The National Science Foundation (those smarties!), has established something called, the “Blue Ribbon Task Force on Sustainable Digital Preservation and Access.”  You can see the announcement here:  http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward.do?AwardNumber=0737721 .  The McClatchy News service picked up the story (http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/25669.html), and the newspaper report was so weird, I didn’t believe it was reported correctly.  But, it is true.  The task force, funded to the tune of $277,000, is tasked with figuring out a way to preserve all our digital detritus, and recoding/migrating the stuff periodically so it won’t get obsolete.  Think about it:  Is this going to be like a utility where all the garbage on our computers will get stored and automatically moved along the stepping stones of technological progress?  How in the world will this be accomplished while preserving privacy and common sense?  Wouldn’t the money perhaps be better spent teaching people how to use their computers?