Case Studies

Deep forensic examinations of specific platforms, formats, and digital extinction events. Each case study applies archaeobytological methodology to extract lessons from digital history.

Platform Autopsies

Case studies coming soon

Future analyses will include:

  • • GeoCities: The Great Homestead Extinction (2009)
  • • Google Reader: Strategic Platform Murder (2013)
  • • Vine: When Corporate Parents Kill (2017)
  • • MySpace Data Loss: The 50 Million Song Massacre (2019)
  • • Tumblr: Death by Policy Change (2018-present)

Format Forensics

Format studies coming soon

Future analyses will include:

  • • MP3 Survival: Why Open Standards Persist
  • • Flash's Fossilization: The Death of Proprietary Media
  • • HTML's Resilience: The Power of Simplicity
  • • RealMedia's Extinction: DRM as Murder Weapon

Contemporary Platform Analysis

Living platform analyses coming soon

Future analyses will include:

  • • Mastodon & ActivityPub: Federation as Sovereignty Strategy
  • • Bluesky & AT Protocol: Portable Identity Architecture
  • • Solid Project: Data-Application Separation
  • • Nostr: Minimalist Protocol Design