Adobe Flash Animations and Interactive Applets
Adobe Flash Animations and Interactive Applets
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Animations, games, and other interactive applets created with Macromedia Adobe Flash Player and Shockwave Flash, along with their accompanying websites. These are primarily .swf files, but they can also include networked collections of .swf files and external assets, as well as the web pages where they are displayed. |
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Digital Species: Web |
Trend in 2023:
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Consensus Decision |
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Added to List: 2019 |
Trend in 2024:
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Previously: Practically Extinct |
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Imminence of Action Immediate action necessary. Where detected, should be stabilized and reported as a matter of urgency. |
Significance of Loss The loss of tools, data or services within this group would impact on people and sectors around the world. |
Effort to Preserve | Inevitability Loss seems inevitable. Loss has already occurred or is expected to occur before tools or techniques develop. |
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Examples Flash and Shockwave based games; cartoons; interactives. |
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‘Critically Endangered’ in the Presence of Good Practice Migration plan initiated; supported in multiple browsers; security vetted; emulation pathway; clear licensing that enables preservation. |
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2023 Review This entry was added in 2019. The 2019 Jury noted that Flash animations and applets were a mainstay of interactive web design from the late 1990s. Flash animations and interactives were created using tools supplied by the Adobe of the same name. Although Flash enabled the development of sophisticated interaction at low cost over the web, it had a chequered history in terms of browser support and has been plagued by security concerns. The 2020 Jury identified a 2020 trend toward greater risk based on the indication by Adobe that there would be a withdrawal of support to Flash Animation. The 2021 Jury noted that the discontinuation and withdrawal of support did indeed occur. Flash is no longer supported, and loss has occurred with Adobe's deprecation of Flash and lack of support in modern web browsers. For this reason, the classification moved from Critically Endangered to Practically Extinct with a 2021 trend towards greater risk given the loss of dependence on Flash, which resulted in new aggravating conditions for migration pathway, emulation pathway, source code, lack of capacity or motivation to support, no commercial interest. The 2023 Council agreed with the Practically Extinct classification and noted an increase in imminence of action required with greater inevitability of loss. |
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2024 Interim Review These risks remain on the same basis as before, with no significant trend towards even greater or reduced risk (‘No change’ to trend). |
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Additional Comments Flash represents a significant amount of the creativity of websites in the early 2000s including net-based art and cartoons. With extinction, archives will need to consider if it is possible to preserve interaction through the development of new web archiving and emulation tools and techniques. These are culturally significant artefacts or so of the web and were a gateway for many early game developers given the ease of which Flash games could be made. It’s important to note there are quite a number of community projects working on this, whilst the focus tends to be on Flash games there is still work around Flash animations. Projects like Flashpoint Archive do have their own workflows for getting the games/animations but have their own preservation issues. The survival of Flashpoint is reliant on a small group of people with the storage space entirely relying on one person maintaining it. Other Flash game archives exist as well, such as Flash Game Archives. The Internet Archive has a number of Flash game collections as well. There is also work being done around emulating Flash within web browsers through Ruffle which increases access to Flash games and animations. Case Studies or Examples:
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No ChangeLegacy Interfaces and Services Offered Online by Major Companies
Legacy Interfaces and Services Offered Online by Major Companies
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Online services with unique interfaces that change regularly and through those changes provide a different experience and different content to their users. |
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Digital Species: Social Media |
Trend in 2023:
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Consensus Decision |
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Added to List: 2019 |
Trend in 2024:
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Previously: Practically Extinct |
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Imminence of Action Immediate action necessary. Where detected should be stabilized and reported as a matter of urgency. |
Significance of Loss The loss of tools or services within this group would have a global impact. |
Effort to Preserve | Inevitability Loss seems inevitable. Loss has already occurred or is expected to occur before tools or techniques develop. |
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Examples Interfaces to user-driven social platforms such as MySpace, Bebo, Facebook, Twitter/X, Reddit, LinkedIn, Sina Weibo, Flickr, and social platform API-driven services such as Botometer and Tweetdeck and many others, and superseded policies and terms governing access and re-use of platform data. |
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‘Critically Endangered’ in the Presence of Good Practice Robust and extensive web archives with strong documentation of platform documentation (such as terms of service) over time; search algorithms (where available); ranking and personalization of interfaces; awareness of IPR and the presence of orphaned works. |
