Academic Program
A structured curriculum for digital preservation, establishing Archaeobytology as a teachable discipline with distinct 101 (Theory), 200 (Method), and 300 (Practice) sequences.
The Syllabus Signal
Sample Syllabus 1: ARCH 101 — Introduction to Archaeobytology
Course Level: Undergraduate (100-level)
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: None
Format: Lecture + Lab (2 hours lecture, 1 hour lab per week)
Course Description
What happens when digital platforms die? When GeoCities shut down in 2009, 30 million websites vanished overnight. When Vine closed in 2017, 200 million videos disappeared. This course introduces Archaeobytology—the study and practice of preserving murdered digital culture and building alternatives that resist future murders.
Students will learn to:
- Classify digital artifacts using the Archaeobyte Taxonomy
- Apply ethical triage frameworks (the Custodial Filter)
- Understand the Archive/Anvil dual practice
- Analyze digital sovereignty through the Three Pillars
- Conduct basic digital preservation (web scraping, metadata creation)
Learning Objectives
- Explain what Archaeobytology is and why it's needed as a distinct discipline
- Classify digital artifacts as Archaeobyte, Vivibyte, Umbrabyte, or Petribyte
- Apply the Custodial Filter to make ethical triage decisions
- Evaluate platforms using the Three Pillars framework (Declaration, Connection, Ground)
- Conduct basic web archiving using tools like Webrecorder
- Analyze case studies of platform death and preservation efforts
- Design a simple preservation project or sovereign alternative
Required Texts
- This textbook: Archaeobytology: Digital Culture and the Art of Resistance
- Doctorow, Cory. The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation. Verso, 2023.
- Schneier, Bruce. Data and Goliath. W.W. Norton, 2015. (Selected chapters)
Course Schedule
Week 1: What Is Archaeobytology?
Topics: Platform death, GeoCities case study, discipline overview
Readings: Textbook Ch. 1 (Introduction)
Lab: Tour of Internet Archive's Wayback Machine
Week 2: The Archaeobyte Taxonomy
Topics: Four categories of digital mortality
Readings: Textbook Ch. 2 (Taxonomy)
Lab: Classify artifacts from your own digital life
Assignment Due: Digital Life Audit (500 words)
Week 3: The Archive and the Anvil
Topics: Dual practice—preservation + creation
Readings: Textbook Ch. 3 (Archive/Anvil)
Lab: Explore Archive Team's projects
Week 4: The Three Pillars (Part 1)
Topics: Declaration and Connection
Readings: Textbook Ch. 4 (Three Pillars, first half)
Lab: Set up a personal domain (optional hands-on)
Week 5: The Three Pillars (Part 2)
Topics: Ground and sovereignty audits
Readings: Textbook Ch. 4 (Three Pillars, second half)
Lab: Conduct sovereignty audit of social media
Assignment Due: Three Pillars Analysis (1,000 words)
Week 6: Triage and the Custodial Filter
Topics: Ethical decision-making in preservation
Readings: Textbook Ch. 5 (Triage)
Lab: Triage simulation exercise
Week 7: Discipline Formation
Topics: How Archaeobytology became a field
Readings: Textbook Ch. 6 (Discipline Formation)
Guest Speaker: Practitioner from Internet Archive or Archive Team
Week 8: Midterm Exam
Format: Take-home essay exam
Week 9: Excavation Methods
Topics: Site reconnaissance, scraping, APIs
Readings: Textbook Ch. 7 (Archaeological Methods, first half)
Lab: Introduction to web scraping with wget
Week 10: Digital Forensics
Topics: Metadata extraction, format analysis
Readings: Textbook Ch. 7 (second half) + Ch. 8 (Forensics)
Lab: Analyze file metadata, examine dead formats
Week 11: Platform Death Case Studies
Topics: GeoCities, Vine, Google Reader, Tumblr NSFW purge
Readings: Selected case study articles
Lab: Research a platform death of your choice
Assignment Due: Case Study Presentation
Week 12: Building Alternatives (Institutional Design)
Topics: Internet Archive, Mastodon, cooperative platforms
Readings: Textbook Ch. 11-12 (on Archive and Anvil institutions)
Lab: Explore Mastodon federation
Week 13: Policy and Advocacy
Topics: Right to Archive, platform accountability laws
Readings: Doctorow, The Internet Con
Lab: Draft model legislation or policy brief
Week 14: The Future of Digital Sovereignty
Topics: Post-platform future, movement building
Readings: Textbook Ch. 18 (Forging the Third Way)
Lab: Final project work session
Week 15: Final Presentations
Format: Students present final projects (10 min each + Q&A)
Assignments and Grading
| Assignment | Weight | Due Date |
|---|---|---|
| Digital Life Audit | 10% | Week 2 |
| Three Pillars Analysis | 15% | Week 5 |
| Midterm Exam | 20% | Week 8 |
| Case Study Presentation | 15% | Week 11 |
| Final Project | 30% | Week 15 |
| Lab Participation | 10% | Ongoing |
Sample Syllabus 2: ARCH 200 — Digital Preservation Methods
Course Level: Upper-level undergraduate / Early graduate
Credits: 4
Prerequisites: ARCH 101 or permission
Format: Seminar + Lab (2 hours seminar, 2 hours lab per week)
Course Description
This intermediate course focuses on the practical methods of digital preservation. Students will learn technical skills (web scraping, forensic recovery, emulation) alongside ethical frameworks (consent, triage, access policies). By the end, students will be able to independently conduct a complete preservation project.
