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Playlist "Grazer Linuxtage 2024"

Why is archiving so (un)sexy again? - FLOSS archiving tools for organisations

Andreas Zingerle

For the unaware archiving seems boring and not so attractive, yet without archiving there would't be no Internet or Chat-GTP. The talk dismantles the urban legend of its dullness and presents outcomes of mur.at research into FLOSS tools for NGOs (and other organisations) to archive and document their projects.

Regardless of the experience, archiving seems for the unaware as not so attractive, even boring for the general public. And yet, without archiving there wouldn’t be no Internet. Indeed, without archiving there wouldn’t be no Chat-GTP… or even a Tabelle für die Bundesliga.

To dismantle the urban legend of its dullness, we will get back to the roots of archiving in history before taking a look into Open Software and the possibilities it offers for archiving today. Thus, we will see how archiving is crucial to raise awareness about the present legacy of what we do—this being something alive (and kicking) that you will be able to re-use and expand.

The talk sums up an ambitious endeavor by mur.at and Artist in Residence Ricardo Ginés (Tactical Tech Berlin) to collect FLOSS tools that NGOs and other organizations can use to better document and archive their projects. Local stakeholders from the arts & culture sector in Graz were interviewed as well as archiving experts from Tactical Tech Berlin, Ars Electronica Archive, ADA - Austrian Digital Art Archive, Stadtarchiv Graz to create hands-on guidelines that were further elaborated on in the mur-worklab in June 2023. The online exhibition "Unarchive", part the Netart Biennial "TheWrong" collected outcomes from the residencies, interviews, worklab talks and additional artistic positions.