Library of Congress now archiving EVERY twitter entry

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/Library-of-Congress-Twitter-tweet,news-6493.html

Watch what you say on Twitter... it may last forever.
The official Twitter blog reports that every entry posted on Twitter will be shelved in the world's largest archive: the Library of Congress. Why? That's a good question considering a good chunk of entries talk about the latest boyfriend, a strange rash, or other personal notes. The good news is that not all accounts will be stored, just the ones that aren't protected (which apparently is a small percentage).

"Recently, the Library of Congress signaled to us that the public tweets we have all been creating over the years are important and worthy of preservation," said Twitter co-founder Biz Stone. He goes into the numbers behind Twitter, reporting that fifty-five million tweets are posted each day and made publicly available. Many of them depict events as they unfold such as the Haitian earthquake, the breakup of Jim Carrey and Jenny McCarthy, and other significant global events.

"It is our pleasure to donate access to the entire archive of public Tweets to the Library of Congress for preservation and [color:7c51=blue! important][color:7c51=blue! important]research," he said. "It's very exciting that tweets are becoming part of history." The donation to the Library of Congress will dig deep into the past, covering the very first tweet posted by co-founder Jack Dorsey on March 21, 2006, and on through to the tweets of today.

The Library of Congress also updated its blog to reflect the new Twitter archive announcement. The post describes many high-profile tweets that will land in the archive including President Obama's tweet after winning the 2008 election, and two tweets from a photojournalist who was arrested in Egypt and then freed thanks to his Twitter entries. Despite all the "social [color:7c51=blue! important][color:7c51=blue! important]networking" aspects surrounding Twitter, it is indeed a useful tool in tracking important, global events--a fact now recognized by the Library of Congress.

Currently the Library of Congress holds more than 167 terabytes of web-based information, including legal blogs, websites of candidates for national office, and websites of Members of Congress.