blog preservation: some considerations

CAROLYN HANK DIGITAL CURATION PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTE

JANUARY 8, 2013

CHAPEL HILL, NC

BLOG PRESERVATION … some considerations

133 million blogs indexed by Technorati

between 2002 and 2008.

White & Winn, 2009

GENERAL BLOGGERS 2006-2008

MOTIVATION BEHIND STUDY …

1

People rely heavily on service

providers, often taking no

additional actions toward the

persistence of their user-

generated content.

Marshall, Bly & Brun-Cottan, 2006

GENERAL BLOGGERS 2006-2008

1

NEEDLE IN A

HAYSTACK population

SCHOLAR BLOGGERS (ACTIVE) 2009-2011

2

SAMPLING ISSUES…

population

SCHOLAR BLOGGERS (ACTIVE) 2009-2011

SAMPLING ISSUES…

CHAMELEON IN

A HAYSTACK

2

SCHOLAR BLOGGERS (ACTIVE) 2009-2011

MORE

SAMPLING

CONSIDERATIONS

?

Multiple instances

Multiple authors

Scholar blogger(?)

Scholarly blog(?)

Currency

Timing

2

%

preservation for public access

& use into the indefinite future

PRESERVATION

SCHOLAR BLOGGERS 2

PRESERVATION

0% 100%

Personal access/use

Indefinite future

Public access/use

Indefinite future

Personal access/use

Short-term future

Public access/use

Short-term future

16%

19%

76%

80%

SCHOLAR BLOGGERS 2

SCHOLAR BLOGGERS 2

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

RESPONSIBILITY CAPABILITY

Blogger

Co-Author(s)

Provider/Host/Network

Search Engine

Public Trust

PRESERVATION PREFERENCES

first line of

defense

SCHOLAR BLOGGERS 2

final line of

defense

SCHOLAR BLOGGERS 2

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

RESPONSIBILITY CAPABILITY

Blogger

Co-Author(s)

Provider/Host/Network

Search Engine

Public Trust

Nat'l Library

Nat'l Archive

Inst'l Library

Inst'l Archive

Inst'l IT Dept

SCHOLAR BLOGGERS 2

PRESERVATION PREFERENCES

%

Purposefully save entire blog via an

archiving service or independently

SAVING

Subscription

services

Export tools

Personal

back-ups

Document/text files

Via syndication

services

SCHOLAR BLOGGERS 2

examples:

BACKUPIFY

BLOGBACKUPR

BACKUPMYBLOG

INTERNET ARCHIVE

LOC’s LEGAL BLAWGS ARCHIVE

Subscription to web or blog archiving or back-up service

SERVICES

SCHOLAR BLOGGERS 2

%

SAVING

Purposefully save some

blog components

Export tools

Personal

back-ups

Document/text files

Via syndication

services

SCHOLAR BLOGGERS 2

BUT … RIGHTS & USE

Creative

Commons (n=13)

Copyright

Statement (n=34)

%

no rights or use statements

at blog or post level

2 SCHOLARS’ BLOGS

%

DISCLAIMERS

have an explicit or implicit

disclaimer-style statement

Own

opinion

Not

responsible

Advice

THOUGH 80% FEEL BLOG IS PART OF THEIR SCHOLARLY RECORD …

2 SCHOLARS’ BLOGS

%

DELETING

delete posts after publication

Duplicate

Post

“Post Regret”

Too sensitive or revealing

THOUGH 80% FEEL BLOG SHOULD BE PRESERVED …

SCHOLAR BLOGGERS 2

BLOG DELETION

%

have deleted a blog

SCHOLAR BLOGGERS 2

if? What

SADNESS

C’EST LA VIE

RELIEF DOUBT

ANGER

Devastated,

both emotionally and

professionally.

Pretty

bad.

Very

sad.

SADNESS

C’EST LA VIE

RELIEF DOUBT

ANGER

Mad as hell.

I’d do something

drastic [in response].

Pretty

peeved. Angry

& upset.

