Smithsonian and others will use Filecoin to protect digital culture

Museums are preserving real world images to be preserved for posterity. But what about digital photos? Filecoin Foundation is moving forward today to preserve digital artifacts using its online technology.

The Filecoin Foundation (FF) today announced the addition of new cultural data to the Filecoin network from notable institutions, including the Smithsonian Institution, the Flickr Foundation, the Internet Archive, and MIT Open Learning.

With more than 500,000 digital assets secured online, Filecoin is redefining data storage in an age where the integrity, authenticity, and durability of information are more important than ever, Filecoin said.

Modern innovations thrive on data; It is essential for development in all industries, including Artificial Intelligence (AI). However, as the reliance on data grows, so do the risks of adopting centralized storage systems. Natural disasters, human errorand turned off it could jeopardize access to important information, which could threaten the preservation of culture and history, the company said.

Networks like Filecoin are changing the way data is stored, authenticated, and shared. Filecoin uses cryptographic proofs to ensure data integrity, ensuring that files remain unchanged over time. Filecoin distributes information over a secure global network, ensuring that information is still available even when parts of the network are offline.

The new archives uploaded to Filecoin include a wide range of cultural and educational resources, from the oldest recordings in history to extensive archives of images that tell the story of humanity. By using these archives, these organizations are ushering in a new era of digital preservation, ensuring that precious materials are preserved for future generations. New datasets on the network include:

The Smithsonian National Museum of American History is working on uploading nearly 300 audio recordings from Alexander Graham Bell to IPFS and Filecoin. Credited with patenting the first telephone in 1876, Bell also pioneered photography.

Experimental recordings from his Volta Laboratory in Washington, DC, from 1881 to 1889, are some of the earliest recordings ever made. The remaining approximately 300 recordings were considered unplayable until the new technologies of the 20th century could be heard.

The Flickr Foundation is donating the 1,000 most viewed images from Flickr Commons, a 17-year-old program focused on making collections of images from our cultural communities more accessible. Founded in 2008 by the Library of Congress, Flickr Commons now contains over 2 million images from 120 cultural institutions around the world. The Flickr Commons 1k Collection contains images from the US National Archives, NASA, the Library of Congress, and the George Eastman Museum.

The Internet Archive will upload the 2024 End of Term Web Archive to the Filecoin network along with past End of Term crawl data. Since 2008, the End of Term Web Archive project has captured and archived US government websites at the end of presidential terms. The service handles websites at three different stages during the transition: before the election, after the election, and after the election. Internet Archive Canada will support the preservation of Canadian government reforms in 2025.

MIT Open Learning and OpenCourseWare (OCW) have uploaded selected content to the Filecoin network, including basic courses such as Single Variable Calculus and Knowledge of algorithmsand weather and stability topics such as Urban Energy Systems and Policy and D-Lab Energysupporting the organization’s needs for robust storage and alternative distribution systems.

Starling Lab recently launched a 22-petabyte Filecoin repository at the University of Southern California (USC) Library. The first archived collections include parts of the USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive, including testimonies from survivors of the atrocities; several photojournalism projects; and 3D/VR scans of ancient sites. The Starling Lab is an academic research center located at Stanford and USC that specializes in the preservation of historical, legal, and journalism archives.

These organizations are working with them Filecoin Foundation for Decentralized Web (FFDW), a sister nonprofit of the Filecoin Foundation that works to advance the distributed network through education, research, and development.

“Our goal is to preserve the most valuable information for the public,” said Marta Belcher, president and chair of the Filecoin Foundation and FFDW, in a statement. “We are pleased to work with these organizations to ensure that culturally important information is preserved permanently using sustainable storage methods.”

The Filecoin Foundation remains committed to its mission of preserving people’s most valuable information. These new documents show the revolutionary potential of technology based on storing and accessing important information, addressing the growing need for data integrity, stability, and longevity in today’s modern age.