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2023 Review This entry was added in 2019 to highlight the configuration of interfaces and, therefore, the ever-changing arrangement and presentation of content. Personalization means that the same query can produce quite different results to different users at the same time; the application of machine learning to behavioral surplus means the same may obtain different results at different points in time. That is over and above the rapid churn in the appearance of web interfaces. There is little appreciation of the implications for the use of online services and the potential for manipulations that arise. Moreover, the digital preservation community, which is historically concerned with data rather than interface, has only rudimentary tools to address this challenge. The 2021 Jury agreed but noted a trend towards greater risk due to security issues posed by hosting legacy technology software and services which have prompted disposal of content imminently without adequate review or selection. The 2022 Taskforce agreed these risks remain on the same basis as before (no change to the trend). The 2023 Council agreed with the Practically Extinct classification and noted an increase in imminence, recognizing that while the need for major efforts to prevent or reduce losses continues, it is now much more likely that loss of material has already occurred, and will continue to do so, by the time tools or techniques have been developed. |
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2024 Interim Review The 2024 Council agreed these risks remain on the same basis as before, with no significant trend towards even greater or reduced risk (‘No change’ to trend). In light of the recent changes to API services by major platforms (e.g. Twitter/X, Reddit), they recommend maintaining the entry separate from ‘Consumer Social Media Free at the Point of Use’ to highlight the risk of loss of access to underlying data. Since 2023, a number of major global platforms (such as Twitter/X and Reddit) have begun restricting researcher access to platform APIs, making API services cost-prohibitive to academic and collecting institutions, or shutting them down completely (Davidson et al., 2023, Summers, 2023). With restrictions to this method of collection, data will be (and likely has already been) lost to the institutions responsible for maintaining access to research data and heritage collections. While this entry focuses on interfaces and the risk of losing the display and functionality characteristics crucial to interpreting social media content, it also encompasses the multi-modal access and terms under which social media platforms make content available. While the algorithms that serve content to a user’s feed or browser-based interpretations of interfaces make a major impact on how content might be interpreted, the terms and conditions, data services, and policy frameworks around platforms also provide crucial context. 2024 has seen increased awareness of social media as a manipulating factor in social life, such as congressional hearings in the US around social media impact on youth, pop culture books such as Cathy O’Neill’s publication The Shame Machine: Who Profits in the New Age of Humiliation (which includes social media amongst a host of other shame-creating industries), and a proposed warning label for teens on social media platforms from the surgeon general. New EU legislation, such as the Digital Services Act, also demonstrates wider awareness of the impact of social media and the need to hold platforms accountable through reliable records of content published by users as well as policies and service documentation. Though Twitter/X and Reddit, for example, still exist and user data has not disappeared at a platform level, access to that data in a way that supports computation access or archiving as scale has been shut down. Without access to data via API, research and analysis methods are severely hampered. Given the fast-paced, ephemeral nature of social media, this means research potential has already been lost and tools crucial for using social media data to support public policy and services have become obsolete. Additionally, the Council recommends further research as part of the next 2025 review, in particular, to highlight the particular risk of loss of legacy platform policies and T&Cs, which are required to interpret datasets or web crawls of social media at a certain point in time. This issue of lack of access to former policies has been raised in academic forums and this should be addressed more explicitly. They propose describing this issue and recommending 1) further research into existing archives of platform information and policy pages (such as in IA collections and LoC 'Business in America' collections) and 2) adding this issue as 'Aggravating Circumstances' for other entries or potentially creating a new entry (but preferably not). |
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Additional Comments The interfaces alone have less impact if they are gone (since many research users are interested in the extracted data). However, it's an important distinction for us to make that we could end up preserving social media data as datasets in the long run, meaning that the look and feel (which serves a different sort of purpose) will be lost. A number of social media researchers in groups like the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) may care more about the data, but perhaps it is worth exploring a bit more about their interest in interfaces. Without the interfaces and the underlying software that enables social media platforms, it will be impossible to preserve the look and feel and even meaning of a large portion of content that depends on particular functionality or interface to be accurately or authentically interpreted, including for evidential uses, artworks, design research, and historical/qualitative research. The loss of these interfaces (or lack of any indication of robust documentation by platforms) means a significant gap in the cultural heritage of many communities and even entire nations. For example, some content creators on YouTube may lose access to their content and accounts due to copyright infringement claims or reports of inappropriate