July 5, 2011

W- upgraded our file server to a RAID-1 configuration (mirroring without parity or striping) using two 1.8-terabyte disks. Now we can back up and reorganize our files, and set up regular backup routines too. It’s a good time to think about what I want from archives and how I can organize them to improve retrieval and serendipity.

What would a good archive be like?

• [X] HTML and images of my blog, so that I can browse it and recover even if I mess up my database or my images
• [X] Database backup of my blog, so that I can restore it more easily – test by setting up virtual host
• [X] Backup of my whole website
• [X] Backup of my personal files (organizer.org, outline.org, ledger, etc.)
• [X] Presentations
• [X] Photos, sketches, and book notes, organized so that I can browse/search by keywords and other criteria, maybe get statistics
  • Inbox
  • Processed
  • Favourites?
• [ ] Backup of Twitter/Facebook activity, perhaps using ThinkUp
• [ ] Database of books I’ve checked out from the library: title, author, ID, start date, end date, and maybe any notes I have (possible link to Goodreads if I can get that working?)

What would good workflows look like?

Photos:

1. Copy files off the camera and put them in my folders.
2. Use Bibble5 to rate the photos and process them.
3. Export the pictures and upload them to Picasa and Facebook.
4. Order prints.

Blog posts:

1. Draft posts using organizer.org in my Emacs, or use ScribeFire to draft graphical posts.
2. Illustrate them with sketches or photos (optional).
3. Publish to blog.
4. Save daily backups of database and monthly backups of HTML.
5. Print blog dump monthly.
6. Do a monthly or weekly review of unpublished drafts to see if I can build on them.
7. Review past years’ blog posts to see if I can build on any.

What do I want to access from my laptop while I’m at home?

• Personal files / documents
• 1024×768 versions of sketches and favourite photos
• Presentations organized by topic?

What do I want to be able to access offline or away from home?

• Personal files / documents

Hmm, might be worth saving up for a larger hard disk drive for my laptop, too…

How do you get more value out of your archives?