"The British Library is trying to preserve defunct websites before they disappear."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8535000/8535927.stm
This is really nice. I love defunct internet sites - the sadness of uncared-for recent history is fascinating. I was worried when I first saw this story that the British Library was going to record every website that is defunct, which would
a) be mental, and totally wasteful,
b) start a sort of dystopian future where history is totally recorded and categorised as it happens,
c) mean that my adventures through the jungle of defunct websites would be usurped by a bland stroll through an official archive of web-crap.
But luckily they are only taking important web sites, like MP's blogs and old companies' websites. It shows how little old institutions understand the uber-flat landscape of the internet, but also means that I still get to feel interesting and exciting when I spend hours trawling through sites like these...
Tom Smith’s Blog
Tom Smiths Wife's Blog
Tom Smith's daughter's Leprechaun Page
I did a talk about Dead Websites that included these. Tom Smith's Wife's blog is probably my favourite - completely untouched but totally filled with Tom Smith's frustrated enthusiasm for a form of media that he was never going to stay interested in for long.