“Rosetta” is a look into the Long Now Foundation’s efforts to archive all of the world’s languages. This short documentary highlights important social issues such as digital obsolescence and language extinction as it tells the story of the Long Now’s Rosetta Project.
Led by Dr. Laura Welcher, the Long Now Foundation has been collecting linguistic data from all around the world. In an effort to ensure that the data survives for thousands of years, the Long Now Foundation has has stored it on both digital and analog mediums.
Working with the Internet Archive, they have made all their documents well backed up, as well as free and accessible to the public online. They have also used innovative micro-etching technology to create a small, highly-durable analog storage device called “The Rosetta Disk”. This highly visual documentary explores the story of Rosetta Project in every way, from the microscopic level all the way to the depths of the solar system.
This film was shown at BAYMN FEST 2013.