Great!

Now that we can see the Internet as a function of Time, one now
wishes to make the temporal metaphor more strongly mathematical:

* What is the difference between WebSite X at time(now) vs.
time(yesteryear)?
* How rapidly is Website X changing over time?
* How rapidly is WebsiteX's rate of change changing?

The above questions arise naturally (and especially so if you have
had a Calculus course) when one has access to temporally ordered
information. Interestingly, answering each question requires the
creation of information of a different type:

* Q1 may be answerable by a file listing, or more
attractively, a graph or visual representation of file types,
concepts, etc.
* Q2 results in a table of file types with file per
day/week/month/etc. change values
* Q3 another table or a graph? Something more dynamic, I
think.

Not to mention how one depicts the changes in links to other
sites...


Ron Murray
Digital Conversion Specialist
Preservation Reformatting Division
Library of Congress

******************************

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2001 12:59:02 -0700
From: Brewster Kahle <brewster@...>
To: archivists@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [archivists] Surf through Time


The archive has must made a 2TB collection of past websites
browsable. Give it a try and please send any comments you have to
this list or straight to the Internet Archive.

I am hoping this points towards one of the "big ideas" in defining
library services in the digital age.

-brewster

etc....