Why Teams call analytics are critical to your entire business
Iscc web historiography
1. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
1
Web historiography
An emerging field within internet
studies
2. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
2
paris.fr — 2013
paris.fr — 2003,
Internet Archive
Evénement
Paris présente sa candidature à l’organisation des JO 2012
Le Maire de Paris, Bertrand Delanoë a annoncé mercredi 21 mai 2003 la
candidature de la Ville de Paris à l’organisation des Jeux Olympiques de 2012.
« Des Jeux de toutes les couleurs », c’est ainsi que le Maire a présenté la
candidature parisienne.
Consulter le site
www.jo2012.paris.fr
Paris fête ses marchés du 10 au 15
juin prochain.
La proximité des marchés et leur
convivialité seront mis à l'honneur pour
le plus grand plaisir de tous, avec pour
la première fois une ambiance de Fête
sur tous les marchés couverts et
découverts
lire la suite
22 juin 2003 : Journée nationale de
réflexion sur le don d'organes et la
greffe
Retrouver une vie normale, pouvoir
faire des projets… Ce sont des choses
simples, mais que chaque malade en
attente de greffe espère aujourd'hui.
lire la suite
Exposition: "Labyrinthes"
Du 4 juin au 14 septembre, le parc de
Bagatelle vous propose de découvrir le
thème du labyrinthe au Trianon et dans
les sept labyrinthes végétaux créés à
cette occasion dans le parc.
lire la suite
Handball : à la conquête des
anneaux.
Les 6, 7 et 8 juin prochains, la France
accueille l'Algérie, le Danemark et la
Hongrie, pour la 17ème édition du
Tournoi International Paris-Ile de
France.
lire la suite
Cartographie du bruit :
Paris publie sa cartographie du bruit
routier moyen. Plus de 300 cartes à
votre disposition.
lire la suite
26ème Foire Saint-Germain
Du 2 juin au 6 juillet
Foire aux antiquaires, marché de la
Poésie, marché de la bibliophilie,
théâtre, concerts,expositions....
consulter le site
www.foiresaintgermain.org
Dépistage organisé et gratuit du
cancer du sein à Paris
Pour mieux lutter contre les
conséquences des cancers du sein,
l'ensemble des acteurs de santé se
mobilise.
lire la suite
Paris Tout Foot : le Grand Tournoi
La Mairie de Paris, avec le concours du
Paris Saint-Germain, organise la
deuxième édition de « Paris Tout Foot »,
les samedis 21 et 28 juin 2003.
lire la suite
Résidences d'artistes étrangers à
Paris : appel à candidatures
lire la suite
I nternational artist residencies in
Paris: call for applications
in english
Residencias en Paris para artistas
extranjeros : llamado a candidaturas
en español
En bref
.: : .
Ensemble pour l'Algérie
Concert de solidarité
Zoom sur...
Le développement
économique durable
Le Conseil de développement
économique durable de Paris
vise à associer les acteurs
économiques et sociaux
parisiens à l'action économique
de la Capitale.
Lire la suite
Ouverture du site
autocars.paris.fr
Ce site, destiné aux
organisateurs de voyage et aux
compagnies d'autocars, les
informera sur les services
offerts par la Ville de Paris,
notamment sur le nouveau
forfait de stationnement.
www.autocars.paris.fr
2003,Année européenne
des personnes
handicapées
"Un programme parisien
rassembleur, pédagogique,
participatif et festif"
consulter le programme
Dossiers Ville
Le logement social à
Paris
"Le logement, levier
indispensable pour une politique
de mixité et de justice sociale à
Paris"
consulter le dossier
Environnement : triez
pour recycler
La collecte sélective démarre
dans votre arrondissement
lire la suite
Paris en un clic
Vos démarches
Etat civil, formalités
administratives, mariage,
téléprocédures ...
Paris recrute
Découvrez les métiers de la
Ville.
Inscrivez-vous en ligne,
consultez les résultats des
concours ...
Paris pratique
Adresses, numéros, liens
utiles...
Plan de Paris
W ebring
Office du tourisme
Mairies
d'arrondissement
Le site du mois
Paris
Développement
Salle de presse English version Plan du Site Recherche Contacts I nfos Editeurs Haut de page
recherche détaillée
2002 2003 200420 jul 01 - 7 jun 13
paris.fr — 2008,
Internet Archive
3. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
3
Lessons to be learned?
