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About The Internet Archive



I find the language usage in this text on the Internet Archive to be very fascinating:

The Internet Archive is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that was founded to build an Internet library, with the purpose of offering permanent access for researchers, historians, and scholars to historical collections that exist in digital format. Founded in 1996 and located in the Presidio of San Francisco, the Archive has been receiving data donations from Alexa Internet and others. In late 1999, the organization started to grow to include more well-rounded collections. Now the Internet Archive includes texts, audio, moving images, and software as well as archived web pages in our collections.

Sometimes I wonder if I am just a file remembering itself on the “Alexa Internet.” WTF do they mean by that, by the way? So are they mostly owned by Alexa/Amazon or what? Their layout, color, and aesthetic sensibility seem to indicate at least an accidental connection between the two groups. Just like the IMDB has a little tiny logo at the very bottom saying they are an Amazon company.

Another one: if this is the “Alexa Internet” universe that we exist in, what are the other ones and where are the access points?







6 Reader Responses

  1. Julia Says:
    November 9th, 2007 at 11:16 pm

    Since Pres. Bush’s “internets” malapropism I’ve developed the theory that Bush knew what he was talking about and we just weren’t being let in on the multiple internet thing.

    Sorry, but here’s my Chicago-as-metaphor-for-everything-else note. During my childhood the Democratic party was known as The Machine. There were reform movements but most things just got smoothed over, not cleaned up. Our current Mayor Daley is the son of the former Mayor Daley, the man who built and perfected The Machine. Our current Mayor couldn’t speak a proper sentence if his life depended on it but the machine is better than ever because people think there’s no machine left. I guess what I’m trying to say is that just because it looks stupid and sounds stupid doesn’t mean that it’s ineffective.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_J._Daley

  2. Julia Says:
    November 9th, 2007 at 11:37 pm

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barter_economy

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gift_economy

    I hadn’t really thought about it before but Wiki has decided that political Machines are examples of the above.

  3. Julia Says:
    November 9th, 2007 at 11:50 pm

    :) Paranoia, political, computer game and subconscious Bosses, nice economic theories played out in twisted ways. Chicago has it all. Former Daley’s True Name is The Boss. This was bestowed on him by the author Mike Royko.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boss

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Royko

    Sorry, I love Chicago down to it’s dirty underpants and when you love something that much it’s all you can talk about.

  4. Ottershrew Says:
    November 10th, 2007 at 12:57 pm

    On the subject of politicians’ malapropisms revealing the true meaning of things, the Wikipedia article on Richard J. Daley is itself quite revealing:

    “Daley was known for his tangled tongue. […] One of Daley’s most memorable malapropisms was uttered in 1968 while defending what the news media reported as police misconduct during that year’s violent and confrontational Democratic Convention. “Gentlemen, get the thing straight once and for all — the policeman isn’t there to create disorder, the policeman is there to preserve disorder.” Another notable Daley malapropism was his statement that “We shall reach greater and greater platitudes of achievement.”

    Earl Bush, the mayor’s press aide, once chastised reporters, saying “You should have printed what he meant, not what he said.”"

    But then, perhaps what he said, was what he meant.

  5. Tim Boucher Says:
    November 10th, 2007 at 2:12 pm

    Since Pres. Bush’s “internets” malapropism I’ve developed the theory that Bush knew what he was talking about and we just weren’t being let in on the multiple internet thing.

    100%! Just how many internets there are is what I want to know. And how do we set up “Integrated Access Points” is the term I came up with while sleeping…

  6. Tim Boucher Says:
    November 10th, 2007 at 2:33 pm

    offering permanent access for researchers, historians, and scholars

    Interesting that the language used in this line seems to reflect professional usage, although I suppose doesn’t directly preclude amateurs…



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