Section 2a: Time & The Website Proper: Web Archive
Websites are not limited to a static existence. As
rhetoricians we know that websites change over time, and as writers we
understand that revisions are important. When we are asked to evaluate
websites we are often looking at a website representative of a
particular time. Many popular and frequently visited websites change
from day to day. Or, for that matter, many less popular websites
undergo, over a span of time, a series of major and minor changes. When
you're (again, the audience here are
my students) looking at an unfamiliar website, it may be useful
to see how the website has changed over time. By looking at the
revision choices of the author(s), you're able to potentially gain
insight into the rhetorical choices (in terms of audience, arrangement,
etc) the authors have made between website revisions. By looking
at the differences between website revisions, you're able to learn more about the site than would
be possible if you only had access to a
current revision of a website.
In this section we will be situating the website in a time line using the tool web.archive. First we will attempt to locate how the design of the website has changed over time. Web-archive is a web crawler similar to Google, AltaVista, Northern Light etc, except its purpose is to archive a functional cache of a website by month and year. While not entirely comprehensive web-archive does allow one to browse and view a broad range of websites as far back as 1996.
Browsing through the months and years and note any
design changes made by the author(s). For the purposes of this section,
we will be using http://www.bju.edu
(Bob Jones University). To use web.archive, go to http://web.archive.org and enter
and submit your website using the top text box labeled “way back
machine.”
After entering in your website, a menu similar to the one shown below
should appear. Click on any of the links to see the changes your
selected website has undergone (if any).
As we can see, clicking on the link to Bob Jones
University from Oct 19,1996 shows that the website looks considerably
different than it currently does:
:
Bob Jones University as of December 2003:
Now that you have retrieved the history of your website, answer the
following four questions about your website.
Worksheet area:
(1) How has the design of the
website changed over time? The website has changed considerably.
One of the important features added to the navigation of the website is
the addition of a ‘search’ feature on the middle right hand side. This
is important because BJU has historically been under fire for its
policies of discrimination. The color and design of the website has
changed. The website has moved from dark, forbidding graphics to bright
and smiley people.
(2) How often has the website changed? The
website has had three major revisions since 1996.
(3) What justification do you see for the changes
made by the author(s)? BJU has creating a more cheerful looking
website.
(4) How has the websites functionality changed? Is
the website organized more efficiently organized? The basic layout of
categories is the same, with additional areas such as ‘prospective
students’ and ‘alumni’ in a more central place in the format of the
page layout.
Summarizing the importance of Web Archive
In the first three sections we learned how to situate the website in location and networks. We learned research practices for how to find the sponsors and authors of a domain and look up the ownership of IP addresses. With the introduction of web.archive we are now able to begin to situate the website over the course of time. We are able to see how web texts are evolving and changing (or not) based on static, time dated archives of websites, located external to the websites proper. In the print world, new editions of books are labeled as new editions. On the Internet however, new editions are often not labeled. In order to change, a website does not require the economic investment of a new print-run. Minor corrections, major additions and significant subtractions may occur to a single website across a large span of time. By using a source external to the web author, you should now be able to juxtapose the changes (and perhaps discern the reason for changes) websites undergo over a span of time.