“Bit Rot: Losing History,” interview on ABC Radio’s Sunday Extra, May 6, 2012

How will the historians of the future reconstruct today’s world? Data stored electronically decays and there’s the risk that emails, websites and blogs that chronicle news and comment will either be lost or inaccessible. But will historians of the future be left with such an immense amount of digital data that losing some is no big deal? What safeguards are needed to ensure we don’t lose vital information and what kind of new techniques will historians need to trawl through the masses of information we leave behind?