With the Memory of the World programme and specifically the register, Unesco aims to conserve valuable archives, library collections and individual works and protect them from neglect, decay or sometimes even deliberate destruction. Memory of the World has been in existence for 30 years, creating awareness of the importance of documentary heritage for humanity's collective memory.
At the registry, mostly relatively old items are recited. Material that meets the image that many people have of documentary heritage: parchment, handwritten pieces, silk-screened paper, weathered books with leather bindings. And at the same time, over the past three or four decades, we have made huge strides in the digital field. Not just in digitising that old material. But digital communities, games and digital art have also made their appearance.
The Digital City - precisely also with the story behind it, with web archaeology and with an enormous effort as digital born heritage has been brought back to life - now gets this Unesco status is important. It is a recognition that relatively young and digital-born heritage is also eligible. It inspires others to look at more recent digital heritage with the same perspective'.
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The Digital City (De Digitale Stad, DDS) was founded in Amsterdam in 1994 as one of the world's first online communities. Users could communicate via chat rooms, build virtual houses and participate in online events. It was an inspiration for later online networks. Amsterdam Museum launched a project to preserve and display DDS in 2011. Beeld & Geluid manages the audiovisual archive, while the Koninklijke Bibliotheek maintains the reconstructions and documentation.
