Library Of Congress To Store Your Inane Twitter Chatter For All Eternity

from the hey-grandma-you-seemed-drunk-a-lot-in-2007 dept

Fri, Apr 16th 2010 7:11am — Karl Bode

The United States Library of Congress is getting plenty of attention for announcing that they're planning to digitally archive every single tweet ever made since Twitter's inception in March of 2006 (the first ever tweet is here if you're interested). Twitter now processes something like 50 million tweets every day, or about 600 tweets per second. While relatively easy to store due to that 140-character limit (the LOC already stores roughly 167 terabytes of online content for your grandkids to peruse), the vast majority of it will be people talking about the Twilight films, shampoo choices or weekend plans. Obviously offering easy access to the pertinent (to you) and historical bits of data is going to be important.

The LOC blog post is utterly devoid of any real information on that subject, though an accompanying Twitter blog entry indicates that only after six months will Tweets qualify for inclusion into the Library (so start deleting your offensive and incoherent tweets now), and direct or private tweets won't be archived. Google seems to be helping on the accessibility angle by announcing a replay system, allowing people to examine snapshots in Twitter time (for instance take a look at this snapshot of the 2010 Winter Olympics). Given that history can often be written with a heavy focus on the elite, the Library of Congress focuses on the fact that this everyday chatter about events could provide very useful context for historians:

"Expect to see an emphasis on the scholarly and research implications of the acquisition. I'm no Ph.D., but it boggles my mind to think what we might be able to learn about ourselves and the world around us from this wealth of data. And I'm certain we'll learn things that none of us now can even possibly conceive."

All of this raises the question of whether or not permanence will impact the way people use Twitter. As it stands (whether they should or not), most people treat Twitter as an off-the-cuff conversation. And while most people who use the service for business act professionally, even many corporate representatives are a little more candid and conversational while using Twitter. Getting a glimpse of the real human beings behind the brand has helped many companies immeasurably in dealing with customer support and public perception. Does all of this change once the participants realize their customer promises, clever barbs and burrito recipes are going down on their permanent record?

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: library of congress, twitter
Companies: twitter

30 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

PopeHilarius (profile), 16 Apr 2010 @ 6:37am

All of this raises the question of whether or not permanence will impact the way people use Twitter.

I doubt it. People only rarely consider how their online actions will reflect on them in the future. I find it hard to believe your average Twitter user is going to think, "Hmmm. I was going to tweet about a movie I just saw, but it might end up in a sociologist's thesis paper in fifty years. Better not." Most everything online is archived in some way anyway, but people still post embarrassing youtube videos.

I think this is a great initiative though. Diaries and personal correspondence are often the best historical sources- generations from now when historians discuss this era, having access to all that Twitter banality will be a treasure trove of easily analyzed data.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
scottbp, 16 Apr 2010 @ 7:29am

What is the copyright status of this LOC archive?
Firstly doesn't this archive do essentially the same thing as the google book scanning project?
Secondly, if I publish my tweet from outside the US, what rights does the LOC have to archive it?

I actually have no problem with it but was just interested in what the legalities involved were
[ link to this | view in thread ]
ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 16 Apr 2010 @ 7:37am

Re: What is the copyright status of this LOC archive?
I'm for this, although it's arguably functionality that Twitter should be providing itself. If you want an archive of your tweets currently, you have to use a service like backupmytweets.com

"Secondly, if I publish my tweet from outside the US, what rights does the LOC have to archive it?"

Because Twitter is in the US (and your tweets pass through there.)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Ima Fish (profile), 16 Apr 2010 @ 7:38am

"Library Of Congress To Store Your Inane Twitter Chatter For All Eternity"

One mistake each generation makes is thinking that what's currently going on is uninteresting and will never matter to future generations.

Have you ever seen the fantastic Ken Burns documentary about the Civil War he did for PBS? It used a lot of letters from average people writing about their average lives. But yet when put in context of the war, the letters were riveting.

