Digital obsolescence is the risk of data loss because of inabilities to access digital assets, due to the hardware or software required for information retrieval being repeatedly replaced by newer devices and systems, resulting in increasingly incompatible formats. While the threat of an eventual "digital dark age" was initially met with little concern until the 1990s, modern digital preservation efforts in the information and archival fields have implemented protocols and strategies such as data migration and technical audits, while the salvage and emulation of antiquated hardware and software address digital obsolescence to limit the potential damage to long-term information access.
A BBC Domesday Project machine with its modified LaserDisc reader. Published in 1986, the BBC Domesday Project became the subject of intense preservation efforts beginning in 2002.
Video LaserDisc showing signs of disc rot in the form of a dark ring. Many early discs were poorly manufactured, allowing oxidation to occur between layers: affected areas would become unreadable by hardware.
The video game Spacewar! developed in 1962 for the PDP-1 minicomputer.
Image: Floppy Disk Drives 8 5 3
The digital dark age is a lack of historical information in the digital age as a direct result of outdated file formats, software, or hardware that becomes corrupt, scarce, or inaccessible as technologies evolve and data decays. Future generations may find it difficult or impossible to retrieve electronic documents and multimedia, because they have been recorded in an obsolete and obscure file format, or on an obsolete physical medium; for example, floppy disks. The name derives from the term Dark Ages in the sense that there could be a relative lack of records in the digital age as documents are transferred to digital formats and original copies are lost. An early mention of the term was at a conference of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) in 1997. The term was also mentioned in 1998 at the Time and Bits conference, which was co-sponsored by the Long Now Foundation and the Getty Conservation Institute.
A computer terminal set up with a laserdisc containing information from the 1986 BBC Domesday Project. The original Domesday Book is 900 years old and still legible, while the laserdisc is already considered obsolete and difficult to read.