SADNESS

C’EST LA VIE

RELIEF DOUBT

ANGER

I don’t have to

do it anymore. I get half an

hour of my

life back.

SADNESS

C’EST LA VIE

RELIEF DOUBT

ANGER

Not welcomed

but not tragic …

I’d get over it.

Probably

have a drink &

forget about it.

Pour another cup

of coffee & get

back to work. Drop out …

until something else

comes along.

SADNESS

C’EST LA VIE

RELIEF DOUBT

ANGER

It would take an

extreme catastrophe.

How would

that happen?

SADNESS

C’EST LA VIE

RELIEF DOUBT

ANGER

PUBLICLY AVAILABLE = 570 (86%)

PUBLISHED IN ENGLISH = 544 (84%)

KNOWLEDGE OR PERSONAL BLOG = 498 (77%)

TIME-STAMPED POSTS = 496 (77%)

ACTIVELY PUBLISHED TO = 271 (42%)

AT LEAST 1 YEAR OLD = 231(36%)

IDENTIFIERS (RE: AUTHORSHIP) = 208 (32%)

BLOG ELIGIBILITY (644)

SCHOLAR BLOGGERS (ACTIVE) 2009-2011

2

WHAT ABOUT THOSE BLOGS THAT ARE

INACTIVE BUT STILL PUBLICLY

AVAILABLE …

As reported by Viegas (2005),

bloggers assume persistency of their

blogs unless deliberate action is

taken (by the blogger) to remove it.

left no message behind

on where they went or

if they will be back etc.

%

Available but

not actively

published to

in previous

3 months (n=156)

blog analysis

SCHOLAR BLOGGERS (ACTIVE) 2009-2011

2

SCHOLAR BLOGGERS (INACTIVE) 2011-PRESENT

Hank. C., & Lent, A.R. (2012). Dispatches from blog purgatory: Final messages from scholars’ inactive blogs. #Influence12: Symposium & workshop on measuring influence on social media. Halifax, Nova Scotia

HUMANITIES, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SCIENCES, PROF. & USEFUL ARTS

BLOG X N=1779

BLOG ANALYSIS n=909

no new posts > 3 months

3

2012-PRESENT 4

RESULTS COMING SOON …

SUMMER 2013

BIBLIOBLOGGERS (IN/ACTIVE) 2012-PRESENT

4

OCLC/ALISE Library & Information Science Research Grant Program

QUESTIONNAIRES

INTERVIEWS

BLOG ANALYSIS

CV ANALYSIS BLOGGER

BLOG BLOG X

Hank. C. (2011). Scholars and their blogs: Characteristics, preferences, and perceptions

impacting digital preservation (Doctoral dissertation). ProQuest Dissertations &

Theses database (UMI No. 3456270).

Hank. C., & Lent, A.R. (2012). Dispatches from blog purgatory: Final messages from

scholars’ inactive blogs. #Influence12: Symposium & workshop on measuring

influence on social media. Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Hank, C., Sheble, L., & Choemprayong, S. (2007). Informing blog appraisal through

bloggers’ perspectives on selection and preservation. Paper presented at the

Conference on Appraisal in the Digital World, Rome, Italy.

Marshall, C.C., Bly, S., & Brun-Cottan, F. (2006). The long term fate of our digital

belongings: Toward a service model for personal archives. Archiving 2006 Final

Program and Proceedings, 3 (pp. 25–30). Springfield, VA: Society for Imaging

Sciences and Technology.

Sheble, L., Choemprayong, S., & Hank. C. (2007). Preservation in context: Survey of

blogging behaviors. In Proceedings of the Third International Digital Curation

Conference. Edinburgh: Digital Curation Centre.

Viegas, F.B. (2007). Bloggers' expectations of privacy and accountability: An initial

survey. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 10(3). Retrieved from

http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol10/issue3/viegas.html

White, D., & Winn, P. (2009). State of the blogosphere: 2008. Technorati. Retrieved from

http://technorati.com/blogging/feature/state-of-the-blogosphere-2008/

SOURCES

THANK YOU

CAROLYN HANK Email: chank@utk.edu

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