Sure, I'd guess that 99% of what's on Twitter is pointless. It's also pretty clear that we'll have no idea which tweets will be relevant to the future until the future arrives. So the only way ensure that those 1% of relevant tweets survive is by archiving them all.

As long as someone is willing to do that. I don't see how anyone could have a problem with it.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
mattarse (profile), 16 Apr 2010 @ 7:42am

If this actually starts I think I'm going to set up a script to post "I am the bum fluff, grab a feather" several times a day. No reason except to add to the inane crap they will be storing.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
btrussell (profile), 16 Apr 2010 @ 7:49am

I had no idea there were that many twits in the world.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Robert Ring (profile), 16 Apr 2010 @ 7:52am

I'm surprised no one has posted a misguided concern about privacy yet.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Ima Fish (profile), 16 Apr 2010 @ 7:52am

Re:
Apparently you've never been to Texas.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
CopyrightCops, 16 Apr 2010 @ 7:56am

"The United States Library of Congress is getting plenty of attention for announcing that they're planning to digitally archive every single tweet ever made since Twitter's inception in March of 2006 (the first ever tweet is here if you're interested)."

(Megaphone)

Copyright violation! (Sirens) Copyright Violation!!! You must pay the authors of those tweets before you can copy and archive them.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
CopyRightCops, 16 Apr 2010 @ 8:00am

Re:
"though an accompanying Twitter blog entry indicates that only after six months will Tweets qualify for inclusion into the Library"

No, you must wait the lifetime of the tweeter plus 70 years before you may include it. Otherwise you need express permission.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Karl Bode (profile), 16 Apr 2010 @ 8:09am

Re:
Have you ever seen the fantastic Ken Burns documentary about the Civil War he did for PBS? It used a lot of letters from average people writing about their average lives. But yet when put in context of the war, the letters were riveting.
Interesting point, yes...the letters were astounding. People really took their time to write then...wonder if 140 characters of LOL, RT, WTF, etc. will have quite the same charm? :)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 16 Apr 2010 @ 8:18am

you have to wonder about the terms and conditions of twitter do they allow for reproduction of posts in any other manner than online?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 16 Apr 2010 @ 8:22am

Re:
Well, a relevant question would be who owns the copyright of tweets, twitter or the author of the tweet? You can argue that it could be twitter if it's in their TOS, just like if someone gave or sold their copyright privileges to someone else.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 16 Apr 2010 @ 8:23am

Re: Re:
Another relevant question would be the issue of fair use. A single tweet might be fair use but what about 100 tweets from the same person or 100 tweets from different people? Couldn't this be considered copying a substantial portion of a tweeter's work or the work put forth on twitter to the extent of exceeding fair use conditions?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Ima Fish (profile), 16 Apr 2010 @ 8:26am

Re: Re:
Think about it. In the future the attention span of people will be so short as being unmeasurable by our current technology. Those tweets will seem like serious literature by then.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 16 Apr 2010 @ 8:36am

Re: Re: Re:
tl;dr
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Danny, 16 Apr 2010 @ 8:41am

Re:
Only because you got here before they did. Rest assured its coming.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Karl Bode (profile), 16 Apr 2010 @ 8:41am

Re: Re: Re:
Think about it. In the future the attention span of people will be so short as being unmeasurable by our current technology. Those tweets will seem like serious literature by then.
True.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Karl Bode (profile), 16 Apr 2010 @ 8:43am

Re:
I'm surprised no one has posted a misguided concern about privacy yet.
I feel like if everything you already say is being tracked (behavioral advertising, clickstream sales) and the NSA is gobbling all traffic up directly through companies like AT&T anyway -- somebody worried about tweet storage violating privacy might be missing the bigger picture. :)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Terry Hart (profile), 16 Apr 2010 @ 8:58am

legalities
Saw some questions or comments concerning the legalities of this and thought I'd share what I've learned

1) According to the terms of use, Twitter operates under the assumption that the user owns the copyright and is granting Twitter a nonexclusive right to reproduce and distribute that content over its system.

