In my preceding article, Internet Archive: To Capture & Store & Share All Human Knowledge (Seriously!!), I introduced the Internet Archive as that incredibly ambious effort to make certain that humanity's digital heritage is captured and preserved. In the intervening weeks I have acquired my own free Internet Archive account and have uploaded bunches of my own publications that I want to make sure are preserved. So now, should Google (this website's current host) or YouTube or Vimeo decide that they no longer want to host these materials on the web, they will still be available for anyone to find and download, absolutely free, from Internet Archive.
A Complete List of My Internet Archive Publications
Specifically, I have uploaded 5 complete books in PDF form, as well as many individual essays, worksheets and other tools. In addition, you'll find complete videos and audios available to play or download. And it's all absolutely free! Click on the image of the Internet Archive document below to find a complete, categorized list of all this stuff. NOTE: Scroll down/left to the "Description" of this document in its Archive listing to find active links to individual items.
To browse through the entire collection of my (so far..) 86 Internet Archive items, a bit jumbled and not categorized, go to: https://archive.org/details/@michael_greer
Note that when you are at this collection you can scroll down to find a set of Filters and other menu items that will allow you to focus only on videos, only on text documents, etc. (See below.)
As you can see from this filtered list, I have thus far uploaded 48 text items (books, PDF articles, tools), 25 movies (videos), and a dozen audios. In addition, you can locate specific types of items based on tags, such as project management, team building, etc. by using these filters.
Just Looking for The PM Minimalist Stuff?
Below is a list (fully linked) of all my PM Minimalist materials that are available for free through the Intenet Archive. (For your convenience, I've pulled this out of the main "Complete List..." above.) I've included everything you need to teach yourself about (or create a two-day workshop on) Project Management Minimalism. So if you are just interested in the PM Minimalist stuff, see below!
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THE PROJECT MANAGEMENT MINIMALIST & SUPPORT MATERIALS
So that's it! If I should depart the planet tomorrow and Google or Vimeo or YouTube decides to ditch my labored-over publications, I am comforted to know that future scholars of project management, instructional design, team building, personal growth, etc. will be able to follow my digital audit trail at the Internet Archive and use some of my stuff as a springboard for their own creations. And if my grandkids (or my grandkids' grandkids!) are able to get something useful out of any of this material then that would be a real plus as well. Thank you, Internet Archive!
Just three of many powerful tools from the Internet Archive
The process of archiving real things is something we all understand. Whether it's great-grandma's collection of porcelain figurines, an ancient Greek statue or a first edition of a rare book, our archives are typically composed of things we can see and touch and smell and feel. And seeing each object, we also see shadows of the past.
But what of our digital history? How should we archive that which has existed in the form of invisible electronic patterns? Old jpeg images, audio files, HTML web pages, videos and all manner of stuff from our digital past may seem to be pervasive and durable, but they are actually fragile and subject to instant deletion at the whim of their keepers. These ephemeral traces of the passing of their creators could all eventually disappear, along with those who labored to build them.
Enter the Internet Archive
It is this digital disappearance that the folks at the Internet Archive are laboring mightily to prevent. Since May of 1996 they have been on a mission to capture and store all knowledge.
Wikipedia summarizes (my bold added): "The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of 'universal access to all knowledge.' It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, movies/videos, moving images, and millions of books. " - Wikepedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Archive
As you can imagine, it is a daunting task to store and categorize the HEAPS of digital stuff we humans create, whether profoundly significant or just plain goofy. And, to be honest, it can be difficult to access particular items within those heaps even after they have been carefully categorized and assembled.
To make your journey through the Archive a little less confusing, spokesperson Alexis Rossi has created a nicely organized videooverview that will get you started. It's embedded below. (NOTE: You should try to view this video on a tablet or computer screen, since the information-rich screens she demonstrates are difficult to see on a small phone screen.)
"... Today we have 20+ years of web history accessible through the Wayback Machine and we work with 625+ library and other partners through our Archive-It program to identify important web pages. As our web archive grew, so did our commitment to providing digital versions of other published works. Today our archive contains:
475 billion web pages
28 million books and texts
14 million audio recordings (including 220,000 live concerts)
6 million videos (including 2 million Television News programs)
3.5 million images
580,000 software programs
Anyone with a free account can upload media to the Internet Archive. We work with thousands of partners globally to save copies of their work into special collections. "
Such a massive collection inspires all sorts of projects aimed at focusing on particular domains of knowledge. Internet Archive Projects page lists these current projects:
Have you ever searched for an old favorite website or a highly recommended web reference, only to discover that it had simply vanished?The Wayback Machine is designed to help you recover that lost resource! The Wayback Machine creators explain:
"The Internet Archive Wayback Machine is a service that allows people to visit archived versions of Web sites. Visitors to the Wayback Machine can type in a URL, select a date range, and then begin surfing on an archived version of the Web. Imagine surfing circa 1999 and looking at all the Y2K hype, or revisiting an older version of your favorite Web site. The Internet Archive Wayback Machine can make all of this possible."
To be fair, The Wayback Machine is both an incredibly powerful tool and (as you might expect) complex to use. But again, our Internet Archive spokesperson Alexis Rossi provides a nice, focused video overview. It's embedded below. (NOTE: As with the previous video, you should try to view this video on a tablet or computer screen, since the information-rich screens are difficult to see on a small phone screen.)
YouTube Video: How to use the Wayback Machine
A Wayback Machine Case Study & Fun Fact: My 22-year-old website is NOT gone!
Since I launched it in 1999, I've made a lot of changes to my Project Management Resources website. In recent years I finally decided to archive it and move on to writing about whatever suits my fancy here at my WORTH SHARING site. As far as I knew, when I ditched my old website and stopped paying to have it hosted, it was gone! So imagine my complete surprise when, just for the fun of it, I did a search using The Wayback Machine and found that my original website had been archived with the sub-menus and many of the linked pages still intact! You can see for yourself here:
Honestly!! I thought my old abandoned website was gone forever. But the Wayback Machine found it at the Internet Archive! (Well, at least I know the beard's really gone.)
As you can see from my search experiment above, The Wayback Machine can be full of surprises. What surprises might it have in store for you? Go ahead, travel back in web-time and find out.
"Looking for a research paper but can’t find a copy in your library’s catalog or popular search engines? Give Internet Archive Scholar a try! We might have a PDF from a 'vanished' Open Access publisher in our web archive, an author’s pre-publication manuscript from their archived faculty webpage, or a digitized microfilm version of an older publication.... We hope Internet Archive Scholar will aid researchers and librarians looking for specific open access papers that may not be otherwise available to them."
If you're an academic scholar or researcher, you probably want to dig deeper to discover the marvels of this incredible academic treasure hunting tool. Below are a couple of link-filled pages to help you. (Warning: These can get a bit geeky! But if you're a serious scholar, you're already there, right?)
For the rest of us who are just looking for a quick overview of this amazing tool, check out Richard Byrne's YouTube video.(NOTE: As with the previous videos, you should view this video on a tablet or computer screen, since the information-rich screens are difficult to see on a small phone screen.)
YouTube Video: An Overview of Internet Archive Scholar by Richard Byrne
Now get an account and go explore!
I hope this quick overview of The Internet Archive and tools have inspired you to explore on your own. But before you get lost in a digital archeological expedition, you should probably set up a free account. If nothing else, you'll be glad to have somewhere to capture some of the nuggets you find on your journey of discovery. What's more, according to the Archive:
"Having an account allows you to:
Upload files to the site
Have collections for your uploads (50 items minimum required)
