Fragility of server-based information
In one of the first postings, Pat Binder lamented the disappearance of the 2nd Johannesburg Biennale's website from the Internet. After some initial misunderstandings, Olu Oguibe used this as an occasion to note the vulnerability of digital information as one of the greatest disadvantages of the exchange via Internet.
Traditional structures of control remain
Oguibe wrote: »While many have applauded the power of the internet to take information out of the hands of traditional structures of control, often we have ignored the fact that the opposite is also very true; that the very nature of server-based information places it at the mercy of those who control real locations, and the individual who controls the server.«
Enrichment of the WWW as a cultural task
Gerhard Haupt added, that this refers »not only to conscious interventions in the sense of censorship, but also - and to a larger extent - to a widespread ignorance displayed by the institutions when facing the net.« Web presentations are all too often seen as a temporary element within the PR work for a particular event (exhibitions, festivals, etc.), and once the event is over, they are taken off the server. Many of those who would be capable of filling the so euphorically praised virtual library with content, are obviously unaware of their enormously important cultural task.
False understanding of the Internet?
Regarding this statement, it seemed to Harald A. Friedl that »some serious misunderstandings concerning the structure and function of the Internet« exist. »The image of the 'fragility of the Internet' doesn't really correspond to its technical structure and functional processing.« »If suddenly an (important?) web-page disappears, this phenomenon is nothing but normal - or even typical about the Internet: its permanent growth, a never-ending development of new centres, integrated webs by new links, new forums, which come and go.«
Naief Yehya went further: »...keeping the content of the Net in some kind of stable files is a process that will not only affect the form but also the content itself.« »... if we create a mechanism to save some of it's contents, we will have to discriminate and will impose our own agenda for the preservation of information.«
Secure the availability of information
However one judges the particular character of the Web, it is indisputable that it is perceived by the majority of its users as a virtual library. Most information is more easily attained via Internet than by other means (i.e. »real« publications). In the case of the art and culture of Africa, Asia/ Pacific and Latin America, for instance, certain Web presentations are often the only source of information on the respective themes.
Hence came the energetic argument from Oguibe »... the fact that the inherent fallibility of the internet is 'normal' does not in itself serve good reason to abandon the search for remedies that make siginificant items of cultural information readily accessible.« One should therefore discuss possibilities of fall-backs and alternatives for important information, for instance: additional mirror-sites, site downloads, monitoring, print outs, alternatives to official sites. Inquiries must be addressed »to institutions when sites and pages that we consider important are withdrawn from the public.« Gerhard Haupt questioned if it would make sense to set up an alarm network for »endangered Websites«.
Copyright
Haupt nevertheless brought up legal aspects still to be clarified in the re-publishing of websites which were provided by institutions and then taken off of the server: »What about copyright of the institutions, that originally financed the sites? And what rights have the authors, who developed the content and design, even when their work was paid by an institution?«
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Cultural practice in the Internet  |
Project direction: Gerhard Haupt - haupt@uinic.de
© House of World Cultures, Berlin. 1998/1999