In the article below on the bbc the national archive talk of time bombs because of old closed formats being used for data which even versions of the same software can’t read (i.e. old docs from word in the 90s can’t be read by word today..).
BBC NEWS | Technology | Warning of data ticking time bomb
Microsoft have pulled of a lovely spin on this. They’ve sold more software to read the files again! Wow, thanks MS. I bought some software it made documents that I own, but can’t read any more.. What can i do?? Oh, Buy some more proprietry software and once again be dependant on good old MS who clearly didn’t screw me in the past.
Oh.. hang on.. That’s why I’m in this mess in the first place. For a national archive they sure seem to have short memories..
Take the hint anyone reading this. DO NOT USE CLOSED FORMATS.. you will forever be ripped off and dependent on the creating software for YOUR OWN INFORMATION. I.e you can’t play your music if it’s ITUNES, unless you are happy to depend on a perminant relationship for the rest of your life with Apple. Don’t use Word/Excel closed formats, use OpenDocument Formats (ODF) which you can even use in word, which is a real open standard which many software packages can read and use. Do not trust your closed provider of being able to guarantee that you can read your own data indefinately. If it matters, use Open technology.. and preferably Open Source. If the people who build the software disapear or simply stop caring (a-la Microsoft) you can’t do anything unless people can examine the data and the methods used to construct it. Open formats and software are the only way to achieve this.
It’s your data. Stop letting someone else dictate what uses you want to put to it.
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