Learning Objectives
- Conduct site reconnaissance and mapping of digital platforms
- Execute web scraping using multiple tools (wget, HTTrack, Webrecorder)
- Perform digital forensics (metadata extraction, format analysis)
- Apply advanced triage using the Custodial Filter
- Design metadata schemas for preserved collections
- Implement access policies balancing openness and ethics
- Complete a full preservation project with documentation
Course Schedule
Weeks 1-2: Review and Advanced Triage
Week 1: Review of taxonomy, Archive/Anvil, Three Pillars
Week 2: Deep dive on Custodial Filter with complex ethical cases
Lab: Triage war games
Weeks 3-5: Excavation Methods
Week 3: Site reconnaissance
Week 4: Static site scraping (wget, HTTrack)
Week 5: Dynamic sites (Selenium, Playwright)
Assignment 1 Due: Scraping portfolio
Weeks 6-7: Digital Forensics
Week 6: Metadata extraction, EXIF data
Week 7: Format analysis, obsolete formats
Assignment 2 Due: Forensic report
Week 8: Midterm — Preservation Simulation
Format: 48-hour take-home "rescue mission". Scenario: Platform announces shutdown in 72 hours. You have limited resources.
Weeks 9-10: Metadata and Organization
Week 9: Metadata standards (Dublin Core, METS)
Week 10: Organizing collections, creating finding aids
Weeks 11-12: Access and Ethics
Week 11: Access models (open, restricted, embargoed)
Week 12: Privacy, consent, takedown policies
Assignment 3 Due: Ethics case study
Weeks 13-15: Final Project
Week 13: Project proposals
Week 14: Work session
Week 15: Final presentations + archive delivery
Assignments and Grading
| Assignment | Weight | Due Date |
|---|---|---|
| Scraping Portfolio | 15% | Week 5 |
| Forensic Report | 15% | Week 7 |
| Midterm Rescue Simulation | 20% | Week 8 |
| Ethics Case Study | 15% | Week 12 |
| Final Preservation Project | 30% | Week 15 |
| Participation | 5% | Ongoing |
Sample Syllabus 3: ARCH 300 — Building Sovereign Institutions
Course Level: Graduate seminar
Credits: 4
Prerequisites: ARCH 200 or experience
Format: Seminar (3 hours per week)
Course Description
How do we build institutions that survive 50 years? This advanced seminar focuses on institutional design—creating organizations, platforms, and movements that embody digital sovereignty while resisting capture, collapse, or co-optation. Students will analyze successful and failed institutions and design complete institutional systems as final projects.
Course Schedule
Module 1: Institutional Diagnosis (Weeks 1-3)
Week 1: The Institutional Void (Case: Google Reader)
Week 2: The Business of the Archive (Case: Internet Archive)
Week 3: The Economics of the Anvil (Case: Ghost, WordPress)
Assignment: Institutional Autopsy
Module 2: Governance and Commons (Weeks 4-6)
Week 4: Ostrom's 8 Principles
Week 5: Distributed Commons Governance (Mastodon, IPFS)
Week 6: Memory Institutions
Module 3: Infrastructure and Sovereignty (Weeks 7-9)
Week 7: The Sovereignty Stack (DNS, ENS)
Week 8: Protocol Wars (Email vs XMPP vs ActivityPub)
Week 9: Midterm — Institutional Autopsy Presentation
Module 4: Movement Building (Weeks 10-12)
Week 10: From Practice to Discipline
Week 11: Public Intellectual Toolkit
Week 12: Policy and Advocacy
Module 5: Capstone Project (Weeks 13-15)
Week 13: Project Proposals
Week 14: Work Session
Week 15: Final Presentations
Assignments and Grading
| Assignment | Weight | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Weekly Response Papers | 20% | 500 words each |
| Institutional Autopsy | 20% | Midterm analysis |
| Module Exercises | 20% | Ostrom analysis, etc. |
| Capstone Project | 40% | Final institutional design |
Adaptation Notes
For Quarter Systems (10 weeks): Compress each syllabus by ~30%. Combine related weeks.
For Workshops: Strip out academic readings, focus on practitioner case studies and workflows.