only to be met with standard page does not exist template? It is happening more quickly as the Internet gains more prominence in people’s lives and researchers deal with moldy link more than anyone would have thought possible. This poses a problem as Gigaom discusses in the article, “A Web Page Lasts Forever: The Plan To Stop ‘Link Rot’ In Law And Science.” Link rot is present in Web pages a teenager makes to the United States Supreme Court.
The problem has not been taken as seriously as it should, because dead-tree materials are still considered to be the authoritative source because they are static. Web sites, though, can be changed in the blink of an eye.
There is a plan to stop the rot before it eats out the entire Web. Times Higher Education took a look at Perma CC, a source for lawyers that takes a Web page and created an etched-in-stone digital reference.
“It works like this: a scholar (or anyone else) can submit a link to Perma CC, which is managed by a coalition that includes universities, libraries and the Internet Archive. According to Perma CC, the group will create a permanent URL and store the page on its servers and on mirror sites around the world.”
If Web sites from respected academic organizations and the government are supposed to be a solid resource, parts of them will have to remain unchangeable. It will be good for search, because it will mean cutting back on sifting through results and search time. Individuals will have to get used to the idea that books will longer be the definitive source.
Whitney Grace, October 29, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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