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Project ‘The Digital City Revives’
A Case Study of Web Archaeology
Archiving the Social - Willem de Kooning Academy
Tjarda de Haan, Webarcheoloog, Collectie-adviseur Tresoar, @latjarda
Het Nieuwe Instituut, March 14, 2022

Milestones:
? 53 years ago (1969) - Birth of Internet
? 33 years ago (1989) - Birth of Web
? 28 years ago (1994) - Birth of De Digitale Stad / The Digital City
Back to the future

Project ‘DDS Revives’
Help! Our digital heritage is getting lost!
2003:
"The world’s digital heritage is at risk of being lost” and "It’s preservation is
an urgent issue of worldwide concern.”
- UNESCO, ‘Charter on the preservation of the digital heritage’
2015:
“Humanity’s first steps into the digital world could be lost to future
historians. We face a "forgotten generation, or even a forgotten century;
The Digital Dark Age”.
- Vint Cerf

? The Amsterdam Museum had to cross boundaries and get out of its comfort-zone to break
new ground in dealing with digital heritage. To seek out new technologies, and new
disciplines.
? Different demands in acquiring and preservation of digital or physical objects: Digital objects
that are interactive, networked, process-oriented and context-dependent.
2011: Out of the box, collection 2.0

? Digital objects bring the story of Amsterdam to life
? Pilot project with digital objects
? Why DDS?
– DDS marks a point in history
– DDS illustrates the role of Amsterdam in the Internet revolution
– DDS history has something typical Amsterdam
– DDS makes the development of Internet touchable
? Why the Amsterdam Museum and partners?
– Contributing to museum innovation
– Cooperation takes us further
– The importance of participation and co-creation
? DDS will contribute to bringing the history of Amsterdam to life!
DDS: Important heritage for A’dam

The Digital City (1994-2001):
? 1st (free) public domain virtual city in the world.
? 1st Dutch online community.
? 1st time internet (free) accessible to general public in the Netherlands.
? Grounded by a fluid group: independent media, hackers and the municipality of Amsterdam.
? Attracted international interest for the design: metaphor of a city to structure cyberspace.
? Inhabitants (users): 1994: 12.000 - 1997: 60.000 - 1998: 80.000 - 2001: 150.000.
? Houses (homepages): 1996: 3.300 - 1997: 6.500 - 1998: 2.500 - 2001: 782
What is De Digitale Stad?

? DDS is an important historical source about the early years of the Web in the
Netherlands.
? Culture: DDS is a digital environment, a virtual city with inhabitants, which brought
forth objects, ideas and traditions.
? Technology: DDS is a complex information system with different applications,
through time. DDS is interactive, networked process-based and context-dependent.
? TIP: Watch https://ontwerpvanhetsociale.hetnieuweinstituut.nl/stadswandeling
DDS 1.0 - 15 January 1994 DDS 3.0 - 10 June 1995
DDS 2.0 - 1 October 1994
Treasury with born-digital heritage

? De Digitale Stad - Amsterdam (1994-2001) + other Dutch cities
? Internationale Stadt - Berlin (1994-1998)
? t0 Netbase - Wenen (1994-2006)
? The Thing - New York (1991-still online)
DDS inspired other cities

? 2009-2017 - The Deleted City by Richard Vijgen and Archive Team, interactive visualization of
backup of 650 gigabyte Geocities.
? 2010-2022 - Digital Archeology Expos by Jim Boulton, selection of groundbreaking websites
& objects from the early days of the web.
? 2011-2022 - re:DDS en DDS Revives by Amsterdam Museum and partners, excavating,
reconstructing, sustainable storage and making the first online community in NL accessible.
? 2013 - info.cern.ch by CERN, the physics laboratory where the web was born, restoration of
the world's first website.
? 2017-2022 - Retrocollection by Royal Library of the Netherlands. Pilot study 'Internet
archaeology'. Lost & Found: websites of internet provider Euronet, NL-Menu, De Opkamer,
etc, and…. XS4ALL homepages.
Best practices Web Archaeology

Web archaeology is a new is a new discipline in which we excavate and reconstruct relatively new
(born-digital) material that was lost not so long ago with relatively new (digital) tools. Both
matter and methods to excavate and reconstruct our digital past are very young and still
developing.
? (Born) digital heritage = “Unique sources of human knowledge and expression" (UNESCO);
? Working digital objects make history tangible;
? By 'walking' through DDS you can (re)experience and (re)live the evolution of this unique
virtual city and the early web!
? By reconstructing 'dead' web objects, you gain insight into the functioning, use and meaning
of the objects and this allows you to interpret the past.
Why? Necessity

Goals of the project ‘DDS Revives’:
? Reconstruct and preserve DDS;
? Provide insight into the (existing and new) processes, techniques and methods for born-
digital material and the context in which they are found, to excavate and reconstruct;
? Create awareness about the danger of ‘digital amnesia’;
? To provide museums and organizations with specialized knowledge about the reconstruction
of born-digital heritage and lower the threshold for future web archaeological projects.
Disseminating knowledge about new standards for archives on the storage of digital-born
heritage.
? Making digital cultural heritage DDS for the future:
? Visible (content): promoting (re)use of DDS
? Usable (connection): improving (re)use of DDS collection by making it available by linking and
enriching data.
? Preservable (services): maintain DDS sustainable and keep it accessible.
Project ‘DDS Revives’

