One of the duties of the Library of Congress (US) is to archive published works. In order to carry out this task in the Web 2.0 world, the agency will begin archiving every tweet ever publicly published on Twitter:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5inSYaT03ortwhbRd165XjW0N72VAD9F367600 via DVICE | Image: Twitter
Twitter is donating its archives of tweets to the Library of Congress, going back to the first one posted by co-founder Jack Dorsey on March 21, 2006. It wasn't a profound moment, and Dorsey didn't come close to Twitter's 140-character limit for messages. He simply posted "Jack," according to the Library of Congress' archives.
Twitter and the Library of Congress announced their partnership Wednesday.
The Library of Congress wants to store tweets to give researchers a better way to revisit discussions of significant events, including the tweets that occurred after President Obama's election in 2008, during the protests in Iran last year and the earthquakes in Haiti and elsewhere this year.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5inSYaT03ortwhbRd165XjW0N72VAD9F367600 via DVICE | Image: Twitter
Unfortunately it's about 1% really significant stuff vs 99% pure garbage. I don't envy the historians 200 years from now trying to figure it all out.
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Are they going to archive my junk mail while they're at it?
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...Isn't there a more constructive use of time for them? This seems very close to pointless to me
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NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
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