The importance of the web is growing
More and more of our societal, cultural, political, etc.
communication take place on the web
The web of the past disappears
40% changed, 40% removed, 20% still there after one year
If we want to document the present or study
the past on the web we have to archive it
‘We’ can be a scholar/group of scholars or a (trans)national
web archive such as the Internet Archive or BnF/INA
Web archiving matters for anyone who wants to use the
web as a source in any kind of study
4. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
4
Agenda
1. Web historiography
Why study the history of the web?
Web and web strata
Historiography and the web
2. The history of one website: www.dr.dk, 1996-2006
3. Web archiving
Digitized, Born-digital, and Reborn-digital Materials
A short history of web archives
The case of the Danish Netarkivet
4. The challenges of the archived web
The characteristics of the archived web
Analytical and methodological consequences
5. A register of websites: An old practice with new implications
5. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
5
1. Web historiography — Why study the history of the web?
During the first decades of internet studies
historiography did not play a significant role
when establishing a new field, studying the
past is less urgent than studying the present
the very short past of the web may not
even be considered a history
Web history today:
a few web histories have been written
not yet constituted as a field of study in its
own right (lack of a set of shared theoretical
and methodological assumptions or
discussions)
a growing interest in the field
6. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
6
Web strata:
web element
web page
web site
web sphere
web
Web element
1. Web historiography — Web and web strata
7. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
7
1. Web historiography — Web and web strata
Web page
8. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
8
Website
Web page
Web
element
Web site
1. Web historiography — Web and web strata
9. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
9
Website
Web page
Web
element
Web sphere
Web sphere
1. Web historiography — Web and web strata
10. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
10
The web
Web
1. Web historiography — Web and web strata
11. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
11
The web
Website
Web page
Web
element
Web sphere
1. Web historiography — Web and web strata
12. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
12
Fundamental questions of historiography:
1.The purpose of the study
2.The philosophy and theory of history
3.Methodological issues concerning the source material
1. Web historiography — Historiography and the web?
13. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
13
Specific challenges for web historiography
1. The purpose of the study
2. The philosophy and theory of history
3. Methodological issues concerning the source material
One of the main source types stands apart, namely
archived web material.
1. Web historiography — Historiography and the web?
14. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
14
The web as a tool:
Web History
Digital History
web historiography
the web as source
to improve historical research
to present and communicate the historian’s work
1. Web historiography — Historiography and the web?
15. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
15
Website
Web page
Web
element
2. The history of one website: www.dr.dk, 1996-2006
16. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
16
Overall aim
to write a monograph about the development of dr.dk from 1996 to
2006
started july 2007
supported by the Danish Research Council for the Humanities in
2007-10
The development of the project website is supported by the
'Knowledge Society' research priory area of the Faculty of
Humanities, Aarhus University
2. The history of one website: www.dr.dk, 1996-2006
17. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
17
What are the driving forces behind the
creation and development of www.dr.dk
from 1996 to 2006, and what are the
consequences of these for the website?
What theoretical and
methodological new developments
are required in order to be able to
analyze www.dr.dk?
Status:
1) collected a great number of sources (problems with access, time consuming)
2) theoretical/methodological discussions (papers, articles, book chapters)
3) read all relevant press releases 1990-2006 — first framework
4) reading all sources
5) writing about the period 1990 to August1996
2. The history of one website: www.dr.dk, 1996-2006
18. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
18
Source material
Many sources — minutes of meetings, strategy papers,
correspondance, etc.
And the archived website, in two ways:
the object of my history of dr.dk (textual structure, layout, etc.)
a source that tells us something about the history of dr.dk
(information about the site, the organisation DR, etc.)
2. The history of one website: www.dr.dk, 1996-2006
19. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
19
Digitized
Previously analog material which has been digitized.
Born-digital
Has never existed in any other form than digital.
Reborn-digital
Born-digital material which has been collected and preserved, and
which to some degree has been changed in this process.