1. Plan - Write a plan, describe the objectives (relevance!), research the sources, make an inventory of what
you need, draw up a plan of action, set a budget, develop a communication platform.
2. Digg - Make an inventory of the objects to be found, publish your plan, bring people, stories and objects
together, guarantee the data integrity of your finds, secure your finds.
3. Reconstruct - Describe the starting points, research the ethical issues, start the preparatory work,
reconstruct, interpret the data.
4. Archive - Find a partner, describe the most favorable preservation scenarios, archive, give access to target
groups, document, document, document.
5. Disseminate - Let the Bytes Free! Describe and share your results and findings and give recommendations
for future web archaeology research.
How to start?
1. PLAN 2. DIGG 3. RECONSTRUCT 4. ARCHIVE 5. DISSEMINATE

Excavate: Collect stories, memories and data
? Search Wayback Machine - The Internet Archive is building a digital library of Internet sites
and other cultural artifacts in digital form. Go to: web.archive.org
? Search Delpher.nl - millions of digitized texts from Dutch newspapers, books, magazines and
radio. Texts from collections of scientific institutions, libraries and cultural heritage
institutions.
Digg

1. Working space: The Archaeological Site re:DDS
? Workstations
? Bring and upload your code.
? Digg in the Wayback Machine and store excavations in Historical (e-)Depot.
? Share your stories and memories in the Open History Lab https://hart.amsterdam/re-
dds
? Tools
? Computers: excavators.
? Storage: buckets.
? UNIX commands, mice: pades, pick-axe, trowels.
? Scripts : metal detectors.
? USB: find bags.
? Metadata: find cards.
2. Museum space: Tourist Tours
? Cabinet of Curiosities
? Hardware: servers, terminals, modembanks, taperobots etc.
? Screenshots of DDS.
? Stories
? What is DDS? Where are you? What is this site? Why this site?
‘Grave Diggers Party’

4 TV broadcasts: Smart TV (each: 6 hours!)
? SMART TV episodes:
1. January 15, 1994: Opening of The Digital City;
2. February 5, 1994: Amsterjam, MUD and cyberpunk;
3. February 26, 1994: Electronic art, multimedia and copyright in cyberspace;
4. March 26, 1994: Looking back at 3 months of DDS.
? https://hart.amsterdam/nl/page/195089/gevonden-smart-tv-uit-1994-terugblik-op-3-
maanden-dds
/lost+found

/lost+found: working software
? Avatar generator
Concept in 1995:
? "We wanted to introduce the concept of a personalized
avatar for “who is live”. No digital cameras or drawing
programs.
? "We needed something graphic to give people a kind of a
unique identity on an impersonal Internet."
? "We tried to create a form of 'place' and 'present' which was
lost in transition in the new interface (from Bulletin Board to
web version DDS3.0).
Students reconstruct DoDo Generator

Emulation:
? Starting point: restoring the original software
? Old code on new machines
? Recompile the original code
? Emulate hardware and/or software
Replica:
? Starting points: restore the user experience, recreate historical object & present it without
privacy and security issues
? Old data into new software
? Make-over with new technology
? Based on modern software
Students reconstruct DDS3.0

Archiving + Preservation scenario’s
1. Bit preservation - Storage of excavated data: saving the ones and zeros without
sustainability actions. This backup can be used to create a reconstruction in the future.
2. Master as a virtual machine - Dynamic storage of all excavated and reconstructed DDS
data. Starting point: full preservation; storage of bits and preservation planning and
action if necessary.
3. Web ARChive - DDS web pages recrawled.
Making accessible + Present
? Museums: Public variants for the general public
? E-depot: All data for scientic audience (after signing contract)
Archive & Access

? Reconstruction of DDS3.0 not yet finished;
? Linkrot (linking with Internet Archive & Wikipedia?);
? Lost web pages, applications (newsgroups, cafes), dynamic objects (including audio, video,
forums) and interfaces (DDS1.0 and DDS2.0);
? Freeze = only one snapshot from January 15, 1996;
? Still: many treasures hidden under the clay. The unexplored data = rich source of history for
future web archaeologists!
? Challenge: Who can make the First 4D Collection in the world?!
Future challenges: restoration!

? DIY Handboek voor Webarcheologie. Do It Yourself: Plan, graaf, reconstrueer en ontsluit!
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4319082
? Journal for Media History, special issue: Web Archaeology (Volume 22, 2019) -
https://www.tmgonline.nl/44/volume/22/issue/1/
? Digital Preservation Coalition: Digital Preservation Handbook:
https://www.dpconline.org/handbook/
? Charter on the Preservation of Digital Heritage: UNESCO http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-
URL_ID=17721&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
? Duurzame toegang tot digitale informatie: https://netwerkdigitaalerfgoed.nl/houdbaar/
? Collectiebeschrijving XS4ALL-homepages https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5055571
? https://hart.amsterdam/re-dds
? https://waag.org/nl/project/archeologische-dienst-dds
? https://ontwerpvanhetsociale.hetnieuweinstituut.nl/en/life-digital-city (2021-2025)
? Sources images: Thanks to: Stichting Beheer Digitaal Erfgoed DDS - Map of the TCP/IP test network in February 1982 - The
Deleted City door Richard Vijgen - Bitlist - Poster Be Curious door Euronet - Web@30 - Gezicht op Amsterdam in vogelvlucht
door Cornelis Anthonisz. Amsterdam Museum.
Contact: tjarda@xs4all.nl
Literature / references / sources

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Project 'The Digital City Revives'. A Case Study of Web Archaeology

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Project 'The Digital City Revives'. A Case Study of Web Archaeology

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