Format obsolescence is a huge problem, but Vint Cerf, one of the fathers of the internet, is working on the solution for how we’ll access our digital files decades and centuries down the line. When hardware or software goes obsolete, the ability to access those files is eventually lost. (Just try running an MS-DOS program now.) So it’s not enough to save a file format—you need to save the tools to interpret a file format as well. Just think of the dark days of needing a codec for every video file. Now imagine that there’s nowhere left to download that code; without it, there’s a lot of virtual cultural heritage out there in the ether, unable to be read.Cerf wants to create a “digital vellum,” a sort of map of everything you need to read a kind of file, from the software to the minutest corners of the hardware schematics. This way, he says, future archaeologists will be able to access our files whether or not they have a 3.5-inch disk drive at the ready. Source: Gizmodo via BBCJohn WenzWriterJohn Wenz is a Popular Mechanics writer and space obsessive based in Philadelphia. He tweets @johnwenz.
