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Re: Don't Cut Unarchived Lists...-Reply

Jared Phillips wrote:
> I don't think web evidence that exists only on electronic form should be
> used.  Here's why:
> 
> 1)  Not permanent.  Unlike published journals, books, etc., you can find
> published  items from your library (interlibrary loan department) even if
> you library doesn't have it.  Internet sites are not permanent.  As
> someone said before URL's blink out of existence.  Archived lists can be
> lost on a server or hard disk crash.

Same can be said of Lexis/Nexis. Anyone with a good amount of experience on 
the system will tell you that it is not infrequent for material to be removed 
from their archives. 
This is especially true of NewsWire releases which may "blink" by.
Further, many paper resources are impermanent and some are even unarchived. 
The fact is, all evidence is impermanent. Libraries burn to the ground, books 
are lost or not returned. Little happens in cyberspace that is not a mimicry 
of analog life.
Further, these problems can be easily alleviated by teams providing the URL of 
the evidence, and if it becomes unverifiable, they should stop running it. 
Including the email address of the author would also be helpful.
We just need to trust one another, and be open about full citations, to 
alleviate these concerns. 
People should only cite material they know is archived, provide the archive 
URL, the identifying document number or title, and a contact email.

> 2)  Potential for abuse.  Nothing prevents me from making a web site,
> writing great evidence - using it, and then discontinuing the web site.
> Even if I mailed the copy to everyone who wanted it (how many
> NDT/CEDA schools are there?  200? 400?)  there would be no way to
> check abuse.  Even if CEDA-L or NDT-L archived the stuff, what would
> be the check against writing your own evidence?  None.  At least with
> published books, journals, etc. you can check the evidence out.

Yeah, yeah... I can publish a book in an hour. I can write a web site in 15 
minutes... Big deal... Little difference to paper publications. I could 
establish a journal under a psuedonym and publish fictional articles for the 
purpose of evidence with very little trouble. No difference. It is impossible 
to check evidence abuse in paper format, or electronic. Welcome to the 
wonderful world of trust. Bottom line: Limiting out cyber-ev does no good.

Pat Gehrke
CSU Chico
Archive created by Jonathan Stanton (jonathan@cs.jhu.edu)
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