Web Pages Are Weak Links in the Chain of Knowledge 361
PizzaFace writes "Contributions to science, law, and other scholarly fields rely for their authority on citations to earlier publications. The ease of publishing on the web has made it an explosively popular medium, and web pages are increasingly cited as authorities in other publications. But easy come, easy go: web pages often get moved or removed, and publications that cite them lose their authorities. The Washington Post reports on the loss of knowledge in ephemeral web pages, which a medical researcher compares to the burning of ancient Alexandria's library. As the board chairman of the Internet Archive says, "The average lifespan of a Web page today is 100 days. This is no way to run a culture.""
Re:Worst Record Keeping (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Worst Record Keeping (Score:5, Funny)
Interesting... (Score:5, Funny)
From a researcher's perspective, I used the web primarily as a quick "google" to get some ideas on where I might do further research. For instance, while a particular paper may have been taking offline regarding my search, many times the search will proffer an author's name. Take that name to the library's database (or googling it, too), and you might can get a list of more publications that the author has penned. Even better: sometimes, you can get a valid email address from other links and you can write and ask the original researcher himself about various publications, many times they have copies on hand and can send them to you. My research involves the web, but does not end with the web, which is where many people find themselves hung.
Hey, guys. See that big building with those obsolete books? Lots of chicks hang out there.
Clicked on link (Score:1, Funny)
Re:web pages as knowledge (Score:4, Funny)
Scary thought. (Score:4, Funny)
Well, I guess we know what Paul McCartney will be doing on the cover of his next album..
Re:Books have an ISBN... (Score:3, Funny)
We could call it an Intellectual Property Address, or IP Address for short.
Re:Not everything, but... (Score:2, Funny)
The main difference being... (Score:3, Funny)
The main difference being that most of what was in ancient Alexandria's library was considered to be of importance to at least a sizeable group of people, if not the majority, whereas most of the web pages that disappear every day are simply dross.
100 days (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Well, (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Well, (Score:5, Funny)
Amazing that the most remembered asshole of the dawn of the 21st century isn't Michael Eisner or Jack Valenti.
Re:Well, (Score:4, Funny)