03 July 2013

Someone Help -- Personal Digital Footprint Just Getting Larger & Larger (and Crazier & Crazier) -- What's a Genealogist to do?



I love all the new technology (e.g. Dropbox) and social media platforms and fancy phone options and sometimes it does feel overwhelming ...

According to the above graphic from Doghouse Diaries, I am not imagining that my life may be a bit more “fragmented” in terms of where I store material.  As genealogists, we could also add items “Where I store my genealogy tree” and “Where I store my genealogy data” ... I think those lists could make the “Where I store my photos” graphic look like child’s play!

I do feel that now I have to have a way to track and manage the plethora of places where “stuff” ends up.  I used to be able to rely on my trusty filing cabinets, safe, and compiled volumes to have all the family history.  Now that same information is found in many more places!

So, how do we keep track of all of this so that we don’t go crazy and/or lose/misplace important information or documents?

Is it time to narrow our technological footprint?  Or do we gain more than we lose from being seemingly “everywhere?”


Thanks to The Library of Congress and its Signal: Digital Preservation Blog for sharing this graphic with us



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1 comment:

  1. "So, how do we keep track of all of this so that we don’t go crazy and/or lose/misplace important information or documents?"

    1) Understand what is REALLY important and what's just unnecessary trash that you're hoarding and don't need. The technology that allows us to keep everything also acts as the perfect codependent enabler to our tendencies to refuse to throw anything out, should we have those tendencies.

    2) Keep it. The hell with "the cloud" and other means of storage. Keep physical copies in your home, and multiple copies on storage devices IN YOUR HOME.

    The other avenue to take is to simply stop giving a damn, which I'm starting to like the sound of. I know it's not a good idea, but having your entire life living in six million online locations, none of which I have any actual rights to, starts to grate after a while. I know where your frustration is coming from. :-(

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