Internet Archive launches WayBack M

[darnott@xxxxxxxxxxx]

I'm sure Burmanauts will find good uses for this window on the past.

>INTERNET ARCHIVE LAUNCHES WAYBACK MACHINE
>
>Free Service Enables Users to Access Archived Versions of Web Sites Dating
>from 1996
>
>SAN FRANCISCO (October 24, 2001) < The Internet Archive, a comprehensive
>library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form,
>today launched the Wayback Machine, a free service allowing people to
>access and use archived versions of past web pages. For the first time,
>all members of the public will be able to search and view the Internet
>Archive's enormous collection of web sites, dating back to 1996 and
>comprising over 10 billion web pages.
>
>The service, which was unveiled tonight at a ceremony at the University of
>California at Berkeley's Bancroft Library, is available at
>web.archive.org. To use the Wayback Machine, visitors simply type in a URL
>in the provided search box, select a date, and then begin surfing on an
>archived version of the web.
>
>"In 1996, we created the Internet Archive because we felt it was critical
>to preserve a permanent record of this historically significant new medium
>for the public," said Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle. "To date,
>the Archive has catalogued over ten billion web pages that might otherwise
>have been lost, giving us both a record of the origins and evolution of
>the Internet, as well as snapshots of our society as a whole around the
>turn of the century. For our fifth anniversary, we are opening up the
>Archive to the public by launching the Wayback Machine, so that everyone
>can travel back in time and view the Internet as it was in the past
>future."
>
>Since 1996, when the Internet Archive was founded in order to create a
>permanent collection of digital material for the public, the Internet
>Archive has been storing and recording web pages. Collaborating with
>institutions including the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian
>Institution, the Internet Archive's comprehensive library of the Web's
>digital past comprises 100 terabytes of data and is growing at a rate of
>10 terabytes per month, eclipsing the amount of data contained in every
>library in the world including the Library of Congress, and making it the
>largest known database in existence.
>
>"By keeping an historical record of what Web sites looked like and how
>they evolved over time, the Internet Archive is an invaluable resource for
>journalism educators, academic researchers and people who just want to see
>how the media and our culture marked important historical events," said
>Paul Grabowicz, Director of the New Media Program and Assistant Dean at
>Northgate UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. "Now, thanks to the
>Archive's new Wayback Machine, everyone has the opportunity to revisit,
>study and enjoy these important 'first drafts of history'."
>
>About the Internet Archive The Internet Archive was founded in 1996 in
>order to build a digital library and other cultural artifacts in digital
>form, with the purpose of offering permanent and free access to
>researchers, historians, scholars, and the general public. The Archive
>holds a collection of archived web pages, dating from 1996 and comprising
>100 terabytes. Since 1999, the Archive has expanded its collections to
>include: a September 11 television and online catalog; an Election 2000
>online library; archived movies from 1903-1973; and other documents.
>Located in San Francisco, the Archive is a 501(c)(3) public nonprofit
>whose benefactors include Alexa Internet, AT&T Research, Compaq, the
>Kahle/Austin Foundation, Prelinger Archives, Quantum DLT, Xerox PARC, the
>Library of Congress, and the National Science Foundation.
>
># # #