[RNLD] data recovery options

[Bill Poser]

With regard to the post-mortem disposition of materials, to be really sure,
include the provisions in your will, and have the will done properly, by a
lawyer, witnessed, etc. This need not cost a lot.

If you don't use a lawyer, note that in many jurisdictions two witnesses
are required and that the witnesses may not be beneficiaries. People like
spouses and research partners should for this reason be avoided as
witnesses.

On Thu, Sep 13, 2012 at 10:11 AM, James Crippen <jcrippen at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Thu, Sep 13, 2012 at 12:50 AM, Peter Austin <pa2 at soas.ac.uk> wrote:
> > As I tell my students, you WILL lose data at some point in your work --
> it's
> > a question of managing (and minimising) how much you lose.
>
> Although paper documents are less likely to evaporate than digital
> ones, you can just as easily lose them! This is obvious to people who
> started in the typewriter era, but less so to the mostly digital crew
> today. I lost my first field notebook and had never scanned it nor
> finished copying from it, so there are things in there that are lost
> forever. Bigger notebooks are more clumsy and hard to carry, but
> they’re also less easy to lose. Black notebooks are more discreet, but
> if you’re forgetful a bright red notebook is harder to misplace.
>
> I encourage people like me who produce a lot of paper notes to do two
> things: type them up and scan them. Deposit the scanned images with
> your favourite archive. Typing up the notes, whether as an ordinary
> document or in a database, forces you to revisit each note and gives
> you the opportunity to gloss it and ponder it. It also incorporates
> the data into your regular digital backup schedule.
>
> Most important of all: Make some paper notes on how to get to your
> digital stuff! In the event that you’re hit by a bus or something
> equally deadly, it’s likely nobody will know how to find all your
> data, and even more likely that nobody will know what to do with your
> data. Every linguist doing fieldwork has a responsibility to the field
> and to their consultants to leave behind information on how to handle
> their remaining unarchived materials. Basically, you should write up
> an ‘academic will’ that describes how to find your research (online
> passwords, locations of backup drives, descriptions of notebooks,
> etc.) and what to do with it. Leave it with a colleague, or with a
> family member or close friend. If you sign it with a witness present
> then it becomes legally equivalent to a will in most jurisdictions,
> and thus the instructions have legally binding obligations for whoever
> will manage your estate. This is a morbid topic that most linguists
> don’t like thinking about, but it’s an inevitably necessary one.
>
> Cheers,
> James
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/resource-network-linguistic-diversity/attachments/20120913/1003c383/attachment.htm>