Opinion: Even as the digital revolution threatens film vendors like Eastman Kodak, a need remains for a solid way to preserve present memories for the future.The
declining fortunes of Eastman Kodak's film business due to the ubiquitous use of digital cameras raises a curious question about the ultimate fate of all those digital photos that people are snapping these days.
In the simpler days of Brownie Box cameras, Polaroid cameras, 35-mm reflex cameras, and, later, disposable cameras, people were always left with hard copy images after they photographed their family, friends and pets and the places that they visited. They put the photos in albums or tossed stacks of prints in drawers, boxes and closets where they might look at them again from time to time.
More often, these prints sit undisturbed and forgotten. But they form a tangible record of our lives that we leave behind for following generations. Many people pass on leaving scant evidence that they actually lived; what they did, where they went, who they loved.
When my own parents died in the past decade, among the family treasures they passed on was a trove of family photographs dating back to the turn of the 20th century, including a few rare early photos of grandparents and great-grand parents.
But in the age of the digital camera, what percentage of the hundreds of photos we take with digital cameras and store on computer hard drives will actually survive us to form a permanent record of our lives?
The average personal computer user is notoriously bad about backing up PC hard disks. Most people don't even back up their hard drives at work unless the IT department automatically does it for them.
Even with all the advances in storage technology over the years, hard drive systems are still subject to sudden and complete failure that makes data recovery difficult and impractical, if not impossible.
The industry produced more than 300 million hard drives for all applications in 2004 and claims an insignificant failure rate, at least for the period the vendors were responsible for servicing the drives, according to Jim Porter, president of Disk/Trend Inc., a storage industry market research firm in Mountain View, Calif.
But I suspect that most users, if they have owned a PC for 10 years or more, have experienced at least one hard drive or related failure that caused the permanent loss of data.
Click here to read why Kodak decided to stop marketing film cameras in the United States.
Even if data isn't lost through disk failure, there are millions of digital photos on hard disk drives that are going to be lost as computers age and break down for a host of reasons. And when owners replace their PCs, there is the problem of transferring data from the old machine to the new one.
Frequently, people don't have the knowledge or the patience to effectively transfer data files to their new machines. The upshot is that the digital photos that people happily took to chronicle their lives, satisfy artistic impulses or pursue their livelihoods will ultimately evaporate into the ether.
Some, of course, the best, most cherished, will be printed, and thus gain a chance to be preserved into the indefinite future. But as hard as it is to realize, the day is coming when a generation of computer users will pass on to that great network in the sky.
Do we really expect or want our heirs or executors to go mucking about our hard drives in search of photos, legal documents, messages, personal letters and the other digital detritus of our lives in search of material worth preserving?
We need to think about how we want the records of our lives preserved. And that means making hard copies of the material that is most important to us. With the advent of the personal computer, we were given unprecedented power to create a lasting record of our lives.
Click here to read about how the Kodak layoffs reflect troubled times for the film industry.
With the PC we all became people of the arts, letters and sciences. We have something substantial to leave behind us besides a few pitiful doctor bills and funeral expenses.
So while Kodak has seen its fortunes decline as people print fewer photographs and as digital camera manufacturers cut prices in a battle for market share, there is still a lot to be said for making hard copies to make sure that a permanent record will survive for a least a little while after we are gone.
As the photography industry has been telling us for generations, and as an old Simon and Garfunkel song says: "Preserve your memories. They're all that's left you."
John Pallatto is a veteran journalist in the field of enterprise software and Internet technology. He can be reached at john_pallatto@ziffdavis.com.