content, which may or may not be supportable. The risk of loss is higher if the content is not stored anywhere else. Though some mitigation methods are available through the platform, this issue may only affect a small number of accounts. Some of the content/iterations of these are likely preserved to an extent within existing web archives but not as targeted collection efforts. As we've seen with MySpace and other platforms where the platform producers decide to remove content or shut down with little notice, loss may be sudden. Replaying social media content from 2014 through modern interfaces poses a challenge to authenticity and reliability. If no recording or documentation for legacy interfaces has been preserved, it will not be possible to recreate older interfaces. You'd think the platform owners may preserve older versions, but these copies (if they exist) are not available to research or collecting institutions, and it would be worth engaging in a conversation about making them available for scholarly projects and cultural heritage. Some of this information is almost certainly lost already (some through deliberate disposal). The imminence of action depends on the type of institution. See also:
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Non-current, Rare Portable Magnetic Media
Non-current, Rare Portable Magnetic Media
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Materials saved to uncommon storage devices where the media is out of warranty, reader devices may no longer be supported or integrated into hardware infrastructure, and reader devices are extremely hard to acquire due to rarity: typically, more than five years old. |
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Digital Species: Portable Media |
Trend in 2024:
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Consensus Decision |
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Added to List: 2023 |
New Rescoped Entry |
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Imminence of Action Action is recommended within three years, detailed assessment within one year. |
Significance of Loss The loss of tools, data or services within this group would impact on people and sectors around the world. |
Effort to Preserve | Inevitability Loss seems likely. By the time tools or techniques have been developed, the material will likely have been lost. |
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Examples Bernoulli, Canon Diskfile, Superdisk, Jaz, MiniDisc, and similar |
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‘Critically Endangered’ in the Presence of Good Practice Data can be preserved only with the ability to acquire drives and make them functional; media items must be in good working condition; original documentation can be difficult to locate, and drivers or other dependencies may be impossible to acquire; much specialized work is necessary to make drives work and transfer data; uncertainty over IPR or the presence of orphaned works. |
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2023 Review The 2023 Council added this as a new, split entry related to the ‘Non-current, Portable Magnetic Media’ entry to highlight the increased risk for more unusual and less common formats associated with the media. They also noted that it is likely that more current formats will fall into this category over time, there will remain a need for use and development of forensic tools and techniques. The Council also recommended that an effort to create a comprehensive list of formats that may qualify for this category be undertaken; they suggested an open call and encouragement to the community to contribute examples to add to the entry for the next major review of the Bit List, as by their nature they are harder to identify and, by addressing those not as common, there can be further development and cross-referencing across resources (e.g. registries, technology watch, etc.). |
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2024 Interim Review These risks remain on the same basis as before, with no significant trend towards even greater or reduced risk (‘No change’ to trend). A further rescoping is also recommended for the 2025 review to revisit the current splitting of the non-current portable magnetic media into two (for rare and for common). The reader may not be rare (3.5-inch floppy drive or 5.25-inch floppy drive), and it is possible to get a flux stream from this type of media but there is no way of converting that media to binary files, so essentially no way of accessing the actual content. In this way, it may not be worth splitting out, because by creating a flux stream you are essentially saving the data from further degradation on the portable media format. |
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Additional Comments Additionally, if we don’t do further research in the special types (Such a WANG disks, Lexitron, ICL computers), that data will also be eventually lost, even if we have a flux stream. This is not really a problem for the more common types, such as IBM, which even tools like FTK Imager can convert and make accessible. It is important to distinguish these materials from the floppy, hard drive, and other common formats for which there are still a large number of readers available and tools have been developed (FC5025, KryoFlux). These less typical, unusual or ‘weird’ formats were momentary and ephemeral and weren't very popular, but archival data exist on them and there are very few readers available and very few tools, if any, exist to support them. There is an overall lower impact because there are few collections on these media, relatively. See also:
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Non-standard Public Records
Non-standard Public Records
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Records created in the course of public administration and subject to public records legislation but created on unofficial channels and platforms and therefore subject to unlawful destruction whether by accident or design. |
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Digital Species: Legal Data |
Trend in 2023:
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Consensus Decision |
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Added to List: 2019 |
Trend in 2024:
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Previously: Practically Extinct |
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Imminence of Action Action is recommended within twelve months, detailed assessment is a priority. |
Significance of Loss The loss of tools, data or services within this group would impact on people and sectors around the world. |
Effort to Preserve | Inevitability It would require a major effort to prevent or reduce losses in this group, possibly requiring the development of new preservation tools or techniques. |
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Examples Content and messages from cloud-based instant messaging services (such as WhatsApp or Snapchat) that pertain to public administration and are subject to public records legislation but concealed from or inaccessible to archival agencies. |
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‘Critically Endangered’ in the Presence of Good Practice Lack of skills, commitment or policy from corporate owners; Business models in conflict with principle of preservation; Archival pathway; public officials briefed on the nature of public records and the penalties for illegal disposal; boundary between public and private correspondence; cloud services administered transparently; export functions; ; Uncertainty over IPR or the presence of orphaned works. |
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2023 Review This entry was added in 2019 as a subset of an entry in 2018 for ‘Digital Legal Records and Evidence,’ which the Jury split into four different entries in order to draw attention to the different challenges and priorities that arise. The 2019 Jury gave this entry the strongest indication of risk available. This group includes those records which may contain politically damaging or uncomfortable realities and thus be at risk of deletion and may be concealed from archival agencies whether by accident or design. The 2019 Jury also noted that the destruction of certain classes of public records is unlawful, whether or not it is deliberate. The 2020 Jury added the trend towards greater risk based on the ‘pivot to digital’ necessitated by the Pandemic resulting in widespread changes in workflow and in the platform for the delivery of government, with significant amounts of remote working. These changes happened rapidly, often without time to consider the preservation and record keeping implications. In those circumstances, it was reasonable to suppose the risks expanded in size as well as scope. The 2021 Jury agreed but found no significant increase or decrease to the trend. They added that there should be a balance between trying to preserve what has already been created using these channels and trying to educate against/prevent records from being created this way in the future. The 2022 Taskforce found no significant trend towards even greater or reduced risk. The 2023 Council agreed with the Practically Extinct classification and noted a slight decrease in the effort needed to preserve and the imminence of action required when compared to the 2021 Jury review, suggesting that overall risks remain on the same basis as before with major efforts needed but loss not entirely inevitable. |
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2024 Interim Review The 2024 Council agreed These risks remain on the same basis as before, with no significant trend towards even greater or reduced risk (‘No change’ to trend). While scores should remain as is currently, the Council recommended the entry be revisited in the next review to consider whether it is better suited under the Public Records digital species instead of Legal Data. |
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Additional Comments Even records created on official channels and platforms are potentially being subjected to unlawful destruction through subversion of official formal processes. This is a ‘small effort to fix’ in terms of the technology to export data. But loss seems likely unless there is stronger monitoring and enforcement of the policy around this. Agencies responsible for the public record will not be able to completely control their public servants' use of unofficial channels (but could tighten), so they need methods to obtain from unofficial channels. Very important for public accountability and transparency of the state. Obviously, these records should not be created using these channels in the first place. It is probably unlawful for those in public office. However, we know there has and always will be this kind of backdoor activity and pretty much always a scandal when it is revealed. The challenge is managing to collect it. Maybe at the time of creating this entry, the Jury was thinking of legal data examples, but at this point, in time, I think the species best belongs under "Public Records" and so should be moved there. |
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Older Open Source Intelligence Sources
Older Open Source Intelligence Sources
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Older open source intelligence produced, collected and analysed from publicly available social media and web content with the purpose of answering a specific intelligence question and that supports crowd-sourced investigation and fact-checking to verify or refute claims of state agencies and rebel groups in the context of historic political or military conflict. |
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Digital Species: Legal Data |
Trend in 2023:
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Consensus Decision |
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Added to List: 2019 |
Trend in 2024:
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Previously: Practically Extinct |
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Imminence of Action Immediate action necessary. Where detected should be stabilized and reported as a matter of urgency. |
Significance of Loss The loss of tools, data or services within this group would impact on people and sectors around the world. |
Effort to Preserve | Inevitability Loss seems likely. By the time tools or techniques have been developed, the material will likely have been lost. |
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Examples Social media sources relating to the Arab spring. |
