I had never really used or heard much about the Internet Archive before this course but I’m so glad to have been introduced more to it; moreover, that we got to have a discussion with Mek and hear him talk in detail about the mission of Internet Archive, the challenges of maintaining such a huge database/resource, future plans, and more. I really admire the goals of the Internet Archive to make resources more accessible for people who lack the access to books/resources. Before the internet became more algorithmic based and money/attention driven, it was a knowledge sharing platform and so it’s really cool that Internet Archive is doing the work to keep this alive.

A lot of questions, including my own, were regarding concerns about the legality and privacy implications of maintaining a project like this - though Mek was perhaps not an expert in this sphere, it was cool to see his perspective and hope about the ongoing court case involving Internet Archive. The policies regarding the internet/web are kind of like the wild wild west unless defined through court cases so I’m hopeful that the integrity of Internet Archive will not be compromised in the ongoing case. I do think that ultimately, there can’t be much faulted to the mission of knowledge sharing and democratizing information/resources.

Regarding my own open source contributions, I’ve been a bit slower to make many contributions. I’m still looking a lot through projects, like Internet Archive, and trying to find a place to start.