onionbagblog

I’ve entered into the world of online archiving. It’s really becoming quite addictive. It’s not so much archiving, but unarchiving. If this activity conjures up thoughts of an agenda-less collective, writing on post-it notes one weekend, and then agreeing to disagree on a plan of action, then you couldn’t be more wrong.

Nope - unarchiving is the re-discovery of online content that I’ve created over the past decade, and then slowly, slowly unpackaging it for my own perusal. It’s not quite as cringe worthy as reading your personal teenage diary. My mantra in content creation has always been to rather cleverly stay on the correct side of the lens, the one not in focus…

And so what has been the driving force behind my digital reconnections?

I’ve not had any major data outage, but I’ve realised that my system of organisation has been about as random as my approach to creating content in the first place. It’s all been backed up, and then backed up again, but the systems and pre-systems just weren’t talking to one another.

Time to sit down, plot a strategy and implement.

Oh, and SMILE an awful lot as I look back over ten years of creating content.

It also coincides with my own blogging birthday. TEN years of onionbagblog, and hopefully not too much internal naval gazing.

I’ve always tried to Tell It Like It Is, or even tell you something that you don’t already know. Blog posts about blog posts are just bobbins, But occasionally I like to look back with a retrospective and remind myself about what’s been happening.

You live your online and offline life at such a pace that sometimes you forget the distance between Archive A and Archive Z. I’m probably speeding up to the halfway point in the alphabet. I’m in no rush to race through until the end.

And then what…?

You fall off the edge of the modern interweb?

One of the lessons that I’ve learnt in this process is to work with the tools that are available at the time and to be flexible. It was my stubbornness back in the day not deviate from a CDR system of backing up that has left me with such a random approach in trying to reunite all my lost files in one secure place.

But that’s also probably part of the problem. Placing all of your digital eggs in one fragile basket is always going to lead to data fail. No system is full proof, but as the tools and storage solutions continue to grow, you can hopefully hedge your bets and hope that you don’t lose your wedding photos once again.

Whoops.

My system has some structure, but I’d also welcome any suggestions or obvious flaws in the comments below. I’m working both personally and professionally with video content, audio files, images and words.

LOTS of words.

Time Machine backs up my MacBook and iMac seemingly every twenty seconds. It’s a reassuring hum whenever the hard drive creeks into action. The reality is that Time Machine is less than reliable, only keeping back ups for a certain period.

I’ve forked out for Super Duper, a Mac client that mirrors your hard drive. This backs up automatically at the end of each working day. Whatever Super Duper misses in a changed version of a file, Time Machine will be able to bring up to speed somewhere along the timeline.

That’s the theory. Thankfully I’ve haven’t had the need to put it to the test.

My SQL database files across two personal blogs, a hyperlocal forum, a [mothballed] hyperlocal site, three work sites, two sites for a pal and a site for a family member are mailed to me automatically each week via WP Complete Back Up. Gmail automatically recognises these as important files and archives them accordingly.

As a back up for the back up - WP Better Security also mails the SQL’s out (although the INTENSE security paranoia with the software has managed to lock me out of my own CMS more than once in the past week.)

As a third level of defence I routinely export the SQL files each month to my main machine via cpanel. These are placed in Dropbox, which in turn is then dumped into Copy. I work locally using Dropbox, and so all files will also be in Copy, as well as the Time Machine / Super Duper fingers crossed and hope for the best strategy for data storage.

I also use Evernote for random notes that are then exported to Dropbox / Copy. Plus I’m in the process of importing an image library of 50,000+ files into the ACE Pixa. iPhoto has been pants at offering any searchable image storage solution. The £17 or so for Pixa has allowed me to tag all of my images, and then have them on my desktop in seconds. These are then exported to Copy, via Dropbox.

Third party providers such as flickr, vimeo and audioboo add an extra layer of security. I use @ifttt to implement other cross-platform backups. Any audioboo content or images on my phone are automatically placed in Dropbox, and then Copy.

I’ve learnt that to rely on a third-party host as your primary source of storage is very silly. A big Ya Boo Sucks to blip.tv who have recently decided that four years of video from a Reception class in South East London are no longer suitable for their platform.

If this all sounds complicated then you should try implementing it.

I spend about two hours each work purely on the back up process. It’s an online investment well spent, especially when you consider not only the safeguards, but also the digital delights that I am now unarchiving going back over the past ten years.

My main observations from the unarchiving process are that I have taken an extraordinary number of photographs at Dulwich Hamlet over the past decade. Ditto Surrey Cricket, London Towers basketball, Streatham Redskins and um, Supernova Korfball.

I’m still hopeful in finding the Dulwich Hamlet GOLD of Peter Crouch at Champion Hill; Sir Bradley at Herne Hill Velo has been backed up, and then backed up again.

I almost had him on the back straight, dontchaknow…

It is the work content however that is proving the most rewarding. The last day of the summer term is always one that I don’t really celebrate. I have learnt to accept over the years that this is realistically the last time that I will get to share the company of some truly amazing kids. They sometimes come back, but then the conversation is awkward with a 17 year-old after a six-year break.

The video content of Nursery kids running around has been given even more meaning. Seeing the exact same bunch of pupils as confident, mature and truly inspiring Year 6 pupils eight years down the line is incredibly special.

I haven’t got the courage to show them the Nursery clips just yet…

But that has been one of the other overall aims driving my online unarchinving process. Having just celebrated my tenth blogging birthday. I’m also coming up to ten years of working Somewhere in SE17. Across the borough border in Lambeth and five years in SE21 is not too far off either.

I’m pondering the idea of putting online a data site that includes ALL of the content that I create in the day job. I come out of each school with an average of 200 images. I probably edit and publish a dozen at best.

What a wonderful resource to have a completely searchable archive of all of this content.

But this can’t happen until the unarchiving is complete. I need to upload before I even think about sharing once again. I estimate that I’m probably about 0.2% through my entire digital content.

It’s a classic painting of the Forth Bridge project. I’ll come out of SE17 tomorrow with a drive stuffed full of more content waiting to be archived. But it’s best to be shared, rather than being scattered across various hard drives at the back of my loft. My system will no doubt need to change, probably next week when a new storage platform simplifies the process.

And so adding to the category of two people in this world - those that back up and those that lose data - I’d like to adda third: those who GRIN upon stumbling across the unarchiving strategy.

Some complete RANDOMNESS that has warmed me of late: