Archiving Web-based Morris Information
Introduction: A View of the WWW
I'm not sure if I'm the first person to have a morris-related web server, at least on this side of the Atlantic, so anyone wanting to contribute early memories of the WWW and morris please email me . {The Wayback Machine, see below, can only contribute memories from 1996, and most of these are fragments.}
The World Wide Web first became generally available via the NCSA Mosaic browser, for Macs, Windows and the Amiga in 1993. The system was very attractive to anyone with a Mac, and who (like me) had previously been interested in the Hypercard system. You can see the background to NCSA Mosaic via Wikipedia. Coupled with a browser, anyone interested in trying to publish information for the web needed a server program, again, Apple came to the rescue with a version of the NCSA HTTP (protocol) server. Connected to the University's JANET network, this ran very nicely on a Mac II for a while during 1994 in my lab in Bristol University's, School of Chemistry. I was especially interested in publishing scientific information (which the web was originally designed for), so I set up some HTML pages, and (if I remember correctly) briefly had a “web site”. Inclusion of morris information in this medium was natural(!) so I set up a site for Bristol MM. At about the same time, another pioneer of the web, Steve Allen in the States, set up a server. A little later in 1994 a computer science friend intoduced me to a much better server available via Linux Slackware. So the “EMRS” system was born. Again a section on Morris and Folklore was natural. The EMRS server ran uninterrupted (except for a machine upgrade) for eight years! When I finally took the server down I discovered that it had been hacked by someone! EMRS, and other sites that I set up during my time in Bristol University have now (2008), mostly disappeared. So, how can the information be preserved? In particular how can we store morris information, especially since many of the morris have a fascination with their history?
The Wayback Machine - Internet Archive
Archive information about Web Sites can be traced via the the Wayback Machine which, when I setthis page up in 2008 held 85 billion pages.
For my (John Maher's) use of the IA, see my bookmarks at: http://www.archive.org/bookmarks/JohnMaher
How long will the information on the Wayback machine last? Who knows, but probably longer than most other web sites. I also think that it is more reliable than either Flickr or YouTube.
Can I add my own information to the Internet Archive? Yes, you can get yourself a Libray Card (free) and then start adding specific items - pictures, movies, tunes. You need to be aware of copyright, don't add anyone else's material! Check the Creative Commons form of copyright for your own material. Apart from downloading files directly to the Internet Archive, various helpers can be used: SpinXpress and Ourmedia
Try the Wayback Machine for other Morris sites, see what it says
about your own site! Use Take me back on your favourite site. However, you may be frustrated
by many appearances of the message “Not in Archive”, once people start registering names
matters improve. Currently it takes the Wayback Machine about a year to log a site, but you can
get help via the Alexa's “Webmasters” page.
Check also the Wayback Machine's “FAQ” page.
Some sites to find:
- emrs.chm.bris.ac.uk - Nov 23rd 1996, see Dec 22nd for better details. In particular Mainly Morris Dancing is logged in the section on Folklore.
- ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/KevinRTaylor/ - Dec 24 1996
- www.morrisdancing.org - Dec 12 1998
- www.themorrisring.org - Feb 19 1999
- www.morrisfed.org - June 5 2002
- www.open-morris.org/ - does not appear (Jan 2008)
.. and some non-morris sites!
- www.blogger.com - Oct 12 1999
- www.google.com - Nov 11 1998
- www.flickr.com - Feb 26 2004
- youtube.com - Apr 28 2005