# Doc Searls Weblog · Will our digital lives leave a fossil record?

<http://blogs.harvard.edu/doc/2020/05/15/fossil/>

- Host: [blogs.harvard.edu](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/hosts/blogs.harvard.edu/)
- Saved: May 21, 2020 (2020-05-22T02:52:38Z)
- Record: https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/c90c15e2097c/
- JSON: https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/c90c15e2097c.json

## What Jamie wrote

I've thought about this topic a decent amount, and I think there are some good strategies to make sure that our digital memories are preserved. When I think about this I’m thinking about my website and the content in it, and the digital photos. Things that my descendants may care about, if I can be so presumptive.

I think the answer to this problem lies in two things. 

1. Make the content as simple as possible. No databases, no fancy formats, just simple HTML files and related images. Stuff that you can easily put in a directory and requires no applications to serve or run. This is why I love static site generators and why I use mico.blog.

2. Now that the content is super simple, make as many copies of it and give it to everyone. Put it on a thousand servers around the world. Distribute it everywhere. Make sure that your content license allows this, which is one of the reasons I use Creative Commons.

I trust that more than I trust printing everything. However, I have considered printing each year or two of my blog into books and having a few copies as well. Why not?

## Facts

- Kind: [Page](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/kinds/page/)

## Appears in

- [WT149: Weekly Thing #149 / RSS, Blogs, Giphy, Flour](https://weekly.thingelstad.com/archive/149/), Must Read

## Same host

- [Doc Searls Weblog · What’s wrong with bots is they’re not ours](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/553544834629/) (blogs.harvard.edu, June 8, 2018)
- [Doc Searls Weblog · Going #Faceless](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/99cabc50cbf0/) (blogs.harvard.edu, March 2, 2020)
- [Doc Searls Weblog · Time for advertising to call off the dogs](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/60033120dbe3/) (blogs.harvard.edu, August 23, 2020)
- [How the cookie poisoned the Web - Doc Searls Weblog](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/da5104098962/) (blogs.harvard.edu, May 20, 2021)
- [Three thoughts about NFTs](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/a9cceea635ff/) (blogs.harvard.edu, March 3, 2022)

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## Elsewhere

- Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://blogs.harvard.edu/doc/2020/05/15/fossil/