On our recent virtual design session, we conducted a survey. Everyone on the call responded and we were looking forward to looking at the results. It was a key part of the session – a way of hearing from the participants. But when we went to look for the results, they were gone. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Vanished into to thin air. And we were gutted and embarrassed.

We lost the survey results. Seth lost a conference video. You likely have a story of losing a document, spreadsheet, presentation, or some other digital thing you created. Work lost in cyberspace seems to be part of life now. While the chance or occurance of this may be low, we all know stories of lost work. (Seth’s link above has a some mitigation ideas)

And yet, most of us believe the myth of digital permanance. However, it is a myth. Even though I often talk in this blog about the challenge of deleting data, digital permannce is still a myth. A myth that often leads us into a certain type of inaction and lack of responsibilty.

We talk about the cloud and cyberspace as if they exist in the ether, floating around us. However, cloud and cyberspace are descriptive words. Cloud servers are still physical servers. Cyberspace is reliant on thousands of physical cables lying on the ocean floor connecting continents. The digital world is wholly connected to the physical one.

And we lose things in both.

Seth ends his post with these words, ‘Assume that the software company doesn’t care nearly as much about your work, your memories or your reputation as you do.’ Wise words. Now, I’m off to make a back up, how about you?

Photo by Taylor Vick