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30 Jan 2007
Web Rot inevitable?
Jon Udell discusses Web Rot. Interesting as one of the characteristics is it's findability through a permalink. However there are some problems behind this, especially one thinks of the blogosphere.
In the first place there is no standard way of addressing MicroContent Items. Each Content Management System uses its own way of creating permalinks. Changing from a CMS or sometimes even from one version to the next might change a permalink. It would be very nice if we could get some persistence here, which is independent of the CMS used.
The other thing is the domain name. Over time this might change as well. Many people use for instance blog hosting providers, which domain names specific to the hosting provider. So the persistence here will be dependent on the hosting provider. How long does the provider stay in business? And will the domain change in the case of a business sale? And this does happen, I have been there. And this does happen regularly if one has a hosting provider coupled to an ISP.
So the solution is to create your own domain name and also have the hosting in your own hand. At least you are then responsible. This extends the persistence to at most your death, as then the bills are no longer paid. Or to the moment you lose interest and let your domain name and hosting expire.
But from a real persistence point of view, web rot does exist and no solutions seem available.