3. Web archiving — Digitized, Born-digital, and Reborn-digital
20. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
20
The short history of web archives — 12-14 years — three main phases
The pre-history of web archives
begin of the 90ies and onwards
individuals, families, organizations, institutions...
html, screendumps
no considerations about archiving
no considerations about cultural heritage
Static web publications in national libraries
app. same period
national libraries
static web documents, look like journals and books
overall approach that of print culture (catalogueing...)
more professional
legal deposit laws
The dynamic web in (trans)national web archives
a little later
crawlers, spin-off of search engine technology
the number of archiving initiatives increases
dynamic web material
librarian approach challenged
other transnational stakeholders
Examples
The Internet Archive, 1996 — snapshot, transnational
Kulturarw3, Sweden, 1996/97 — snapshot, national
Pandora, Australia, 1996 — selective, national
Netarkivet, Denmark, 2005 — three strategies, nation.
BnF/INA, 2006
3. Web archiving — A short history of web archives
21. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
21
Three general strategies:
a) snapshot
b) selective
c) event
From Bjarne Andersen: ”DK-domænet i ord og tal”, netarkivet.dk
Coverage
Time
Snapshot
Selective
Event
3. Web archiving — The case of the Danish Netarkivet
22. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
22
4. The Challenges — The Characteristics of the Archived Web
Different archiving purpose and strategy
Differences as to technological choices
Web archiving
Macro web archiving
•archiving institutions, such as national libraries
•aiming at preserving the cultural heritage of, for
instance, a nation state
•allows for as many different kinds of research
projects as possible in the future
Micro web archiving
•individual scholars or groups
•in relation to, for instance, a specific research
project
•usually calibrated to fit the research project in
question
23. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
23
The online web is changed or deleted with an
unprecedented pace
Must be collected and archived here and now, while it
is still online
The web archive is a real-time archive
4. The Challenges — The Characteristics of the Archived Web
24. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
24
The archiving institution that wants to archive the
online web must make a number of choices
What is archived is almost never a copy on a 1:1
scale of what was once online
A collection of unique versions which did not exist
before the act of archiving
It is created in and by the process of archiving, which
is why it can be considered 'reborn' digital material
The archived web is a reborn, unique and deficient
version and not simply a copy of what was once online
4. The Challenges — The Characteristics of the Archived Web
25. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
25
No matter how an archived web document has been created, and
no matter in what archive it is found, the web historian cannot
expect it to be an identical copy on a 1:1 scale of what was actually
on the live web at a given time
From born digital to 're-born digital'
Two reasons for this
• the archived web document is an actively created and subjective
re-construction
• it is almost always deficient
4. The Challenges — The Characteristics of the Archived Web
26. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
26
An actively created and subjective re-construction
• subjective because choices have to be made between different
archiving forms and strategies (made by either an individual or an
institution)
• a re-construction in the sense that it is re-created on the basis of
a variety of archived web elements that are re-assembled and re-
combined in the archive
Thus, the archived web document is the result of an active process
and in this sense it does not exist prior to the act of archiving.
4. The Challenges — The Characteristics of the Archived Web
27. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
27
Almost always deficient — for two reasons
• technical reasons (soft- or hardware), for instance words, images,
graphics, sounds, moving images can be missing, or some of the
possibilities of interaction can be non-functional in the archived
web document
• the dynamics of updating, that is the fact that the web content
might have changed during the process of archiving, and we do
not know if, where, and when this happens — an example
4. The Challenges — The Characteristics of the Archived Web
28. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
28
”During the Olympics in Sydney in 2000, I wanted to save the
website of the Danish newspaper JyllandsPosten. I began at the
first level, the front page, on which I could read that the Danish
badminton player Camilla Martin would play in the finals a half hour
later.
My computer took about an hour to save this first level, after which
time I wanted to download the second level, ’Olympics 2000’. But on
the front page of this section, I could already read the result of the
badminton finals (she lost).
The website was — as a whole — not the same as when I had
started; it had changed in the time it took to archive it, and I could
now read the result on the front page, where the match was
previously only announced.”
N. Brügger: Archiving Websites, 2005, pp. 22-23
4. The Challenges — The Characteristics of the Archived Web
29. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
29
Consequences
• we cannot be sure that we have everything in our archive — we
will always have lost something in the asynchronous relationship
between updating and archiving
• we are also in danger of getting something that in a way was
never there — something that is different from what was really
there
4. The Challenges — The Characteristics of the Archived Web
30. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
30
My archived version of the newspaper’s website can be a
combination of elements from two (or more) versions that were
there at different times — but they were never there at the same
time as they might now be in my archive.
