Born Digital

Even though most historical materials are still in the process of digitization, many others are not. Some materials are already born digital. This means that some material are already created as digital. There was no process of digitization involved (or very little for picture scanning). Today, after a major event, because of the availability of digital devices and easy access to the internet for the public, people can share with the rest of the web their own pictures, videos, and texts about the event. However, despite this very interesting subjective way of collecting historical material; historians have a lot to worry about in term of authority, veracity of the content, and the preservation of the material.
First, lets look at the problem with authority. On the web or just any other digital material can easily be copied. The same content can be published on the same website but just with a different signature. For instance, in The September Eleven Digital Archive, the website claims that there are over 150,000 digital items and over 40,000 first hand stories. The question is are those 40,000 stories really first hand? I don't think that even people who read and publish all those stories are able to notice two similar stories or even figure to out if those people are who they say they really are.
Second, when it comes to the veracity of the content, stories could easily be made up.
Although the many surveys show that people are less likely to lie when it comes to telling a story about a major historical event, still the possibility are there. A hurricane Katrina story posted on The Hurricane Digital Memory Bank could easily be told by someone who lives on Oregon State and never lived or went to the Gulf Coast. This is one the biggest problem that historians should worry about. There are limited possibilities or none at all when it come to verifying the veracity of personal stories about major historical events.
Third and last, historians should be concerned about the preservation of those “born digital” contents. Just few years back, a floppy disc was if not the only but a prestigious way of digital material. However, today, a floppy disc is literally non existent in the new media market. This case is to show that historians will have the obligation to contently update their methods of storing digital materials. If we look at the digital content Flickr which is a website owned by the giant yahoo. Flickr uses a cloud storage system in order for used to retrieve their material anytime. Still the cloud storage system is not the best way of storing digital materials, it has its disadvantages (see T-Mobile case). Flickr uses other storage methods as well in order to secure the people's digital content. Historians should do the same, have multiple ways of preserving the born digital materials.