In today's digital age, preserving and sharing knowledge has become a crucial challenge. While libraries have been responsible for preserving knowledge for centuries, the advent of the internet has introduced new opportunities and challenges. In this section, we will explore how the digital age is changing the preservation and access of knowledge, focusing on the Internet Archive project led by Brewster Kahle. We will discuss the importance of preserving knowledge, decentralizing control, ensuring access, and the potential barriers and future considerations in managing a vast repository of human knowledge.

• The Internet Archive, spearheaded by Brewster Kahle since 1996, aims to preserve all digital knowledge.
• The project saves copies of public websites, providing access to past versions through the Wayback Machine.

Examples: Imagine being able to see what your favorite website looked like five years ago or accessing valuable information that may have been removed or lost.

• Expired hyperlinks, revised content, and deleted pages pose challenges to preserving online knowledge.
• The Internet Archive mitigates these challenges by keeping multiple copies in different physical locations worldwide.

Example: Just like libraries protect books from damage or loss, the Internet Archive safeguards online information from disappearing completely.

• The Internet Archive's project raises the question of whether decentralizing knowledge control is desirable.
• By distributing partial copies across various geopolitical contexts, it reduces the risk of losing access to knowledge.

Example: Imagine if access to knowledge was solely controlled by a single entity; decentralization promotes diversity and resilience.