2023-05-18 16:00:00
Today, UNESCO has included ‘The Digital City’ in the UNESCO Memory of the World register.
Greetings from The Digital City
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The Digital City
Digital City (DDS) has been added to the international register by UNESCO Memory of the World. This is a list of cultural and historical documents and archives of worldwide importance. With this The Digital City the very first digital born heritage on this list. An important and unique milestone for digital culture.
In 1988, the Netherlands was the first country in Europe to have a direct open connection to the Internet. After that, digital developments followed each other in quick succession. On January 15, 1994, Amsterdam introduced The Digital City (DDS), the very first virtual city in the world. In DDS, ‘residents’ built a house (homepage) on one of the city squares, where they might meet each other virtually. In the first six weeks, more than 10,000 residents had already registered. Six years later there were more than 140,000.
DDS closely followed technological developments and as a result various interfaces (cityscapes) and projects were created. The virtual city with its inhabitants spawned objects, ideas and traditions in new digital forms such as web pages, newsgroups, chat, audio and video. The Digital City is a treasure trove of digital heritage from the early years of the internet and an important historical resource.
DDS installation in Amsterdam Museum
The Digital City Revives
In 2001 ging The Digital City (DDS) out of the air and the digital memory of the early years of the Internet was at risk of being lost. For this unique and important digital born To save Amsterdam’s heritage from destruction, the Amsterdam Museum started the project in 2011 The Digital City Revives. Together with Waag Society, University of Amsterdam, DDS community and many other partners, as much material from DDS as possible was collected. The excavation and reconstruction of DDS was one case study for web archaeology. This has ensured that DDS can be preserved and displayed in a museum context for future generations.
The Netherlands Institute for Sound & Vision manages the audiovisual DDS archive, including the first smart TV broadcasts, in which different media and interaction were combined for the first time. The KB National Library maintains the DDS reconstructions and documentation. The Amsterdam Museum stores and displays the 3D DDS objects. From next Tuesday there will be a small presentation in the Amsterdam Museum aan de Amstel.
The project The Digital City Revives won the prestigious in 2016 Digital Preservation Award. That DDS is now also in the UNESCO Memory of the World register is included underlines the importance and urgency of preserving digital born heritage.
UNESCO Memory of the World
Memory of the World
The register Memory of the World was established in 1992 by UNESCO, with the aim of preserving and protecting important documents and archives for future generations. The list includes the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, the archives of the United Nations and the diary of Anne Frank. The awarding of the registration to DDS is a recognition of the importance of digital heritage and the impact it has had on society.
Het Parool wrote regarding this recognition today.
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