Inequalities in digital memory: ethical and geographical aspects of web archiving

Abstract

This paper approaches web archiving as preservation of digital memory and as a dynamic informational environment with complex problems of harvest, use, access and preservation. It uses a qualitative and exploratory-descriptive approach, identifying web archiving initiatives and promoting a reflection on the ways of defining web information collection, geographical gaps in web archiving and problems regarding uses and rights of this information. Whereas initiatives such as Internet Archive harvest a lot of information from across the web, an imbalance of digital memory exists where many countries do not possess their own web archiving initiatives, and therefore, coverage of information is unequally produced.