The Technology Behind Making the Internet Archive into the Worlds Worst DVR

This is such a good post about:<p>a. how the internet archive is building its political archive<p>b. proving to other cultural heritage institutions that they can get their act together and preserve culture today and make it relevant today<p>Ok, so Ted Cruz ads are a particular part of culture, but bravo.<p>I used to work at The New York Public Library&#x27;s Labs and we had to fight to do anything with anything that wasn&#x27;t blatantly in the public domain. Meanwhile, one of my colleagues there, Leonard Richardson, would go off and create massive archives like the Minecraft Geological Survey (<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;mcgs.crummy.com&#x2F;#mcgs" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;mcgs.crummy.com&#x2F;#mcgs</a>) in the evenings.<p>Seriously, we need more folks working in these big organizations that are very good at surviving for more than a hundred years, acting as arks of human culture, that can collect and make useful today&#x27;s materials. It&#x27;s just our ability to remember today at stake.

I like how the Center For Public Integrity just used &quot;Duplitron5k&quot; discovery of a supposedly &quot;Internet-exempt&quot; hybrid super PAC political ad garnering free time in cable news.<p>(<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.publicintegrity.org&#x2F;2016&#x2F;05&#x2F;12&#x2F;19677&#x2F;news-media-gives-free-ride-anti-donald-trump-video" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.publicintegrity.org&#x2F;2016&#x2F;05&#x2F;12&#x2F;19677&#x2F;news-media-...</a>)<p>The PAC asserts because the ad is a “Web video” they are exempt from the kinds of public disclosures applied to paid political communications broadcast over the airwaves.

Well the project is bizarre and whimsical and I guess pretty expensive, but the way it&#x27;s written about here makes me an enthusiastic fan. Well worth a read.

Looking at the site, it looks like this focuses on US politics. Being a US citizen, I&#x27;m totally fine with this. An easily searchable archive of political ads should make it easier to call BS on our politicians when necessary.<p>I find myself wondering, however, what it would take to extend this effort to other countries of the world. I have a few friends in Canada and in Europe, and speaking with them, I get the impression that the politics of their respective countries are just as susceptible to shenanigans as that of the US. I think someone politically active in say, Sweden, would want to be able to call out his or her leaders for supporting puppy-kicking or baby-eating just as much as someone in the US would.

When I was an undergrad (a <i>few</i> years ago), we had a visiting lecturer[1] who taught journalism classes mostly for the newspaper folks on campus. Well prior to consumer VCRs, he had students tape a wide range of political ads and other political-related video. It was really interesting having access to all this stuff in a pre-YouTube and Internet Archive era.<p>[1] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;1997&#x2F;07&#x2F;12&#x2F;nyregion&#x2F;edwin-diamond-a-writer-72.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;1997&#x2F;07&#x2F;12&#x2F;nyregion&#x2F;edwin-diamond-a-w...</a>

I picked a random candidate and then clicked on play on all of the videos at the same time. That was a special kind of insane.

tl;dr they are archiving political ads off TV and try recognising them in software by their sound using <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;labrosa.ee.columbia.edu&#x2F;matlab&#x2F;audfprint&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;labrosa.ee.columbia.edu&#x2F;matlab&#x2F;audfprint&#x2F;</a> I think.<p>They don&#x27;t say how political ads sound different from other TV - I guess it works? Or maybe they are just using it to check if they have that ad already like how Shazam works?