working with &
reading against
web archives


Ed Summers
edsu@umd.edu
MITH

https://edsu.github.io/with-and-against/

blacklivesmatter.com
Nov 7, 2014 vs Oct 22, 2018

# Wayback Exercise --- 1. *Install* the Wayback browser extension ([Chrome](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/wayback-machine/fpnmgdkabkmnadcjpehmlllkndpkmiak)/[Firefox](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/wayback-machine_new/)) 2. *Browse* the web! 3. See if a page is in the Internet Archive. *When* was it archived? *What* did it look like before? 4. Try to find a page that *isn't* in the archive. See if you can use the browser extension to *save* it. Think about why it *wasn't* in the archive already.
How much of the web was in the Internet Archive...in 2016?

510,000,000,000 web objects / 130,000,000,000,000 unique URLs = 0.39%


1. Goel, V. (2016). Defining Web pages, Web sites and Web captures. Internet Archive.
2. Schwartz, B. (2016). Google’s search knows about over 130 trillion pages. Search Engine Land.

# Webrecorder Exercise --- 1. Go to [https://webrecorder.io](https://webrecorder.io) and (optionally) create an account. 2. Paste http://www.newblackmaninexile.net/ into the box to start *archiving* it. 3. Archive more content by *interacting* with the website. 4. *Stop* recording and *Download* your collection. 5. Install [WebrecorderPlayer](https://github.com/webrecorder/webrecorderplayer-electron/releases/tag/v1.5.0). 6. *Disconnect* from Wi-Fi! 7. *Open* your webarchive in WebrecorderPlayer. *Bonus: see if you figure out how annotation works.*

Questions?

  • How could you use web archiving in your research?
  • What should you think about when deciding to make a collection public?
  • Why is it important for people (not just automated bots) to help archive the web?
  • How do the tools (Wayback, Webrecorder) shape the types of archives you can build?