Three thoughts on the Iron Mountain tragedy
My first three thoughts after reading of the Iron Mountain fire in Buenos Aires were, in this order:
First, and most important: sincere condolences to the families of all the nine victims
Then, looking at the other consequences of the fire that are close to my line of work, that is the loss of many important documents, I thought:
- Crucial corporate and bank records in a warehouse managed by a foreign company? Oh boy. Talk about data ownership…
- To all the people who throw a tantrum every time they hear the word “ebook” because, you know, “paper is much more permanent than bits and files”, read that piece. And then try to calculate how much LESS would it cost to protect the same amount of data, with a MUCH, MUCH HIGHER level of security (multiple backups in different locations), for a much longer time (since bits can be copied forever from one support to another without any degradation).
Who writes this, why, and how to help
I am Marco Fioretti, tech writer and aspiring polymath doing human-digital research and popularization.
I do it because YOUR civil rights and the quality of YOUR life depend every year more on how software is used AROUND you.
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