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In the article we read for class, the authors spoke about two concepts which really resonated with me. The first of these was the notion of the idea of ‘delete’ as once files are opened up for sharing, there is no outer boundary and the file can, in theory, live forever. The second concept that grabbed my attention was the idea of file formats being conceived as a response to what users sought to do with their data. I find this idea of a data type as a response to consumer needs fascinating, as file types themselves, unlike the files themselves, can fall out of vogue and seemingly disappear.
Throughout reading this article, I thought about Adobe’s announcement back in July about phasing their phasing out of Flash. Flash sometimes referred to as .swf’s were a very popular file type found in web development across the net. Over the past few years, as internet users have demanded faster loading and better quality video in-browser, HTML5 has become the dominant online video format. Unlike Flash, it doesn’t require third-party plug-ins, which to slow down a user’s browser.
Adobe announced they will no longer creating new features for Flash as part of the beginning of a phasing out of the popular plugin. I find this fascinating in relation to the article because of the two concepts of file immortality and file type development that I previously mentioned. Eventually, Adobe will stop offering security updates for Flash, which will effectively make it inoperable for most users. There are tons of animations, games, and other assets that are stored in .swf’s. Soon, preserving our ability to engage with these files on modern devices and preserve them for the next generation will be the responsibility of the passionate homebrew communities which have fortunately formed around file types like Flash.
Sources:
Get ready to finally say goodbye to Flash — in 2020
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/MSR-TR-2011-109.pdf