Web content could be destroyed during the war.
Internet Archive, the non-profit that manages the Wayback Machine for archiving websites, says it is racing to archive as much online content in Ukraine as possible.
While web content doesn’t degrade like physical materials, it is susceptible to disappearing entirely. The organization worries that damage to data centers, routers and cable networks could take the content down permanently. Indeed, the Ukrainian country code domain .ua is under attack.
The Wayback Machine is stepping up the crawling of the entire .ua namespace. It’s also selecting specific sites – including government and educational sites – for deep crawling.
Another organization, Saving Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Online (SUCHO), uses tools to archive the Ukrainian web, including adding pages to the Wayback Machine. SUCHO is seeking volunteers to help gather URLs, perform archiving, and improve metadata. The group is especially in need of coders and people who speak Russian or Ukrainian.
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