Ian Milligan - Ethics, Emails, and Archives: Using (and Misusing) the September 11 Digital Archive

Abstract

Ian Milligan spoke with us on the topic of “Ethics, Emails, and Archives: Using (and Misusing) the September 11 Digital Archive.” Minutes after American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the North tower of the World Trade Center complex on September 11th, 2001, emails and online discussions surged, capturing real-time reactions from shock to speculation about global repercussions. Many of these digital interactions were preserved in the September 11 Digital Archive, an early example of an event-based archive. Despite the invaluable insights offered into collective responses, ethical complexities and practical challenges, including fragmented metadata, inconsistent file formats, and privacy concerns, have significantly limited the use of this collection (scholarly and popular alike