Ippolito Interviewed for New York Times Article on Preserving Social Media

Jon Ippolito, a professor of new media at the University of Maine, spoke with The New York Times for an article about a digital recording tool called Colloq that aims to preserve the complex experience of using social networking websites such as Facebook. The tool has been roughly prototyped by Rhizome, a New York nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting and conserving digital artwork, according to the article. “As close as possible, you’re going to get the experience of interacting with the actual site,” said Ippolito, who has advised Rhizome and is familiar with the tool. “It is reconstructing it, bit by bit, in a technology that is very close to the original and allows users to explore it interactively the way they could with the original.” Ippolito also said giving people the tools to record their online activities is important. “It puts the ability to capture data back in the hands of the individuals. The user is in the driver’s seat, instead of the social network that now owns that user’s information,” he said. Ippolito’s recent book on digital preservation, “Re-collection: Art, New Media, and Social Memory,” also was mentioned in the article.