History in the Digital Age: Visual Historiography Project Update

Title: Adobe Flash and the Demise of Digital History Projects

Abstract: Adobe Flash and the Demise of Digital History Projects aims to explore the effects of Adobe Flash Player's end of life in 2020 on various digital history projects. Many projects created using Adobe Flash were rendered no longer usable as Adobe ceased development on the program in December of 2020 - while most of these project developers still have the data associated with their projects, the visualizations of projects that used Flash Player are completely gone or inoperable. A timeline will visualize the lifespan of these projects, beginning with development, including the publication/live date, and finishing with the ending as Flash became obsolete. Information from the digital historians behind these projects will be included to provide detail and perspective; as digital historians rely on digital technology, the perils of software obsolescence are proven substantial as the demise of these projects show.

Primary Sources:

Scott, Jason et al. “Flash Animations Live Forever at the Internet Archive.” Internet Archive Blogs, November 25, 2020. https://blog.archive.org/2020/11/19/flash-animations-live-forever-at-the-internet-archive/.

Scott, Jason et al. “Flash Back! Further Thoughts on Flash at the Internet Archive.” Internet Archive Blogs, November 23, 2020. https://blog.archive.org/2020/11/22/flash-back-further-thoughts-on-flash-at-the-internet-archive/.

Secondary Sources:

“University of Virginia Library Digital Curation Services,” Digital Curation Services, https://web.archive.org/web/20141010164712/http://www.digitalcurationservices.org/sustaining-digital-scholarship/valley-of-the-shadow/.

Cohen, Daniel J. and Roy Rosenzweig. “Promises and Perils of Digital History”. George Mason University, 2006.

Ferster, Bill. Interactive Visualization: Insight Through Inquiry, MIT Press, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucf/detail.action?docID=3339532.

Howard, Jennifer. “Born Digital, Projects Need Attention to Survive.” The Chronicle of Higher Education. The Chronicle of Higher Education, July 22, 2020. https://www.chronicle.com/article/born-digital-projects-need-attention-to-survive/.

Mladentseva, Anna. "Responding to obsolescence in Flash-based net art: a case study on migrating Sinae Kim’s Genesis." Journal of the Institute of Conservation 45, no. 1 (2022): 52-68.