Paradox:
• the archive is not exactly as the website really was in the past (we
have lost something)
• but the archive may be exactly as the Internet never was in the
past (we get something different).
4. The Challenges — The Characteristics of the Archived Web
31. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
31
The process of archiving
• creates a unique version and not a copy
• a version of an original which we can never expect to find in the
form it actually took on the web
• neither can we find an original among the different versions, nor
can we reconstruct an original based on the different versions
4. The Challenges — The Characteristics of the Archived Web
32. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
32
Since a web archive usually covers more than one
point in past time, numerous versions of the same web
element will exist — a URL, a web page, an image, a
website, a hyperlink etc. — each from a different point
in time
Most often websites (especially larger websites) are
not continuously archived in their totality — the spatial
extension of the same archived website is not
necessarily identical throughout time
The broad web archive is multitemporal and multispatial
4. The Challenges — The Characteristics of the Archived Web
33. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
33
The rapid and endless new developments of software
and use forms on the web force the archiving
institutions to try to keep pace with these changes
The web archive is often reactive in the sense that it
is constantly struggling to keep up with the changes
The web archive tends to be reactive
4. The Challenges — The Characteristics of the Archived Web
34. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
34
The web material is incomplete compared to what
was once online — two general types of
incompleteness
The user of a web archive will miss some of the
information about the web which is usually at
hand on the online web
Individual web elements and possibilities of
interaction may be missing
Something is missing
4. The Challenges — The Characteristics of the Archived Web
35. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
35
What is specific for the incompleteness of web
archives is not that things are missing, but rather that
they may be missing in ways which make it very
difficult to determine if something is missing at all as
well as what and where
No stable original to compare with
Incompleteness is rarely documented
Something is missing
4. The Challenges — The Characteristics of the Archived Web
36. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
36
4. The Challenges — Analytical and Methodological Consequences
The complex blend of hypertextuality, interactivity,
multimediality, and fluctuation (born-digital material)
increases when combined in the web archive with
material from other points in past time
Each synchronic and historically distinct form of
heterogeneity and complexity is multiplied,
accumulated, and combined diachronically
The further the archive stretches back into the past,
the more heterogeneous and complex the archived
material becomes
Heterogeneity and complexity is multiplied
37. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
37
The structure of hyperlinks is an integrated part of the
archived web and not just an added feature of the
archive
Gives rise to problems of inconsistency related to
time and space
Temporal inconsistency between the link source
and the link target
Spatial inconsistency if the link target is not
archived at all
Difficult to determine if — and to what extent — the
archived web material is inconsistent or not
Hyperlinks become inconsistent
4. The Challenges — Analytical and Methodological Consequences
38. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
38
When studying the online web one can select a
corpus to study, for instance, a set of URLs or file
types
In a web archive: since a number of versions of each
element exist, one has to construct not only one
corpus, but two.
First the URLs that should be included in the study
Second the specific versions of each of these URLs
An archived web corpus is a double construction
4. The Challenges — Analytical and Methodological Consequences
39. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
39
The archived content itself as well as the division of the
material in elements can be changed
Any 'montage' of the archived elements in the archive —
or any extraction from the archive — is also an editing of
these elements
Reason: the subdivision of the archived material and the
subsequent combination of elements are not necessarily
inscribed in the material itself
A continuum with no clear-cut temporal or spatial
subdivisions inscribed by the producer; the subdivisions
are editable, scalable, and random, and they are made a
posteriori by either the web archive or the scholar
The archived web is edited and editable
4. The Challenges — Analytical and Methodological Consequences
40. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
40
The amount and the complexity of the archived
material do not allow for systematic and detailed
processing of the entire archive once the web has
been archived (exceptions exist)
Have to make do with either the metadata provided
by the archived web itself (e.g. meta-tags in the source
code), or with the log files from the archiving process,
if the archive makes them available
Subsequent processing is lacking
4. The Challenges — Analytical and Methodological Consequences
41. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
41
If transnational studies are to be based on archived
web material, all the analytical and methodological
consequences outlined above are multiplied by the
number of involved web archives
The interoperability between web archives is challenged
4. The Challenges — Analytical and Methodological Consequences
42. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
42
5. A register of websites: An old practice with new implications
How can one of the basic practices of media and web
historiography — the creation of a register of websites — shed
new light on the use of the web as a historical source?
43. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
43
A register of sub-sites on dr.dk
Sub-site: dr.dk/nyheder, dr.dk/radio, etc.
The register includes 480 sub-sites and can be seen at:
www.drdk.dk/registrant.html
5. A register of websites: An old practice with new implications
44. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
44
45. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
45
A register
tailored to the research question(s) it makes it possible to
answer
media characteristics of the medium it registers
makes use of a number of categories: Title, date of
publication or transmission, writer, director, cast, etc.
5. A register of websites: An old practice with new implications
46. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
46
Main concern — web material
The media characteristics of the web medium forces us to
reconsider and possibly reinterpret the categories:
What should be understood by 'Title', 'Date of publication or
transmission', etc.?
Main concern — traditional media
Which categories to include with a view to uniting research question
and media characteristics?
5. A register of websites: An old practice with new implications
47. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
47
5. A register of websites: An old practice with new implications
48. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
48
Print media, film and radio/television
The title of a newspaper and the titles of the articles in it are supplied
by the publisher and they are unequivocal
And the same goes for film, radio and television
Title
Websites
Three possible titles:
the name as it appears from the sub-site’s textual content
the URL of the sub-site as it appears in the location line in the
browser window
the page title which the publisher may have given the web page,
and which can be read at the top of the browser window
5. A register of websites: An old practice with new implications
49. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
49
50. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
50
Yet another problem — redirects
A URL may not correspond to an actual website, but can be merely an
'empty' name
Consequences
A sub-site can have more names than the ones on the webpage — a
number of possible 'satellite names'
It is difficult to find these 'satellite names', and we cannot see them
on the website
It is difficult to determine, whether a URL corresponds to a website or
redirects to another URL, and is thus is ’empty’
5. A register of websites: An old practice with new implications
51. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
51
... and this issue becomes further complicated in connection with
historical studies...
Redirects are not always identical over a period of time, they come and go
and their role may change, a former main URL may become a redirecting
URL — and the other way around
Concluding on the category ‘Title’
In a register of a historical source such as a Website, one of the most
fundamental categories ’the title’ is in many ways more equivocal and
fluid than it is in other media types
And in general it is very difficult to reconstruct and document this network
of names in the past.
5. A register of websites: An old practice with new implications
52. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
52
5. A register of websites: An old practice with new implications
Print media, film and radio/television
Can normally be identified without difficulty due to the material or
semiotic characteristics of the medium (or combinations of these):
printed newspapers or film: the material delimitation of each copy
radio or television programs: semiotic demarcation of programs in
the flow by means of transitional markers such as jingles, voice-
overs, titles and credit lines
newspaper articles: material delimitation — the individual
newspaper copy — and semiotic delimitations within each copy
(headings, layout of text, pagination...)
Spatial extent
Websites
Seems in some respects closer to broadcast media, as the outer
limits are established almost solely by semiotic means
53. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
53
Challenge
Does not unfold as a linking of semantic elements in a time-based
progressive chain of expression
How to get an overview of the entire spatial extent of the website?
And how to do this over time, in historical studies?
5. A register of websites: An old practice with new implications
”a coherent textual unit that unfolds in one or more interrelated
browser windows, the coherence of which is based on semantic,
formal and physically performative interrelations.”
N. Brügger: ”Website history and the website as an object of study”, New Media & Society, 11/1-2, 2009, p. 122.
54. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
54
Concluding on the category ‘Spatial extent’
The Website is not delimited in a material way (as are print media) or
by the linking of semantic elements in a progressive chain of
expression (as are broadcast media)
We are dependent:
on such aspects as semantic cohesion, paratexts and linking when
delimiting the spatial extent of the subsite
and on the consistency of these means of expression over time when
trying to trace the same subsite in the past
5. A register of websites: An old practice with new implications
55. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
55
Websites
May have something similar to a ‘start time’
But not based on a 'narration' with a beginning, a story and an end.
