Long Now Foundation's Pioneering 01998 Digital Archiving Event with Getty Museum Highlighted by Co-founder Stewart Brand

San Francisco, CA – Stewart Brand, co-founder of The Long Now Foundation, recently reflected on the organization's inaugural public event, the "Time & Bits Conference," held in 01998. This significant gathering, a collaboration with the Getty Museum and the Internet Archive, focused on the critical topic of digital archiving. Brand emphasized the value of exploratory workshops, stating, "More good things emerge from exploratory workshops than almost anything."

The conference, which took place in Los Angeles, was instrumental in establishing the nascent foundation's credibility. Brand noted that the partnership with the Getty Museum in LA provided essential validation, especially since, as he recalled, "No one had heard of the presenters in the photo." The event brought together archivists and technologists to discuss the future prospects and challenges of preserving digital information for the long term.

The Long Now Foundation, established in 01996, is a non-profit organization dedicated to fostering long-term thinking and responsibility, often considering timescales of 10,000 years. Its mission aims to counteract society's "pathologically short attention span" by encouraging projects and discussions that promote a long-term perspective on civilization and the planet. Key initiatives include the development of the 10,000-year Clock of the Long Now and the Rosetta Project for language preservation.

The "Time & Bits Conference" exemplified the foundation's early commitment to addressing enduring challenges. By convening experts from diverse fields to tackle the complexities of digital longevity, the event underscored the organization's core philosophy of ensuring that valuable knowledge and cultural artifacts endure for future generations. This early collaboration set a precedent for the foundation's ongoing work in promoting sustained thought and action across millennia.