Billions of "In the Moment" Pieces of History

Portion of Retiring Guy's 1190 contributions 

to "in-the-moment" history

Link to May 2 New York Times article, "When History is Compiled 140 Characters at a Time".

Excerpt:   “Twitter is tens of millions of active users. There is no archive with tens of millions of diaries,” said Daniel J. Cohen, an associate professor of history at George Mason University and co-author of a 2006 book, “Digital History.” What’s more, he said, “Twitter is of the moment; it’s where people are the most honest.”

Last month, Twitter announced that it would donate its archive of public messages to the Library of Congress, and supply it with continuous updates.

Several historians said the bequest had tremendous potential. “My initial reaction was, ‘When you look at it Tweet by Tweet, it looks like junk,’ said Amy Murrell Taylor, an associate professor of history at the State University of New York, Albany. “But it could be really valuable if looked through collectively.”

Link to Library of Congress's Digital Preservation page.