"The Internet" as an archive.

The Internet is often hailed as our great digital library, but in truth, it defies the essence of what a library is. A library preserves, the Internet transforms. Its knowledge is fluid, its memory unstable, its truths instable.

Even noble efforts like the Internet Archive and the Wayback Machine, guardians of our digital past, remain vulnerable to the same impermanence they seek to resist. In the context of an environment where nothing is fixed, even the archivists must be archived. Because what is preservation, if the preservers themselves can vanish without a trace?

The next time someone claims to be a dataholder or digital archivist, don’t dismiss them as sociopathic nerds who should get out more often. Instead, recognize the unique challenges and responsibilities they face in preserving and managing the digital landscape.