2) There is no copyright infringement here. Technically, anything published in the US has to be deposited with the LOC within 3 months, though I'm not sure I've ever seen that law enforced in any way. That's all this is, although the deposit is coming from the LOC's initiative rather than the creator's.

3) Twitter can help the LOC do this too, its TOS provides that
You agree that this license includes the right for Twitter to make such Content available to other companies, organizations or individuals who partner with Twitter for the syndication, broadcast, distribution or publication of such Content on other media and services, subject to our terms and conditions for such Content use
[ link to this | view in thread ]
justok (profile), 16 Apr 2010 @ 9:13am

#LOC #TECHDIRT lol omg RT @techdirt http://bit.ly/3CIyxj
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Robert Ring (profile), 16 Apr 2010 @ 9:24am

Re: Re:
Yeah, I know. But still.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Greg, 16 Apr 2010 @ 9:36am

Re: Re:
Or a attorney's convention
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Nick Datesh (profile), 16 Apr 2010 @ 9:51am

Twitter Forever
When, tomorrow, you forget that remarkably foolish Tweet you just wrote... Well, the future won't.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 16 Apr 2010 @ 10:21am

Re: legalities
i would bet if more people knew this they wouldnt use the service or would be much more careful about what they write. have to wonder what happens to customer deleted accounts, maybe they still get published?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Derek Kerton (profile), 16 Apr 2010 @ 10:43am

Re: Re:
Karl,

I think it will be better than the letters. Because the letters were just a snapshot of the time from an elite segment that could and did write. What were the rest of the people thinking, notably the slaves? That's probably not captured well by the letters.

Furthermore, the letters are far fewer in number than tweets. I would liken this as analogous to digital photo resolution. If the letters could provide a VGA picture of the times, the vast volume of tweets could provide a 20 Megapixel picture.

Continuing my 'photo of the past analogy', "most people treat Twitter as an off-the-cuff conversation" and that is why the 'composition' of the twitter photo will be much more honest. The civil war letters provide a 'posed portrait', where the tweets provide a candid snapshot.

Also, it is already easy for analytic tools to mine the twitter data and come up with truly important trending information. It is easy to filter out the "having coffee, LOL", but zoom in on "warrantless wiretapping OKed". If today's tools can do it, you can bet tomorrow's tools will slice and dice the data like a slap chopper.

IF twitter continues as an important medium, this would be a great resource for historians, and for the public in keeping historians honest. IF - let's not forget that social networks come and go, and communication tools too. A database of smoke signals would be damned interesting, but it would only cover a finite period of time.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Mike (profile), 16 Apr 2010 @ 11:21am

Re: Re: Re: Re:
tl;dr
Lol, absolute gold man
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Krusty, 16 Apr 2010 @ 11:36am

Typical
Well this is what the government is great at, providing useless and unnecessary services at taxpayer expense.

Of course not all government services are useless but it sure seems like ratio is increasing.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Krusty, 16 Apr 2010 @ 11:44am

Re: Re: Re:
Ok, that is both seriously interesting and disturbing at the same time.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Ralph, 16 Apr 2010 @ 10:17pm

No Privacy concerns?
It might be a bit different if the LOC was archiving from now onwards. We originally didn't think anything we said was going to end up in congress. What about all those drunk regretable tweets. Or people who joined, didn't like it then quit. How many of you would jump to hand over every text message you've ever sent? Yes I understand most twitterers are public but the message is meant to be read once then it gets lost in the torrent of all the tweets that come next. Nobody thought it was ever going to be a searchable database. I hate Facebook, and am glad they get pounced on for every privacy screw up they make. How come nobody seems to mind what the LOC is planning with Twitter?
[ link to this | view in thread ]