Month: April 2010

While my Freedom of Information Act request to the Library of Congress requesting a copy of its agreement with Twitter remains unanswered, interviews with Library personnel at The American Prospect and Ars Technica provide us some insight into the nature of the agreement and the plans for the data.

Today's announcement that the Library of Congress will be archiving all public tweets since March 2006 prompts many questions. But most people, I suspect, are comfortable with the concept since the LOC is only archiving public tweets; those who decided…

Read More How Your Private Tweets Might Be Included in the Library of Congress Public Archive

The Library of Congress tweeted today that they are acquiring the entire archive of public Twitter activity since March 2006. While the LOC stresses that they're doing this for historical and scholarly reasons, there are major implications regarding the privacy and contextual expectations of Twitter users. Now, suddenly, all their tweets are being archived by the world's largest library. Yes, the tweets were always public and discoverable, but the searchability and accessibility will increase drastically if/when the LOC processes this archive. Due to these concerns, there are some vital questions that must be addressed prior to implementing such an expansive archive of public Twitter activity.