A new study published in the journal Science looked at footnotes from scientific articles in three major journals (the New England Journal of Medicine, Science, and Nature) at 3 months, 15 months and 27 months after publication, and found that the prevalence of inactive Internet references grew during those intervals from 3.8% to 10% to 13%. In another recent study, one-fifth of the Internet addresses used in a Web-based high school science curriculum disappeared over 12 months, and a third study found that 40% to 50% of the URLs referenced in articles in two computing journals were inaccessible within four years. Brewster Kahle, widely admired for his creation of the Internet Archive project, says: "It's a huge problem. The average lifespan of a Web page today is 100 days. This is no way to run a culture."
posted by Marcus Zillman |
3:10 PM
