Jason Scott

The Save Button Ruined Everything: Backing Up Our Digital Heritage

2012

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About this talk

Jason Scott is a man on a mission — save all the things.

But what does “save” mean in the modern world, in the waterfall of personal and private data, and where do we even begin? Turning on the history-o-matic, Jason provides a backdrop to our attempts to “save”, what has been done, and what we can do. The talk will be fast-paced and loud, like a hard drive at the end of its life.

Jason Scott at dConstruct 2012

About Jason Scott

Jason Scott is a force of nature, tirelessly dedicated to preserving our digital history, from old-school game manuals to the latest social networking sites hell-bent on sucking our collective culture into “the cloud.”

He is also a documentary film maker. He made BBS: The Documentary and Get Lamp, all about text adventure games.

In the run-up to the destruction of Geocities, Jason set up Archive Team, a collective of volunteers who back up first and ask questions later. He now works for the Internet Archive, though he is at pains to point out that he does not speak for them.

And yet, despite all his achievements, Jason will probably never be as well-known as his cat Sockington, who has over a million followers on Twitter.

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