This paper considers the practical issues in capturing and preserving blog posts and comments. It introduces "ArchivePress", a new approach for institutions large or small that wish to archive blog content that leverages the native data structures and formats of blogs and the dynamic capabilities of associated newsfeeds and APIs, to create flexible, manageable, scoped archives of multiple blogs

Davis, Richard M.

Pennock, Maureen

English

ULCC Publications Archive

JISC, the DPC and the UK Web Archiving Consortium 
Workshop
Paper Title:
Diamonds in the Rough: capturing and preserving serving online 
content from blogs 
Primary author  (First name, 
Surname):
Affiliation:
Maureen Pennock The British Library
Primary author email address: Primary author mobile phone*:
Maureen.pennock@bl.uk 07983426574
Additional Authors: Additional author affiliations:
Richard Davis (presenter) University of London Computing 
centre (ULCC)
Abstract (300 words)
As the public and private sectors increasingly embrace the interactive power of Web 2.0 
technologies, a growing number of organisations permit or encourage staff to blog or micro­
blog about their work activities, using a diverse range of software platforms and applications.
The value of these activities is commonly placed firmly in the 'here and now', with heightened 
user engagement and increased communications typically identified as primary benefits. Yet 
the value of these outputs is often more enduring: some are official organisational outputs and 
ought to be preserved as such; others offer valuable insights into the inner workings of an 
organisation, potentially critical cultural records for future historians or researchers. In 
academia, scholarly blogs created by researchers can provide important context and 
background to the research process, no less than traditional note­books and lab­books, and 
increasingly form an essential part of the institutional record of a university, faculty or 
project.
Preservation of personally published online blog content raises a number of interesting 
questions that have as yet been little discussed in the web and archiving communities. What 
are the requirements for archiving and preserving blog and micro­blogged material? What are 
the technical options? Can they replace or complement 'traditional' website archiving and 
preservation approaches? Can collections be effectively created and maintained at the 
institutional level?
This paper will address these and specifically consider the practical issues in capturing and 
preserving blog posts and comments. It will introduce "ArchivePress", a new approach for 
institutions large or small that wish to archive blog content. It leverages the native data 
structures and formats of blogs and the dynamic capabilities of associated newsfeeds and 
APIs, to create flexible, manageable, scoped archives of multiple blogs. A pilot case study 
will be presented to show how the concept can work in practice and audience feedback 
invited.
Keywords
Web 2.0, preserving blogs, web archiving, ArchivePress
Explicit fit with conference theme (not more than 50 words)
This proposal fits with the call’s ‘collection & capture’ and ‘preservation’ sections as an 
illustrative case study of preservation challenges and/or tools for collecting web archives.
Please send to info@dpconline.org by Friday the 8th May 2009 (deadline for submission of 
paper abstracts) 


ArchivePress: Diamonds In The Rough

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

ULCC Publications Archive