Much progress has been made in building tools for creating web archives, setting standards for web archiving, and building best practices for preserving web archives. IIPC has been instrumental in this advance. Considerably less attention has been paid to the full range of objectives that will be served by web archives. There is a shared assumption across the digital collections community that preserving and maintaining a record of the web is an important task. However, there is a need for a clearer understanding of the potential types of research that could be done using web archives. Otherwise, archives might not be fit for purpose, with the right tools available and usable. This project produced a white paper, which was delivered at the annual International Internet Preservation Consortium (IIPC), and a workshop discussing steps forward.
This project is funded by the International Internet Preservation Consortium (IPPC).
Senior Research Fellow
Ralph Schroeder has interests in shared virtual environments and the sociology of science and technology. His current research is related to digital media and populism, climate change online, AI and social theory, and the internet in China and India.
Research Associate
Arthur Thomas is founder and CEO of Proteus Associates, a consultancy specialising in applying information technology to life sciences. Working with Ralph Schroeder, his current research explores predictive computational models of biological systems.
Senior Fellow
Project role: Principal Investigator
Eric T. Meyer is a Senior Fellow of the Oxford Internet Institute. His research looks at the changing nature of knowledge creation in science, medicine, social science, arts, and humanities as technology is embedded in everyday practices.