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‘Critically Endangered’ in the Presence of Good Practice Offline backup documented and available for recovery; clarity over IPR and no orphaned works. |
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2023 Review This entry was added in 2019 from a nominated entry that was split into three subsets by the 2019 Jury relating to current, recent, and historic sources. This entry relates in particular to materials published at the time of the ‘Arab’ spring. Social media companies had initially taken little or no action with respect to social media content in conflict zones, taking the view either that they were mere technical platforms and therefore not responsible for editorial; or that the platforms were being used largely for social good, loosening the control of the media from oppressive regimes. However, as the Arab Spring progressed, the companies came under significant pressure to monitor content with more care, in part because terrorist groups had begun using social media platforms for propaganda purposes. The social media companies responded by implementing algorithms that removed or deleted content. This had the unintended consequence of deleting or suppressing content that was being used in open source investigation for journalistic or judicial purposes and may have resulted in refutation or prosecution. The 2019 Jury recognized the duty of care that social media companies have towards their users and is in no sense seeking to have that material re-published on the open web but noted the unintended consequence for journalists and investigatory authorities from the rush to deletion, illustrating how this entry further underlines the relative fragility of all social media content. The 2021 Jury agreed with the current classification and description with no change to trend. The 2022 Taskforce also found no change to trend. The 2023 Council agreed with the current Practically Extinct classification with the overall risks remaining on the same basis as before (‘No change’ to trend). The 2023 Council also added clarification to the meaning of ‘open source’ for this entry, to explain its meaning in relation to intelligence openly available online, noting that open source can also refer to a specific software or content licence that permits limited uses of IP so this distinction would be helpful for readers. This is important for social context but may be picked up inadvertently through other ways; it remains ambiguous about who has ultimate responsibility for collecting and preserving this. |
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2024 Interim Review These risks remain on the same basis as before, with no significant trend towards even greater or reduced risk (‘No change’ to trend). The Council acknowledges the continuing challenge of ensuring the preservation of complete and accurate resources given that: platform owners continue to be obliged to remove content that violates community standards; copyright and ownership increasingly hinders capture of the open source materials; and with the rise in fakes, preservationists must attend to standards for legal admissibility and authentication which vary from one jurisdiction to another. |
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Additional Comments The Council also added clarification to the meaning of ‘open source’ for this entry, to explain its meaning in relation to intelligence openly available online, noting that open source can also refer to a specific software or content licence that permits limited uses of IP so this distinction would be helpful for readers. This is important for social context but may be picked up inadvertently through other ways; it remains ambiguous about who has ultimate responsibility for collecting and preserving this. See also:
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Pre-WWW Videotex Data Services and Bulletin Board Services
Pre-WWW Videotex Data Services and Bulletin Board Services
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Pre WWW telephone and television information services that allowed a degree of user interaction and data retrieval with modem-based two-way communication. |
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Digital Species: Sound and Vision |
Trend in 2023:
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Consensus Decision |
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Added to List: 2017 |
Trend in 2024:
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Previously: Practically Extinct |
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Imminence of Action Immediate action necessary. Where detected should be stabilized and reported as a matter of urgency. |
Significance of Loss The loss of tools, data or services within this group would impact on some people and sectors. |
Effort to Preserve | Inevitability Loss seems inevitable: loss has already occurred or is expected to occur before tools or techniques develop. |
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Examples Prestel, Minitel, VidiTel and Videotex NL, Alex, BelTel, FidoNet |
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‘Critically Endangered’ in the Presence of Good Practice Offline backup documented and available for recovery. |
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2023 Review This entry was added in 2017 and, since then, has stayed Practically Extinct. The 2019 Jury noted that while there may be examples residing in offline backups of services taken at the time, these are likely to have deteriorated rapidly; Therefore, they called on anyone with such collections to act quickly to stabilize and recover content. The 2020 and 2021 Juries, and 2022 Taskforce, also agreed with the classification with risks remaining on the same basis as before (no change to the trend). The 2023 Council likewise agreed, keeping the classification of Practically Extinct with overall risks on the same basis as before (‘No change’ to trend). They, however, did incorporate some changes to the entry, agreeing that there should be a lower significance of loss but also increased imminence of action required and effort to preserve. The need for major efforts to prevent or reduce losses continues, but it is now much more likely that loss of material has already occurred and will continue to do so by the time tools or techniques have developed. For these reasons, there is a greater urgency to prioritize the assessment of these materials and develop tools or techniques to prevent or reduce further losses in this group. |