More complex — a ‘continuum of publication’
5. A register of websites: An old practice with new implications
Temporal extent
Print media, film and radio/television
The temporal extent is based on the rhythm of chronology:
print media have a clearly marked and precise time of publication
(month, week, date and hour)
programs in broadcast media have a precise start time, followed by
a transmission time and a precise stop time, all of which are marked
in the aired program and possibly also in a program schedule
56. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
56
Start time?
First time published on a webserver.
But can be difficult to establish with certainty:
almost never mentioned on the website in the same way as in a newspaper or a broadcast
program
secondary sources such as program schedules does not exist
press releases can help, but not always possible to determine whether the website was
actually launched on the announced date
... and, unfortunately, web archives are not of much help...
The existence of a subsite in a web archive: it existed at the time of archiving
Conclusion
In most cases the start time will be imprecise
— a period of time rather than a point in time
5. A register of websites: An old practice with new implications
57. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
57
Temporal extent of the subsite from the 'start point' and onwards?
If a start time can be established, the temporal extent of the subsite
from this point onwards is fundamentally different from that which we
know from other media types:
a continuous publication with no overarching marked temporal
subdivisions, such as dates or hours/minutes
the temporal subdivisions are not made by the producer at the time of
publication or transmission, but by the archive or the researcher 'post
festum’
temporal subdivisions are therefore random in relation to the time
continuum of the media artifact — and they can therefore be changed
after publication
temporal subdivisions are not necessarily identical in different
archives — most often they are not — and they can be different in the
same archive
5. A register of websites: An old practice with new implications
58. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
58
Stop time?
Although the Website has a temporal extent like a radio or television
program, it does not need to have a stop time in order to be a website
as does radio and television programs.
The stop time of a website may be defined in two different ways.
the website has been removed from the web server
the website is not being updated anymore, but remains on the web
server
5. A register of websites: An old practice with new implications
59. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
59
In both cases we face a number of practical problems in determining
what has actually happened....
We may only be able to register the fact that at a certain point in
time, it was no longer online.
It is difficult to determine whether the website is actually being
updated or not
5. A register of websites: An old practice with new implications
Consequence
It is very difficult to determine when a website ‘ends’.
If our register has to show how meny websites existed at a given time
the number of active websites tends to grow — an accumulation
of ‘non-ended’ websites
60. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
60
Concluding on the category ‘Temporal extent’
Compared to the programs of broadcast media:
the web sub-site as a whole is often continuous
the well-known entities of start and stop times may in themselves
form more of a continuum than a point in time
the website may thus appear to be a historical source that is not only
continuous, but infinite
5. A register of websites: An old practice with new implications
61. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
61
5. A register of websites: An old practice with new implications
Various archived versions
Print media, film and radio/television
Regardless of who stores a newspaper or a film strip, or who presses
the record button, archived copies of newspapers, films and radio
and television programs are by and large identical.
Minor differences may, for instance, include the absence or presence
of commercials in archived television programs.
Websites
A unique version and not a copy.
The differences between archived sub-sites are more or less
fundamental to their presence in an archive.
Standardization and documentation is difficult.
62. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
62
Concluding on the category ‘Various archived versions’
The differences between versions may very well affect the above-
mentioned categories – names, spatial and temporal extents —
insofar as they may vary, depending on which archived version is
used.
The differences between archived versions play a crucial role when
establishing a register of subsites, which is why it is relevant to
register the known archived versions as well as their limitations and
deficiencies.
5. A register of websites: An old practice with new implications
63. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
63
A register of websites?
A register of subsites is in many ways significantly different from
registers of other types of media such as newspapers, films, radio and
television, whether in their analog or digital form.
The question is no longer simply whether we wish to include the 'title'
and 'publication date' in our register, but also how we wish to interpret
the terms 'title' and 'publication date'.
5. A register of websites: An old practice with new implications
64. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
64
Websites
The apparently simple and practical task of creating a register of
these historical sources forces us to reconsider well-known
categories in a number of ways, and to supplement the usual
assumptions regarding which categories to include with more
fundamental reflections on what we actually understand by each of
these.
Print media, film and radio/television
... are easy ;-)
5. A register of websites: An old practice with new implications
65. THE CENTRE FOR INTERNET
STUDIES
Niels Brügger, Director, the Centre for Internet Studies & co-director
NetLab
Web historiography, An emerging field within internet studies , 25 june
65
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