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2024 Interim Review These risks remain on the same basis as before, with no significant trend towards even greater or reduced risk (‘No change’ to trend). |
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Additional Comments The value of this type of content has been questioned in previous entry reviews. It was noted that loss of this content would impact our understanding of pre WWW digital/electronic communications and whilst the loss in terms of impact on human life would be minimal, from a cultural studies point of view, loss would have a far higher impact. In terms of preservation, whilst there is no structured collection of this material, many individuals will have their own personal archives and a campaign of the nature of Missing Believed Wiped from the BFI might be effective in collating these disparate collections. This entry can also be linked to the Community Archives species as early online forums were a place of community development and community creation. |
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Shut Down or Discontinued Video Games
Shut Down or Discontinued Video Games
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Video games where the servers have been shut down or where the game has been delisted across digital platforms and is no longer able to be legally purchased directly from the digital marketplace (loss has already happened). It includes older and non-current video games designed and played on platforms and devices that are no longer supported. This group also includes older editions of games that have been delisted and replaced by newer or remastered editions. |
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Digital Species: Gaming |
Trend in 2023:
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Consensus Decision |
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Added to List: 2017 (rescoped 2023) |
Trend in 2024:
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Previously: Critically Endangered |
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Imminence of Action Action is recommended within twelve months, detailed assessment is a priority. |
Significance of Loss The loss of tools, data or services within this group would impact on a large group of people and sectors. |
Effort to Preserve | Inevitability Loss seems likely: by the time tools or techniques have been developed the material will likely have been lost. |
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Examples City of Heroes, The Matrix Online, Club Penguin, P.T., Sims 1, Metro 2033, Darkspore, Maplestory 2. |
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‘Critically Endangered’ in the Presence of Good Practice Lack of skills, commitment or policy from corporate owners; emulation pathway; access to source code; IPR supportive of preservation; support of grassroots efforts; support for preservation from game publishers/developers; removal of Always-Online DRM. |
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2023 Review This entry was added in 2017 under the Gaming species under the title ‘Old or Non-current Offline Video Games’ and was rescoped in 2023. The 2023 Council noted that the original description and scope of the entry conflated several issues and was unclear in its purpose, referring both to games that have experienced loss and older games that are still available. The 2023 change of risk classification from Critically Endangered to Practically Extinct reflects the adjusted scope as games that fall under this entry have already experienced loss, in terms of servers, the actual game and users. Efforts to keep these games ‘alive’ or in circulation are reliant on legally dubious measures such as private servers and key reselling. It was also decided to remove reference to the age of the video game in this entry given that there has been an increase in server-reliant games shutting down within a year or two of launch that are more at risk than older games that are still being sold. |
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2024 Interim Review The 2024 Council identified a trend towards even greater risk based on shifts in business models and increased litigation over the last year, resulting in more shutdowns which impact preservation efforts. It also raises time sensitivity for action; if there are no efforts to preserve and those existing are further shutdown, this raises the likelihood of loss. |
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Additional Comments The key element of this entry is that loss has already happened. Whilst there are numerous hobbyists working on preserving individual games and servers, the critical mass of users has now been lost for these games. Additionally, whilst the work being done by hobbyists is often vital to the survival of these games, the legality of these projects are in question and are often prone to shutting down without warning. Organizations like the Videogame Heritage Society provide a space to share advice and guidance on preserving video games but the sheer breadth of shut down and discontinued games means that a collaboration between hobbyists, organizations and game developers is what is required to begin solving this issue. It is also worth noting that Always-Online DRM is a key issue in this area as if the servers shut down where a game has this type of DRM, then even the singleplayer part of the game can no longer be played without DRM circumvention, which is not legal. Darkspore is a key example of this happening. A unique example to point out here around shut down MMOs is Maplestory 2, which closed its global services in May 2020, less than two years after the game received a global release. Nexon, the game’s publisher, released a number of assets including designs, concept art and illustrations on their website as well as uploaded all the music onto YouTube. These assets were released for non-commercial and personal use only. Case Studies or Examples:
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Towards even greater risk